|
For
more information about OERD Special Projects:
Office of Economic and Regional Development
Mail Code 6891
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
150 E. Pleasant Hill Rd.
Carbondale, IL 62903
Dr.
Jim Hanson
Phone: (618) 453-4786
Fax: (618) 453-5040
Email: jmhanson@siu.edu
Dr.
Bruce Davis
Phone: (618) 453-7531
Fax: (618) 453-5040
Email: bcdavis@siu.edu
|
THE
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS HERITAGE INITIATIVE
The
Southern Illinois Heritage Initiative intends to obtain a Congressional
designation of southern Illinois as a National Heritage Area (NHA).
Started in September 2004, it consists of a areawide group working
under the leadership of the Southernmost Illinois Tourism Bureau
(SITB) and the SIUC Office of Economic and Regional Development
(OERD).
Twenty-seven
NHAs now exist in the United States. The first designated NHA in
1984 was the Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor that includes
the Illinois River from Chicago to Peru, Illinois. A proposed Illinois
NHA is the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area located in central
Illinois. The Southern Illinois proposal provides up to ten million
dollars federal matching funds over a fifteen-year period to plan,
market, and develop tourist-oriented historic assets. NHA information
is provided by the U.S. National Park Service on the website: http://www.cr.nps.gov/heritageareas.
NHA designation requires two phases - the completion of a feasibility
study and the enactment of federal legislation. To conduct the feasibility
study, SITB and OERD have obtained funds from the Illinois Department
of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Tourism Bureau, USDA Rural
Development, and Egyptian Electric Cooperative and Southeastern
Illinois Electric Cooperative. Work began in September 2004 and
was completed in July 2005.
The
findings of the feasibility study provide a basis for enacting the
legislation needed to obtain federal designation. The study must
demonstrate that (1) the area has sufficient existing and potential
historic assets of national importance; (2) the area's people and
organizations support the major conclusions of the study and want
a NHA designation; (3) the U.S. National Park Service supports and
recommends the feasibility study.
Legislation
is being introduced to Congress during the summer session of 2006.
It will designate the lower seventeen Illinois counties as a NHA
with possible projects in an extended area of fifty miles, and it
will authorize SIUC as the management entity. The theme of the NHA
is southern Illinois as the "Land between the Rivers."
After designation is obtained, two to three years will be devoted
to planning, and an additional ten years will be devoted to implementation
aimed primarily at preserving and developing sites and other assets
that are historic and tourist-attracting, also at marketing such
sites. These activities will depend on federal funds that must be
matched with a combination of cash or in-kind, which means that
the federal investment of up to $10 million will create an actual
investment up to $20 million, plus Heritage-induced investments
mostly in the business sector. The people and organizations of the
designated area must provide dollars to match federal funds during
the implementation period to make southern Illinois a tourist destination
area of national importance. Each operational year requires federal
appropriations.
|
