Museum officials seek county dollars to ride economic storm

The Plymouth County Historical Museum officials requested the same amount as last year for its 2009-10 fiscal year.

Museum officials asked for that $7,000 amount because they understand the economic challenges facing the county's budget for the next year.

Don Burwitz, a museum board member, asked the Plymouth County Supervisors Tuesday for their annual contribution to the museum.

"We're here to just ask for your support again," Burwitz said. "We're just trying to hold the fort together and keep moving forward on producing a balanced budget."

Museum officials are looking at several ways to beat the downturn in the economy including doing end-of-the-year mass mailing to members seeking charitable gifts, doing fundraising like the New Year's Eve Ball, Dec. 31 and holding an active membership drive.

Some accomplishments at the museum in the past year include completion of the "Kidz Cabin," a traveling American Indian display of tribal art and installation of a security system.

"We've had a pretty good year so far," Burwitz said. "We've corrected the break-in situation. We have some security systems that will help prevent that."

In addition, work has been done on what some experts said is a crumbling chimney.

"We had an individual put up a large machine and look at it and he chipped away at it and, boy, he thought it was real stable.," Burwitz said. "Now I think we need to get together again. If we can't make any headway chipping it off, it must be really stable as of yet."

Supervisor Craig Anderson asked if attendance records were kept for the museum, and if so how do the numbers compare.

"I think it's about the same as it was the last few years," Burwitz said.

The supervisors will consider museum officials' $7,000 request during budget planning sessions next month.

The supervisors also:

*Received notification from the county compensation board that it recommended a 2 percent salary increase for the supervisors and a 3.5 percent increase for all other elected officials. The supervisors will use those numbers as a baseline when setting salaries during budget time.

*Approved several recommendations from the county zoning board and learned a seat is open on the board of adjustment. The supervisors will need to appoint someone to fill that vacancy.