Monitor Editor
LAKE BUTLER— Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee announced on May 5 that the City of Lake Butler has been accepted to the Certified Local Government program following certification by the National Park Service.
“I am pleased to welcome Lake Butler as Florida’s 81st Certified Local Government,” said Lee in a news release. “The city will now partner with the Division of Historical Resources to preserve resources associated with its important agricultural past and role as the seat of Union County.”
Florida’s Department of State said Lake Butler joins a network of more than 2,000 Certified Local Governments in the United States. The town will now benefit from training and technical support provided by the Division of Historical Resources to enhance local historic preservation efforts of its unique historic and cultural resources.
The program encourages decision making about historic preservation at the local level with input from citizens and local government. In order to become a CLG, local governments must be committed to enforcing local and state historic preservation laws and ensure the establishment of a professionally qualified historic preservation board
“It opens the door for different types of grants for historic preservation,” said Lake Butler City Manager Dale Walker.
He added that after passing an ordinance establishing a historic district within the city and appointing a historic preservation board, the city completed paperwork for joining the certified local government program.
Walker said the next step in the city’s preservation efforts will be for the historic preservation board to receive training from state officials. Then the board will set its priorities and line up projects, which is likely to include a survey of its historic resources.
Other North Florida governments in the Certified Local Government program are Keystone Heights, Clay County, Fernandina Beach, Gainesville, Jacksonville, St. Augustine and St. Johns County.
