Staff writer
Members of Marion Historical Museum’s board pressed their case Monday for an increase in city funding.
The museum is asking for $15,350 compared to last year’s $6,325.
Of that, $7,000 would be for tourism activities formerly allocated to the Chamber of Commerce, which no longer exists. Museum board members told city council members this would allow the museum to do such things as conduct home tours.
Pam Varenhorst, president of the museum board, said the museum plans to develop partnerships with other organizations, digitizing museum artifacts, being open more hours, and being able to handle utility costs for those longer hours. One need for digitizing artifacts and providing more information for genealogical research is a new computer.
“Our mission statement is we want to preserve the history of the area,” Varenhorst said.
City council members also met with department heads.
Most submitted budget requests with modest or no increases. A planned two percent salary increase accounted for most increase requests.
Limiting spending increases and avoiding additional debt were the main objectives outlined by council members at an intial planning meeting two weeks ago.
The council’s final budget workshop will be in July at a date to be set July 11.
By law, the city budget must be filed with the county clerk by Aug. 25.