City Council Study Session Summary 2016 04 26

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City Council Study Session Summary April 26, 2016 Page 5 of 6 David Marks Tammy Lastoka Dan Mellish gave the annual report noting the Pioneer Award, the Historian newsletter, museum membership, participation in the Labor Day Parade. He noted the great collaboration with the Historic Preservation Commission. He noted the work on digitizing photos, the need for additional storage, and the desire for an additional building on the museum site. Missy Diehl noted the History Foundation is the fund raising arm of the museum. They are looking to collaborate with the city on grant work, collaborating with businesses, and raising memberships all in the hopes of a capital campaign for museum expansion. Stolzmann thanked members for serving and thinks the museum is important but noted the sell to the voters for a new building will have to be well thought out. Diehl asked if anyone had good ideas for capital funding. Muckle noted grant funding might be an option but it could be difficult. He stated he is supportive of asking voters to use the Historic Preservation Fund for museum operations. Maloney asked how far the digitization project has gotten. How much is left to do? Bacon stated the photos are in the 5,000- 10,000 range and the artifacts are close to 20,000 range. Maloney noted the artifacts help tell the story and we need to make sure they are made available. Lipton stated the issue is what does the Foundation need to effectively fundraise. He stated they need program planning and concept drawings in place to start the fund raising not completed schematics. Diehl stated her concern is whether there is real City support for this project. They don't want to start down the fund raising path without that commitment. Keany stated conceptual drawings should be enough to get the process started. He also stated the City Council eventually needs to discuss how much the City will put towards this project to match what the Foundation raises. Loo noted she doesn't want to raise expectations that can't be met. She added that street maintenance is currently the City's highest priority leaving little money for anything else and there is little flexibility in the budget. It is likely going to take money from an outside source to fund the project or ask the voters for a bond issue. Keany asked what everyone thought was a reasonable timeline for such a project and when the City thinks it can reasonably put some money towards it.