MESICK —The future of a Northern Michigan historical museum is up in the air after its lease is not renewed.
Mesick’s Village President David Clous said it stems from an agreement with the Mesick Historical Museum not being followed, costing the village thousands in unexpected costs.
“We’ve been talking about it for several months. Yes, about, you know, what are we going to do with? Are we going to continue like we are, are we going to, you know, look for a different option with, with the control of that building,”said Clous.
Clous said they bought the building from the museum back in 2003 at their request because the museum didn’t have the funding necessary to keep the building and pay for all the expenses.
He said they were supposed to maintain the building but over the past year, they incurred $15,000 in water damage repairs.
“It’s not a position I want to be in. No, I don’t like confrontation. I never have and this is a confrontational situation,” said Clous.
Clous said those damages came from a leaky roof from lack of snow removal and burst pipes from periods when the building wasn’t heated.
“We were fortunate in those repairs, our insurance company stepped up and paid for those repairs.
But there were some subsequent things that we ended up having to take care of, which was about $9,000 that we had to spend,” said Clous.
The village said the damage also ruined some important artifacts.
“There were some very nice things in here that were ruined because of the water leak. And, they were just tossed in a dumpster,” said Clous.
The president of the historical museum, Cheryl Bader did not want to speak on camera saying she had no comment until she saw it in writing.
Clous said if the museum does not want to buy the building back it would likely be sold to a third party.
“There was some talk about getting hold of the museum in Cadillac, the historical society there and getting some of that stuff over there. But how much of it can they take? You know, they probably won’t be able to take it all,” said Clous.
Mesick is offering the building back to the museum association for a dollar. Clous said that’s the same price they purchased the museum back in 2003.
“I’d like to see the museum stay there because there’s so much history in it. People that live here, their ancestors gave things to the museum to put in there to display,” said Clous.
He said the village attorney was writing up an offer to the museum to present to them in the coming days.