MORRISON – Morrison is one of 13 Illinois towns and one county that have been awarded grants through the U.S. Department of Interior for historic preservation efforts.

Morrison will get $13,000, which will pay for a consultant to prepare the city's application to get the downtown listed on the National Register of Historic Places, said Tim Slavin, chairman of the city's Historic Preservation Commission.

The city must provide a $3,000 match for the grant, which the commission will handle by volunteering its services to provide research for the application. The research will involve as many as 85 buildings in the downtown, Slavin said.