{"id":5688,"date":"2011-03-09T08:55:09","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T13:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=5688"},"modified":"2011-03-10T06:47:44","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T11:47:44","slug":"city-museum-could-get-extra-15k-to-fill-budget-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/city-council\/2011\/03\/09\/city-museum-could-get-extra-15k-to-fill-budget-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"City Museum could get extra $15k to fill budget gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORRECTION APPENDED: The original story said the A.J. Fletcher Foundation sold it’s 40-percent share in the downtown Briggs Building. The foundation did not sell it’s share, but it did move out of the floor it occupied above the city museum.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Raleigh City Museum can hopefully operate in the black for the rest of the fiscal year thanks to a $15,000 emergency grant from the city. The grant passed its first hurdle Tuesday in a Raleigh City Council committee, but will still need approval from the full council.<\/p>\n

Air conditioning repairs and changes in the renters of the museum\u2019s downtown Briggs Building location forced the museum to ask for money to close an unexpected $30,000 budget gap.<\/p>\n

The museum will have to raise an additional $15,000 to match the city\u2019s grant.<\/p>\n

The museum gets more than half of its $300,000 annual budget each year from the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ren\u00e9e Foster and Bo Hemphill visit the Raleigh City Museum as the museum works to fill a $30,000 budget gap. Photo by Bryan LeClaire.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

The city council\u2019s Budget and Economic Development Committee also voted Tuesday to form a working group to address what Greg Paul, chair of the museum\u2019s board of trustees, calls the institution\u2019s \u201cexistential crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until recently, the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, a major contributor to the museum and 40-percent owner of the Briggs Building, occupied the building\u2019s third floor. As 20-percent owner of the premises, the museum enjoys a payout from building income that offsets its rent obligation. <\/p>\n

When A.J. Fletcher vacated its offices, the museum received a lower payout because of the reduced total rent that was paid until another tenant took possession of the property.<\/p>\n

Although the museum’s partners agreed to extend the museum\u2019s lease for five years, financial realities could create problems after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe value of the building is much more than what we put into it,\u201d said Paul. \u201cOur rent is currently about $10 per square foot every year. Based on the value of the building, we expect that to double if new owners ask for a return on what they put into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul suggested ideas for the new working group to consider, including a capital campaign to purchase 100 percent of the Briggs Building so that rent could serve as an endowment for day-to-day operations. Wake County assesses the building\u2019s worth at about $2.5 million.<\/p>\n

Paul also suggested looking at other North Carolina municipal museums as models. Greensboro, High Point, and Wilmington, said Greg, have successfully incorporated their historical museums as city agencies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Raleigh City Museum may be able to close a $30,000 budget gap thanks to a $15,000 emergency grant from the city. The grant passed its first hurdle Tuesday in a Raleigh City Council committee, but will still need approval from the full council. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,15],"tags":[78,77,76,75],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}