Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2016 08 03 JT

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Page 30 of 150 table in the Jacoe Store. Planned improvements to the existing buildings and the construction of a new Community House building are intended to address these challenges presented by the limitations of the current buildings as workplaces. • Due to the ages and conditions of the buildings, it is not possible to hold events that involve food and drink, though many people associate museums with public events such as receptions, parties, and meetings at which food and drink are served. This would change with the opening of the Community House building, where food could be kept away from artifacts and where cleaning and vacuuming could be easily accomplished so as to avoid the threat of insects. • The existing Museum buildings also do not allow for eating areas for the Museum staff and volunteers, which means that they eat their lunches in public areas (despite asking visitors to not bring food or drinks other than bottled water into the Museum buildings) and must take care to keep food away from artifacts. Although a small refrigerator is located in a nonpublic room of the Jordinelli House, the Museum does not have an area where aromas from a microwave can be kept away from artifacts, so therefore there is no microwave for staff members and volunteers. A small break room in the new Community House building could provide these basic amenities that are provided to many employees. • The existing Museum buildings do not provide adequate work space for volunteers and staff working on projects and with the collections. Volunteers willingly work on projects on the table in the Jacoe Store, but some work with artifacts and historic photos should be done in private areas where members of the public are not tempted to touch items. Also, a volunteer who ends a shift should be able to leave his or her work project in a spot where it will remain undisturbed until they volunteer again. Increased work space is to be created as a result of improvements made to the existing buildings and the construction of the new Community House building. • The existing historical buildings need structural work so that they will be preserved and so that the public can continue to use them for years into the future. Metcalfe's plan for the Museum anticipates that the City will attend to structural needs of the buildings. (Currently, City staff is working on applying for funding for Historic Structure Assessments to be completed on the buildings.) • The existing buildings do not include dedicated janitorial supply space. This would be included in the plans for the campus improvements. • Due to not holding regular business hours, the Museum does not receive its mail on site. The public and businesses are instead given the mailing address of City Hall to use for the Museum, Commission, and Foundation. This is a frequent cause of confusion by the public. The Museum staff then typically retrieves the Museum and Foundation's mail from the Library. A small locked outside postal box by the front door of the Museum has been set up to receive mail that is inadvertently sent to the Museum's physical address instead of the mailing address. Ideally, the Museum will one day be able to receive mail and packages on site. In a similar vein, the Museum photocopier is not handled in the same way as other City photocopiers and is not part of the City service contract. Although 2016 brought very welcome changes to the networking and phone system of the Museum, there are still carryovers from the past when the Museum in many ways operated at the periphery of City services and not as a full part of the City administration. • The current situation results in a lack of focus with respect to the Museum, both internally and externally. Staff and volunteers divide work between the Museum and the Library. Museum staff must keep track of, and transport, historic photos and albums back and forth between the two buildings that are located a few blocks away from one another. Public historical programs 22