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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 16, 2005 Dan Trout works to refurbish the Jacksonville Museum, where a major exhibit on local pioneer photographer Peter Britt will open Jan. 29. The Southern Oregon Historical Society also is moving its administrative offices from Medford. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli What price history? Budget-conscious SOHS returns its headquarters to Jacksonville, as some wonder what will be lost in transition By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Natural light pours through the lofty windows, filling the old room in the Jacksonville Museum with a warm glow. Gone are the false interior walls hiding the 12-foot-tall windows. Gone, too, is the pseudo ceiling that dropped down six feet. The light reveals the historic grandeur of the building, whose grand opening was held Feb. 11, 1884. "It used to be dark and dingy and gloomy in here," observed John Enders of the corner upstairs room. "We are restoring it, opening it back up to the way it used to be." Enders is the director of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, which in order to save money is returning its administrative offices to Jacksonville after a 16-year hiatus. The room, previously a museum exhibit, will be an office. Advertisement "We are going to be utilizing every space we have in the museum and other buildings," he said. "These museums come to us at a $1-a-year lease from the county — we can’t beat that." It’s part of the society’s effort to cut costs, streamline operations and become more self-sufficient. The budget for the nearly 60-year-old organization, which had moved its headquarters from Jacksonville to the downtown Medford History Center in 1989, is being pared by money-strapped Jackson County. "This is a challenge to restructure the entire organization, not only to downsize but streamline what we’re doing," Enders said. "We have half the staff and half the budget we had just six years ago." The funding for the current budget year ending July 1 is about $1 million, but 15 percent of that is given to 14 smaller historical societies throughout the region. The SOHS staff is now at 26 full-time equivalency employees. There also are a hundred volunteers whose contributions are priceless, Enders said. "This coming fiscal year, our budget will go down about 19 or 20 percent, and about the same amount the following year," Enders said. "We’re definitely on a trajectory to do things a lot leaner." The society has been struggling to maintain its funding since the late 1990s, when county officials first suggested the historical society should share the pain of budget cuts felt by other programs. The society maintained it was entitled to money from a 1948 property tax levy that dedicated a maximum 25 cents for every $1,000 of assessed valuation to preserving history. County officials said this levy was nullified by Measure 50, a 1997 property tax initiative that required the consolidation of levies, allowing counties to disperse the money as they saw fit. The society took the county to court in 2002. A settlement in 2003 provided three years of stable funding for SOHS. It will renegotiate its budget with the county in 2007. Streamlining the society’s operations now will enable it to survive later, said Judi Drais, board president. "We’ll be alive and well 50 years from now," she predicted. "We’ll be leaner and meaner but alive and well. We know we’re going to have to become self-supporting because the county money is dwindling away." A 1958 graduate of Grants Pass High School who taught at Talent Middle School for more than 30 years, Drais said local history puts a face on the past. "The history we study in schools is all about wars, treaties and policies," she said. "We miss the human side. We get that in local history. We hear people tell their stories. "And there are so many fascinating stories in this area," she added. Talent resident Lynn Newbry, 81, a board member of the Talent Historical Society and a former state senator, agreed. Yet he is worried that interest may be fading. "I’m not sure recent immigrants to the area are all that interested in local history," he said. "... But people who are unfamiliar with the past are bound to failure in the future." Newbry, who was born in Talent, is unhappy that funding approved by county voters for preserving local history is being cut. "I was here when that matter first came up," said Newbry, who believes oral histories are one of the best ways to preserve local history. "People wanted to have a continuing levy to preserve history. They voted on it. "To take money away that people originally dedicated for preserving history and using it for something else is a fraud on the taxpayer," he added. Without that funding, some local historical societies may not survive, he said. A steadily shrinking income, brought in part by dwindling receipts from federal timberlands within the county, has forced the county to make the cuts, said Dave Gilmour, a Jackson County commissioner. "We have a great uncertainty in terms of future funding for the county," he said. "We’re trying as best we can to make various organizations independent of the county." Some county departments, such as the sheriff’s department and the library system, are looking at ways to become independent of general fund support, he said. For instance, the sheriff’s department may at some point be funded solely by law enforcement levies, he said. "I personally think local history is very important," Gilmour said. "Just purely on an economic basis alone, a lot of tourists come here because of the historical milieu." That creates an economic benefit for maintaining historic buildings and structures in the region, he said. "But it’s a difficult situation because of the uncertainty we have budgeting for the long term," he said. "We don’t know what’s going to happen to the funding." In Jacksonville, longtime resident Marjorie Edens, a board member of the Jacksonville Boosters Club who worked for SOHS for more than 20 years, says the move back to Jacksonville will benefit the community. "I don’t think they (SOHS) ever should have gone to Medford in the first place," she said, noting that Jacksonville is a National Historic Landmark which draws history-minded tourists. "This will be good for the business people in town," she added. "This will bring more people for restaurant food, for more shopping." For Enders, whose great-grandfather arrived in the Rogue Valley a century ago, the society’s administrative move to historic Jacksonville provides both challenges and opportunities. "One thing we want people to know is that this is not your grandmother and grandfather’s historical society," he said. "We are doing things a different way, building partnerships and reaching out to new people." The organization also hopes to tell its story and that of local history, he said. "The importance of history is understanding your roots, of understanding your sense of place in the grander scheme of things," he said. "You cannot live in Southern Oregon and be part of the community without having an appreciation for those generations and people who came before you. "Our big challenge is reaching people who are new migrants to this area," he added. "The people arriving now have the opportunity to ground themselves in the history of their new community." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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