Hello All,   Anyone know the status of the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums?  Will they stay open?   My husband and I are planning on visiting Washington County this coming Sept for a few days of genealogy research and to attend the Sternwheel Festival.  Anyone else going to be in the area?   Carolyn In Sacramento   Researching Wash Co Families: Mason, Brown, Davis, Story, LaGrange, Shockley

Carolyn... Below is an email that I recieved from Jean Yost, president of Marietta Chapter of SAR. You can email him and ask him the status of what is going on. But from what I understand, local historians are trying to form a partership with the OHS so Campus Martius won't close. Also the Ohio Historical Sociey put out a Blog yesterday (June 1, 2009) about the funding cuts. I don't know if the blogs are public or not, but you can try to access it. The url is http://blogs.myspace.com/ohiohistory In the blog, it also gives other historical cuts that will defently affect Washington County. If you can't access the BLOG, please let me know and I will send you a summary of what passed through the Ohio Senate on May 29th. On a personal note... I can't believe that Gov. Ted Stickland is doing this. I think that the museums can be saved if only the Ohio Historical Society gives up the right as owners of the museums. That way....people will start donating more if it was owned by the Washington County Historical Society and items won't be stored is some unknown warehouse that is unindexed and don't know where things are. But this is my own personal opionion. My question to OHS is... "Why haven't they proposed any options to allow the museum's to remain open by sending the ownerships to local Historical Societies throughout Ohio?" Don't make too much sense to me. I think these politicans are more POWER hungry then anything. And that's sad. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARIETTA MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT TO TESTIFY AT CAPITOL TODAY Cheyenne Lemasters, 8th grade, Marietta Middle School student will attend the Senate Finance Committee Hearings on Thursday, June 21, 2009. Miss Lemasters plans to testify on behalf of concerned residents of Washington County in the matter of FY2010 Ohio Historical Society; Museums and sites line item, with a request to the Ohio Senate to restore the $2 million in cuts proposed by Governor Strickland. ISSUE: FY2010 OHIO BUDGET; OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MUSEUMS "The Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums, along with 16 other Ohio Historical Society (OHS) sites, may close on June 30, 2009 without legislative action to restore cuts proposed by the Governor. From 2006-2008, the museum budget was $8.3 million. In 2009 the budget was cut to $7.1 million. In March 2009, Governor Strickland's 2010 Budget Proposal cut support for OHS sites and museum operations to $5.4 million. This 35% cut from 2008 ($2.9 million) is totally unreasonable. In 2001, OHS had 401 staff members. Today, the staff is down to 249. With the Governor's proposed budget cuts, the staff will be cut again to 210 and many museums statewide may be closed. We understand and share in the budget problems of our great state, but our state's history and our local heritage must be properly preserved. OHS has requested that a local community group partner with them to operate the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums, providing $100,000 annually in support. In response, community members have established a Task Force to pursue this partnership idea. In April, the Ohio House of Representatives voted to add $750,000 to the OHS museum and site account. This is very significant, and we thank the Ohio House members for their support. However, we request the House reconsider adding the additional $1.25 million back into the budget for OHS. With the full $2 million reinstated, most museums across the state could continue to operate with longer hours and give the communities breathing room to pursue the partnership idea. We urge the Ohio Senate to vote for a budget with an extra $2 million added to the Governor's proposed budget to operate these museums and sites. We support the local Campus Martius and Ohio River Museum Task Force's recommendation and ask for your support in these efforts to save this integral part of our community." BACKGROUND Due to a funeral service on Thursday, I could not attend the hearing and requested Cheyenne to testify. Cheyenne is a very exceptional student and loves history. In April, after OHS announced potential closings of the museums, Cheyenne organized a rally at Campus Martius Museum in conjunction with This Place Matters. Check out a short two minute movie of the rally at <http://www.saveohiomuseums.org> The movie was prepared by the producer of the movie "Opening the Door West", a PBS documentary about Marietta, Ohio and the Northwest Territory. Here is Cheyenne's background; "I am an eighth grader at Marietta Middle School. I came across the program This Place Matters for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. After hearing the news that Campus Martius may be closed on July 1st. I immediately started contacting people at local schools, radio and news stations, trying to organize a large rally. I ended up with 150 people at the rally and I am now preparing to send letters and petitions to Governor Ted Strickland". 5/15/09 Bio: I am 14 years old and participate in dance, track and tennis. I am currently in Student Council and S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and I am on the honor roll and Principal's List. On May 14 the Marietta Chapter Sons of the American Revolution awarded Cheyenne with the Student of the Year Award for her role in history related efforts. Cheyenne's phone: 740-373-8939 or cell 740-236-8495 If any questions, please call me, 678-8060 or my cell 336-8060 Thanks Jean Yost Member of Task Force Debbie Noland Nitsche [email protected] Historical Marietta, Ohio on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/historicalmariettaohio ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: "Washington County List" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 9:37 AM Subject: [OHWashin] Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums Hello All, Anyone know the status of the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums? Will they stay open? My husband and I are planning on visiting Washington County this coming Sept for a few days of genealogy research and to attend the Sternwheel Festival. Anyone else going to be in the area? Carolyn In Sacramento Researching Wash Co Families: Mason, Brown, Davis, Story, LaGrange, Shockley ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To contact the OHWASHIN list administrator, send an email to [email protected] To post a message to the OHWASHIN mailing list, send an email to [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message