The Senate has passed a bill to spend $10 million to help
restore California’s aging Spanish missions, putting the
legislation a step away from reaching the president for his
signature.
San Juan Bautista – The Senate has passed a bill to spend $10 million to help restore California’s aging Spanish missions, putting the legislation a step away from reaching the president for his signature.
The California Missions Preservation Act, authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would send grants over five years to the nonprofit foundation that’s overseeing the effort to refurbish the 21 missions, including Mission San Juan Bautista.
The local mission should be a high priority for receiving financial aid, according Dr. Knox Mellon, Executive Director of the California Missions Foundation.
“I toured the mission about six weeks ago, and it is clearly in need of financial assistance,” Mellon said.
Mission San Juan Bautista needs to install restrooms – he says it has none – upgrade the curation of its museum and the storage of important artifacts, and to check the
mission’s foundation to make sure it is earthquake safe.
To repair the missions, the California Missions Foundation would be required to match the federal money with state and private funds if the Preservation Act is passed.
“This has been a long fight, but I am so proud that we were able to get this legislation through and begin the process of restoring these historic treasures,” Boxer said in a statement Monday. “The missions are on the verge of being lost to us forever, and now is the time to ensure their place in California’s history.”
The Senate passed the bill late Sunday. The Senate version still must pass the House, which approved an earlier version of the bill last year. House approval is expected to happen when Congress reconvenes for a lame-duck session after the Nov. 2 election. The bill would then go to the president.
Attempting to resolve a concern that has helped stall the bill, the Senate passed an amendment saying the money can’t be given out unless the Justice Department issues a finding that it does not violate the First Amendment.
That is meant to resolve complaints that federal funding for the missions would undermine the principle of separation of church and state contained in the First Amendment.
The advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State had raised that concern since most of the missions still are owned by the Catholic Church and hold Mass.
The amendment also says that to be eligible to receive federal funding under the act, a California mission must be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ten of the missions already are listed.
The Spanish government built California’s missions from 1769 to 1823. They are spread from Sonoma in the north to San Diego in the south, and draw more than 5 million visitors a year, many of them fourth-graders on field trips as part of California’s social studies curriculum.
Many of the adobe structures are deteriorating from age and decay, with millions needed to fund structural repairs, seismic work and deferred maintenance.
Mission San Miguel Arcangel alone – the mission near Paso Robles that was damaged by an earthquake last December – needs an estimated $26 million to $30 million in retrofitting and repairs, said Mellon. The foundation aims to raise $50 million in all.
The legislation “is going to make a world of difference in saving the 21 extant California missions,” Mellon said.
“When you can go to a prospective donor and say we have a match to make and every dollar you give is going to mean two dollars, and every thousand dollars you give is going to mean two thousand, that’s just absolutely critical in a still somewhat tight economy to raising private funding,” he said.
