A three-day conference on preserving the commercial districts of Iowa’s communities will be held later this month in Burlington. Terry Buschkamp is with Main Street Iowa, one of the organizers of the inauguaral Preserve Iowa Summit.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center, with Main Street Iowa, have been hosting a downtown summit for 26 years,” Buschkamp says. “We’ve combined forces with the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs’ Historic Preservation Office and a statewide non-profit, Preservation Iowa, to raise this conference to a higher level.” Buschkamp says there will be a number of special guest speakers during the conference, along with a host of workshops.
“The governor and lieutenant governor will be with us as well as the department heads from Cultural Affairs and Economic Development,” she says. “We have 29 breakout sessions, everything from how to find money for historic projects and everything to do with downtown revitalization and historic preservation.” Buschkamp says the conference will address other areas of preservation, not just how to preserve individual buildings.
“We’ve also got some information on depots and we have a head guy from Amtrak coming to talk about their anniversary train,” she says. The summit runs August 22nd through 24th. Registration is underway at www.preservationiowa.org.
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City