Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2014 7:00 am
With funding support from the city council potentially on the way, officials from the Virginia Museum of Natural History have taken the next step toward building a satellite location in Waynesboro. During Monday’s meeting, city council members introduced the ordinance to pay museum officials up to $25,000, which counts as half of the needed $50,000 to complete a master plan of what the site would look like. The ordinance goes to a final vote at the council’s May 26 meeting. In the meantime, the museum’s executive director Joe Keiper has launched a campaign to collect the final part of that $50,000, beginning with a project on the website Kickstarter.
“The goal is to give everyone a chance to contribute,” Keiper said. “I think this will be a good way for anybody to participate, without having to worry about making a large financial commitment. It’s also going to give us a temperature for the community’s interest. We know the city council supports the project. We know Waynesboro Downtown Development supports the project and we’ve heard from business owners. This is gonna give us an idea if the community as a whole is excited about
Kickstarter is a website where people or groups can announce potential projects they want to launch, but currently don’t have the funds for. People then pledge donations and based on their level of funding, receive certain rewards in return if the project launches. Those interested in donating can go to www.kickstarter.com and type in Virginia Museum of Natural History at the top of the page, where it says to search projects. The project “Master plan for Waynesboro natural history center” will pop up. For $10, residents will be listed on the museum’s website as a supporter. For $25, they get a 5×7 piece of artwork based off one of the exhibit renderings which will be designed as part of the master plan. For $100, they get an 8×10 piece of artwork and their name listed as a supporter. For $150 and above, they can have lunch with Keiper, where he’ll outline developments for the master plan.
Moving forward
Once the $50,000 is in hand, Keiper said the group will hire a consulting firm to handle the study. Currently they’ve been accepting applications from different groups who are looking to bid on the project.
“I’m hoping we can have a firm in hand by July at the latest,” Keiper said. “We want to get this rolling pretty quickly. We should be done with all of the early interviews in June, but we won’t make an offer to hire one of the firms until we have all the cash in hand. We’re not going to spend money we don’t have.”
Once that firm is in place, its members will travel both to Waynesboro and the site of the current Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville. At the museum, they’ll see specimens and artifacts planned for the satellite location. In Waynesboro, they’ll tour the potential sites for the project, as well as talk to local residents.
“We’ll find a way to interview families, to have a time when families can come out and say what they want to be included in the museum,” Keiper said. “The firm’s members will also interview our staff, our folks that work with exhibits and our research folks. All of this will help put together a set of preliminary renderings, to give people a firm idea of what we can really bring to Waynesboro.”
If a firm is hired in June, Keiper said the process should be finished by January of 2015. After that, the group would present their final product to the museum’s board of trustees at their February 2015 meeting, which has to then take a vote to move forward.
“After that, we’re gonna be asking for some significant gifts from private donors,” Keiper said. “We’re gonna need significant private investment for this to happen. We don’t know what the final [cost] will be, that’s going to be announced after a decision is made [by the board of trustees].”
Last year, a phase one study done by Richmond based Chmura Economics and Analytics recommended a facility of approximately 21,850 square feet, including 10,000 square feet of exhibit space, at a cost of $7.3 million. Some of that cost could be trimmed if already existing buildings are used, instead of new construction.