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Historical society budget cuts Photo by Steve Johnson Southern Oregon Historical Society archivist Bill Alley says a lot of the society's work may be curtailed if Jackson County cuts its budget. The past may have no future By DANI DODGE In front of Bill Alley's desk is all that's left of Medford Corp.: 30 boxes full of neatly catalogued photos, records and ledgers. "Twenty years ago it was like Bear Creek (Corp.)," said Alley, an archivist for the Southern Oregon Historical Society. "You couldn't go anywhere without meeting somebody who worked there." Hearing Who: Jackson County Budget Committee. What: Public hearing on budget for local historical societies. When: 10:30 a.m. Thursday (Hearing on other budgets begins at 8:30 a.m.) Where: Jackson County Courthouse auditorium, 10 S. Oakdale. When the mill closed in 1993, 325 people lost jobs. In 1997, the president of a Medco subsidiary, Medite, gave the historical society the files documenting the timber company's history dating from the 1920s. Alley spent several hundred hours going through company records -- making sure what was once Jackson County's biggest employer isn't forgotten. But if the historical society's budget is cut by 27 percent as proposed, Alley is concerned work like that to preserve Medco's history will be lost. "If the cuts go through we'll lose a third of our staff," Alley said. "It could be that there's nobody left to do this work." Because of declining timber revenues, Jackson County is cutting its general fund budget by $1.7 million for the coming fiscal year. The historical societies and their supporters will ask the committee to spare them from such deep cuts at a budget hearing Thursday morning. Society officials say that of all those who receive county money, the historical society is taking the biggest hit. County Administrator Sue Slack said, though, that the cuts the historical society faces now are cuts the rest of the county endured in the mid-1980s, when the county work force was chopped in half. The historical society was spared because it had funding from a separate continuing serial levy, passed by voters in 1947. But in 1997, when voters approved Measure 50, the historical society's serial levy was lumped in with the county general fund. Additionally, said Slack, the museum association isn't really taking the brunt of the cuts. Changes in the Talent Work Center and a reduction in overtime for the sheriff's department add up to about $1 million in cuts. "The difference in a nutshell between what is happening at the historical society and the rest of the county is that in the rest of the county it happened a long time ago," Slack said. "But it's tough. The budget committee will have difficult decisions to make." The Southern Oregon Historical Society is the largest of 14 local societies that make up the Jackson County History Museums Association. The association asked the county for $2.2 million in next year's budget; it got $1.7 million in the current budget. The proposed cut would reduce that to $1.27 million. All the historical societies, from the smallest to the largest, would feel the axe. The Southern Oregon Historical Society is the largest, with 29 full-time employees and another eight part-timers. A 27 percent cut would mean at least 10 full-time positions would go. Museums would be closed and school outreach programs cut, said Southern Oregon Historical Society Executive Director Brad Linder. "The world won't come to an end except for 10 or 12 staff people we will lay off," Linder said. Linder said he hasn't decided which staffers will be kept. He still hopes that a show of support at the county budget hearing will convince the committee to maintain the society's current funding. Slack said she will certainly look at giving people laid off from the historical societies first shot at jobs elsewhere in the county. But it won't be only historians and other staffers affected. It will be everything the historical society does, Linder said. In addition to layoffs, the cuts would mean the Jacksonville Museum, the Children's Museum and the Beekman House will be closed two days per week in the summer season. The History Center and Library will be closed an additional day per week. The Ashland branch would have to be eliminated. The number of changing exhibits at the Southern Oregon Historical Societies four museums would go from four a year down to two. The number of school outreach programs will go from 100 to 50. Researchers won't be able to provide the media with as many historical photos or as much information. The public heritage grant program -- about $100,000 a year going to restore the county courthouse -- would be dropped. The historical society magazine would no longer be free. And there wouldn't be as much time and staff for restoration of artifacts and documents. The historical society stores 80,000 artifacts, 750,000 photos and 6.2 million manuscripts, as well as historic movies. When people need a photo to do a historic renovation of their home or business, they go to the historical society. When someone needs to learn the history of Medco, they also go to the historical society. Right now that history is piled around Alley's desk because the historical society has run short of storage space. The files not only outline the business history of Medco, but also detail the number of trees in the company's timber holdings. Someday, if someone wants to prove there are more trees in the forest now than in 1925, they'll have the documentation. There are maps of the railroad that ran from the Medford company to Butte Falls, something railroad buffs have talked about restoring. There are the brochures, building plans and equipment specifications from when the "state-of-the-art" mill was built in 1925. Someone could use those specs to recreate the mill. "If we aren't here to do that, to save this stuff, it might end up in the landfill," Alley said. "That's what could happen with budget cuts." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA