Museum board president assures the city council it will reopen in the spring
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
ELLIS — In an effort to alleviate continued budget woes, the Walter P. Chrysler Boyhood Home and Museum Board of Directors has decided to close over the winter — but assured the Ellis City Council that the closure is temporary.
“The rumor that the house is closing is just a rumor,” Gordon Solomon, museum board president, told the council at Monday’s regular meeting. “We want to ensure everyone that it is not permanently closing. It will be open in the spring.”
The move became necessary as the museum was unable to break even and was using reserve funds to pay staff over the slower winter months.
“We have been struggling, budget-wise for a couple of years now,” Solomon said. “By doing the closure, we should be able to close out the budget this year about equal.
“Like most people, we have to learn to live within our means,” he said.
He acknowledged the council was funding the museum as much as possible, but ultimately the savings made by closing was needed to put the budget on track.
“Our goal is to just meet budget and we realize the city can’t increase what you are already doing to assist the home,” Solomon said.
During the meeting, he said attendance over the winter months is low, so the impact on tourism would be minimal.
As an example, Solomon said total admissions and sales for the museum in January and February of this year was only $82.35 — while wages and payroll taxes equaled $1,404.
With those numbers, he said, “Obviously we are not meeting budget, even with your assistance.”
While the board was actively seeking solutions to balance the budget over the summer, museum employees gave notice to the board they would be leaving on Sept. 6, spurring the board to make a decision at a special meeting on Aug. 29.
“As a board, we decided that we would stay closed through the remainder of September and then we proposed to the board to mirror the schedule of the Ellis Railroad Museum,” Solomon said. “Our intent in the future is to open in March and close at the end of September.”
In January, he said the board would begin looking for a new employee.
Even with the budget concerns alleviated, for the time being, Solomon said the board is still actively seeking ideas to bring more people to the museum, including continuing to strengthen the partnership with the Ellis Railroad Museum.
“That’s our goal. We want to try to mirror each other and support each other,” Solomon said.
This would continue the trend of the two museums operating in a similar manner to one another.
“We tried to structure them the same — hours, fees, everything,” Ellis Mayor David McDaniel said.
Solomon said the board is also looking at a discounted rated for visitors who go to both museums, or offering a discount to people visiting the Ellis Lakeside Campground.
“There is a lot of people coming to town that obviously don’t visit,” Solomon said, noting the large influx of people at the campground, even while museum attendance is low.
