Jobe, Legislators, React To Decision To Give Tourism Bureau $919,000 Route 66 Grant
ALTON – Revitalizing the Last 100 Miles of Route 66 in southwest Illinois is no longer a dream but a reality, thanks to a $919,000 Route 66 Grant awarded to the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau by the state. The grant will fund community murals, a new Route 66 Interpretative Visitor Center in Edwardsville, Mother Road monuments in several communities, and the reopening of the historic Cannonball Jail in Carlinville. Those projects are all interlocking pieces of a revitalized Route 66 envisioned by the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau of Southwest Illinois. The Tourism Bureau applied for a grant under the Route 66 Grant Program administered by DCEO and the Illinois Office of Tourism. The grant funds are available to certified Destination Marketing Organizations in Illinois that represent and promote the Mother Road. “We have to thank the Illinois Office of Tourism, DCEO, and our local state elected officials including State Senator Rachelle Crowe, State Senator Dori