Despite inclement weather conditions, multiple community members ventured to Wild Rose Moon in Plymouth to attend the Wythougan Valley Preservation Council informational meeting that was held last Thursday.
According to Wythougan Valley President Kurt Garner, the meeting was held in order to inform individuals about various incentives, programs and opportunities available to business owners in historic districts.
There are 12 historic districts in Marshall County and they are sprinkled around Plymouth, Bourbon, Bremen, Argos and Culver. Garner said the Wythougan Valley Preservation Council has been working hard over the last few years to ensure that all districts have the potential to apply for restoration opportunities.
“Marshall County is somewhat unique, particularly in the state of Indiana, that all of our districts that are eligible to be listed on the national register are listed. That’s something that’s almost unheard of for a county.” Garner explained, “That was one of the programs that Wythougan wanted to undertake. We wanted to make sure that all of our districts are listed in order to capture these incentives.”
President Garner stated that some of the topics that were covered included residential tax credits, grant programs, some opportunities from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs and other incentives that exist to assist people with restoring historic structures.
He said about 80 individuals were in attendance. Garner explained that business owners from around the county, Redevelopment Commission members and a number of members from the Main Street Community Programs for Bremen, Plymouth and Culver came out.
Representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Marshall County Tourism and the Economic Development Corporation, as well as a plethora of other community members interested in preservation, showed up as well.
Garner said that while Wythougan Valley is always able to provide more information and to assist in whatever ways they can, now that they’ve shared these available incentives and programs with the public, it’s up to the individual communities to decide how they’d like to utilize them.
Typically Wythougan holds these “community conversations” about preservation once a year. However, given the interest that was shown in last week’s program, Garner said they may consider holding them a little more frequently.
