Clack Museum board votes to charge admission

The H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum Board voted to start charging for entry to the museum and discussed their recent move to a new building on the 10 Block of Fifth Avenue, a move board members said has been extremely successful.

Board Chair Lela Patera proposed an entry charge for the museum of $2 for people 6 to 12, free admission for those 5 and younger and $3 for those 13 and older.

Patera also proposed making a combined price for those who want to go to both the Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump and museum with a price of $16 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $6 for those between the ages of six and 12, with a $40 charge for a family of at least two adults and two children.

She said visits to the museum and the jump would need to be on the same day to qualify for the combined prices, though some circumstances might require some flexibility.

She also said school trips shouldn’t be affected by these changes.

The board unanimously approved the new prices.

Board members also discussed the possibility of trying to make the museum manager position a full-time one instead of 20 hours a week.

H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation President Elaine Morse said her organization is focusing on opening the new museum location, but she’s concerned that the amount of work to do that can’t be done with the museum manager position restricted to 20 hours a week, especially given how difficult it is to find staff in general, and asked that the board consider trying to find a way to change that.

Museum Manager Emily Mayer said she’d love to make her position full time, but they are restricted by their budget, so they will need to look at it from that angle if they want to make a change like that.

Despite this issue, board members said the move has gone incredibly well with plenty of volunteers including trailer and forklift operators and Montana State University-Northern’s football team pitching in to help with a great deal of work, something Patera wanted to thank them again for.

She said members of the team will be getting a free tour of the jump in July as a reward for their incredible work.

Morse said she also wanted to give special thanks to Bob Patera, who put in a tremendous amount of work, along with the Havre Lion’s Club.

The board also voted to adopt a change in their bylaws that would increase the number of people on the board from seven to nine, with names of potential members submitted to the Hill County Commission by the the board for potential nomination and approval.

The board voted to adopt the change which will go to the commission for approval before being implemented.

As for the jump, Mayer said they are slammed with tours but everyone of them is covered so they are keeping up.

She also said the jump’s gift shop is up and running.