Secretary Lee Announces Lake Butler as Florida’s Newest Certified Local Government

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –

Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee announced today that the City of Lake Butler has been accepted to the Certified Local Government (CLG) program following certification by the National Park Service.

“I am pleased to welcome Lake Butler as Florida’s 81st Certified Local Government,” said Secretary Laurel M. Lee. “The City will now partner with the Division of Historical Resources to preserve resources associated with its important agricultural past and role as the seat of Union County.”

Lake Butler joins a network of more than 2,000 Certified Local Governments in the United States. The town will now benefit from training and technical support provided by the Division of Historical Resources to enhance local historic preservation efforts of its unique historic and cultural resources. In order to become eligible for the Certified Local Government program, Lake Butler passed a local historic preservation ordinance and assembled a qualified historic preservation commission. The CLG program encourages decision making about historic preservation at the local level with input from citizens and local government.

The City of Lake Butler is the county seat of Union County, Florida. Incorporated in 1893, Lake Butler derives its namesake from Colonel Robert Butler, an American military officer and the first Surveyor General of the Florida Territory. The cattle, lumber, and sea island cotton industries provided a basis for early economic development of the community. Despite growth as a result of the railroad, Lake Butler retained its unique rural character. The city remains an agricultural community with historic resources associated with Florida’s early timber and agricultural industries. The certification of Lake Butler as a Certified Local Government solidifies its vision to protect and promote its historical, cultural and archaeological resources associated with Florida’s historically significant industries.

By joining the Certified Local Government program, Lake Butler will now receive support in the form of training, technical assistance and grant funding to support the town’s local historic preservation efforts. With this support, Lake Butler is seeking to conduct a survey of its historic resources.

Residents celebrating the 100^th anniversary of Union County at the county courthouse in Lake Butler. Built in 1936, the Union County Courthouse was a product of the Works Progress Administration.

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About the Certified Local Government Program
The Certified Local Government (CLG) program was established in 1980 by the National Park Service and is administered in Florida by the Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources. The CLG Program links three levels of government—federal, state and local—into a preservation partnership for the identification, evaluation, and protection of historic and archaeological resources. Florida’s CLGs (towns, cities, and counties) receive expert technical historic preservation assistance to guide them in the preservation efforts from the National Park Service, the Division of Historical Resources, and from Florida’s other CLGs. This designation also gives CLGs access to historic preservation grant assistance available solely to CLGs. In order to become a CLG, local governments must be committed to enforcing local and state historic preservation laws and ensure the establishment of a professionally qualified historic preservation board. Nationally, more than 2,000 local governments participate in the CLG program. In Florida, 80 local governments have been designated as CLG. For more information, please visit: flheritage.com/preservation/clg.

About the Florida Department of State’s Bureau of Historic Preservation

The Bureau of Historic Preservation (BHP) conducts historic preservation programs aimed at identifying, evaluating, preserving and interpreting the historic and cultural resources of the state. The Bureau manages the Florida Main Street Program, and under federal and state laws, oversees the National Register of Historic Places program for Florida, maintains an inventory of the state's historical resources in the Florida Master Site File, assists applicants in federal tax benefit and local government ad valorem tax relief programs for historic buildings, and reviews the impact that development projects may have on significant historic resources. For more information, visit flheritage.com/preservation.