Businesses in Elizabethtown & Sesser are the first recipients of the Landmarks Illinois Banterra Bank Preserve Southern Illinois Grant Program

CHICAGO, Oct. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hardin County Independent in Elizabethtown and Brewed on Broadway and Pin Up Salon in Sesser have been awarded matching grants through the Landmarks Illinois Banterra Bank Preserve Southern Illinois Grant Program. Both businesses will use the grant funding to make necessary repairs to the historic buildings in which they operate. Representatives from Landmarks Illinois and Banterra Bank will host community events in Elizabethtown and Sesser next week to present checks to the grant recipients.

The Hardin County Independent, a local newspaper founded in 1870, has been awarded a $2,500 matching grant to help make electrical repairs in its downtown Elizabethtown building that it has operated in since 1925. Read more about this grant recipient at our website. 

Brewed on Broadway, a coffee shop, and Pin Up Salon in Sesser are located in two downtown historic buildings owned by Rebecca and Kenny Benedict. A $2,500 matching grant will help pay for needed tuckpointing and masonry repairs at the buildings that sit across the street from each other. Read more about this grant recipient at our website. 

This is the first round of funding announced through the Landmarks Illinois Banterra Bank Preserve Southern Illinois Grant Program, which launched in the spring of 2022. Landmarks Illinois and Banterra Bank will host check presentations with both grant recipients on Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. Members of the community and the press are welcome to attend the check presentations.

Representatives of the Hardin County Independent will be presented with their grant at 9:30 a.m. at their office building at 196 W. 1^st St. in Elizabethtown, Illinois. The Benedicts, along with their daughter Chelsea Zettler, will be presented with their grant at 3 p.m. at the Brewed on Broadway building at 102 W. Franklin Ave. in Sesser, Illinois.

The Landmarks Illinois Banterra Bank Preserve Southern Illinois Grant Program provides monetary assistance to preserve or rehabilitate historic structures in downtowns and other commercial corridors of Southern Illinois to support economic development. This is the first grant program Landmarks Illinois has targeted to a specific Illinois economic development region and is also the organization's first grant program offered to private building owners, developers and for-profit business owners.   

Grants are awarded on a matching basis and range from $500 to $2,500, each based on project need. Grants are distributed twice a year. Grant application deadlines are January 1 and July 1 each year. Commercial property owners, nonprofit organizations or governmental bodies are encouraged to apply. Visit our website to read detailed grant guidelines and to submit an application. 

Founded in Southern Illinois, Banterra Bank approached Landmarks Illinois with the grant program concept, because they saw a need for preserving the region's historic downtown buildings and supporting small business development in the area. Banterra began as a single bank in Ridgway, Illinois in July of 1975. Today, Banterra has $2.7 billion in assets and is ranked in the Top Ten Percent of U.S. Charter Banks and Top Five Percent for Illinois Charter Banks by asset size. Banterra has almost 40 locations in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Utah, as well as a specialty lending division that serves customers nationwide. For more information, call 866-BANTERRA (226-8377) or go to www.banterra.bank.

We are People Saving Places for People. Landmarks Illinois is a membership-based, historic preservation nonprofit organization serving the people of Illinois. We inspire and empower stakeholders to save places that matter to them by providing free guidance, practical and financial resources and access to strategic partnerships. For more information, visit www.Landmarks.org.

Media Contact:
Kaitlyn McAvoy
Communications Manager
Landmarks Illinois
[email protected]

SOURCE Landmarks Illinois