Letter from Earle Kittleman
Preservation – April 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
The state budget crisis is sending alarm signals throughout rural areas such as Salida where local historians are worried that funds may dry up to accomplish projects that are just now getting started.
Historic Salida, Inc., a non-profit that just elected its first Board of Directors in January, has learned that State Historical Funds may be diverted to market tourism and to restore the state capitol instead of local projects throughout the state to preserve schools, theaters, museums and other historic buildings. Unless the State Legislature steps in, a constitutional amendment is being proposed by State Treasurer Mike Coffman to revoke what Colorado voters approved in 1990 — use of a portion of tax revenues generated by limited-stakes gambling for preserving Colorado’s historic architectural and archæological resources.
Local projects that could be affected by this diversion of funds include preservation and rehabilitation of the Valley View School, Hutchinson Ranch, Kesner Junior High School, Poncha Town Hall, and possibly others, such as restoration of the United Methodist Church in Salida and the historic mining town of St. Elmo.
Taking this money away to bring more tourists in is like selling museum artifacts that you have invited tourists to come and appreciate. We think it is short-sighted in the extreme to dismantle a program that helps preserve structures and cultural sites which constitute local heritage, and serve as magnets for people who want to know what makes a place unique.
Valley View School, one of the last one-room schoolhouses in Chaffee County, vacant and vandalized for years, recently was proposed for donation as an historic site to be restored and used once more by the local school district. The project, currently underway between the property owner, school district, and Historic Salida, would be jeopardized by funding cuts because there would be no grant money from the State Historical Fund to do a structural assessment and make structural repairs.
Historic Salida, Inc. is also worried about the future of the Hutchinson Ranch, a national historic register site, which in February was designated one of Colorado’s most endangered historic places. The 1860s homestead, one of the first in the South Arkansas valley, is currently being assessed with a $10,000 grant from the State Historical Fund, but funds for future rehabilitation and conversion to a cultural center would evaporate under the current plan.
Structural assessments at Kesner Junior High School and Poncha Town Hall are also underway. Both have been designated historic register sites and both have structural problems that will require historic grant funds for repairs so that they can continue to function and be appreciated for their unique contributions to the valley’s history.
Historic preservation efforts throughout Colorado act as an engine for economic development because heritage areas attract a large portion of the total visits to the State. According to “The Economic Benefits of Historic Preservation in Colorado,” a study done for the Colorado Historical foundation, heritage tourists made 4.6 million trips to the state in 1999, and generated $1.4 billion directly and $1.7 billion indirectly for the tourism industry.
The leaders of Historic Salida, Inc. urge citizens interested in their local heritage to voice their opinion in the local media, and to call or send messages to their State representatives. Colorado House Speaker Lola Spradley and State Senator Lewis Entz can be reached at spradley.house@state.co.us; telephone 303-866-2346 and entz.senate@state.co.us;
telephone 303-866-4871, respectively.
Don Moffett
Earle Kittleman
Historic Salida, Inc.
