Wichita's Cowtown.... close it to save it?

[lurker]

Posted on Wed, Aug. 23, 2006

Close Cowtown to save it?

Wichita's arts director may suggest shuttering the museum temporarily, while major repairs are made.

BY BECCY TANNER
The Wichita Eagle

John D'Angelo might ask Old Cowtown Museum's board on Monday to consider closing the museum for up to 18 months.

"This would give it breathing room," said D'Angelo, the city of Wichita's director of arts and cultural services, who is temporarily overseeing Cowtown operations.

The museum is between $130,000 and $180,000 in debt.

The $956,068 the city and Sedgwick County usually give the museum for operations would be used for repairs.

"Fix the boardwalks, get the fire protection equipment, clean, mow, put a coat of paint on the buildings -- do some of the things that are difficult to do when you are an open museum," he said.

Cowtown's report

D'Angelo's draft report, given to Sedgwick County commissioners late Monday, recommends shutting down the museum temporarily. However, D'Angelo said Tuesday afternoon that his recommendation may change before Monday night.

The board will meet at 5 p.m. on Monday in the museum's visitor center. The meeting is open to the public.

Cowtown's outstanding bills total $172,796, of which 72 percent are more than 60 days past due, according to the report.

The only money available to pay the bills is the city of Wichita's allocation and earned income, totaling $139,000.

The biweekly payroll for the museum's 15 employees is roughly $14,000.

The report says the museum will still have a $132,000 deficit by the end of 2006.

In the meantime, the museum's facilities are in need of repair.

The historic buildings lack fire prevention and monitoring equipment, estimated to cost up to $60,000.

The museum's artifacts are in danger because of improper storage.

Much of the collection is beyond repair.

The buildings suffer from electrical and air-conditioning defects, water leakage and rodent infestations. The boards on the boardwalk are warped or rotted, and nails are slowly popping out. Visitors have fallen on them.

Options

Three main options emerging for the museum's board include:

• Close the museum permanently. The city would acquire the land and buildings. All collections and corporate assets would be sold. The staff would be terminated.

• Close the museum temporarily, for 12 to 18 months, keeping only three to four employees.

• Find $650,000 from local donors to keep the museum open.

The board is expected to pick one of the three options Monday night.

A temporary closing

So far, the second option offers the most realistic hope for saving Cowtown as a museum, local officials say.

Under that plan, the museum would still open for tours by appointment or on weekends.

Special events, such as the museum's Women of the West, Rails and Trails, Age of the Gunfighter and Old Fashioned Christmas weekends would continue.

The option also calls for restructuring the museum's board and investigating new ideas for programming and funding.

During the time the museum is closed, city and county officials would host community meetings asking residents what they think a new Cowtown should look like.

If the board doesn't make a decision, local officials say the museum could lose funding from the city and county, which is more than 60 percent of the museum's $1.6 million budget.


Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btannerATwichitaeagle.com.



© 2006 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansas.com

And a blogger replied:
Why not try selling it to a private investor with guidelines, bring in stores, resturants or art booths and I'm talking real art not craft/flea market items but keep the orginial building area and collections the same.

Posted by: Sharon Taylor

8/23/2006 7:20 AM

Not a bad idea but not the best fix either.
Both Wichita and Dodge City should declare Home Rule and enact local laws authorizing "Historical Gaming" ONLY on their historical sites. Topeka will bitch & cry for awhile cuz they will feel 'left out' in the decision and the money... but that's their fault for being slow, stupid and greedy.

[Made in the USA]

Gambling would make them both a gold mine.
Fact 1) People are going to gamble
Fact 2) People are going out of State to gamble.
Fact 3) Kansas is "DUMB"

[lurker]

Posted on Thu, Aug. 24, 2006

Offers pour in to help Cowtown

BY BECCY TANNER
The Wichita Eagle

Cowboy singer Michael Martin Murphey, best known for his 1975 hit "Wildfire," has offered to put on a benefit Christmas concert to help save Old Cowtown Museum.

Murphey originally offered in June to host a concert and special dinner for Cowtown over the Labor Day weekend. But Cowtown officials never accepted the offer because they weren't sure they could stay open that long.

