Cultural program needs extension

The chairman of Nevada's Commission for Cultural Affairs opened two days of hearings into this year's historic preservation and restoration grants by advising applicants this will be the final year for the program unless lawmakers extend it.

Bob Ostrovsky said Thursday the 10-year, $20 million bond program that has funded restoration projects throughout the state is finished unless renewed, according to both Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Gov. Kenny Guinn's office.

The program has been a major source of funding for cultural projects including the Brewery Arts Center, Piper's Opera House and the Oats Park School in Fallon. It was funded by $20 million in state-backed bonds dispensed by the commission at the rate of about $2 million a year.

"This is our last official round until we get reauthorization," said Ostrovsky.

But he said he is confident the governor and lawmakers will support at least reauthorizing the existing level of funding.

"We've got clear and, I think, convincing evidence of the success of this program in saving these treasures," he said.

He said, however, what the commission really needs is the governor and lawmakers to back increasing the $2 million a year to at least $3 million and preferably $5 million. That, he said, would go much farther in meeting the needs of historical preservation groups and cultural organizations around the state - especially in rural areas which don't have the ability to raise much money themselves.

"Reauthorization I don't think will be difficult," he said. "The only question is whether we'll get an increase."

He said the commission has formally asked Guinn's administration to back extending and increasing the bond program.

Over the past decade, Piper's Opera House and the Fourth Ward School in Virginia City, the Brewery Arts Center and Children's Museum in Carson City, Fallon's Oats Park School and the Lear Theater in Reno have been some of the biggest recipients of the grant money. Those projects have claimed more than a third of all the grants awarded over the past decade -- over $800,000.

All of those projects are on the list of 30 organizations seeking money from this year's money. Their task was made a bit easier when Las Vegas withdrew an application for $952,125 for the Benny Binion House project in Southern Nevada.

The commission will decide who gets how much in its final round of grants during today's meeting. The members have $1.94 million to give out -- far less than the $6.6 million those organizations have applied for.

Within that list, the Brewery Arts Center is seeking $271,665 to put a kitchen in the old brewery building and other work, and the Children's Museum is asking for $87,756 for work including repair of parking and sidewalk areas and fixing the brick exterior of the old Civic Hall. Storey County groups want $106,055 for Fourth Ward School and $436,000 for continued work on Piper's Opera House.

The Lear Theater Project in Reno is asking $530,664 and Oats Park School in Fallon has requested $409,846.

Among the new projects on the list of applications is the Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society at Incline Village, which wants $267,350 to repair the roof and do other work on the Whittell Estate.

Contact Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or at 687-8750.