Thursday, June 05, 2003
The next step in saving the Old Slave House will take place next Thursday. I've got a call in to use a place in Equality. I'll know tomorrow if it is OK. If so, I'll be sending out notices to everyone. The goal is to reach a concensus on what needs to be done with the Old Slave House. If everyone is fine with IHPA controlling it and possibly reopening it in a few years or so, then we don't have to do anything. On the other hand if we want to see the site opened this year and start developing our tourism potential in southeastern Illinois we need to act. The purpose of the meeting will be to agree on a plan of action. I've got a plan in mind, but I'm still working out details.
I talked with John O'Dell and Jane Thomas Baglio this afternoon as well. They are the chairs of the Saline and Gallatin County Tourism Boards. The fact that I'm involving John should be a clue to my idea of what I want to do. Without going into details until the meeting, I'm basically looking at killing two birds with one stone as the old saying goes. If we're going to get the governor involved, let's ask for as much as possible, especially since we aren't going to be asking for money.
How does Eagle Mountain State Park sound?
Obviously, I'm talking about more than the Old Slave House, and if anyone has listened to me for the last decade, I've brought this idea up before.
One week ago I was in Springfield visiting both our local lawmakers as well as the leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus. I had met with all of them two days earlier and state Sen. Donne E. Trotter, head of the caucus, set up a meeting for 9 a.m. Thursday morning with him, myself as well as the director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Maynard Crossland, who also brought along Bob Coomer, director of the Historic Sites and Preservation Division of IHPA. They admitted the following:
They don't have any funding for the site sitting around anywhere
They don't have a plan to react when George Sisk moves out of the house
Even if they get money, there's a number of capital projects they want to finish before they open the site up.
and, there's a lot they have do to before deciding on how to interpret the site.
Basically, nothing they said was improper, it just didn't reflect the desire of many folks to see the site reopened.
I still contend that a regionally-based non-profit group can immediately reopen the site and pay for its operations out of admission fees. That had been the 'Plan B' the state had been considering until April when the agency's lawyer decided that while IHPA could lease the site to a non-profit group, they couldn't allow the non-profit group to charge admission.
The proposal I'm going to make works around that obstacle as well as takes advantage of some other tourism possibilities.
That's enough for now.
I talked with John O'Dell and Jane Thomas Baglio this afternoon as well. They are the chairs of the Saline and Gallatin County Tourism Boards. The fact that I'm involving John should be a clue to my idea of what I want to do. Without going into details until the meeting, I'm basically looking at killing two birds with one stone as the old saying goes. If we're going to get the governor involved, let's ask for as much as possible, especially since we aren't going to be asking for money.
How does Eagle Mountain State Park sound?
Obviously, I'm talking about more than the Old Slave House, and if anyone has listened to me for the last decade, I've brought this idea up before.
One week ago I was in Springfield visiting both our local lawmakers as well as the leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus. I had met with all of them two days earlier and state Sen. Donne E. Trotter, head of the caucus, set up a meeting for 9 a.m. Thursday morning with him, myself as well as the director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Maynard Crossland, who also brought along Bob Coomer, director of the Historic Sites and Preservation Division of IHPA. They admitted the following:
Basically, nothing they said was improper, it just didn't reflect the desire of many folks to see the site reopened.
I still contend that a regionally-based non-profit group can immediately reopen the site and pay for its operations out of admission fees. That had been the 'Plan B' the state had been considering until April when the agency's lawyer decided that while IHPA could lease the site to a non-profit group, they couldn't allow the non-profit group to charge admission.
The proposal I'm going to make works around that obstacle as well as takes advantage of some other tourism possibilities.
That's enough for now.