Cody, a couple of answers: Cody Sanders wrote: > > When you say the IHS Agency purchased the house for the State of Illinois - > are you saying no tax dollars were used in this purchase? The IHPA is the state agency charged with maintaining historic sites and the national register of historic places. All of the money used to buy the Old Slave House came from the state budget. > > The antiques in the house- are those the ones we read about in the > newspapers that Sisk threatened to burn if the State of Illinois didn't > purchase them for another half million bucks? Or maybe he said he was going > to burn them in a bon fire? I am not sure about that, but the state frequently does half a job. Maybe the state thinks that they can get donations to buy the contents of the house--a former governor spent a million dollars of his own money to purchase an original Frank Lloyd Wright lamp for the Dana-Thomas state historic site in Springfield. Maybe they think the Sisk's will ask for less. > > When IHPA was going to ask for funding to staff and operate the house - was > this cost coming from Illinois tax dollars? > The IHPA can charge a small admissions charge when the building is open, and I am pretty sure the IHPA was expecting increasing budgets in the next few years, as they started several projects, including a new competitive grant program for restoration of national register properties. Our White County Historical Society received a grant of about $15000 for the 2000-2001 fiscal year. The state's income for 2001-2002 is much less than expected, and all kinds of agencies have been hit. There is also a lame duck governor and lots of discord in the general assembly. > Surprise, Surprise! The State of Illinois has money to hire the three > rascals to help the researcher they hired (already) to re-research the > research. Like I said the gift that keeps on giving! Why do they need a > professional researcher when they have 'we' doing it? For some reason the state frequently budgets money for consultants rather than "brick and mortar" or more substantive pursuits. I have also been involved in tourism activities and the state allows our regional agency to bring in a tourism guru from Pennsylvania and a local museum consultant, but we can't produce a brochure about area attractions unless it is designed to bring in people from at least 50 or 100 miles away. The bottom line is to look at the Old Slave House as a long term project but rather than argue about it folks need to be advocating for it. Cindy Birk Conley Carmi, IL