Facing a nearly $2 million revenue shortfall, the City and Borough of Juneau will have to make some difficult decisions.
The Juneau-Douglas City Museum is included on a list of proposed cuts, but what would happen to the tens of thousands of items in its collection?
The city museum has about 85,000 items in its collection. Here’s one that’s special to Joel Probst, chairman of the Friends of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.
“I’m not gonna lie, it might not be appropriate, but the the Eagle Brewing Company bottle that’s in here with the original Eagle Brewing Co. logo,” Probst said, gesturing to the 111-year-old exhibit. “This blue label logo it’s one of my favorites. I think it’s pretty neat for something that’s truly Juneau, Alaska, from that time period.”
It is truly Juneau; the beer bottle and its ornate label are from the beginning of the 1900s when beer was brewed for the saloons serving thirsty miners.
Cranking the cam of the museum’s miniature stamp mill replica, the sound of metal on metal echoes throughout the museum. The kids love this one.
“That sound here in Juneau that would have been going on for many, many years constantly,” Probst said over the din.
The camshaft is a replica of the hundreds of heavy steel stamps that crushed the ore from the mines — a sound that once echoed across the Gastineau Channel 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“It was one of those things that you were so used to that rhythm. It reverberated through everything,” Probst said.
The city museum costs about $300,000 annually to operate. A report from the city manager’s office noted that closing the museum would save more than quarter-million dollars in the first year.
The museum received low ranks in a budget survey about 90 people completed to identify possible cuts.
“There will certainly be pushback on the list of possible reductions,” City Manager Rorie Watt said earlier this month, “but what we’ve given the Assembly is choice.”
But what’s not spelled out in any detail is what would become of the museum’s collection much of which came from the community.
“It’s very touching to see a family who has gone through the loss of a family member — a patriarch, matriarch in Juneau — bring us something that’s very precious,” Museum Director Jane Lindsey said. “We take that very seriously.”
It’s not the only museum in town: there’s the Alaska State Museum in downtown Juneau. Might it have interest in the collection? Could it take it over if the city zeroed out funding?
“The short answer to that is no — we don’t, we wouldn’t,” said Scott Carrlee, the state museum’s curator. The state museum is operating with a skeleton crew having already lost 30 percent of its staff. “Right now with the financial situation that the state finds itself in, we just don’t have the resources or the capacity to take over a collection of that size.”
Cuts will have to happen or taxes will rise. Even those who love the museum understand that.
“Services are going to be affected whether it’s the museum or something else,” Probst said. “We’re not the only thing that’s on the table right now — it’s citywide services.”
Deep cuts, dig deeper into savings, raise taxes and fees, or a combination thereof, are the stark choices the Juneau Assembly is grappling between now and June 5.
Until then the city is accepting public comment as it weighs its priorities.
