Main Street Arkansas Update - March 10, 2008

DATES TO REMEMBER:

MARCH 15 – LETTER OF AGREEMENT, WORKPLAN, ETC DUE TO MSA
The MSA grant period opens March 14. Each successful applicant will have met this deadline.

MARCH 30-APRIL 2 – NATIONAL MAIN STREETS CONFERENCE, PHILADELPHIA, PA

April 24 – PRESERVATION CRUSTACEANS – ANNUAL CRAWSFISH BOIL TO BENEFIT THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION ALLIANCE OF ARKANSAS – NLR 6:30 PM

OCTOBER 6-8, DESTINATION DOWNTOWN, BAY ST. LOUIS, MS
October 21-25 - National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference, Tulsa, OK

Please have all appropriate paperwork postmarked by March 15.

The Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas’s annual Ramble is March 28-29. This year’s destination is the Arkansas Delta. Please contact HPAA at office@preservearkansas.org for more information or call 501.372.4757

Main Street Arkansas Calendar March 10-14
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MONDAY Cary, Caroline & Susan – Governor’s Conference on Tourism
TUESDAY Cary, Caroline & Susan – Governor’s Conference on Tourism; Greg – Batesville, Year End Review with Carol Weisman
WEDNESDAY Greg – Blytheville; Year End Review with Carol Weisman; Cary & Susan – Return from Governor’s Conference, in the office by 12:00
THURSDAY Caroline – Helena, Year End Review with Carol Weisman; Cary – alt.Consulting seminar, Little Rock
FRIDAY Cary – Federal Reserve Bank’s Trends in Neighborhood Unemployment
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IN THIS ISSUE:

New Grants Blog
3 Grant Opportunities
Call for Nominations
Vacation in a Frank Lloyd Wright Home


National Trust’s New Grants Blog
http://nthpgrants.blogspot.com/
- this is a nice collection of grant opportunities, but you’ll note that each one listed (as of this writing) has already been made available to you via this Monday email and have long been available on our blog at www.mainstreetarkansas.blogspot.com

Home Depot Foundation Invites Applications for Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly

Deadline: March 31, 2008 (Letters of Inquiry)

Now in its fourth year, the Home Depot Foundation's ( http://www.homedepotfoundation.org/ ) Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly program seeks to identify, recognize, and showcase the outstanding and innovative work of nonprofit housing development corporations engaged in green building/healthy home construction and rehabilitation.
The awards program is designed to share with local, state, and national stakeholders the exemplary accomplishments of the non- profit sector in combining affordable housing construction with the guiding principles of green home building so that low- and moderate-income families have access to quality housing they can afford to own, operate, and maintain.

Projects eligible for award consideration must have been developed by a 501(c)(3) organizations and completed and placed in service between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2007. Homeownership projects must contain at least five units that were sold to families earning 80 percent or less of the area median income.
Rental projects must contain at least twenty units, with at least 80 percent of the units occupied by families earning 80 percent or less of area median income. Group home and transitional housing projects are not eligible for award consideration.

There are two award categories, homeownership and rental. Within each category, five grants will be awarded: $75,000 to the winning project, $25,000 to the second most competitive project, and three Honorable Mention grants of $2,500 each.

For complete application guidelines, see the Home Depot Foundation Web site

U.S. Green Building Council Commits Additional $1 Million to Fund Green Building Research

Deadline: March 6, 2008 (Pre-proposal Submissions)

The U.S. Green Building Council ( http://www.usgbc.org/ ), a nonprofit membership organization whose vision is a sustainable built environment within a generation, has doubled its funding commitment for green building research grants to be awarded in 2008 to a total of $2 million. Of the additional $1 million in grants, $500,000 has been allocated for K-12 school facility research related to occupant impacts.

The Green Building Research Fund was created to spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformation.

Matching funds from other sources are encouraged in order to maximize the potential of USGBC's contribution toward filling critical research gaps. The research will result in knowledge, policies, technologies, and tools that have an immediate and positive impact on sustainable building development, design, construction, and operation.

A portfolio of projects will be selected. Several grants will be awarded in two general ranges: $50,000 to $150,000, and $150,000 to $250,000 (total one-time, non-renewable grant distributed throughout the project timeline). A quarter ($500,000) of the $2 million total is reserved for K-12 school research relating to occupant impacts.

Academic, nonprofit, and other research institutions are the primary recipient audience for the grants. For-profit entities are permitted to apply but are strongly encouraged to partner with academic or nonprofit institutions and must clearly describe public versus private benefits.

Grant pre-proposals will be accepted from February 12 through March 6, 2008. Selected applicants will be asked to submit comprehensive proposals for the final phase of the selection process.

Visit the Green Building Council Web site for the Request for Proposals and application procedures.

Company Community Programs Supported
Target Local Store Grants
The Target Local Store Grants support nonprofit organizations in the communities throughout the country where the company's stores are located. The Target grant program focuses on three areas: Arts, Early Childhood Reading, and Family Violence Prevention. Arts grants are awarded to programs that bring the arts to schools or make the arts accessible to children and families, such as school touring programs or field trips to the theater or symphony. Early Childhood Reading grants support programs that foster a love of reading and encourage children, from birth through age 9, to read together with their families, such as weekend book clubs and after-school reading programs. Family Violence Prevention grants support programs that strengthen families and communities by keeping them safe, such as parenting classes and family counseling. Applications may be submitted online from March 1 through May 31, 2008. Visit the website listed above for application guidelines

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 2008 BEST OF THE SOUTH PRESERVING SOUTHERN ARCHITECTURE
SESAH seeks nominations for the Best of the South: Preserving Southern Architecture Award. This annual award honors a project that preserves or restores an historic building, or complex of buildings, in an outstanding manner and that demonstrates excellence in research, technique, and documentation. Projects in the twelve-state region of SESAH that were completed in 2006 or 2007 are eligible.
Nominations should consist of no more than two typed pages of description, and be accompanied by hard copy illustrations and any other supporting material. A cover letter should identify the owner of the project, the use of the building(s), and the names of all the major participants of the project.
Send four (4) copies to Jennifer Baughn, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 100 S. State Street, Jackson, MS 39201. Questions: 601-576-6940 or jbaughn@mdah.state.ms.us. The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2008.
Winners will be announced at the 26th SESAH Annual Meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, from October 1-4, 2008.
Rent a Frank Lloyd Wright Home for Vacation
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/travel/02cultured.html?th&emc=th
- this house was moved from Illinois to near Pittsburgh