WEST LIBERTY, Iowa -- Some historic buildings in Muscatine County could soon get some much-needed help.
The county got a grant from the state of Iowa to help document old schoolhouses and churches in the country. The grant is $8,138 and the county is putting another $5,000 into the project.
Lynn Pruitt on the county historic preservation commission says they are using township records for reference. There are about 80 sites they want to visit and record what they find.
"Most of them have been demolished actually," he says. "A few got moved to other locations for another purpose. A few of them got changed into residences for people to live in and are still functioning that way."
Pruitt says they want to document where these important buildings stand, or once stood, and try to restore those still there.
"As we inventory the whole county to find out where they were historically, if we find some that are worthy of restoration, we'll try to get them on the National Register of Historic places and then do what we can to get them into good shape," he says.
The commission will hire a historical consultant this spring and hopes to have this project finished by the end of 2020.