Travis County Commissioners Court
June 28, 2005
Item 29
29. Review and approve requests regarding grant proposals, applications, contracts and permissions to continue: a. Grant application to the Texas historical commission for a certified local government grant in the historical commission department. A new grant with a $4,000 Travis County match for a $10,000 grant to survey historic properties. What this means is that the local match would be $4,000 if the grant is approved, so the state money would be 6,000, right.
>> that's correct.
>> okay. What's this grant about now?
>> > I’m barbara hang kins chair of the -- hankins chair of the Travis County historical commission. To give you background, a little over a year ago, Travis County was approved to be a certified local government. Which it's a designation given by a combination of the Texas historical commission and the national parks service. The goal of the certified government program basically is to identify and inventory historic properties that might be eligible, either for the national register or the Texas listing of historic properties. The advantage of being a certified local government is that it makes the county eligible for funds to -- to assist us in this task, which otherwise are not available to us. Actually, under the legislation that's set up local historical commissions, that same requirement exists. In Travis County, back in the 70s, and early 80s, the city of Austin embarked on a survey of local historic properties within the city limits. It was never finished. No work at all has ever been done outside the city limits. As part of the requirements of the certified local government, we were required to set up what's called a clg committee. Which can consist of not only members of the Travis County commission, but of members of the public, certain professional requirements that are suggested. Our commission has -- is 10 people, four of whom are currently members of the Travis County commission. We have, you know, historical architect and archivist, a couple of professional historians, as well as people who live in some of the older communities in Travis County and outside the city. Manor, webberville, Pflugerville, specifically. One of the things that we can get support for is to do what they call a survey of historic properties. This is a rather technical job. It really does require a professional historian or historic architect to do the work. It involves not only identifying all of the buildings that were built before a certain time, we are suggesting 1960, but it also involves photography, it involves deed searches, it involves looking to see what other historic implications might be involved with the building. So it's -- it is not a trivial task. We -- our clg committee with the support of the entire commission decided that we should do a pilot project in manor. The robe that we chose -- the reason that we chose manor is that it is one of our oldest communities and it is about to grow very rapidly. It has already started, according to the city manager, they have tripled in population since 2000. Now they started out, you know, at 1500. But with the advent of I 130 and with the growth along 290, there's a fair amount of commercial growth. We look on this as an opportunity to identify the historic properties in manor before they are totally overwhelmed by all of this anticipated growth. We are in the process of talking to -- to two of the two -- two historiccal researchers and archivists, people who can do this kind of work. We will have to choose one by next week because we have to give names and credentials when we apply for the grant. Anyway, we look on this as an opportunity to do something we should have been doing all along. But didn't have the resources to do. And we can do it with -- by -- you know, for the cost of, if you will, 40 cents on the dollar. So -- so we would hope that you would approve this application and earmark the $4,000 so that if we receive the grant, which we would anticipate would be sometime in probably November or December, that we could come back to you at that time for the match. By the way, I should mention that we have talked to both the city manager and the city council in manor and they are very pleased and excited about this. We have a letter of support from the city. And if you were to approve this, we would approve -- we would appreciate a letter of support from the county Commissioners as well.
>> you did say you talked to the attorney? The city?
>> we talked to the entire city council. We were out there about two weeks ago. And they were very enthusiastic about this. There is a lot of interest in manor in trying to preserve its history. They see this as coming at a very good time.
>> how would the money be used?
>> the money would be primarily used to pay this professional person. There would be some costs for photography, copying, that kind of thing as well. Our estimate at this point and that will be refined a little bit between now and when we -- when we make the submission based on our discussions with -- with the professional that -- that -- but our estimate is that about 8,000 would go for the -- for the -- to pay the professional who does the work and then the other 2,000 would be used for photography, the Texas historical commission has very stringent requirements we have learned about photography and what kinds of photographs can be submitted and so on.
>> did the manor city council indicate they were interested enough to make a financial contribution.
>> they might be willing to. We did raise the subject. They did not make an appropriation that evening. But there was an indication that they would look favorably upon it if we did receive the grant.
>> okay. So really when you -- when you are notified that the grant has been approved, that's when you have to ante up the money or not, basically.
>> yes. This grant would be administered by the counties, so -- so, you know, I’m not quite sure the mechanisms, but -- but I would assume that -- I mean, it would take -- normally it takes -- the grants are for about a year and a half. So it would extend, you know, over a fairly long period of time.
>> so the state would expect for us to administer the funds, grant funds if --
>> yes, sir. The grant would actually go to the county.
>> okay.
>> now, what -- I’m sorry, judge.
>> I’m done.
>> okay. When would you possibly know the conclusion of the grant application and if everything goes accordingly for that amount of grant funds. Of course [indiscernible] in Travis County, when would all of that basically be known as far as all of it? Even when the judge -- even indicated earlier, would there be any type of financial contribution from manor?
>> well, this is -- this is really kind of strange but we learned last year that -- that these grants actually come from the national parks service through the -- through the Texas historical commission. And the Texas -- the Texas historical commission, well the national parks service cannot officially make the grants until after congress passes the federal budget. And we all know that that can be any time from, you know, September until January or February. So -- so we'll actually -- so we can't, you know, there is no definite date on which we will be notified. We do know that the -- that the Texas historical commission estimates that it will have about $100,000 to put into this program. They are required to make -- to spend, I believe it's 10% of all of the money they get from the national parks service. They have to spend in local grants.
>> okay.
>> my recommendation would be to approve it, if we get the money ask for some contribution. A thousand dollars or $1,500.
>> I second that.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. With Commissioner Gomez temporarily away. Thank you ms. Hankins.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 5:23 PM