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Frontier Historical Society asks Glenwood Springs for $80,000 to bolster operations, seeks tourism-board match
Summary
The Frontier Historical Society told the council its new director has helped boost fundraising and visitor programming and asked the city to provide $80,000 from the ANI grants fund and to consider a $40,000 tourism-fund match; councilors discussed timing and a tourism-board review before any supplemental appropriation.
Jamie LaRue, board president of the Frontier Historical Society, told the Glenwood Springs City Council that the society has expanded public programming and fundraising over the past year and is requesting city support for its paid director position.
LaRue said the society has hired a director to lead fundraising, programming and operations and that year-to-date fundraising “we have raised $80,000 in direct donations and sponsorships, advertising event tickets, grants, museum admissions, and retail.” She described a suite of programs — speaker series, walking tours and seasonal fundraisers — and said that matching support from the city has been important to outside fundraising.
“The bottom line,” LaRue said, “the takeaway on this one is we really are holding our own, controlling costs.” She told councilors the society is on track to match the $120,000 the city provided last year.
Mark Jensen, introduced in the meeting as the historical society’s executive director, told councilors the Frontier Historical Museum draws roughly 6,000 visitors a year and that “80% or more of the visitors to the museum are tourists,” a statistic he said factored into the society’s outreach and hours expansion. Jensen said adult admission is $5 and the museum recently raised the youth free-admission window from 12 to 16 years.
City staff said $80,000 from the ANI grants fund is already in the proposed 2026 budget, but that the $40,000 tourism-fund match is not currently budgeted and would require either tourism management board review or a supplemental request. A staff representative said they would present the request to the tourism board and — depending on that body’s recommendation — add the match as a first supplemental appropriation in 2026.
Councilors asked for follow-up details, including a clearer visitation count at the museum’s other exhibit locations and whether the society’s fundraising assumptions were repeatable. Jensen said the society has leveraged city matching in past solicitations and that the matching language was “powerful” for donors.
The council did not take a vote on new funding that evening; staff and the society were directed to follow up with the tourism board and to provide budget-ready materials for council review in the city’s upcoming budget deliberations.
