Leslie Pugmire Hole
Spokesman staff
By the time the new year arrives in Redmond, city government is expected to be a tad bit skinnier.
Dec. 14 the City Council will consider dissolving the Redmond Historical Commission (RHC), a city-funded entity charged with safeguarding Redmond’s historical artifacts and information since 1989.
“As a city entity there are quite a few restrictions and a lot of process to go through to get things done,” said Councilor Camden King, also a city liaison to the Commission. “Now we can get tax-deductible donations and grants and work on a permanent home for the museum.”
Members of the seven-member Commission began the process of forming an independent historical society more than a year ago. Earlier this year, the Greater Redmond Historical Society received its 501(c)3 status and formalized its bylaws and election of officers.
“With a society, we can have a board of directors and various chairmen to help take charge of cataloging, maintaining the collection and gathering histories,” said RHC Chair Kathleen Clark. “We won’t be just seven people trying to function alone.”
Currently, the Society has about 50 members but few are dues paying, since the group is just getting off the ground. An election will be held in January and a membership drive will begin soon after. Currently, the Society board of directors is comprised of six Commission members and two at-large community members, in addition to King.
Outside of officially dissolving the RHC, the City Council will be considering the transfer of operational funds the commission has in the bank – $13,995 as of Nov. 3 – and the historical collection of artifacts, currently housed in the city-owned Redmond Museum building.
“From the city’s standpoint we’ll probably just want to ensure the agreement mandates the collection will be cared for properly, and if there ever was gross neglect, we could get it (the collection) back,” said King. “But we’ve been talking about this for some time and everything I’ve heard (from the city) has been positive and in support of the change.”
Also under discussion will be the lease of the museum building, adjacent to the current City Hall. Sometime in the next few years, the city plans on relocating its headquarters, either in the historic Evergreen school building or in a new structure. Either way, when that happens, the museum is expecting it will have to move.
“We have no lease now, we’re just part of the city,” said Clark. “Once we are just a nonprofit society, the city will be our landlord only and we’ll be responsible for ourselves. But what they’ve (city officials) said in the past is they will turn over equipment and assets to the Society so we don’t have to start from scratch.”
Clark sees the future of the Society as bright, with many more open doors.
“We’ll have a tremendous wide world of funding available to us,” she said. “There’s money out there for collections, for events, even elevators.” Unfortunately, grantors for historical societies don’t tend to fund buildings, she added. “They figure if you don’t have a building already you’re not a museum, so we’ll have to fundraise on our own to get our own building.”
But opening up from a small city commission to a nonprofit with limitless membership is expected to be the biggest plus to the change.
“Potentially we’ll have a lot more people with a lot more skills,” said Clark. “Members will have more say in how things are done and we can accomplish a lot more.”
If you go
What: Redmond Historical Commission
When: Dec. 8, 2 p.m.
Where: 529 7th St.
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What: Redmond City Council
When: Dec. 14, 7 p.m.
Where: 777 S. W. Deschutes Ave.
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Greater Redmond Historical Society
3cats@bendcable.com
541-504-0520 or
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