The following letter was recently composed by Marie Ricketts, co-president of the Friends of the Morrill Homestead, and e-mailed to Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin:
Dear Senator Shumlin,
I am Co-President of the Friends of Morrill Homestead in Strafford VT. Last year, the operating budget for the Morrill Homestead was cut reducing the number of hours for the docents, and thereby the numbers of hours that the site could be open to the public, and the visitor numbers by 60%. At that time, I made the business case that it would cost more to reprint all the brochures and signage with the new hours than it would to pay the docents and keep the site open with its traditional hours. I contacted our legislative delegation: Jim Masland, Margaret Cheney and Mark McDonald. They were all sympathetic but explained that there was little they could do to prevent the budget cuts.
On April 29, 2009 an edict was issued by Commissioner James Saudade, “No one in the division, including our sites people shall apply for, accept or plan for any new projects or grants. This shall apply until further notified.” Not only that, but the employees in the Division of Historic Preservation are “...under strict controls here. Emails are monitored if there is anything suspect”. The Douglas administration has resources to monitor employees emails but not for the historic sites (or any other number of worthy causes)?
Last year Commissioner Saudade wrote memos indicating that he would like to see the state close and/or sell the historic sites since most of them are not self sustaining. It seems that Saudade is trying to ensure that the historic sites are starved to death, even though there are very active constituent groups advocating for them.
In 2008, The Friends of Morrill Homestead (FMH) were awarded a Museum Assessment Program (MAP) Grant. The Museum Assessment Program (MAP) is supported through a cooperative agreement between the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the American Association of Museums. It is designed to help museums assess their strengths and weaknesses, and plan for the future.
The program provides technical assistance for four kinds of assessments: (1) collections management; (2) governance; (3) institutional; and (4) public dimension.
In all MAP assessments, members of the museum staff and governing authority complete a self-study, and receive a site visit by one or more museum professionals, who tour the museum and meet with staff, governing officials, and volunteers. The surveyors work with the museum and MAP staff to produce a report evaluating the museum’s operations, making recommendations, and suggesting resources. Members of the Board of the FMH have been working on the self-study materials for a year. Our surveyor visited the Homestead last weekend for two very intensive days of meetings with the board and community members. We will be receiving the report later this year.
Some of the items that we discussed were applying for grants to help with projects at the Homestead. In the past, I have written successful grant proposals with the advice and approval of John Dumville, Historic Sites Operations Chief for the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Last year we applied for, and received, a grant from the Woodbury Foundation to replace the bridge on the property with a new, ADA compliant bridge. The construction on the new bridge was completed this spring.
The State has no money for improvements. The Homestead has an active and interested Friends group whose mission is to fill in where the State cannot. Now it seems that Commissioner Saudade has forbidden anyone from the Division for Historic preservation from even discussing grant proposals. This is untenable. It appears that the future of the States Historic sites may depend on the support of Friends groups and grants from non-government sources.
Can you help in getting Commissioner Saudade’s edict lifted or in moving the Division to another agency?
Thank you for your concern,
Marie Ricketts
Co-President, Friends of Morrill Homestead