(Nebraska City) -- Funding is on the way to allow Nebraska City residents to check out the city's museums free of charge.
At its regular meeting Monday evening, the Nebraska City City Council approved the intent to allocate funding from the city's Growth Funds for a $20,000 grant awarded to the Nebraska City Museums' Resident Admission Program. Speaking on KMA's "Morning Line" Tuesday morning, Nebraska City Mayor Bryan Bequette says the money provides Nebraska City residents free admission at seven of the city's museums.
"So, folks living in the 68410 zip code can show up at any one of those museums, and be able to tour it free," said Bequette. "In the past, that's what it's helped pay for. It's for extended hours--especially between April and September--to ensure that they stay open, and have hours a little more available for folks to go into."
Bequette says COVID-19 prevented the awarding of grant money for the program last year.
"By the time they were going to put in for it last year, they knew that COVID was here," said Bequette. "So, a lot of the museums didn't even open last year. Some of them opened just very little, so last year was not a revenue generation year for a lot of our museums."
One museum, the Missouri River Basin Lewis and Clark Visitor's Center, managed to generate some tourism due to its proximity to Interstate 29.
"You know, when folks started traveling more toward rural areas, and tried to find things off the beaten path to do that were outside of crowds," he said, "Lewis and Clark saw a little bit of a bump-up. But, the rest and most of our museums didn't even open, and they were slightly open throughout the last year. So, we're hoping in 2021, they will be open more like a typical year."
Bequette says the museums are an important part of the community's culture and tourism.
"All those museums, being able to have that density of museums in the area, really makes it worthwhile for a day trip to come in," he said. "It also helps with the local area, for folks that have more time to visit each of these sites, to help preserve our culture and the history of the area."
Other museums covered under the program include the Civil War Veterans Museum and G.A.R. Hall, River Country Nature Museum, the Nebraska City Museum of Firefighting, the Old Freighters Museum, the Kreger Windmill Factor Museum, and the Nelson House. Another museum--the Wildwood Historic Center--already receives tax support from the city.
In other business Monday night, the commissioners...
---approved the drafting of an interlocal agreement with the Nebraska City Public Schools for construction of a storage shed next to the city's tennis courts for use by the school.
---approved the city's Hazard Mitigation Plan.
---approved the city's application for a CCCFF grant for the Nebraska City Veteran's Memorial Building Project