Five grant awards from Traverse City Rotary Charities totaling more than $98,000 will benefit organizations with Leelanau County connections.

The Rotary Charities grants were among 19 totaling nearly $410,000 that were announced yesterday.

The Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum in Leelanau Township was awarded a $10,000 grant to install web cams in two museums, the Grand Traverse Lighthouse and the Fox Island Lighthouse.

"We are very excited,” said museum director Stefanie Staley. The funds will be used to install a web cam system to transmit pictures from the lighthouse on Fox Island via satellite to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse museum at the tip of the Leelanau peninsula.

The cameras will also provide added security.

"Ninty-nine percent of the public won't be able to get out there; with the web cams, they can see what that lighthouse looks like," said Staley.

The other web cam will provide views from the top of the lighthouse to people who can’t climb up to the top, Staley explained.

Leelanau County will be receiving $25,000 from Rotary Charities to assist in funding toward the purchase of a 93-acre property in Bingham Township. The property is the site of the former Veronica Valley golf course.

District No. 1 county commissioner Jean Watkoski, who serves on the county’s Parks and Recreation Commission, said she was thrilled to hear of the $25,000 grant.

“That money will definitely help pick up part of our expenses for the property,” Watkoski said. “Now if we can only get a check from Lansing.”

Because of budget problems in Lansing, there have been problems in sending out grants from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, which earlier this year agreed to provide some $600,000 to help Leelanau County acquire the former Veronica Valley golf course property.

The county plans to turn the 93-acre property on County Road 641 in Bingham Township into a natural area and “passive” recreational facility featuring picnic areas, walking paths, fish ponds and nature viewing areas.

Meanwhile, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear will be receiving $25,000 to assist in development of a first-floor exhibit at the historic Charles Oleson Farmstead in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, located within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park.

“We’re very excited to be moving onto the second phase of the project,” acting director Susan Pocklington said.

Additional grant applications are pending that would bring the group closer to the $100,000 needed to complete the project. Money will be put toward the design, fabrication and installation of the exhibit, which will provide interpretation of cultural landscapes within the lakeshore.

Elsewhere, the Grand Traverse Bay Alliance in Greilickville also received word of a $33,887 award from Rotary Charities this week. The money will be used for internal and external rehabilitation of structures at a newly acquired property on West Bay in Greilickville. Renovations will address safety, environmental and appearance concerns of the buildings as well as the docks and mooring field included on the property.