CASCADE LOCKS — Port of Cascade Locks approved the 2023-24 Cascade Locks Historical Museum grant request for no more than $20,000 at their Nov. 21 meeting.
“At the last meeting, Janice Crane had made a request for $30,000 from the Port of Cascade Locks; after some discussion, it was recommended that I go ... and come back with specific numbers that would fit within our budget and still leave us room to make other decisions,” said Port Executive Director Jeremiah Blue. Other expenses meant the full $30,000 was unavailable — for example, next year’s Fourth of July fireworks must be purchased in advance.
The museum first made their request to the board at the Nov. 7 meeting, and the board asked staff to collect numbers evaluating the money available.
The money will come from the $53,600 in the Community Service fund. To date, a little more than $14,200 has been spent from this fund. The museum’s grant request leaves a balance of $19,398.57, with $15,000 to be allocated towards the 2024 firework display, leaving around $4,000 for other events and projects.
“This is similar to what we had done the previous year,” Blue noted; the funds in this “pocket” serve the Fourth of July, the museum, the Energy Council, community picnics and other events.
Covering salaries for nonprofits such as the museum can be difficult, Blue added. Many donations from the community are made to the collections, or are otherwise specific gifts. The port helps cover the gap. Last year’s grant totaled $29,000, said Blue.
With tourism increasing each year since COVID-19, “We still anticipate an increased amount of money for the museum through tourism,”Commissioner Albert Nance noted. Some discussion took place around creating a more specific, ongoing budget allocating necessary money to the museum “to give the warm fuzzy that the money is being appropriated appropriately,” as Commissioner Pamela Thweatt put it.
In other news, the Cascade Locks Christmas lights came on at Toll House Park, bringing positive community feedback; a grassroots movement of citizens with hot chocolate came to admire the lights get fired up.
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