Marshals museum nears half of goal

About $25M raised; website changing

FORT SMITH -- Funds raised for the U.S. Marshals Service's national museum in Fort Smith are nearing the halfway mark of what is needed, board members learned Tuesday.

Museum President Jim Dunn told the museum board of directors at its quarterly meeting that after counting funds raised since the end of February, the total will reach $25 million. Officials estimate it will cost $50 million to build and equip the museum.

"How can you be other than pleased to raise that kind of money in the worst economy in 80 years?" Dunn said after the meeting.

Not yet counted in the total is $2.5 million from a surcharge on U.S. Marshals Service coins commemorating the service's 225th anniversary that went on sale Jan. 29. Dunn said he is confident the museum will raise $4 million to $5 million from the coin sales by the end of the year.

The staff is marketing the coins aggressively, and museum Development Director Alice Alt said the exposure the coins has provided to the museum project has opened doors to additional fundraising.

Alt said there are only 200 coin sets remaining from the 15,000 the U.S. Mint planned to make. A set consists of a gold, silver and clad coin. She said that of the individual coins for sale through the mint, all but the gold ones are out of stock until the mint strikes more to meet demand.

The U.S. Marshals Museum won the Henry Award at the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism last month for its promotional campaign for the commemorative coins, Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Claude Legris said Tuesday.

The museum also is changing its website status, switching from a dot-com to a dot-org organization. Museum staff member Jessica Hougen said the foundations the museum approaches for money are accustomed to nonprofit groups labeled as dot-org groups, so the move would "solidify our position there."

"We decided to do that mostly because it lends us more credibility as an organization within the museum world but also with funders and foundations that we may be approaching," Hougen said.

The dot-org designation also will signal changes to the organization's website that are intended to provide clarity to the public of what the museum is doing and where it is going. The redesigned site is scheduled to be unveiled Monday, Dunn said.

Museum media developer Mason Kesner said the site, usmarshalsmuseum.org, will feature a progress page that provides easy access to financial information, new exhibits, and things to see and learn about the museum.

It also will provide a way for people to donate to the museum, and it is being designed to clear up confusion about purchasing the commemorative coins by making it easy to link with the U.S. Mint, Kesner said.

"The biggest goal for us when redesigning this site was to present people with clear and concise information on where we are at," he said.

Dunn said he is hopeful museum officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can reach agreement on permitting the construction of the museum inside a Corps of Engineers easement along the shores of the Arkansas River.

Plans are to build the 50,000-square-foot museum on the Arkansas River near downtown. Shaped like a marshal's star badge, the building's west prong is designed to extend over the river, requiring part of the building to encroach on the Corps of Engineers' easement.

Dunn said Col. Courtney Paul, district engineer and commander of the Corps of Engineers Little Rock District, met with him three weeks ago in Fort Smith. Paul toured the site and seemed receptive to the museum's plight but did not give him a decision on whether the Corps of Engineers will allow the encroachment, Dunn said.

He said Paul told him to continue the process of seeking a permit to encroach over the easement and that it could take five to six months for a decision.

"I do think the Corps of Engineers has been so receptive, so cooperative, so responsive to be willing to consider a permit to build the building on the easement as an encroachment, I'm hoping for a favorable outcome," he told board members.

Metro on 04/15/2015

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