The Guthrie County Historical Village and Museum is closed for the winter, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t work to do for its Foundation, staff, and volunteers.

Village Curator Kristine Jorgensen says they are in the midst of two major renovation projects on the 1915 Pullman Observation and Cafe Car, and the 1900 Marchant House. The Village Foundation has received a couple of grants in the last year for the train car, but besides acquiring funds, Jorgensen says a difficult part of the process is finding the right contractors to do the work. Jorgensen thanks the public for their patience and support, “We’ve always got projects going on down here, and along with the projects we have to maintain. And so we have 10 buildings, beautiful buildings down here and they require constant upkeep, painting, a new roof, windows, a new door so any funds that we receive, even if they’re not for a specific item they go to the foundation and we use them so that we can preserve what we have too.”

Jorgensen hopes to get the Pullman car renovation completed sometime in the next couple years so that it can be used as a community center for the public to rent. To hear more from Jorgensen, listen to today and tomorrow’s two-part Let’s Talk Guthrie County program on air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.