| Lost City Museum Faces Budget Cuts | |||
| By Vernon Robison Moapa Valley Progress Published May 27, 2009 The Lost City Museum in Overton is expected to see significant budget cuts in the upcoming fiscal year. The Nevada State Legislature has moved to cut funding to the state Department of Cultural Affairs that manages all of the State Museums. “Nothing is entirely final yet,” said Lost City Museum Director Kathryne Olson. “There may still be last minute changes. But at this moment, it does look somewhat grim for the museum.” |
 The Lost City Museum faces major budget cuts in the upcoming fiscal year. This will result in reduction in staff and days of operation at the museum. |
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| Under the proposed cuts, the Lost City Museum would have to remain closed three days each week between Monday and Wednesday. In the past, the museum has remained open for seven days a week.
While the Museum historically sees slower attendance on Monday – Wednesday, those days still draw broad attendance from certain groups. The early part of the week is when area school groups usually come on field trips to the museum, Olson said. During those days, the museum also sees a lot of foreign and out of state tourists attending as well as organized tour groups. Last year, despite a slow economy, the museum hosted about 5,000 visitors on the days between Monday and Wednesday alone. The reduction in operating days will also result in a reduction to Museum staff. The museum has six full time staff members that will see their work hours reduced from a 40 hour week to only 32 hours. “We are not laying anyone off at this point,” said Olson. “We plan to maintain our current staff but with reduced hours.” The budget cuts will also eliminate most of the special programs at the museum. There will be no funding for special events like Kids Day, Native American Day and Holiday Open House events that have been held in recent years. Local businessowners have seen the museum cuts as yet another hit to the local economy. Moapa Valley businesses have already reported steep declines in sales and revenue related to the drop in water levels at Lake Mead which forced the removal of Overton Beach marina two years ago. Now they are bracing for yet another hit with the museum. The museum drew a total of 21,000 people in 2008. About 14,000 of those were from out of state and 2,200 of these were international visitors. “And that was in a slow economic environment,” Olson said. “The Lost City Museum is a major tourist attraction,” said Craig Haderlie, President of the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce. “It is an important engine of local commerce. These cuts will be acutely felt.” The Chamber of Commerce has been active in efforts to keep the Lost City Museum open. “We have sent letters to key legislators letting them know just how important this institution is to the community,” Haderlie said. According to Olson, the funding shortfall necessary to keep the museum on its current schedule is $75,000. The Chamber looked into the possibility of raising private funding to fill all or part of that funding gap. At least, in order to keep the special programs and events running, Chamber members expressed interest in setting up a vehicle of private business sponsorship for the museum. Olson checked into this with her supervisors and found that the State was open to the idea. “There are a lot of questions and details still to work out,” she said. “But it might be a possibility to keep some of the programs running.” |
