Masons' building on First Street would provide more exposure than previous home at Wren Pierson
By DAVID TELLER
Staff Reporter
The Cheney Museum needs a home, and director Joan Mamamakis hopes the Cheney Masons may be the ones to provide it.
The museum's board of directors are working on a deal with the Masons to use part of their facility at 421 First St. as a new home where people can come and view Cheney's historic artifacts. Mamanakis said she liked the Masons' building out of all the ones the museum asked about as many are in need, to varying degrees, of renovations and repair.
“Compared to other buildings that we've inquired about, theirs appeared to need much less,” she said with a laugh, saying many of the buildings needed repairs that cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of the repairs are for leakage and plumbing, where others need significant structural repair and asbestos abatement.
The Cheney Museum was founded by the Tilicum Club in the 1950s and had been in the Wren Pierson Building since the 1970s. The museum was forced to evacuate Wren Pierson in January after snowfall damaged the building's structure and the city was forced to condemn the building.
The basis of the agreement Mamanakis is proposing is that the museum wants to make it so the renovation does not cost the Masons anything. Right now, she said the building would need a new furnace, an electrical upgrade and some other modernizations, but added that reaching an agreement is a long process. The Masons only meet once a month, as does the museum's board of directors.
She stresses that nothing has been formally decided but said that both sides seem to think the proposed arrangement is a good fit.
“We want to make this happen,” Mamanakis said.
Originally the agreement would have had the museum partnering up with the Masons to pay for the work, but she said that has changed. The Masons would now oversee the renovations and would pay for the work. The museum would pay the debt back in the form of a lease.
Currently, the Masons are entertaining bids from contractors to do the work, but are reluctant to indicate any estimates.
The museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Mamanakis said raising the funds is going to be precarious as there are a lot of restrictions this particular tax code requires. She said the museum is currently applying for grant funding, but said approval is based on need, which would be determined by the renovation costs. She said the museum is looking at other fundraising efforts too.
Mamanakis said that last December when the museum had to evacuate, artifacts were hurriedly put into boxes and into a storage unit on a rainy day, where they have been ever since. Right after the museum was moved into storage, she became more uneasy when Cheney got three weeks of fog. Mamanakis said she is eager to get the museum set up in a permanent location because many of the artifacts are fragile and moisture-sensitive. She said another element has given her incentive to get the museum out of the storage unit: Mice.
“Right now (the museum is) in a place were rodents can get at it, and insects can get in there,” Mamanakis said, adding that the poison she set out in the storage unit has been disturbed.
She said most of the paper and books she could find she has removed and stored at her home. Other delicates like textiles and clothing are still there.
“There's wonderful places for hobo spiders and mice to get in there and start wreaking havoc,” she said.
Mamanakis hopes to get the museum's property moved soon as the renovations on the Mason's building get under way, but is uncertain of when all that will be. She hopes to not have the museum's property spend another winter in storage.
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
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