Daily Archives: April 3, 2009

Museum Block

Museum presenter accuses me of spreading misinformation

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Thursday night was a strange night for the museum presenters. During the question and answer time, museum representative Brad McMillan was explaining what the admission price might be for the proposed IMAX, which was something like $30 for a family of four. Then he said — to my surprise — that it wouldn’t be $60 “like C. J. Summers has suggested.” Brad went on to say he was “tired” of opponents “spreading misinformation” about the project.

“Misinformation”? Why is he mentioning my name in his answer to the question? And where did I say it was going to be $60 for a family of four to visit the Peoria Riverfront Museum’s IMAX? I did have a post about my family’s trip to the IMAX at the Putnam Museum. In it, I said:

The [Putnam] IMAX was not showing any big Hollywood shows, but they did have some short educational films. We took in the double-feature of “Mystery of the Nile” and “Under the Sea 3D.” Admission price for the two approximately 45-minute films was $14 for adults and $10 for children. So for my family — two adults and three children — the total admission cost was $58. And of course no movie is complete without some popcorn and soft drinks. That set us back another $20 or so.

So, first I’d like to point out that my family is not a family of four, but a family of five. Secondly, I clearly stated that we saw a double-feature of educational films that were approximately 45-minutes each. And third, I said they weren’t showing any big Hollywood shows. And the price came to $58. Here’s the receipt:

putnam-receipt

You’ll have to take my word for the price of the popcorn and soft drinks; I didn’t get a receipt for that.

Later in the post, I said, “What the $17 [average annual cost per resident of the sales tax] doesn’t include is the price of actually patronizing the museum, which can be costly, especially if you have a large family. Just going to a couple of educational movies cost my family nearly $80. If we had wanted to visit the museum’s galleries, it would have cost even more.”

Now, if I had a family of four, and if we had only gone to see one educational film, and if we hadn’t gotten any concessions, then yes, the price would have been $30 (2 adults x $8.50 = $17, 2 kids x $6.50 = $13, $17+$13=$30), according to the Putnam museum website. I’ve never suggested otherwise. I was simply recounting my experience. For my family of five, seeing a double feature with concessions, it was nearly $80. Fact.

I think it was completely inappropriate for McMillan to call me out by name in a public meeting and imply that I was spreading misinformation about the cost of attending an IMAX theater, especially when that allegation itself was misinformation!

It’s pretty sad that the museum folks think reports of my family’s day trip might negatively affect their campaign — especially after they’ve spent over $600,000 on signs, literature, and advertising to get out their message.

City of Peoria, Museum Block, Peoria County

Museum odds and ends

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I’ve gone to several town hall meetings regarding the sales tax referendum, so I’m familiar with the presentations now, and I’ve heard a lot of the same questions. But at last night’s town hall meeting at Northwoods Community Church, I actually learned some new things. Not all of these items are new information — some of it I probably should have known already — but they were all new to me:

First of all, I found out that the Caterpillar Experience will not have free admission for the general public. Mark Johnson of Caterpillar explained that employees/retirees of Caterpillar and their guests will get in free. But if you don’t want to hit up your Cat friends to get you in, or if you’re a tourist/visitor from outside the Peoria area, you’ll be paying $5 for adults and $2.50 for children under 12. I was very surprised to learn this, especially in light of my recent trip to Moline to visit the John Deere Pavilion, which is free for everyone.

Second, it was stated last night that the City of Peoria will own and operate the underground parking deck, and that the parking will not be free. Mr. Johnson stated that the City theoretically could offer free parking, but that they would probably charge the same rate as other City-owned parking decks. Just what the City needs — another money-losing parking deck. It’s worth pointing out that the museum could also offer free parking to their patrons. All they need to do is validate parking tickets and then pay their patrons’ parking fees for them. It’s also worth noting that patrons of Lakeview currently have free parking at the existing Lakeview campus.

Finally, it was stated that — if the referendum passes and the museum is built — the Peoria Riverfront Museum (PRM) would take over ownership of the historic houses currently owned by the Peoria Historical Society. I don’t see how the PRM could afford to own, operate, and maintain those historic houses when the county doesn’t feel PRM has adequate funds budgeted for capital maintenance on the museum building. Living in a 105-year-old house myself, I can tell you first hand that maintenance is not cheap, especially if you want to maintain the historical integrity of the structure.

There were a couple other notable items from last night’s town hall meeting, but I’ll save that for another post.