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Donation earmarked for Windsor
Published 10/16/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
The Finney County Historical Society has earmarked more than $200,000 in funds for the Finney County Preservation Alliance, in hopes the money will produce a hefty return for the group working to resurrect the Windsor Hotel.
Historical society board members endorsed the Finney County Preservation Alliance's quest for grant money by earmarking $206,518 in funds this week from an estate donated to the society for the sole purpose of restoring the historic hotel that first opened in downtown Garden City in 1889.
Members of the Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit organization that has owned the Windsor since 1997 and has sought its restoration, now have 20 percent local matching funds necessary to demonstrate to two larger grants they are in the midst of applying for that they have a wealth of community support.
The two grants include the Heritage Trust Fund, a state-supported grant valued at more than $90,000, and a federally-funded transportation enhancement grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation, valued at more than $1.2 million.
The local funds from the historical society are contingent upon the alliance receiving the two larger grants, said Mary Regan, the society's director.
The funds were bequeathed to the historical society by Katherine Strackeljohn, who died in 2003, for the purpose of refurbishing the Windsor, Regan said.
Strackeljohn and her husband, Lawrence, were a farming couple in the county.
Don Harness, the alliance's president, said the organization has come close to receiving such large funds with fiscal support from the city and county in past years.
For example, the Windsor project was placed seventh on a list of six transportation enhancement projects funded by KDOT back in 2001, Harness said.
"We've been working on this for several years, and we've made lots of effort and run into lots of problems," Harness said. "We've taken a lot of baby steps and made a lot of stabilization and progress. Hopefully this is our one giant step."
The historical society's board president, Loretta De La Rosa, said the KDOT and Heritage Trust grant applications were the largest the Preservation Alliance has ever brought to the board, and she feels the larger grants and the hotel's renovation both have a good chance of materializing.
"If we see a million dollar return, that's quite a bit of money," De La Rosa said. "I think this project will be completed eventually. It has to be if we want to keep downtown active. This is the biggest building down there and an essential part of the community; and if we tore it down, there would be a big hole on Main Street."
Harness, who said the organization will continue working on its grant applications by seeking other forms of community support, such as letters from the public, said the alliance would hear from grant administrators -- the Heritage Trust Fund and KDOT -- in spring and summer of 2010, respectively.
The alliance estimates it would cost the organization more than half a million dollars to stabilize the Windsor Hotel and make it attractive to developers.
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