LOWELL -- City and community leaders are trying to decide what do with the city's museum, which closed six months ago after an inspection found mold and other maintenance problems.
"I don't have the money in the budget to make the repairs," Mayor Chris Moore said.
Museum’s mission
Lowell Historical Museum’s mission statement is to “preserve and interpret historical objects and works of art that build a bridge of culture and understanding of the history of Lowell and the greater Northwest Arkansas Region and honors the service and sacrifice of veterans and their families.”
Source: Lowell website
Options include permanently closing the museum, repairing the building, buying a new building or constructing a new museum. The city could build a free-standing museum or a multipurpose building that could include a library or a community center.
About 20 people attended a meeting Thursday to discuss the museum's future, and all but one said they would like to have a museum. Moore said he would be willing to work with a committee of residents to make that happen.
"My dream would be to open it back up because I feel that this place, Lowell, needs to tell their own story of how this town was started and why it's still a viable town," said Liz Estes, city clerk and former museum director.
The museum is home to items such as a loom from the 1800s, a spinning wheel and two organs, she said.
Estes' role as city clerk is a part-time position. She resigned from her other part-time position as museum director in January after the city closed the museum, she said.
The Lowell Historical Museum has been open for 43 years and is off McClure Avenue less than a mile from City Hall. Former Mayor Eldon Long's plan was to build a new museum at the Kathleen Johnson Memorial Park, which consists of about 100 acres off Bellview Street west of Interstate 49 being redeveloped into a park to include nonprofit and community-driven organizations. Long's term ended in December.
The Lowell Historical Museum Foundation of Northwest Arkansas was set up three years ago to raise money to build a museum at the park, Estes said.
The foundation has raised less than $20,000, nowhere near enough to construct a building, Moore said.
How the city would pay to construct a building is up in air. Moore said looking into grant money is an option, and having a library or a community center housed in the same building could make it more attractive to donors. However, many grants require matching money from the city, and the city likely will not be able to afford that, he said. The city is also hurting for money to pay for staff salaries and other ongoing operational costs for a museum, he said.
"What I see happening in Lowell is what was happening in Rogers some years ago," said Gaye Bland, former director of the Rogers Historical Museum. "You have families moving in, you have subdivisions going up. They demand services, and you don't have the sales tax revenue to support it. Rogers solved that problem by aggressively attracting the Promenade and all that we have there, the restaurants and the stores and so on."
Rogers has enough sales tax revenue to support its operations and services such as the museum and the library, she said at Thursday's meeting.
"It's sounding like you're nowhere near close to the point where you're going to be able to do that," Bland said.
Lowell in May 2018 began collecting an advertising and promotion tax on hotels, motels and restaurants, meaning gross receipts of hotel and motel accommodations and prepared food and beverages are taxed an additional 2%. Jerry Hudlow, finance director, previously said the tax was bringing in about $31,000 per month. The commission hired an advertising and promotion director, Mike Maloney, in May.
Possibly purchasing a building, such as the one at 211 Jackson St. less than a mile away from the museum, came up at the meeting. The building is for sale for $365,000, said Ethan Tisdale, a real estate agent. The building is under contract, but the owner is accepting other offers.
NW News on 07/27/2019