Tour booklet to be updated

Published 4:45 pm Thursday, February 13, 2014

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MORE ON THE WAY: Updated copies Washington’s Historic Walking Tour booklet will soon be available, thanks to a grant that will help pay for printing them.

The booklet used by many people who take Washington’s Historic Walking Tour likely will be updated.

During its meeting Monday, the City Council authorized the mayor to sign an application for grant funds to update the booklet. The application will be sent to the State Historic Preservation Office for consideration. The money would come from the Historic Preservation Fund, a federal matching program that supports state and local historic preservation programs and projects.

Currently, there are no booklets available.

In the past, the booklet could be purchased at the city’s Visitor Center, now housed in the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce on Stewart Parkway on the city’s waterfront. The booklet features more than 30 sites, including historic homes, churches and businesses.

Under grant terms, a local entity must provide a minimum of 40 percent of a project’s cost to receive HPF funds. The cost to update the booklet is estimated at $10,000, according to a memorandum from Jennifer Brennan, the city’s preservation planner, to John Rodman, the city’s cultural and community development director.

“Throughout the fall of 2013, many groups have expressed interest in updating and reprinting the walking tour of the Washington Historic District. It appears as though there may be inaccurate information in the current book and it does not appear to be inclusive of the entire district,” Brennan wrote in the memorandum. “Therefore, it has been proposed to hire a consultant who would research and write an updated walking tour brochure. Due to the fact that much of the information already exists, the walking tour would not be recreated, just updated.”

Brennan’s memorandum notes there are several organizations that have expressed interest in contributing to the 40-percent match needed to secure the grant funding.

The Washington Tourism Development Authority did the research for and compiled information for the booklet. The Washington Area Historic Foundation provided input as information for the booklet was being compiled.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.