Victor Valley Daily Press
HESPERIA • The City Council on Tuesday will discuss its support of the financially struggling Victor Valley Museum in Apple Valley.The council may give direction to staff for the joint-agency support of the museum, which would include the city, the Hesperia Unified School District and the Hesperia Recreation and Park District.
If approved by all agencies, funding could be allocated in a manner proportionate to each agency’s operating budget, with $10,000 coming from the city and HUSD, and $5,000 from the park district.
The city’s annual portion would be added to the budgets from 2014 through 2017, if approved by the council.
This item is also being presented by staff to both boards for consideration, a city staff report said.
The city received a request from 1st District Supervisor Robert Lovingood for an annual contribution of $25,000 for the next three fiscal years.
Allocations would support the museum as an education resource in the High Desert and allow the city to work with curators on a historical Hesperia display.
In 2013, the struggling museum continued to stay open with a portion of $200,000 in bridge funding from the county.
The county’s $4.4 billion budget for 2013-14 revealed limited one-time sources to fund certain costs as part of a multi-year plan to address a five-year structural deficit.
A few of those one-time fund issues include covering shortfalls in the county museum system Fire Department and underfunded programs and projects in Land Use Services and Public Works.
The 2013-14 county budget also revealed that the county will work with other government agencies to explore opportunities to “transfer the ownership/operation of the Victor Valley Museum to another entity.”
The museum opened as an independent nonprofit in 1992. It closed for a one-year renovation project after the county acquired it in February 2010 after declining revenue threatened its closure.
