Staff writer
Members from Kansas Barn Alliance came from all over the state for the annual Barn Fest event at the Marion city building Friday and Saturday to learn about barn preservation and reuse issues.
“The ‘greenest’ barn is the barn that is already standing,” advisory member of the Kansas Barn Association Sally Hatcher said Friday. “Maintaining and reusing a barn is not always cheap because of all the resources it takes.”
Hatcher grew up on a farm in Michigan and was one of the founding members of the Kansas Barn Alliance. She said it is an eight-year-old offshoot of the Kansas Preservation Society.
“A barn is such a specialty thing we thought it deserved its own organization,” she said.
Patrons listened to various speakers talk about barn related topics such as a Barn Evaluation Grant for $250 intended to provide 50 percent of the cost of a structural analysis and repair prioritization.
Other Friday speakers covered a survey of historic resources, and talk of timber and masonry.
Patrons attended a bus tour Saturday that among other stops included Mick and Marge Summervill’s barn and springhouse, as well as the Harvey House in Florence where people both toured and dined for lunch.