The East Mount Zion Baptist Church in the Cleveland is faced with an unsafe future for its renovation project, despite local and state grants, since the federal support is still out of the question.
Cleveland – The financing for a symbol of Cleveland, which is planned for the receipt of larger renovation work, is in the floating.
East Mount Zion Baptist Church needs a new roof and other repairs.
But now community leaders have to find another way to restore it if federal financing does not get through.
“East Mount Zion Baptist Church is another really important historical holy landmark in Cleveland,” said Anne Doten, director of development manager at the Cleveland Restoration Society. The non -profit organization has teamed up with the church to preserve it.
Doten notes that East Mount Zion played “an important role” in the civil rights movement, but the building now has a leaky roof that deteriorates. Temporary measures were taken to stabilize the church, but requires permanent repairs that cost around 1.5 million US dollars.
“East Mount Zion and their Pastor Brian Cash were amazing with fundraisers. They did such a great job. They granted a national fund for holy places, they financed the state of Ohio Capital Fund, so they were incredibly good,” said Doten. “But these subsidies require suitable means, and they were very hopeful that this scholarship would provide these suitable means.”
The Cleveland Restoration Society submitted applications for federal grants to cover the rest of the costs, but like non -profit organizations across the country, they are still waiting and concerned about the federal funding cuts.
“This program has not yet been removed, but they should be announced (the awards) in March, so that at least everything was delayed,” said Doten.
Doten says 3News that they do not believe that people know how much federal financing touches historical places in our region.
“Many of the major projects that we carried out, such as the restoration of the Cory Methodist Church, we received more than 1 million US dollars in grants from the National Park service for this project,” she said.
In the meantime, they are hopeful and questions that take care of local sights to raise awareness.
“(The affected citizens should call their representatives and let them know. If you see that the financing for programs is reduced that are important to you, it makes a difference when you speak,” said Doten. “Speak for what you believe and what you are interested in, because that's what our democracy is about.”