The Douglas County Commission will consider Wednesday awarding $245,000 in grants to eight projects meant to preserve the county’s cultural and natural resources.

The Douglas County Natural and Cultural Heritage Task Force will present its annual recommendations to the County Commission as it has since 2011. The improved access, which the Kansas Historical Preservation Office has approved, and the planned rehabilitation of the building’s second floor would allow the museum to double exhibition space and help preserve the historic property, the Eudora Area Historical Society’s grant application states.

Next on the list in terms of dollar amount is a $67,775 recommendation from the Douglas County Sustainability Office to fund a nine-month planning process to aid the Delaware Tribe in developing 90 acres of property it owns in north Lawrence near the Interstate 70 interchange.

The consensus would develop the property as an educational and job-training site for Delaware Tribe youth and students from local schools, for the production of high-value crops for local markets, for producing and marketing of seeds the Delaware and other Native American tribes used for foods and medicines, and a nutritional outreach resource.

The grant would fund a baseline analysis, master site plan and business plan, as well as identify funding sources to complete the project. Activities will include cleanup near Bowersock Dam, education float trips on that section of the river and two river fishing workshops.

$8,000 for Douglas County Conservation District’s planned two-year Douglas County Water Festival. The kiosk would make available local materials from the 1960s and 1970s on the Civil Rights Movement, American Indian Movement, Vietnam-era peace activities and LGBT rights activism.

$4,000 for the Clinton Lake Historical Society for completion of a site master plan and planning for a large-group meeting space at the Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum.