In an effort to preserve Thorold’s rich history, council members have unanimously approved a three-year plan to help develop the Thorold Museum.
“They need some help,” the city’s director of public works, Geoff Holman, told council members at Tuesday’s city council meeting. “We need to commit to them if we’re serious about having a museum in the community. By setting this three year window it starts the clock for everyone to come on board.”
As part of the plan, the city will make the second floor of the Allanburg Community Centre available so that the museum has a place to store its collection. This is an important first step, as right now important artefacts relating to Thorold’s history are stored all over the city, leaving the museum without a real overview of its collection.
The Lock 7 Viewing Centre has been used in the past to show off some of the museum's artefacts, but because of COVID-19, exhibitions have not been possible.
City Hall staff will aid the museum's board so they can transition to a new business model that will allow them to bring in grants and can hire people instead of solely relying on volunteers.
To start the project off, $8,000 will be made available for costs that the plan might incur this year. However, some councillors are concerned that the board of the museum is not pulling their weight.
“City Hall staff is going head over heels trying to accommodate them,” councillor Carmen DeRose told the meeting. “You guys had mentioned to them to try establish a charitable or non-profit status and they haven’t done so yet. I think they have to start helping themselves also. They have to get their house in order.”
In the end, councillors unanimously voted in favour of the three-year plan because they think Thorold’s history should be preserved.
“History is very important,” said councillor Fred Neale. “They have a good group of people on that board but they needed a little helping hand along the way. Hopefully they will run with it and create a permanent place for the historical artefacts that are there.”
