DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE Editorial

[Séamas Cain]

Dear friend,

     At the beginning of 2004, 25 employees of St. Louis County, Minnesota 
lost their jobs because of budget-cuts.  Most of these employees were 
union-members.  Nevertheless, the Board of Commissioners of St. Louis 
County, in spite of a grassroots campaign urging them NOT to do so, funded 
in full the St. Louis County Historical Society.  Now, the DULUTH 
NEWS-TRIBUNE itself, the largest daily-newspaper in Northern Minnesota, is 
calling for investigations of the behavior of the management of the 
Historical Society!

     Please send a letter-to-the-Editor of the NEWS-TRIBUNE!  Praise their 
Editorial of January 23 and join them in calling for investigations!  At 
least $2.4 million in public monies have been squandered!

     Send your letter to <letters at duluthnews.com>.  You need to include a 
phone-number and street-address - for verification - but they do not publish 
these.  Thank you!

-------------------------
For more information, please check
<http://www.freewebs.com/historians>
THE MEMBERS' CAUCUS TO REFORM THE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
-------------------------

Editorial of the DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE

OUR VIEW
*********

INVESTIGATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S
USES OF TAXPAYER MONEY

ATTORNEY-GENERAL SHOULD
EXAMINE ST. LOUIS COUNTY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRACTICES

Copyright © 2004 by the
DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE

[Published in the
DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE,
Friday, January 23, 2004,
Volume 133, Issue Number 265,
page 6A]

     County historical societies and museums preserve community memory and 
educate us about our past.

     The controversy swirling around the St. Louis County Historical Society 
provides an opportunity for society defenders to explain to the public what 
the society does.  It also provides an opportunity for critics to get the 
society to raise the bar in ambitions and standards.

     The role of county commissioners and the public should be to assess 
whether the society has spent the public's money well -- a value judgment 
that financial audit reports don't cover.

     St. Louis County provides $249,000 per year and rent-free space to the 
society.  Foundations and the federal government also provide money.  The 
society's annual budget is more than $500,000.

     The issue is this:  What has the society done with the millions of 
dollars the public has invested in it the past seven years?

     When a visitor goes to the Depot, what is the visible face of the St. 
Louis County Historical Society's 20,000-artifact collection?

     Oddly, the society has no permanent exhibit on the history of Duluth or 
St. Louis County.  A visitor to the museum sees two exhibits:  a history of 
lumbering and amazing Herman Melheim woodcarvings (both fine exhibits).

     The museum offers no education program for schoolchildren.

     The society has a Web address, but call up the site and there's no 
material on it, except a link to the Veterans Memorial Hall project.  No 
information on exhibits, tours, publications or research.

     Occasionally, the society has special exhibits, such as the recent 
exhibit on the Marshall-Wells Hardware Company.  The society also 
occasionally creates window displays.

     The main source of controversy has been two major planned exhibits that 
have suffered delays, cost overruns and incompetence -- and which still 
haven't opened to the public.

     One project is the Veterans Memorial Hall.  This has been under way 
since 1997 at a cost of more than $1 million.  An exhibit on Northland 
Vietnam veterans is now scheduled to open in April.  It is a much 
scaled-down version of a project originally scheduled to open Veterans Day 
1999.

     Originally, the project planned to include rotating exhibits of 
uniforms, weapons, photos and artifacts from front lines and the homefront 
from the Civil War to the present.  The project has collected 2,000 
photographs and 4,000 biographies from St. Louis County World War II 
veterans, many of which are posted on the Web site www.vets-hall.org.

     A former member of the St. Louis County Historical Society board of 
governors has written a January 2004 report:  "The Problems of the St. Louis 
County Historical Society."  He says, "The actual value of the work done on 
the Veterans Memorial Hall project, including its Web site, can be
generously estimated at only $200,000 of the more than $1.1 million spent on 
the project."  This should be easy to pin down.  All the society has to do 
is show the public how every penny has been spent.

     The other project is the Lake Superior Ojibwe Gallery.  An exhibit 
planned to include Ojibwe artifacts and Eastman Johnson paintings and 
drawings is 2 years behind schedule.

     In an April 21, 2003, memo to the society's board, the director notes 
that delays to these two projects have come in part because "we lost our 
American Indian Gallery developer before any major accomplishments were 
achieved" and "the poor performance of our VMH (Veterans Hall Memorial) 
developer" added to demands on society staff.

     These are issues worth public investigation given the large sums of 
public money involved.

     And there's more:

     A 1997 inventory of artifacts revealed that 190 artifacts of high 
market value could not be accounted for.  There have also been allegations 
of theft in 1994, which remain to be investigated.

     There are two major issues to sort out in this mess.

     One is a seeming lack of ambition in the program of the St. Louis 
County Historical Society.  Neighboring Carlton County Historical Society 
shows what is possible with fewer resources.  The Stearns County Historical 
Society in St. Cloud shows what is possible with creativity and leadership.

     The other issue is serious allegations of mismanagement, which should 
be investigated by the Minnesota attorney general and the St. Louis County 
attorney.

     This is a time to create higher expectations and accountability for the 
St. Louis County Historical Society.

-------------------------

Copyright © 2004 by the
DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE

-------------------------
<http://www.freewebs.com/historians>
THE MEMBERS' CAUCUS TO REFORM THE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
-------------------------

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