Wheaton history center makes funding plea

Wheaton's plan to stop subsidizing the city's Center for History could jeopardize the museum's efforts to preserve and promote local history, center representatives say.

But city leaders insist there's simply not enough money in Wheaton's budget to help fund the center.

That's why city council members agreed to cut $225,000 in annual funding for the center as part of an overall effort to eliminate a projected $4.3 million deficit in next year's spending plan.

"We are at a point now where if we fund the center, we would have to lay off (city workers)," Councilman Tom Mouhelis said. "That's the last thing I want to do."

Still, that didn't stop Alberta Adamson, president of the Center for History, from asking the council to reconsider its decision.

On Monday night, Adamson told the council that the city's $225,000 subsidy last year represented about a third of the center's total budget.

"We've cut our budget to bare-bones," she said. "Any further reduction in funding would seriously affect our mission."

That mission includes being the "official repository for Wheaton history," Adamson said.

In addition to seeing more than 15,000 visitors a year at its two locations, the center is a resource for researchers and local historians.

For years, city leaders have tried to encourage the center to stand on its own financially.

Adamson said she agrees the center hasn't done enough fundraising.

But she attributed that to the center's full-time staff being reduced from seven to two employees.

"Fundraising with the staff we have is real difficult," she said.

At the same, she said, the demands on the center have grown.

"We give back to the community as best we can," Adamson said.

"If we had more resources, we would do bus tours. We would do tourism. But we just can't do it. We can't get ahead. We are staying status quo, I would say, barely."

Still, city officials stress the municipality has financial challenges of its own. In addition to raising the sales tax, Wheaton had to trim $3 million in expenses, including cutting 17 full-time jobs.

Adamson acknowledged that council members have "a tough job."

But, she said, residents care about the city's history.

"They feel that tax dollars should be spent on history," she said.