FORT SMITH -- The U.S. Marshals Museum board of directors voted Tuesday to hire a new chief operating officer to oversee construction of the U.S. Marshals Service's national museum.
Patrick Weeks, 47, of Dublin, Ohio, will succeed Jim Dunn as the lead professional for the project on July 1.
"He is a known museum professional throughout the country," search committee head Doug Babb said of Weeks.
Dunn, who has served seven years as chief executive officer for the museum board and foundation board, will stay on with the foundation to raise funds for the museum. Dunn said he will continue to head the museum office for 60 days to ease the transition.
Weeks was one of three finalists for the position but was the only candidate the committee wanted to interview in Fort Smith last month, Babb said.
Weeks is head of Strategic Experience Solutions, an Ohio museum exhibit consulting firm.. Babb said the museum was looking for someone who had been in the situation of completing fundraising, building a museum, developing and installing exhibits and operating the museum.
He told board members that Weeks performed all those roles working to re-create 94,000 square feet of museum space at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix. He helped raise half of the $30 million needed for the project, oversaw construction and exhibit development, brought the project in $6 million under budget and then served as the vice president for operations.
"He's very detail-oriented, very creative, runs budgets well, understands cash-flow planning and he's very tight with money," Babb said.
Weeks also served as vice president for Roto, a full-service design and production firm that specializes in experiences for museums and entertainment venues, a museum news release said.
"I look forward to building on the foundation that is already in place and moving the project through completion and opening," Weeks said in the news release.
The board of directors also approved a new slate of board officers headed by Cole Goodman of Fort Smith, who will replace longtime chairman Jim Spears. Goodman is president and CEO of Mercy Clinic in Fort Smith and a former member of the Fort Smith Board of Directors.
Other officers named Tuesday were Rick Griffin, vice chairman; Sam T. Sicard, treasurer; and William Hines, secretary.
Fundraising is underway to generate the estimated $59 million needed to design, build, furnish and operate a 50,000-square-foot museum and exhibits on the banks of the Arkansas River.
CDI Contractors of Little Rock was hired earlier this spring to help update the cost of the museum. The update is expected sometime this summer.
So far the museum has raised about $30 million, Dunn said in a report to the directors Tuesday.
The news release said the museum is expected to be built in 2018.
"The board and the foundation board have the tools to build a museum," Dunn said. "Doubt and skepticism, even in the face of enormous strides and significant effort, could erode the progress made. This board is the face of the community and must assure the community that, with patience and effort, the museum will be built."
Plans for the museum include three permanent exhibit galleries; a temporary exhibit gallery; the Samuel M. Sicard Hall of Honor, named for Sicard's father, who was the late president of First National Bank of Fort Smith; and a National Learning Center.
The museum will tell the more than 225-year story of the U.S. Marshals Service, the oldest law enforcement agency in the United States, and honor the sacrifice of marshals killed in the line of duty.
State Desk on 06/15/2016