OLDS — The Olds Historical Society has asked the Town of Olds for a five-year operational funding agreement.
The municipality's council didn’t necessarily commit to that, although members expressed support for the society and the facilities it runs. Instead, some councillors gave suggestions on how to obtain more revenue.
The society operates the Mountain View Museum and Archives.
“I would like to see that become an official agreement so that we're not bugging people all the time, to put it bluntly,” society chair Bill Hall said during a presentation to council during its May 5 committee of the whole meeting.
The society collects, preserves and exhibits the heritage of Olds and serves as the designated custodian of the Mountain View County archives.
“This makes our organization a regional archive, and we handle heritage materials that serve researchers, local families, county schools, institutions and the public,” Hall said.
Hall expressed gratitude for the funding the Town of Olds has provided over the years, but said the organization needs a secure, stable source of funding to help it survive and grow.
In a lengthy presentation, Hall said the museum used to rely on funding from casinos but said that revenue has been essentially halved over the years.
He said the society has been doing its part to be more stable and gain more revenue, including applying for grants and launching a membership drive offering membership cards.
It’s also hoped that the long-sought link between the Mountain View Museum and a former garage which has been turned into an educational centre will help raise revenue.
Hall said the educational centre does offer programming, but because it has no washroom, it can’t offer that programming beyond museum and archive hours.
Also as part of its revenue-raising efforts, the society hosts events, including anniversary celebrations for the Olds Golf Club and the Kiwanis Club of Olds this year.
Hall said the museum and archives are a “primary tourism destination in Olds” which has drawn visitors from as far as Norway.
He said the society is in talks with Travel Alberta, hoping to become a tourist destination hub in the town, believing that would also boost its revenue.
Hall said the society is not asking for increased funding from the municipality “but rather predictable support over a five-year term that will give us the time and flexibility to continue develop, keeping some new revenue streams and partnerships and develop the programs that support the community. “
“We want to build on the momentum and ensure the continuation of our operations into the future,” Hall said.
Mountain View County also provides funding to the Olds Historical Society to help run the museum and the archives.
“But they have not changed their contribution to the museum in a number of years,” Hall said.
“With us being the only one in the region that has an archive and a professional archivist, we feel that the county could sweeten the pot a little bit and take some stress off what we deal with and what the town has to fork out.”
Hall said since 2018, the society has invested $40,000 of its own money into the museum to improve safety, accessibility and the visitor experience.
They’ve also established a sustainability fund, and this year, have moved some of their money into a $12,000 Guaranteed Investment Certificate.
He said the society has submitted estimates to the Town of Olds for upgrades to its track lighting, which dates back to the 1990s and its furnace system.
The society would also like to upgrade its flooring, which dates back to the 1980s.
In the case of the furnace, Hall said it is operating at about 30 per cent efficiency.
“So if we can get a 90 per cent efficiency of furnace in there, your gas bill drops significantly.”
“With the town’s continued to support, we are confident that we can ensure a sustainable future for the Mountain View Museum and Archives, and we hope to remain a cornerstone of the town of Olds,” Hall said.
Deputy Mayor Wanda Blatz sympathized with the society’s call for five-year sustainable funding, but said the municipality feels the same way when it comes to funding from the provincial and federal governments.
Coun. James Cummings noted he’s with Olds & District Special Family Voices which has made great use of the summer arts program at the museum.
“I don't want to distract from the great work you guys do, but it's our job to sit down and look at how best to spend the money that the taxpayers entrust with us, right?
“And when I'm looking at the historical society and the museum in particular, I don't see the same sort of impact that we get, say from the library,” he said, “the amount of people that attend and participate,” he said.
Cummings said he supports the idea of a formal funding agreement but added, “it may not be something that's the same every year.”
“My only concern is, is that I believe, in the past, we've asked as well for some numbers, how many people are coming to the museum, what programs they are seeing, what type of viewership, and we haven't really gotten those numbers, reassurances that people are going.
“I'm just having a hard time justifying spending more money on the museum, or even the money that we are currently spending on the museum, when I feel it can be used better in more engaged programs.”
Coun. Darren Wilson said some small town museums that seem to thrive tend to have some attractions that lure tourists, like the creamery museum in Markerville.
“Maybe that's the utopian desire for our society, is to find that nugget, that flagship, that we can kind of rally around,” he said.
Wilson liked the idea of other revenue-generating opportunities to “diminish or lessen that reliance of the Town (of Olds) or of the museum on the town.”
He suggested looking at obtaining some funding support from major firms in town or in the area like Telus and Enhance Energy which has been undertaking carbon capture and underground storage in Central Alberta.
Coun. Dan Daley sympathized with the financial challenges the society faces, noting that a lot of historical information and artifacts can now be found online.
“It's an uphill battle,” he said.
Daley liked the society’s efforts to become a tourism hub and recommended they pursue that.
Wilson, Daley, deputy mayor Wanda Blatz and mayor Judy Dahl all encouraged the society to pursue its efforts to obtain more funding from Mountain View County.
“Mountain View county does really, truly care about museums in their region, and you do need to do a presentation for them, because they can't help something they don't know about,” Dahl said.
Hall said a presentation to Mountain View County is “in the works.”
Council voted to accept Hall’s presentation as information.
