This issue has been covered here before, but the Associated Press takes a look at the Route 66 town of Galena, Kan., and its efforts to fill in its abandoned underground lead mines before they collapse.

The city wants to revitalize downtown by making a tourist attraction out of the stretch of old Route 66 that runs through Galena. But Galena officials fear the risk of a building collapse could chase off investors.

“Because it is slow, we have time to do something about it. If we don’t act, once you get past that point of no return, it can happen fast,” the mayor said.

As he made that statement, Oglesby was standing next to a fearsome example of what may await Galena: Nearby were the crumbling remains of a brick building that was the town’s only bar until a mine collapsed behind it last summer.

The front of the two-story building that had housed the Green Parrot bar since 1942 looked intact from Main Street. But the back part of the building sagged into a sunken backyard.

Galena officials can recount story after story of collapsed mines, like the time the ground opened up under the police impound yard and swallowed up two or three cars. But the Green Parrot was the first loss of a structure.

Town leaders were so alarmed, they quickly formed a task force that led to the plan to fill the man-made caverns.

“It’s time. This could save my business and let the old downtown develop,” said Robert Edge, who owns a knife business across the street from the Green Parrot.

The town is spending a half-million in local, state and federal funds this month to drill 300 holes so it can update the town’s mine maps and determine which tunnels are closest to collapsing. Over a period of years, those tunnels will be filled. Estimates on the total cost range as high as $60 million.

The collapse of the Green Parrot isn’t the only reason for Galena’s sense of urgency. The nearby town of Picher, Okla., is being bought out and evacuated because the danger of underground collapses turned out to be much greater than initially anticipated. Picher now resembles a ghost town.

Galena doesn’t want to become another Picher.

Lucille Pech will be honored as grand marshal of the Atlanta Fall Festival Parade in the Route 66 town of Atlanta, Ill., reported the Lincoln Courier.

The newspaper gives some background:

Pech views Atlanta as the perfect hometown, a place where everyone knows each other, and everyone is each other’s neighbor.

Pech was asked to be curator of the Atlanta Museum in 1973 and continues as curator to this day.

She also is a founding member of the Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County. She and several others from Logan County established the tourism bureau at a meeting at the Atlanta Public Library more than 20 years ago. [...]

Pech regularly is on hand at the Atlanta Public Library and Museum, where she greets visitors, conducts tours of the museum, and welcomes Route 66 travelers to the community. Because of her genuine fondness for the many tourists who stop in Atlanta, Lucille holds the unofficial title of “Route 66 Grandma.”

Pech moved to Atlanta shortly after she was married to Joseph Pech in 1936. She’s been there ever since.

An Oklahoma City television station did a nice segment on the recent Okie Twist-off event at the 66 Bowl.

The Twist-off was such a success, the organizers are already planning one in 2008.