Illinois awards $919,000 for Final one hundred Miles of Route sixty six in condition
ALTON — Illinois has awarded $919,000 to the Terrific Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau to support revitalize the closing one hundred miles of Route sixty six in the condition.
“In 4 several years, Route sixty six will rejoice its centennial birthday,” explained Cory Jobe, President/CEO of the Terrific Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau. “We want to be component of the Illinois and countrywide celebration with a new and remarkable extend of the Mom Highway in southwest Illinois. This grant will allow us to do that and support communities together the Final one hundred Miles of Route sixty six in Illinois.”
The grant was component of $ million on Route sixty six grants introduced Monday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Office of Commerce and Financial Option (DCEO) for assignments throughout the condition main up to the a centesimal anniversary of Route sixty six.
Domestically the $919,000 grant will fund a new Route sixty six Interpretative Customer Middle in Edwardsville, reopening the historic Cannonball Jail in Carlinville, twelve neighborhood murals and 6 Mom Highway monuments.
Terrific Rivers & Streets used for a grant beneath the Route sixty six Grant Method administered by the DCEO and the Illinois Office environment of Tourism for licensed Vacation spot Advertising Corporations who stand for and market the Mom Highway.
The Route sixty six assignments incorporate:
• The West Stop Services Station at 620 St. Louis St., Edwardsville, retrofitted in to a new interpretative and academic museum and Route sixty six Customer Middle. The constructing was when a company station together Edwardsville’s part of Route sixty six and serving as a cease for tourists to re-gasoline and make modest buys. When Route sixty six bypassed Edwardsville in 1965, the constructing was remodeled into a dental workplace right up until it was marketed to the Illinois Office of Transportation in 2021.
• The Historic Macoupin County “Cannonball Jail” in which cash will be made use of to entire structural updates and parking ton repairs desired to reopen the historic jail to Route sixty six website visitors. The jail, situated throughout from the famed “Million Greenback Courthouse,” was produced following the American Civil War with surplus cannonballs positioned involving stones to make prisoner escape not possible.
• The Mural Path, with produce twelve postcard-fashion matching murals that spotlight Route sixty six details. The murals are prepared in twelve southwestern Illinois communities which includes Virden, Girard, Gillespie, Carlinville, Litchfield, Staunton, Hamel, Edwardsville, Collinsville, Livingston, Granite Town and East St. Louis.
• “Six on 66” Monuments, exclusive steel buildings plainly noticeable on Route sixty six and built to attract website visitors into the communities. Monuments would be positioned in Carlinville, Litchfield, Edwardsville, Collinsville, Granite Town and Hamel. The monuments will provide as a images waypoint in each individual city and will be a beacon for instate social media sharing.
The interlinking assignments help the regional solution to tourism promoted about the several years by the Terrific Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau. It also contains web pages in modest city enterprise districts which are built to travel website visitors to dining establishments and retail storefronts. It is also built to improve the amount of money of time and funds Route sixty six tourists expend in Illinois communities ahead of getting into Missouri.
“Regionalism is the crucial to accomplishment with tourism strategies,” Jobe explained. “No solitary city can acquire on its very own. Regional desired destination advertising and marketing and enhancement highlights the allure, enchantment and leisure chances of our communities and produces a desired destination interesting to the twenty five million men and women situated in just a 3-hour travel of the spot.
“We have to thank the Illinois Office environment of Tourism, DCEO and our community condition elected officers which includes Point out Sen. Rachelle Crowe, Point out Sen. Doris Turner and Point out Rep. Katie Stuart for their foresight in funding and approving this grant software,” explained Jobe,
Other grant recipients bundled Heritage Corridor CVB, Check out Oak Park CVB and Springfield CVB.
Initiatives incorporate: the set up of EV charging stations together Route sixty six in Berwyn, Pontiac, and Wilmington an interactive Digital Actuality show built to spotlight the working experience of Black People residing or touring together Route sixty six in Springfield and a statewide Route sixty six advertising and marketing marketing campaign.
