Duane Hicks
Fort Frances Museum curator Sherry George will have an extra set of helping hands later this year.
Town council is expected to approve a report tonight to authorize the Fort Frances Museum to proceed with a Northern Ontario Internship Program agreement to hire an intern for one year.
This position will be 90 percent funded by the NOIP, up to a maximum of $34,944.
The cost to the museum for two budget years (2015-16) is estimated to range from $3,300.40-$9,300.40.
A donation from the D’Agostini estate also will help pay for the internship.
George said the position will be for a university graduate in the museum field.
The job will be geared toward managing the museum’s collection.
“It will involve going through our collection and seeing if there’s duplicates, adding research information to items that have come in,” George explained.
She noted it also will involve tracking the location of where the items are stored within the museum.
“There’s also items in our catalogue that have never been accessioned [recorded and added to the museum collection],” George said.
“We were waiting for a database to be updated and now that it is, we have a couple years of backlog that needs to be accessioned.
“So it would be nice to have those sort of things caught up,” she reasoned.
George added there are thousands of items from the pulp and paper mill that came in last summer which currently are sitting in boxes because she doesn’t have the time to go through it.
Back on Dec. 15, council authorized George to investigate options for additional staffing support through available federal and provincial grants.
With help from Jane Gillon of the Ministry of Northern Development & Mines, the museum subsequently applied to NOIP, through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp., and recently was advised the application for an intern was successful
“It’s going to be wonderful for us,” enthused George.
“You do worry about some of things you don’t get to in the course of your day, and these are important things for our community and our museum,” she stressed.
“It’s going to be nice to have somebody that can help with some of that stuff.”
The committee of the whole will meet first today at 5:30 p.m., with the regular council meeting to follow.
Tonight’s agenda also will include:
•a report on a proposal for an off-leash dog park here;
•recommendations to requests made by the Boundary Waters Dragon Boat Festival committee;
•a request re: an opening reception for the upcoming Noden Causeway exhibit at the museum;
•an update on capital projects from Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown;
•a request from D. McKelvie re: traffic safety review for the corner First Street East and Portage Avenue;
•a request from the Rainy River Vet Services Committee re: the vet assistance trust fund contribution;
•a financial request from the La Verendrye General Hospital Auxiliary re: its “Rock’n for a Reason” fundraiser on May 22-23;
•a request from the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team to proclaim Sept. 12 as “Family Safety Day”;
•a bylaw to amend the procedural bylaw so members of council can provide monthly reporting on various boards and committees;
•a bylaw to award tender RFP 15-OF-04, for the design/build of a storage structure for winter control sand, to Van Pelt Construction Inc.;
•a bylaw to establish a percentage by which tax decreases are limited in 2015 to properties in the commercial, industrial, and multi-residential property classes;
•a bylaw re: private hangar renewal lot lease with Ed Tetu; and
•a bylaw re: a funding agreement with the Ministry of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to be deliver host evacuation services this year should the need arise.
