Two Dover museums are slated to close due to budget constraints after being identified as the least visited in the state.
In fact, the Delaware Archeology Museum, 316 S. Governors Ave., already closed last week — and might not reopen — due to structural problems, while the next-door Museum of Small Town Life likely will remain open only until July 1.
The two draw approximately 5,000 annual visitors combined.
Delaware Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock said Gov. Jack Markell’s recommended budget has identified the two museums for closure, which is in keeping with the earlier recommended budget by former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.
Markell’s budget states it would mean a savings of $254,000, he added.
Bullock also said if the costs are too high to make repairs, the archeology museum would remain shut.
“It sort of is a statement about the condition of these two facilities. They’re old and have a lot of infrastructure needs,” he said.
No new governor or no new secretary of state wants to start right out closing museums, Bullock said, but with the $750 million state deficit, everyone is looking to sacrifice and these were the two museums the state could live without for now.
“That’s not something we take lightly. It’s not something we enjoy doing,” he said.
The Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, which Bullock oversees, is in the business of promoting Delaware’s rich cultural heritage so the recommendation is made with sadness and not a direction they wanted to be moving in, he said.
“Having said that, the state is in a very bad situation right now — as is the entire country. Cutbacks have happened in the areas of cultural affairs,” Bullock said, using the example of the Brandywine Battlefield Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., which also is slated to close.
Director of the state’s Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs Timothy Slavin said there are approximately six to 10 people who work in the two museums part time,with Bullock saying they would be reassigned.
The two closings are just part of what the division is doing to save money. Slavin said they’ve stopped all conservation or repairing activity, are no longer purchasing items for collections and even cut back on how often they cut the grass at sites.
“We did a lot of things that don’t touch the public directly, but now we’re to the point we’re hitting some service cuts,” he said.
