Senate appropriations panel reviews museum and historic‑site funding, delays final decisions

The Appropriations — Education and Environment Division met to review historic‑site and museum budget requests, focusing discussion on one‑time funding for exhibit upgrades, community grants and planning work in Medora. Chairman Sorvaugh opened the session and said the panel would “walk through quite a few things” and later closed the committee’s work on the historic portion for the day without finalizing most line items.

Committee members questioned department presenters about a range of one‑time requests. A staff presenter identified as Bill, a staff member, described a $638,000 request to “upgrade the exhibit portions of the Museum in Pembina, which is a state facility, and a state building,” saying the proposal would “completely reinstall the exhibit space” and procure fossils because the exhibit “hasn’t been upgraded in 30 years.”

The committee also discussed a $3,500,000 request for Medora area planning. Bill said the amount would fund schematic drawings and design work to make the state’s holdings in Medora — including the visitor center and nearby Chimney Park — more competitive and better connected to the community, noting the previous administration had proposed a larger sum and that earlier planning costs of roughly $150,000–$180,000 have already been spent. Senator Thomas pressed to know what would be dropped when the request was cut from $6.5 million to $3.5 million; Bill said the larger amount would support a 20,000–40,000 square‑foot visitor‑center expansion and additional engineering work, while the smaller amount is intended to reach schematic and preliminary design phases.

Committee members and department staff also reviewed a $2.0 million line for statewide cultural programming and celebrations, with Alexander Thomas, a staff member, stating that $1,275,000 of that would be allocated for programming and grants across the state. The department said it plans to develop a rubric through its grants office to limit grant size and distribute funds broadly so small communities are not crowded out by larger ones.

Andrea Wiecky, identified in testimony as Director of Administration, addressed carryover and exemption questions. She said the agency reports carryovers for only one biennium and that it tries to spend one‑time funds within the first 18 months of the biennium. Wiecky also described the department’s review-and‑compliance workload for archaeological and federal projects and said an emergency federal declaration for energy projects shortens the review clock from 30 days to seven days.

That workload prompted discussion of a request for temporary review and digital‑services support to speed federal Section 106 reviews. Bill said the department receives multi‑project submissions from utilities and other applicants and that added temporary capacity and digital services would help meet the shortened federal timelines.

No final appropriations were adopted for the individual museum and planning requests during this meeting. The committee chair noted the panel had approved Section IV and Section V earlier and said the committee would “start moving stuff forward here in the next week probably,” but that most one‑time items would be reviewed further before any final decisions.

The session ended with the committee standing at ease until after floor session. The panel plans to resume related budget reviews in subsequent meetings, with a separate discussion scheduled for water funding and a future review of parks and the Department of Public Instruction.