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Community group pitches museum plans as city seeks to protect capital funding; council approves museum deaccession
Summary
History 98520 representatives urged council support for a new Aberdeen museum; city staff said state capital funding for a museum building is scheduled to expire in June and will be the subject of upcoming legislative outreach. Council also approved deaccession of museum items on the same agenda.
A representative of History 98520, a volunteer group formerly known as Friends of the Aberdeen Museum, asked the Aberdeen City Council on Feb. 12 for help advancing a new local museum and highlighted the group's experience and volunteer capacity.
Ruth Hamilton, who identified herself as president of History 98520 and described her museum-studies background, told the council the group's membership ranges in age from 15 to 80 and that it has educators, project managers and volunteers prepared to help develop a museum presence. "We want to bring people to Aberdeen and share the vibrant, multi-layered, multifaceted history that is Aberdeen," Hamilton said in public comment and left the council a one-page organization brief.
City staff told the council the state capital funding currently allocated for a museum building is scheduled to expire in June; city staff and the mayor plan to meet with Representative Steve Tharinger, chair of the House capital-budget committee and a member of the heritage committee, to seek inclusion of the museum funds in the next biennium. City Administrator Ruth Clemens said staff had prepared a strategic communication plan to retain the funding in the capital budget.
On the council agenda the city also approved a request to deaccession items from the museum collection; council approved the deaccession by voice vote but the transcript does not list the inventory or categories of items removed. Staff said they will continue outreach and coordination on museum planning and funding with state legislators and local stakeholders.
