A committee for McLean County, Ill., supports applying for a half-million-dollar grant that would establish at visitors center at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington, reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.
The $522,000 project moved to the front of the line when the Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced in March that it has $15 million available in its 2012 Illinois Public Museum Capital Grant Program. The program is only open for capital projects in public museums on public lands. […]
Greg Koos, executive director of the McLean County Museum of History, said the proposed center is intended to attract some of the 120 million annual heritage travelers who like to visit historic sites. Those travelers spend about $1,000 a trip, and Koos said the center would be a way to capture some of those dollars.
The proposed Heritage Tourism Center, would be on the ground floor of the museum. The space would be remodeled but none of the changes would permanently change the building, said architect Russel Francois, who also helped on the proposal.
The rotunda on the ground floor would have a welcome desk, the north corridor would focus on Abraham Lincoln, and the south corridor on Route 66. There would be five-minute videos in each corridor providing travelers with information.
“Main Street was Route 66,” Koos said. “Nationally, $132 million a year is spent by those traveling Old 66. The Pontiac Route 66 museum sees 20,000 people a year.”
Koos obviously read the recently released Route 66 Economic Impact Report, which estimated that $132 million is being spent by Route 66 travelers annually.
Proposals are due Monday; grant winners won’t be announced until October.