The Douglas County commission meets in the historic courtroom on the second floor of the old county courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

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 recommendations were developed in a four-month grant-application and vetting process, during which 11 applications totaling $522,000 were considered.

The task force recommended the Eudora Area Historical Society receive the largest grant of $89,000 for improvements to the Eudora Community Museum, which moved last year to a storefront at 720 Main St.

The museum exhibit space is currently confined to the museum’s first floor because access to its second floor is limited to an unsafe outdoor staircase. The grant award will allow the museum to build an addition to the rear of the building, which will contain a staircase and platform lift. 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. According to the recommendation for the grant award, the planning process would build on the consensus developed after two years of facilitated discussions between Delaware Tribe leaders and local stakeholders.

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.

Other project recommendations:

• $30,000 for Flint Hills Investments to make second-phase improvement to the Turnhalle building, 900 Rhode Island St. The building, constructed in 1869, was for many years the social hub of Lawrence’s German-American community. The building’s former owner, the Lawrence Preservation Alliance, was awarded a $125,000 heritage conservation grant in 2013 to begin its restoration. This year’s grant would be used to shore up remaining structural issues.

• $26,728 for a new heating and air-conditioning system and installation of ultra-violet window treatments at the Territorial Capital Museum in Lecompton.

• $13,230 for planned Friends of the Kaw activities to clean up, restore and promote fishing on the Kansas River in Douglas County. 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 “Make Every Drop Count” festival will consist of learning stations and exhibits meant to increase the awareness and appreciation of county fifth-grade students of local water resources.

• $5,000 for a civil rights interactive exhibit kiosk at the Watkins Museum of History. 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.

The Douglas County Commission meets at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.