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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2018-07-19, Page 10Book in time for summer reading i PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2018. North Huron Museum could move to train station By Denny Scott The Citizen While the building housing the North Huron Museum is closed for the year and the Barn Dance Society is looking for a new home for its artifacts, North Huron staff may have located an ideal place for the museum and its collection. During budget deliberations earlier this year, council decided to close the facility due to mounting expenses and dwindling use. With 300 visitors last year, the amount of money needed to run the museum program and the significant projects needed to bring the museum building up to code were deemed too expensive. Blyth Ward Councillor Brock Vodden, during budget deliberations, said that closing the museum was the only way to move forward. He said that, since council had proven the township wasn't going to support the facility, the best course was to close the building and shutter the service, then look at returning artifacts to the individuals, families or organizations that had donated them. North Huron staff member Melissa Scott, however, told council during its July 9 meeting, that the latter may not be necessary after researching other locations for the museum. Scott, in a presentation to council, explained that now that the $3.8 million renovation of the existing building had been voted down by council, the next issue to deal with was the services the museum provided: programming and artifacts. Scott provided four options for the museum service: expand progr- amming, reduce programming and the collection, maintain the status quo or eliminate it and start the deaccession process, or returning artifacts to their rightful owners. Deaccession would also require the archives from the museum to be located elsewhere. Scott said that her presentation focused on the services and not the future of the existing building. When looking for a new location, Scott said there were several factors to consider: accessibility, public washrooms, square footage requirements (which will change depending on how robust a museum service, if any, North Huron provides), storage requirements and appropriate climate control for the site. She also said the facility should be either a stand-alone building or a multi -use facility that could generate more interest. In the search for a building, which was limited to Wingham and a site in Morris-Turnberry, Scott found two sites that would allow the museum to be expanded and three which would require "focusing", or shrinking the collection, she said. The option that council eventually directed Scott to pursue was the historic railroad station in Wingham which was offered to rent to the municipality for free. The site, which will cost approximately $10,000 in utilities annually, offers 3,000 square feet of display space as well as an upper floor, for storage, that isn't fully accessible. Scott explained that the site has been fully restored, includes a fully - accessible first floor and has the necessary HVAC (Heating, Vent- ilation and Air Conditioning) system for the museum. The site is being offered by what Scott said was a "philanthropic business owner" and meets all the requirements set out by North Huron. It also is on main street in Wingham and has ample parking. "It's a generous offer," she said. The catch to the free site is that it needs to be kept open by the municipality as a cultural site, visitor centre or museum, a requirement that would be built into its lease. Scott also explained that having the site open less than full time would also not be allowed, according to the lease. Scott said that the site would be offered to the municipality for five years with opportunities for longer leases and even the opportunity for the municipality to take over the site, provided the station is kept as a museum, cultural site or visitor centre. The site would allow the museum service to expand to tourism and information, and would be fiscally responsible according to Scott who said that a marketing staff member could be relocated to the site to Swaying to the music The Brussels Ministerial is hosting its annual Kid's Corner vacation Bible school at the Brussels Mennonite Fellowship this week. On Monday, students got to know each other with some large group activities like story time and singing. Above, Ella VanderMeer gets into some of the music with some seated actions. (Denny Scott photo) decrease operational costs. Having staff on site would also help the municipality secure funding for summer student positions. Having the site as a multi -use exposure to the museum and any facility could also be beneficial, Scott said, because it increases Continued on page 20 Keeping cool It was tough to keep cool over the past few weeks, and no one was immune to it, not even the youth at the Blyth Ministerial's vacation Bible school held at the Blyth Christian Reformed Church last week. Fortunately, students had the opportunity to cool off a little bit with a good, old-fashioned water balloon fight. Above, having fun and keeping cool, are, from left: Emmitt Shortreed, Joseph Smith, Sloan Bolger and Everett Cherrey. (Denny Scott photo) 101 Thin s For Kids To to Guttsi 4 THE COMPLETE COMPOST GARDENING GUIDE Grow Heaps. 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