More than two years after a fire destroyed the home of the Aberdeen Museum of History and displaced what contents were not lost to the blaze, the Aberdeen Board of the Museum of History continues to look for ways to properly catalog and manage what remains of the collection.

The board met last week and discussed possible locations for a new museum, and there was much discussion centered around hiring a registrar to manage what remains of the collection, currently stored in a warehouse on Port Industrial Road.

City Parks Director Stacie Barnum, who is the city staff person attached to the board, talked about the board’s request to the City Council the previous week to include the registrar as a full-time city employee. The initial request was for $119,000, based on a $75,000 a year salary plus benefits and other employee costs. After research by board chairman John Shaw and vice chairman George Donovan, it was decided the position could be filled for significantly less: a total request for $80,000, based on a yearly salary of $50,000.

That request was put to the City Council, which voted on the first reading of the city’s budget Nov. 26. It was not included in the budget when the council passed the first reading.

Barnum will submit the request at the Dec. 9 council meeting, noting that the board believes the money for the position can, and should, come from the $1.9 million portion of the armory fire insurance claim that covers the collection. Shaw said the board has joined the American Alliance of Museums and received guidance that said that was an ethical use of the settlement funds.

“Getting the collection in order, documented, is not just the ethical responsibility of the board but also a core component of planning new engagement and a future museum,” said Shaw. “We have to know what we have.”

Mayor Pete Schave, who left the position out of his draft 2021 budget, told the board, “The city doesn’t have the funds to hire a new museum employee at this time.” As for using the settlement funds, Schave said, “There is no revenue source for that person, it’s just a one-time fund, so that is something to think about.”

In the end, Barnum was directed to take the $80,000 request to the City Council. The board is also requesting that the remaining portion of the insurance settlement for the collection be placed into the museum fund in the city’s budget. That remaining portion is a little more than $900,000.

“We spent a considerable amount of money on the restoration management company that went in and retrieved all those items, cleaned and packaged them, and also for engineering costs to shore up the building so it was safe for access,” said Barnum. Then there’s the ongoing $5,000 a month rental on the current collection storage space, and money spent to contract with Dann Sears and Dave Morris, who were employed by the museum, to go through the recovered collection, organize it and check it against inventory information.

“The museum board wants that money now to be put into a fund that’s designated just for them,” said Schave. They, like any other city department, would ultimately need City Council approval to expend those funds.

The total insurance settlement for the armory fire was $23 million, with more than $21 million for the building itself. That money is sitting in reserve as the city determines ways to properly invest it in ways that will bring some sort of return to the city.

After the board meeting, Schave described how the museum operated in the armory building. “The city owned the building lock stock and barrel, and had a tenant in the building (the Coastal Community Action Program) that paid pretty much everything on the building, to the point where they even paid enough money to set aside every year for maintenance issues and that sort of thing,” said Schave. “There was enough space in it where we located the museum in that building, and that was pretty much totally operated by volunteers,” said Schave, aside from about $15,000 a year the city provided for “some real basic expenses.”

“What they are proposing now is 100% different,” said Schave. “What is on the table now is to have a new city department, whatever you want to call it, with paid staff that run the museum. We don’t have the budget to do that.” He told the board during the meeting that “there hasn’t been a plan put in place by the city and there’s no funding. The budget this year was over $3 million more than revenues, and I made some cuts, and the museum was one I cut out.”

A mostly new City Council and a complicated budget year due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for the city to forge a path toward an operational museum, said Schave.

“I understand the money side this year,” said Shaw. “I’m going to advocate from this seat to continue building understanding of the collection and keep us in the museum business, which is in our lane, while we work things out with the city.”

Locations discussion

More than two years after the armory fire that displaced the Aberdeen Museum of History, the city is still looking at possible locations to house the city’s historical artifacts.

The proposed Gateway Center, the Boeing Building and the Morck Hotel are being looked at by the city to serve a museum role, but not necessarily as the future location of the collection.

The Gateway Center, a building proposed by the city at the eastern edge of downtown, is entering final design, and will include museum space. Board member Don Lentz asked, “Is it going to be ‘the’ museum or just exhibit space?”

Donovan said Gateway Center planners have encouraged “a strong historical presence” in the building, “but it definitely will not be ‘the’ museum,” but rather a satellite site for museum artifacts to other locations, “i.e. the Morck and eventually another museum location, wherever that may be.”

Forterra, a Seattle non-profit that stresses sustainable development, is working with local interests to reopen the old Morck Hotel for rehabilitation into a multiple use building, which could also include space for historical exhibits from the Aberdeen collection.

The City Council recently approved a professional appraisal of the Boeing Building, located under the Chehalis River Bridge ramps just south of downtown, said board member Mike Schmidt. Once an appraiser is under contract, it would be about six weeks to get the result.

The Boeing Building itself is not being considered as a museum location, rather a city-owned facility to house the collection, getting out from under the $5,000 monthly rental for warehouse space on Port Industrial Road.