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Cuero, Texas One of Sixteen Preserve America Communities Designated in Texas
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On Friday, May 7th, the
city of Cuero was awarded a Preserve America community designation at
the annual Texas Historical Commission’s preservation conference in Fort
Worth.
Selected as one of 16 recipients in
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First Lady Laura Bush presents Preserve America awards
(Photo by Susan Sterner, White House)
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Texas and only 80 designations in the United States,
Cuero will receive a community sign and certificate,
use of the Preserve America logo, promotional materials and opportunities,
and listing on the
Preserve America Web site.
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In addition, Cuero will be included in national and regional press releases;
official notification of designation to State tourism offices and visitors
bureaus; and enhanced benefits of community visibility and pride. President
Bush’s budget for FY 2005 requests $10 million for Preserve America grants
and if passed by Congress, communities will be eligible to apply for these
funds to support heritage tourism, heritage education, and related projects
and programs.
Presenting the award to Cuero was First Lady Anita Perry who was joined by U.S.
Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary David Sampson, Texas State Historic
Preservation Officer F. Lawrence Oaks and John Nau, Chairman of the Texas Historical
Commission and the President’s Advisory Council for Historic Preservation in Washington,
D.C. Accepting on behalf of Cuero was city councilman Randy Saenz and his wife Natalie.
Preserve America is a White House initiative that encourages and supports community
efforts to preserve and enjoy priceless cultural and natural heritage. The goals of
the initiative include a greater shared knowledge about the nation’s past, strengthened
regional identities and local pride, increased local participation in preserving the
country’s cultural and natural heritage assets, and support for the economic vitality
of the communities. The Preserve America Community designation is a program that recognizes
and awards communities that protect and celebrate their heritage, use their historic assets
for economic development and community revitalization, and encourages people to experience
and appreciate local historic resources through education and heritage tourism programs.
Applying for the Preserve America Community designation was spawned by Cuero’s involvement
in Visionaries in Preservation, a Texas Historical Commission program designed to help
communities invest in the future by identifying, describing and analyzing preservation
issues. Visioning is an empowering process that brings a community together to develop
a shared image of the future and form an action plan for achieving that vision.
After [two years] in the program, the Visionaries in Preservation task force committees have
created an action plan, part of which is an historic zoning ordinance that will be taken
before the Cuero City Council this summer.
Profiles of the 16 Texas communities selected for the Preserve America award were
provided for those attending the Texas Historical Commission conference.
[Cuero's profile stated], "Situated on the Guadalupe River in south central Texas,
Cuero (population 6,571) is the seat of DeWitt County and was founded in 1873. Cuero
has three historic districts, and through participation in the Texas Historical
Commission’s Visionaries in Preservation program, has developed an action plan to
guide preservation for the next decade.
"The downtown historic commercial district has recently benefited from installation
of historically compatible street lighting, and several vacant historic buildings are
slated for adaptive use in conjunction with renovation of the DeWitt County Courthouse
(1897). The former Federal Building (1915) houses the Cuero Heritage Museum, where a
permanent exhibit, "Cuero Talks Turkey", honors Cuero’s pioneering role in the Texas
turkey-raising industry and the community’s century-old annual celebration, the Turkey
Trot and Turkeyfest.
"The Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum (scheduled to open in 2006) will be housed in the
historic Knights of Pythias Hall (1903) and will celebrate the ranching and agricultural
history associated with the famous trail, which originated near Cuero. These and other
heritage attractions are promoted through Cuero’s participation in the heritage tourism
initiatives of the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Independence Trail Region."
[ARTICLE SOURCE: The Cuero Record]
Read more on Preserve America's Web site....
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