Council to decide museum's future
Items on agenda may help Butler Longhorn Museum move forward
By SARA MCDONALD The Daily News
Jennifer Wycoff-van der Wal, Butler Longhorn Museum curator, stands among the collection of Longhorn cattle heads at the museum in this 2004 file photo. FILE Photo/The Daily News
LEAGUE CITY - Two items set to go before council Tuesday could help the Butler Longhorn Museum move forward again.
One item would allow city staff to ask for proposals for a design build contract for the museum and the other would allow staff to advertise for bids and fund the finishout contract. "This is what we've been talking about doing since last May," council member Tommy Cones, who put one of the items on the agenda, said. "We've just been stalling it and making it a political issue. We need to just go ahead and complete the project."
If approved, the museum would have a contract to finish construction and the money to back it.
It could be the first steps to end the long, winding journey the city began five years ago when it decided to open the local history museum.
The museum would honor the Butler Longhorn bloodline, a breed of cattle once abundant in the area that gave League City its roots.
The museum was first set to open in 2004, before numerous delays and complications led it to wait in limbo for more money.
Since 2001, the city has spent about $1.4 million in construction costs to transform the old Walter Hall Estate, a large house once home to a prominent League City family, into a state-of-the-art museum.
A plan presented by museum curator Jennifer Wycoff-van der Wal would require about $350,000 from the city to finish construction and correct some work already done.
The figure includes the cost of redoing about $40,000 worth of electrical wiring that is either in the wrong place or mounted on the walls instead of inside them.
The building also needs flooring, widened doorways that are wheelchair accessible and a new roof.
The museum would still need about $500,000 to cover the cost of displays, lighting and exhibit design, an amount Wycoff-van der Wal said she hoped to achieve through fundraising.
The museum would also likely ask the city to fund operating costs and salaries for one to two years.
Council held an October workshop where it discussed the future of the museum, but arrived at no consensus. Cones said after the October meeting he expected to see bids come in. Since they didn't, he is asking for them.
"This is a city facility and a city project and it needs improvement," he said. "I don't understand why we've been ignoring it. I want to get past all the political fighting."
