{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"County Museum has community support","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":387,"description":"May 23, 2022 — Well over 120 people, representing political, business, and arts and history interests, turned out for a behind-the-scenes tour at the Mendocino County Museum on Friday night. There was even an impromptu concert, featuring flute, kazoo, harmonica and guitar by musicians Malakai Schindel and Kyle Madrigal. \r\nThe event doubled as a mixer for the Willits Chamber of Commerce, and did triple duty as a show of support for the museum, which is in danger of losing its funding amidst budget woes.\r\nThe county just hired a new curator three weeks ago, a few months after Karen Mattson’s promotion to museum Administrator. Lindsay Dick, who has a masters degree in Museum Studies and came to Mendocino from Oregon for the curator position, doesn’t even have a badge with her name on it yet.\r\n“It’s a lot of detail work,” she said. “It does sound like anybody could be it, but you have to be specialized. You have to know how to take the pests and how to help mitigate them, and keep them at bay…you’ve got to have the skills to do that.”\r\nDeb Fader Samson is the Director of the Cultural Services Agency, which includes the museum and the libraries. She believes she has reason to believe that closing the museum won’t save any money. County estimates for museum operations are half a million dollars a year, with $20,000 of revenue. But, “during one of the times when the museum wasn’t being staffed at its fullest, we wound up having a roof leak and a lot of the textiles got ruined,” she said. “It cost over $370,000 to make the repair, and then do all of the mold remediation…If you shutter the place, and nobody’s here to watch that, that could happen again.” Fader Samson added that she does not believe the museum saved any money by being closed during the pandemic, because staff was redirected to other work.\r\nVolunteer Brent Walker was stationed in between a display of fancy hats from an early 20th century Ukiah milliners’ shop and the wreck of Judi Bari’s bombed car. He’s...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}