Wheaton Park District may help museum

The DuPage County Historical Museum's newest exhibit soon may be the staff of the Wheaton Park District.

DuPage County and Wheaton parks officials confirmed an interest in the park district purchasing, leasing or sharing in the cost of running the endangered museum.

The county's budget deficit left the museum with zero funding.

Now new money from the state will help fund law enforcement and transportation needs in DuPage. It also may free up other county dollars to save the museum.

But if the budget battle still leaves the museum's cupboards bare, the Wheaton Park District may step in and line the shelves.

"If an opportunity is out there to partner while saving a piece of history, we're certainly interested in it," said Mike Benard, executive director of the park district.

The plan most likely would involve the park district moving its administrative offices into the museum. Benard said a good portion of the building would remain a museum.

"If it was discontinued as a site for engaging people with their cultural past, it would be very disappointing to everyone," Benard said.

There's no official plan about what would happen to the park district's existing administrative offices.

Hubble Middle School sits across the street. The school site might be redeveloped, and some Wheaton residents have envisioned demolition plans that would encompass the park district's offices.

While discussions between county staff and park district officials are very early in the process, some elected leaders already are taking sides.

County board member Grant Eckhoff called the park district scenario is a viable, but distant, plan B.

Eckhoff said he agrees public safety must be funded first and foremost. But the Wheaton resident said he also believes the money is now there to fund a fully-functional museum if all other priorities are addressed first.

"The museum was obviously one of the first things to be cut, so it might be one of the last things restored," Eckhoff said.

Eckhoff also is on the museum's board.

County board member Jim Healy is not. And Healy, of Naperville, said he doesn't believe museum funding should be restored.

"That money that we're getting from the state is not the be all and end all for the county," Healy said. "It's a natural fit for either the city (of Wheaton) or the park district, or both."

Museum board member Rick Gieser said the museum's leadership will take a more active role in the discussions with the Wheaton Park District.

"The main thing that I am concerned with is that the museum stays afloat in some guise and is an active, vibrant part of the community and of the county," Gieser said. "I don't want the museum to be dwarfed so that it becomes just the park district."