When President Jimmy Cater invited Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for 12 days of secret peace negotiations at Camp David, it led to the to eventual Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. Oh we should be so lucky with the latest attempt and ending the Hatfield and McCoy’s simmering feud over the management of the Norwalk Museum. Doug Hempstead plays the role of Jimmy Carter and the Friends of the Norwalk Museum and the Historical Commission play Egypt and Israel.
Of course the management of the Norwalk Museum, funded, or rather, underfunded by the city of Norwalk is exactly the issue that Common Council should be grappling with. How much tax dollars should go towards cultural heritage? That’s right up there with how much tax dollars should go towards education, pot holes, sewer maintenance, and garbage removal. Norwalk struggles with funding the basic operations of the city, so why does anyone think that the city of Norwalk will be able to fund the operation of a museum?
The Hour reports:
The chairman of the Common Council’s Land Use and Building Management Committee says he hopes to put to rest feuding between the Norwalk Historical Commission and The Friends of The Norwalk Museums, Inc.
The Friends, whose volunteers had worked in the museum for years, recently removed its belongings from the building gift shop per orders of the Historical Commission.
The move didn’t sit well with Councilman Douglas E. Hempstead, Land Use committee chairman.
“I want it to end. I want everybody to shake hands and come out and make it all work. I always feel sadly for volunteer groups that kind of get cut off at the knees,” Hempstead told committee members Tuesday night. “I’m sure the truth is in between all this stuff. I’m sure both sides have some fault in all this.”
On Tuesday night, committee members discussed the roles of the Historical Commission and council in museum operations, including whether the council may remove the museum at 41 North Main St. from the list of commission-managed buildings. A letter from the city’s law department has indicated otherwise.
For now, Hempstead hopes to bring representatives of The Friends and Historical Commission, along with the head of the city’s law department, to the September meeting of the Land Use Committee.
The Historical Commission, under chairman David W. Park, plans to reopen its own gift shop in the museum. Asked if he will attend next month’s Land Use Committee meeting, Park said, “it’s a possibility.”
“The bottom line is The Friends were never kicked out of the museum — they ‘went on strike’ Dec. 23,” Park said. “The Friends are welcome to continue to volunteer there, but it’s under the direction of the curator.”
Operation of the museum has proved contentious over the years, as evidenced by quarreling between The Friends and Curator Susan Gunn Bromley, and by debate among members of the Historical Commission.
Friends members have worked in the Norwalk Museum for much of the volunteer organization’s 35-year existence, including last year when museum Gunn Bromley was absent on medical leave. Friends volunteers last worked in the museum Dec. 23 and then left, according to Park. Supporters of The Friends maintain the volunteers were locked out of the building.
Several years ago, Gunn stood on one side of the quarrel and The Friends and Historical Commission stood on the other. Early last year, Mayor Richard A. Moccia appointed new commission members who enjoy a better relationship with Gunn but not necessarily with The Friends. Among them is Park.
Joseph Robidoux, Friends president, said his organization cleared its belongings from the museum gift shop last week, then cleaned and vacuumed the space. He described the current relationship between the Friends and the Historical Commission as “not very friendl,” but expressed hope that the matter can be resolved.
“The bottom line is I want that museum to survive,” Robidoux said. “I hope that maybe this can be resolved, that we don’t have hard feelings and this can be worked through some day.”
Park, not at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Land Use Committee, cited a recent legal opinion from Corporation Counsel Robert F. Maslan Jr.
“We have authority over the museum and all these other properties,” Park said. “By city code, we’re the ones that are supposed to make recommendations to the Common Council on properties. We should have control over and not the other way around.”
Maslan wrote that the Historical Commission, not the council, has the authority to “make and remove historic designations” under city code. While the council has the authority to “approve or disapprove a designation or a removal of a designation,” it may not initiate such actions “in the absence of a commission action.”
As such, the matter is over, according to Moccia.
“The Historical Commission has made their decision. They run the museum,” Moccia said Wednesday. “It’s time to move on.”
The Norwalk Museum, including its lease and collection, as well as Mill Hill Historic Park, Lockwood Mathews Mansion and Brookside, Kellogg and Pine Island cemeteries, are managed by the commission.
Last year, The Friends sought to codify its presence in the museum through an operating agreement with the city. Hempstead’s committee advanced the agreement. The Historical Commission first supported the agreement, then later rescinded that support and approved its own operating guidelines.
source: The Hour, Hempstead wants feud to end between Friends, Historical Commission, by Robert Koch, August 28, 2008
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