Museum receives a challenge for city funds

Naperville city councilmen are challenging the DuPage Children's Museum to raise some additional funds for itself as a condition of getting money from the city.

The museum will receive a $225,000 grant for capital support through the city's Special Events and Cultural Amenities Fund that museum supporters will have to match. It will also receive $206,250 for operating help with no strings attached.

Councilmen gave preliminary approval to nearly $2.87 million in cultural grants during a workshop Tuesday. They received $4.12 million in requests from 59 organizations.

Money for the grants comes from a 1 percent citywide tax on food and beverages. For the first time, a nine-member commission studied the grant applications and made recommendations to the council.

The children's museum requested $500,000 in capital support and $250,000 for operations. It has been struggling to pay off the remaining $9.4 million in bonds it acquired when it moved to its Naperville facility in 2001.

Councilmen said they want to help the museum but have concerns about the level of support they can provide.

"(The museum has) expressed concerns over being able to raise money to take care of their ... loan and certainly I wouldn't want to give $225,000 or the full $500,000 and it's going to get flushed down the toilet in a couple months," Councilman Kenn Miller said. "And I don't know that."

Councilman Robert Fieseler wondered if it would make a dent in the debt and Councilman Grant Wehrli worried other groups would expect the same financial support to pay down their own capital debts. But Councilman Doug Krause pointed out the museum brings in sales tax revenue.

Councilman James Boyajian suggested a challenge grant of $225,000 for capital and a guaranteed $206,250 for operations. The majority agreed.

"We can't keep going down this road," Boyajian said. "I think this is a pivotal year for them simply because we did not elect to get in at a $9 million level. I think this is a reasonable place for us to be at this time."

Alison Segebarth, director of marketing and membership for the museum, said she is happy with the grants.

"We realize that they're trying to help us solve our problems too so we'll accept the challenge," she said.

Earlier in the day she presented city leaders with a petition signed by 1,977 supporters. Museum officials are still in talks with the city as well as county, state and federal officials and hope Naperville's contributions will be a catalyst for additional funding from those groups.

One other group struggling to stay afloat will also be required to do its own fundraising to get a grant from the city. Councilmen awarded the Naperville Cultural Center an $11,000 challenge grant.

Century Walk Corp. was among the largest grant recipients again this year, receiving $225,000 for public art. President Brand Bobosky said the money will be used for a Dick Tracy sculpture by Dick Locher, a Naperville resident and longtime artist of the comic strip. The group also wants to partner with the Naperville Art League on a mural and create a commemorative book.

Because it did not get the full $455,500 it requested, a proposed Dr. Seuss sculpture for the Naper Boulevard Library will have to wait.

The council did not explore a proposal Wehrli has previously made to cut the citywide food and beverage tax in half.

"This is taxpayers' money. It's too much," Wehrli said Tuesday as the workshop came to a close. "It's one of the few funds, if not the only fund that is increasing in dollars. This will only become a bigger problem as we allow it to move on."

Museum: Public art group receives $225,000