City of Jacksonville Heritage Cultural Center Board met Oct. 3.
Here is the minutes provided by the board:
The meeting (held in the Jacksonville Municipal Building Mayor’s Conference Room) was called to order at 5:15 p.m. by David Blanchette, Chairman. Those present included David Blanchette, Michael Burke, John Clancy, Patsy Erickson, Diane Hollendonner, Laura Marks, Lynne Phillips, and James Pisell. Absent were Cynthia Boehlke, Kyla Hurt, Trevor Lawson, Charles Rice, Samantha Sauer, Brittany Henry (Ex-Officio), and Judy Tighe (Ex-Officio). Steve Varble attended as marketing consultant.
Minutes of the September 5, 2019 meeting were approved as distributed. Treasurer James Pisell reported a balance of $43,100.74 in the checking account. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Administrative: JB Large will start the painting project in the Old Post Office building in the next few days. A new door and frame were installed for the artifact storage area, as well as wallboard and some general clean-up by the contractor. George Alarm Company Inc. should have the alarm system installed within a few days of completion of the painting project. It was voted to authorize expenditure not to exceed $5000 for purchase of shelving and supplies for the artifact storage area. Steve Varble noted that there were also some wooden shelves (from Lundia) currently in storage.
Cindy Boehlke submitted a grant request to the Jacksonville Children’s Foundation for development of the Mrs. Tucker jigsaw puzzle and table display; David Blanchette will make the presentation at the upcoming Children’s Foundation board meeting.
Plans for a membership event are still pending while insurance coverage and use agreements are being checked.
David Blanchette met with the new MacMurray College president, Dr. Beverly Rodgers, for a tour of the Old Post Office building and discussion of building a collaborative relationship with the college. Dr. Rodgers expressed interest in possible displays of the college’s Nellie Knopf and Larry Calhoun artwork collections, and Native American programs. She also offered services of the MacMurray College athletes to help move museum items into the new artifact storage area when ready.
Collections:
David Blanchette met with J. David Bone to discuss acquiring items pertaining to the late Dr. Chet Bone for a medical display. Steve Varble received an assortment of items from the Ted Birdsell family, which will be reviewed for possible addition to the museum’s holdings.
Exhibits: No new developments on establishing additional progressive exhibits or museum themes. It will be important to verify artifact descriptions and exhibit story lines to make sure the information is factual. Names of local historians (Greg Olson, Rand Burnette, Pat Kennedy, Don English, Dr. Jim Davis, Bob Dalton, etc.) were mentioned as possible resources for consultation.
Cindy Boehlke is working on several other ideas for the children’s area. There are several tables, and temporary display cases available to use for area history displays. James Pisell suggested contacting the local garden club or Master Gardeners for assistance in maintaining the museum grounds.
Promotion: Steve Varble discussed the new website, estimating that it will cost approximately $2800 – 3000 to build and take about three months to get it up and running. In the meantime, it would be possible to interact with the public through Facebook for “coming soon” updates. It was also suggested that brightly-colored banners with a “coming soon” message could be placed in the north and west windows of the Old Post Office building.
David Blanchette is scheduled to speak on October 15 at the Sunrise Rotary meeting. He will also try to give tours to interested parties during the painting renovations.
David Blanchette and Michael Burke are working together to come up with some museum items for the JHS students to examine and interpret.
OLD BUSINESS: None.
NEW BUSINESS: None.
There were no public comments.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, November 7, 5:15 p.m., in the Mayor’s Conference Room at the Jacksonville Municipal Building.
The date for the December meeting has been changed to Wednesday, December 4, 5:15 p.m., in the Mayor’s Conference Room at the Jacksonville Municipal Building.
With no further business or announcements to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 6:42 p.m.
https://www.jacksonvilleil.gov/city_government/boards_commissions_and_committees/docs/Boards%20Commissions%20Committees/HCC_Minutes/2019/HCC%20Minutes%2010.3.pdf
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