Murphey is now offering to do a benefit Christmas Cowboy Ball. His is one of at least seven efforts that are under way to save Cowtown.

True West magazine and several national associations with history-related themes are among the organizations that have launched campaigns to keep the living history museum open.

John D'Angelo, the interim director of Cowtown, said it would take at least $650,000 to keep Cowtown open and its staff employed.

He said Wednesday that he was unaware Murphey had made the offer in June.

"Nobody has spoken to me about it," he said.

Edit:This guy runs a tight ship, huh?

It's up to Cowtown's board to decide what the museum's future will be when members meet Monday, he said.

Murphey said Wednesday that he brought in marketing experts in June who offered to do a free marketing plan for the living history museum complete with a cowboy theme song.

He said he is enamored with Wichita's history.

"We are talking about a place where Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson walked the streets.... I get goosebumps walking down the streets and among the buildings," he said. "Admittedly, I'm a history buff, but I'm not the only one. More than a million people buy my cowboy song albums."

In addition to Murphey's offer, other last-minute campaigns include:

• The executive editor of True West magazine, the leading Western history magazine, is encouraging his 192,000 readers to send donations. The plea is in the issue that's expected to hit the streets next week. "We love Cowtown," said Bob Boze Bell "We think it is a national treasure.... Wichita is the cradle of the cowboy myth. We feel the cowboy is our nation's proudest icon, and Wichita is central to that."

• The organizations supporting the National Day of the Cowboy, the Kansas Cowtown Coalition, and other national horse, rodeo and saddle clubs are sending out appeals to their memberships to help save Cowtown.

• Jim Gray, owner of Drovers Mercantile, an Old West store in Ellsworth, and publisher of the Kansas Cowboy newspaper, said Wednesday that he was sending an e-mail to thousands of his subscribers asking for support. "It's all about whether we care about our heritage. That's the battle that's going on," Gray said. "Wichita is on a stage and how they perform will be criticized by people all over the country."

• Debbie and Randy Edens, who volunteer at Cowtown, are asking Kansans to send e-mails supporting Cowtown to the Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commission.

• Other Cowtown volunteers are encouraging local students to save their nickels and dimes, and parents and grandparents to donate what they can in a grassroots campaign.

• Ed LeRoy, manager of special events at the museum, is encouraging Sedgwick County residents to "honk if you love Cowtown." He wants motorists to drive up and down McLean Boulevard between Seneca and Meridian -- across the Arkansas River from Cowtown -- and show their support by honking during the board meeting at the museum Monday.

"I think our city and county representatives need to know the broad, widespread support to keep Old Cowtown open," LeRoy said.

The museum is between $130,000 and $180,000 in debt. The board must choose from three options Monday:

• Close the museum permanently. The city would acquire the land and buildings. All collections and corporate assets would be sold. The staff would be terminated.

• Close the museum temporarily, for 12 to 18 months, keeping only three to four employees.

• Find $650,000 from local donors to keep the museum open.

Even if the money was raised to keep the museum open, D'Angelo said, it would not be enough to fix up the property. The historic structures and boardwalks badly need attention.

"What you've done is kept the staff and family together but you don't have any place to live," he said.

Still, there is an interest in saving Cowtown and seeing it improve.

Murphey envisions a new Cowtown with an opera house that's air-conditioned and large enough to house special western-heritage-themed events.

His vision includes a high-end steak and barbecue restaurant, and shops to attract visitors.

"Cowtown could be and should be the 'Williamsburg of the American West,' " Murphey said, referring to the popular colonial-era living history attraction in Virginia.

"It absolutely astounds me that leaders in the Wichita area do not realize what a gem Cowtown is and could be. I am stumped. It's got that potential. Nobody would ever dream of letting Williamsburg be closed for 18 months."

HOW TO HELP

Cowtown volunteers are urging anyone who wants to make a financial contribution to send it to:

Friends of Cowtown Foundation

c/o Old Cowtown Museum

1865 Museum Blvd.

Wichita, KS 67203

HOW TO ATTEND

Cowtown's board of directors will discuss the museum's future at a meeting Monday that's open to the public. It begins at 5 p.m. in the museum's visitor center.


Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btannerATwichitaeagle.com.


© 2006 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansas.com