The Scott County Historical Society is looking at undertaking a major project at the Winchester Depot.
Last Monday night, Stevie VanDeVelde and Sonnie Hoover spoke to the Winchester City Council in order to ask for TIF funding to help with the remodel of the interior of the building.
VanDeVelde says that the building hasn’t seen renovations on the inside in quite some time: “We have been discussing with the Scott County Historical Society with ideas and funds about trying to do some renovations to the interior of the Depot. The interior has not been updated since it was refurbished about 30-40 years ago. As many of you know, Bread of Love utilized the Depot for their lunch meals for many, many years. And that’s really kind of got us starting about trying to update the interior because the carpets are pretty stained from all of those meals in there from over the years.”
The historical society is asking for a little over $30,000 to complete the purchase and installation of new flooring, new kitchen counters, new plumbing and fixtures, and paint. They hope to rent out the Depot and use it in conjunction with the Winchester Civic Group for community events, rentals for private events, and to continue good usage of the building.
VanDeVelde says they initially reached out to Mayor Rex McIntire to see if there were any grants they could obtain, but McIntire did not think there were any available. The city had originally sought historical building grants for the Winchester Hotel several years ago but could not find any at the time.
VanDeVelde says that Covid-19 has curbed the historical society’s ability to raise funds through their annual fundraisers. She said they were willing to use some of the Historical Society’s small built up fund balances and she would be willing to pursue writing grants if there were any place she could submit a request to.
The City voted in favor of granting the request.