(Nicole Reis/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

By Nicole Reis

Meadow Lake Heritage

Meadow Lake Museum granted flexibility to improve displays

Nov 28, 2019 | 4:50 PM

Members of the Meadow Lake District Museum and Historical Society can rest a little easier now that the society is formally recognized as its own entity under the city’s purview.

Mayor Merlin Seymore announced the change today. It comes in the form of an amendment to a bylaw. Previous bylaw presented obstacles for the the society to apply for provincial funding grants.

“For years and years, the museum worked under the presumption that if something should happen, [if we close down or loose artifacts], that it all belonged to the city. We’ve tried to file for some grants but we didn’t have an identity. According to everybody, we didn’t have an identity. If we belong to the city, we should have a bylaw to say that, so this year we really got working on it,” Cecil Midgett, historical society treasurer, said.

(Nicole Reis/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

Jessica Walters, acting city manager noted formal wording in the previous bylaw has been updated to reflect the city’s undertaking of the museum’s liabilities.

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“The city is formally taking the museum directly under its control. Previously they operated as an independent board with no formal ties. We owned the building that we supplied them with and they’ll still operate in much the same way but there’s just a little more direct oversight from the city so they are protected under our insurance and they can have a little bit wider number of grants they can apply for to help them out with their operations,” Walters said.

If the museum were to fall on hard times, it now operates under the city’s parks and recreation department.

“It was a long standing thing that we thought was clear but in applying for the museum grant program which is provincial money administered by SaskCulture, they insisted on some kind of status for us. We’ve just grown. [The society] started with the seniors’ association and they passed on until it ended up in our laps,” Society Vice President Howard Brown said.

“I’ve been on 21 years now and it just got to a society at that time. We have a charity declaration from the federal government of our status, we’re still working a provincial status of somekind which we know now, covers all our bases.”

“Before this (bylaw amendment), we were just a bunch of people collecting stuff,” Midgett said with a laugh. “We are an entity now where previously we didn’t have proof of it.”

(Nicole Reis/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

The historical society said their largest grant ever received was $2,500 out of the $5,000 grant capacity. The society said they intend to apply for another grant in the fall of 2020.

The society is also asking the community to donate any old tin cans or synthetic fruit to the museum to improve their displays.

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nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

@nicolereis7722