Matching grants available to preserve historic buildings
Submitted story
A 2020 CCPA facade matching grant helped fund the restoration of the porch on this house on Scioto Street in Urbana.
Submitted photo
The Champaign County Preservation Alliance (CCPA) is offering a total of $4,000 in matching grants for the repair and restoration of pre-1940 homes and commercial buildings anywhere in Champaign County.
This is the 29th year the grants are being offered. In 2021 the CCPA will offer two residential matching grants of up to $1,000 each for the repair and restoration of homes and one $2,000 commercial building matching grant.
In the past five years the CCPA has awarded residential grants in Mechanicsburg, St. Paris and Urbana. Commercial grants have been awarded in Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg and Urbana.
News-Star/Patriot Auto Group Car Finalists: Steele, Richardson
Student of the Month: Shawnee High School senior MacKenzie Steele
Senior MacKenzie Steele is a leader at Shawnee High School and maintains a perfect 4.0 GPA.
She has been selected as one of The Shawnee News-Star and Patriot Auto Group Students of the Month for January and is now in the running to win a car.
“I have watched her grow from a young, somewhat naive freshman to a confident, well-spoken, astute high school senior,” Shawnee High School Counselor Cindy Bartley said. “MacKenzie has set herself apart from her peers through her strong desire to help others.”
SALT LAKE CITY At 10:03 a.m. Eastern time on Jan. 4, 1896, President Grover Cleveland signed a proclamation that declared Utah to be the country s 45th state.
A superintendent of Western Union in Salt Lake City rushed from his office and fired a pair of shots in the air to inform the community that the proclamation was signed, historian Audrey Godfrey wrote in a 1995 article about Statehood Day for Utah Historical Quarterly. At this prearranged signal, merrymaking commenced, Godfrey wrote. Bill Bingley and his shotgun brigade gathered near Browning Brothers store in Salt Lake, and boys blew whistles and set off bombs felt blocks away. At 11:30, the NGU (National Guard of Utah) gathered on Capitol Hill at noon to fire a 21-gun salute.
COVID-19 dominates year
The Shawnee News-Star
Reminiscing on the past 12 months, the most significant of events glaring back is clearly COVID-19 and how it has upended life as we know it.
Whether it s been health scares, shutdowns or mask mandates, the pandemic has forced everyone to reimagine how to function safely from a distance.
The year began as usual, with news of new business coming and a church marked its centennial.
January (Pre-COVID-19)
• A formal sentencing hearing took place for defendant Byron James Shepard, 38, of Okemah, convicted in the 2017 murder of Tecumseh Police Officer Justin Terney. On the felony count of murder in the first degree, the death sentence was issued to Shepard.