Published: November 14, 2009 08:09 pm      

Sekula pushing for local historic preservation group

Organizational meeting set for Dec. 1, open to public

A unified voice to advocate for preservation of historic places that contribute to quality of life in Floyd County — that’s how Greg Sekula describes his vision of a local watchgroup that would lobby for maintaining historic property locally.

Sekula, director of the southern regional office of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, has scheduled a Dec. 1 meeting to gather like-minded residents interested in starting a historic preservation organization for New Albany and Floyd County. Sekula said from the standpoint of Historic Landmarks, which is a statewide agency, “an active, local, preservation nonprofit is an essential component of a successful community preservation effort.”

A few people have discussed forming a local group recently, and Sekula is ready to take the next step.

“Preservation is fundamentally best practiced at a local level and [Historic Landmarks] sees the best results in communities where there is an effective local voice for preservation that is engaged in community issues and can serve as a watchdog and a catalyst,” Sekula said.

Floyd County Historian Dave Barksdale is one of the voices that has been calling for such an effort.

“This has been a long time in coming and I am very pleased that New Albany resident Greg Sekula has taken the initiative to get a not-for-profit, preservation organization started,” Barksdale said.

He added numerous communities in the state have similar organizations to what Sekula has proposed.

“This will definitely enhance the preservation movement already underway in New Albany,” Barksdale said.

Historic Landmarks has a track record of assisting local preservation groups with small planning and pre-development grants as well as loans, Sekula said.

In a letter set to be sent out to many Floyd County residents, Sekula points to recent examples that demonstrated “a need to articulate a voice for historic preservation on the local level.”

Namely, the future of the Floyd County Home, the debate over closing Silver Street School and unchecked urban sprawl are cases Sekula uses to tout the necessity of a local preservation effort.