Anonymous has left a new comment on your post ""A Fact Unknown to Some And Lost To others".":
Does anyone actually ever go to Hillary House? It never changes so if you've gone once there doesn't seem to be a lot of reasons to go again. I think I probably would go if there was displays that changed and something new and interesting happens. They own all the items but they don't display anything new at Hillary House to pull visitors. That seems like a no-brainer to me.
Other museums around the area have compounds with other old buildings and picnic spaces and lots of activities and displays that change. That could be done at Hillary House with the space they have at the back. Do they own that?
A quick google search says it is a National Historic Site so doesn't that mean federal money?
So we're storing their items for free and we don't even own them so why are we doing that and why are they asking for more town money when they are already getting all this for free. Shouldn't we put a value on storing all their stuff for free. I'm so confused, so forgive me if this rambles.
How many members do they have? Please ask them Evelyn because that should tell us how interested people are to join their organisation. I'm sure we'll think of more questions to ask them to explain.
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Hillary House is a national Historic Monument which is owned by Aurora Historical Society. When they withdrew from the commitment they made, when the town provided $2.5 million from the Hydro Reserve to renovate the building to a State of the Art Museum,the membership numbered fifty-nine. I asked at the time.
I asked again two weeks ago when the new president came to council with a new business plan and a request for more money than last year. The membership now numbers one-hundred and twenty.I asked again.
At one point Murray Koffler, founder of Shoppers Drug Mart, provided funds to create a medical museum. No regular income is provided. At other times, the Society received grants from the Aurora Arts and Culture Fund. The Merkur Family who own the Aurora Shopping Centre started and maintained that fund alone for many years.
Then Joseph Lebovic became a contributor.
Mr. Lebovic withdrew support after former Mayor Morris had lunch with him, committed her support to his development and withdrew it a few days later and launched a much publicised battle against it at a public planning meeting.
Hillary House is not a museum as such. There are no regular hours of operation. An appointment can be made during office hours and if someone knocks on the door and the curator is there, a tour can be provided.
Special events are organized like a Victorian Christmas or a strawberry tea. Society members organise spooky events as well. I get notices. The Society is an active organisation.They have a curator but only use twenty per cent of curator expertise for that purpose.
They have been receiving a grant of $50 K for more than thirty years.The money made it possible for the group to appoint a qualified curator. But it has been argued quite pugnaciously, the curator is not a town employee but a Historical Society
employee.
Each year, the society argues more forcefully than the last, the town should provide the organisation with an annual budget. It started when the Culture Centre was re-named and staff complement was appointed without a curatorin sight.It is understood the Society Curator was informed, there would be no museum because museums do not make money.
At the time the statement was stated, the culture centre had no visible signs of support either, other than the half-million hand-out the town was providing.
The Jazz Festival was receiving free space in the Culture Centre AND a "sponsorship"of $2K from the town as well.
I have provided a notice of motion to Council that documentation pertaining to the Church Street School, now known as the Culture Centre,be provided to Councillors
including the agreement with the Historical Society, the agreement with the Culture Centre, the budget of the Culture Centre and the financial statemenst of the Culture Centre.
The time may be right for an ad hoc committee of council to review all and sundry pertinent factors and make a new recommendation to Council.
I think it should be concurrent with budget discussions.
Monday, 7 February 2011
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5 comments:
When will you be tabling a motion to reverse the renaming of the Church Street School to Culture Centre? Seems like that would be another arrow in your quiver.
I was at the Jan 31st budget meeting and listed to the President's presnetation, complete with a slim powerpoint presentation.
I didn't see any "business plan". In fact I have to commend Chris Ballard for asking the President if they were seeking funds in the amount they outlined ($100K for 4 years) that maybe they should put together a plan. The president seemed a little taken aback. She made some comment about being open and transparent, but that wasn't the point.
Was a subsequent business plan submitted? If so can the public view it, and how?
The historical society is going to have several questions in front of it as to how it has been spending money in the past, regardless of how it expects to spend money going forward.
If there's no business plan I see no reason for the town to hand over $1, let alone $50K or god forbid $100K. That's insane.
We store their items for free? 120 members in a town of how many? 60,000? If you're a member and Chris Watts is a member, well that leaves 118 other people so how active is that? I think there are more people at the lawn bowling and how much do they get?
Hi Evelyn,
I tried to visit Hillary House last August. I phoned a number of times and got no answer, nor an option to leave a message. So I showed up at the door during the "open" hours as posted, but the door was locked and nobody answered my knock. Eventually, I gave up.
SW
SW....
I did the same thing at the Petch House. No one answered so I left.
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