Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker recently announced $10 million in capital budget redevelopment assistance to help build a new museum and visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Adams County.
The museum and visitor center project is a public-private partnership between the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation and the National Park Service.
The state funding will be used for infrastructure development, site development, and design and construction of buildings and exhibits related to the museum and visitor center.
"It is our responsibility to make sure that all of Pennsylvania’s historic destinations are dynamic places to learn about our past," Gov. Schweiker said. "Gettysburg played such a significant role in our country’s history that we must work to ensure its legacy.
"People from all over the country come to Gettysburg to experience its history, and the facilities at the park have had trouble keeping up with the demand. The new museum and visitor center will help meet that demand and attract even more tourists to Pennsylvania each year, and will be yet another community asset that will enhance the quality of life of those who live in the region."
More than 1.8 million people visited Gettysburg National Military Park in 2001.
Commenting on the announcement, Robert Wilburn, president of the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation, said, "In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln talked of a ’new birth of freedom.’ The public-private partnership between the Foundation and the National Park Service – to build new museum and visitor center facilities, to preserve the park’s collection of archives and artifacts, including the Cyclorama painting, and to restore portions of the battlefield – offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a ’new birth’ for Gettysburg.
"We are grateful to Gov. Schweiker and to the General Assembly for this assistance, which will help to ensure that the Gettysburg experience reaches its full potential – for this generation of visitors and for future generations."
The new museum and visitor center is expected to open in 2006.
The grant was enabled in February 1999, when the General Assembly approved the Ridge-Schweiker Administration’s plan to raise the cap on the capital budget’s redevelopment assistance fund by $650 million for vital community- and economic-development projects statewide. Gov. Schweiker recently signed legislation raising the cap by $250 million.
During the Administration, the number of Pennsylvania counties receiving capital budget redevelopment assistance funds has more than doubled from 22 to 50 counties.
The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program is a state grant program for the acquisition and construction of economic, cultural or civic improvement projects. The General Assembly must authorize funding for projects before they can be considered by the Governor. Since 1985, more than $1.8 billion in redevelopment assistance funds have helped to leverage more than $4.1 billion in local matching funds. Projects range from museums, zoos, theaters and cultural centers to airports, convention centers and industrial parks.
