How important is Renfrew’s McDougall Mill Museum?
A couple of points are worth considering before leaping to any kind of response. First, the McDougall Mill was one of the very first structures in Renfrew’s history, located at the Second Chute of the Bonnechere River, and from there serving as the focal point for the community that would grow around it. In terms of heritage and heritage buildings, the museum is the pre-eminent historical structure in Renfrew. The fact that it’s morphed into the curation and preservation of important relics connected to Renfrew’s past makes all the sense in the world.
Second, the McDougall Mill’s place in the community is embedded in the town’s corporate logo, and it’s been prominent in just about every effort at promoting Renfrew beyond the town’s limits.
It stands as the very symbol of Renfrew.
But it also costs money, enough that it’s come to the attention of Council as they go through budget items in preparation of arriving at a 2025 budget for the community. It goes without saying that cuts are going to be made, and that those cuts will likely be extensive. It also goes without saying that some of those cuts are going to hurt, and some are going to hurt a lot.
So, is the McDougall Museum a viable option moving forward? Is it an expense that can be removed, or is it considered sacrosanct, untouchable, a budget item etched in stone and delivered by Moses his very own self?
It’s a tough call, requiring tough deliberation.
Should the McDougall Museum remain open? Or should it be closed to save the money? Decisions like these are what’s in front of your Council as they wrestle with the impact of heavy debt and what they plan to do about it moving forward. It’s a tough choice with really no option that presents as attractive.
Apart from Heritage Renfrew, the museum is the only place in town that can give one a hands-on experience with Renfrew’s origins, its past, and its growth over its 170 years of existence. Three stories of artifacts and a gift shop located at O’Brien Park right next to that other historical icon, the Swinging Bridge. You simply can’t have a thorough discussion of Renfrew’s past without the museum and the Swinging Bridge being a part of it.
Yet it costs money, perhaps even operates at a loss, and as such would come to the attention of anyone going through budget line items looking for areas where savings con be realized. In short, it’s a pretty easy target to pull off a page.
I don’t think any one of the councillors, the reeve, or the mayor would like to have their name attached to the elimination of such a legacy piece of Renfrew’s story, but here we are, where nothing can be considered to be off the table.
Hard questions need to be asked and answered.
Who does the museum serve? Tourists or locals? Or both? If it’s primarily tourists, that’s an important distinction, because tourists, as fabulous as they are to the local economy, don’t pay property taxes, at least not in Renfrew. Whereas locals do. In this light, does the museum represent a “luxury” that we can simply no longer afford to keep operational, at least in the short term?
Or is the museum a part of the community’s soul, something not to be trifled with or trespassed upon?
It matters little what view you take, and you can have both views. One way or another, the decision around the museum is an important one, and one that has no decided happier result than the other.
Close it and save money, or keep it open and lose money. Both options are showcased against a backdrop of extensive municipal debt, a debt that will overwhelmingly influence the 2025 levy soon to be presented to citizens. The museum will have an impact on that potential levy. Fund the museum and it will contribute to a large percentage increase in property taxes. Close the museum and it will reduce that levy, perhaps not by a ton, but by a discernible amount nonetheless.
Councillor Kyle Cybulski said that Council must open every door and have a look inside to see if expenses are warranted and to determine if savings can be realized. The museum represents one such door.
Councillor Clint McWhirter made a formal motion to open that door and have a look inside. He remarked that the museum had been brought up before in deliberations of councils past, but that it had a third-rail effect of not being something that anyone wanted to touch, especially politically. Nobody wants to be known as the guy who “sold out” the museum.
McWhirter’s motion formalized the effort, in that staff will have to go back and assess the pros and cons of keeping the museum open despite its expense. Staff will report their findings in time for the Second Draft deliberations, whereupon Council will decide to cut or not cut, and if to cut, by how much or entirely.
Plus the political atmosphere is different this time, again a direct result of the pressing debt that weighs down upon the town. No single councillor would have to wear the mantle of the “guy who killed the museum,” since all seven elected politicians have to dirty their hands on something like this. Nobody wants the place to close, and I’d guess that all seven would prefer to keep it open. But that’s not necessarily the environment we’re living in at the moment.
Tough times ahead, and tough decisions to match those tough times. The McDougall Mill Museum is simply one among many.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 