It appears that a $500,000 partnership between the Owensboro Museum of Science and History (OMSH) and Kimberly-Clark was prematurely announced at a City Commission work session last week.
According to Rachel Long, senior manager at Kimberly-Clark’s corporate office, while preliminary discussions were held in February 2018 between Kimberly-Clark and OMSH on a potential joint project, Kimberly-Clark did not enter any formal partnership or financial commitment – verbal or written – nor is anything imminent.
Kimberly-Clark contacted Owensboro Times regarding the announcement, and Mayor Tom Watson said in Tuesday’s special called city commission budget meeting that he also received a call.
“They felt she might’ve misspoken because that project was not on the drawing board,” Watson told the commission. “That was her salvation, so to speak.”
Owensboro Times spoke with OMSH Executive Director Kathy Olson, who said Kimberly-Clark was correct with their statement that a partnership was not finalized.
“What I was talking about in the work session were plans and potential projects that were brought to us that were put on hold last year because of the discussion of the museum moving,” Olson said. “The overall focus of what I was talking about were potential projects and different announcements we would have in the future and different improvements that were going to be made here at the museum.”
In 2018, the City of Owensboro offered Olson $500,000 to move from its current building, which is owned by the City, to the former International Bluegrass Museum across the street. The move would save the nonprofit museum in facility costs with only 17,000 square feet to maintain, rather than 90,000 square feet at their current location.
“That still wasn’t good enough to satisfy, I guess, their needs,” Watson said, adding that the Museum hired a St. Louis-based consultant who discouraged them from accepting the agreement last year.
Watson said ensuring OMSH’s relevance to Owensboro families will be more difficult without the partnership with Kimberly-Clark. He further told the commission Tuesday that the City needed to look at OMSH’s product now that the RiverPark Center is trying to lease the former International Bluegrass Museum space that was previously offered to Olson as a cost-saving solution.
“I’m not sure about the science museum’s viability with their problems with finances,” Watson told the commissioners, pointing out that the museum only has $26,000 cash on hand.
“Ms. Olson has dedicated three decades to that place and she is a great historian, but that place also has to be run like a business,” he told Owensboro Times.
Watson said after Olson declined the offer to move to a smaller facility, he spoke with her about rebranding the museum, adding a children’s museum on the first floor. Waston said he believed this would capitalize on Smothers Park as well as events at the RiverPark Center and the Woodwards Cafe located in the lobby.
“We tried everything we could to help them, but they threw up stop signs everywhere we went,” Watson said. “If you want to look at what’s best for the museum to continue, what’s best for the community, we have to look at all angles.”
Watson also questioned the 76,000 visitors Olson told the city commission the museum served last year.
“If you do the math, that’s over 200 people a day,” Watson said. “That’s a lot of people.”
Olson told Owensboro Times that 56,000 visitors in 2018 were “through the door,” while the other 20,000 were seen in off-site projects like Voices of Elmwood, outreach to schools and the loaning of artifacts. She said half of the overall visitation was student or family based in some way.
Watson told the commission that he plans to take a hard look at the property as a site for downtown development, continuing discussions with the museum board.
“That building truly needs to be on the tax rolls,” Watson told Owensboro Times. “With full disclosure, we have an offer on the building.”
Unable to comment further on that offer, Watson did suggest that the space would be ideal for a restaurant or retail space on the ground floor and remodeled for condos on the second and third floors.
If the City and the museum are unable to come to an agreement, Watson said the commission could decide to end their 15-year lease agreement with the nonprofit. The City currently leases the building to the museum for $1 per year through 2030.
“We certainly don’t want to close the Museum. It’s an asset to the community, but we have to have some kind of projections that it’s going to get better and right now we don’t have any,” Watson said, adding that several people have left the museum’s board, which only met five times since June of last year and no fundraisers were held to generate revenue.
Olson said she will continue to work with the City regarding the future of the museum.
“Our institution, like a lot of other institutions, are always looking for ways to improve our sustainability and we look forward to working with the City and all of our many patrons as we look to the future,” she said. “We have a lot of support and we appreciate all of the support people have given us.”
