Change is coming to the state agency that oversees historic sites and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
Illinois' Historic Preservation Agency will find a new home in the Department of Natural Resources. While promoted as a way to bolster the state's natural and cultural sites, it's also expected to save money. An earlier estimate indicated savings of more than 3-million dollars a year.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, which had been part of Historic Preservation, will now operate independently.
According to Governor Rauner's Administration, the new Division of Historic Sites will have two major functions.
One is operating sites that preserve and celebrate Illinois' heritage. The other involves nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, administering tax incentives that encourage rehabilitation of historic buildings, and assessing the impact of construction on historic resources.
The state's historic sites had previously been under the old Department of Conservation, which was the name that preceded I-D-N-R.
