GUTHRIE, Okla. (AP) - The Oklahoma Territorial Museum has waited about 30 years to repair the Carnegie Library, which received money for repairs two years ago.
Director Nathan Turner told The Journal Record (https://bit.ly/2sNI7qC ) the museum relies on volunteers and donations to fund small repair projects.
The museum is one of 28 historic properties funded by the Oklahoma Historical Society, which has a repair budget of $700,000.
“We have a volunteer group that helps us fund some projects but usually that is for small items,” Turner said. “For the big stuff, it has got to come from OHS or from capital improvement funds.”
The library received $600,000 from the Long-Range Capital Planning Commission during fiscal 2016. Since then the project has hired an architecture firm and is waiting on bid processes, which will take place this year. He said visitors walk through parts of the library where repair work is visible.
The library’s 30-year wait for money is not singular to the museum; the library’s porch, stairs and detail work need repair.
“You try to do little things to mitigate what you can,” Turner said. “But you can’t fix the major damage or problems because it’s such a large project that it would eat up too much of the budget.”
Most of the 526 museums across the state are nonprofit institutions that receive a majority of funding from private donations.
OHS Museums and Sites Director Kathy Dickson said projects such as the library go through a sealed bid process. OHS has had property in Guthrie since the 1970s. The Oklahoma Territorial Museum had one of the higher fiscal 2017 budgets at $33,444.
“The funding from the capital planning commission comes in part from surplus property that the state sells,” Dickson said.
As for the OHS repair and maintenance money, Dickson said that she could name five sites that could take all the funding on their own.
Data released this week by Oklahomans for the Arts calculated fiscal 2015’s economic impact of museums across the state and released specific data on six communities. The specific data includes the Alva, Guthrie, Norman, Ponca City, Greater Oklahoma City and Tulsa regions. Project manager Kelsey Karper said the data was not only singular to museums but also calculated cultural events. The data showed fiscal 2015 spending by museums and visitors at $482 million for the 153 museums that participated in the study.
Guthrie’s nonprofit and cultural sector generated $3.9 million in economic activity and made $338,000 in local and state tax revenue. The sector also helped pay for 79 full-time jobs and generated $1.6 million toward local residents’ household incomes.
“People who were coming from out of town, more than half of them said that they were traveling specifically for that arts and cultural experience,” Karper said. “It really is giving them a reason to travel.”
Almost half of the residents said that if the cultural event or museum wasn’t there, they would go elsewhere for those experiences.
Guthrie tourism director Andrea Post said the city’s architecture and history is a big economic driver. She said once the library project is complete she expects that it will bring in more people.
“We have a lot of buildings here that would really benefit from revitalization, so having one that is being considered is a good thing,” Post said. “It is keeping the town alive.”
She said for cities like Guthrie aesthetic matters and fixing the historical buildings will bring in jobs and create a community in which people want to live.
“Aesthetic creates part of community culture and gives a unified pride, an identity,” Post said.
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Information from: The Journal Record, https://www.journalrecord.com
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