[MSN] Durham Museum requests security funding

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Museum requests security funding 

 
BY GREGORY PHILLIPS : The Herald-Sun
gphillips at heraldsun.com
Jun 4, 2006 : 10:45 pm ET 

DURHAM -- Durham's Museum of Life and Science is in favor of a recommended
budget increase from the county, but its staff is hoping for a little more
to help protect the expanded campus at night. 

County Manager Mike Ruffin is recommending a 17.7 percent funding increase
of $193,000 for the museum to help fund the ongoing $12 million expansion,
the next landmark of which is set to be the opening of the Catch the Wind
exhibit that will demonstrate how wind affects the environment. 

However, the $107,000 difference between Ruffin's recommendation and the
original request includes the $100,000 that Museum President and CEO Barry
Van Deman estimated night security for the facility would cost. 

If additional funds aren't forthcoming, Van Deman said he'd likely use some
of the separate money the county allocates annually for deferred maintenance
at the site to provide security. 

The entire 70-acre museum campus is fenced in, but the new Explore the Wild
exhibit has staff nervous about nighttime safety of animals in the exhibit. 

"We have a campus that needs overnight security," Van Deman told county
commissioners at a budget work session last week. "Never before have we had
large black bears, three wolves, lemurs and millions of dollars invested in
outdoor exhibits vulnerable to vandals." 

County commissioners echoed Van Deman's concerns, but suggested he should
reshuffle his budget to make sure security was in place. 

"Security should be right at the top of the list," Commissioner Becky Heron
said. "You have a lot of territory out there, a lot of ways for people to do
a lot of damage that would cost a lot more than security." 

Van Deman said the museum kept a lean budget. He said there were eight or so
positions there that had been kept open to save money and that no new staff
had been hired to work the new area, with existing staffers committing part
of their work time to walk the area and interact with visitors. 

"We're not a wasteful organization," Van Deman. "We have a good return on
the investment that you've provided." 

The museum received a $450,000 GlaxoSmithKline endowment and generated over
$2 million of its own in 2005. Van Deman said museum staff had targeted
making $3 for every dollar the museum got from the county. 

"It's a leveraged investment," Van Deman said. "We are not asking the county
to carry the whole bill." 

As a long-term solution to growing its budget, the museum could find itself
the public face of another local bid for a prepared foods tax next year. 

County Chairwoman Ellen Reckhow conceded the need for more funds at the
museum, but said with so many other departments demanding county money, the
long-term solution was a county revenue stream devoted to funding for
cultural initiatives. 

Durham has tried to get the state to approve such a stream before in the
shape of a prepared foods tax on restaurant meals, notably in 2001. Attempts
to compromise between a city-proposed 1 percent tax on all meals and State
Rep. Paul Luebke's suggestion to tax only high-end diners came to nothing. 

If the tax is added to the county's legislative agenda for next year,
Reckhow said the museum would need to "step up and provide the people-power
push" to pass the bill. 

"I'll pledge our support right now," Van Deman said. 

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