Museum Wants Dollars for Pebbles; Will Open Space Find Funds?

STONE HARBOR – The room was packed with residents at Borough Council’s March 18 meeting. Some were from the public works department, there to pay respect to Jack Gryning, one of their own, who passed away recently and was being honored with his name on a new logo for the sanitation trucks. Solid Waste Supervisor Craig Reeves designed the logo.
After Public Works Director Grant Russ spoke about Gryning, Mayor Suzanne Walters thanked everyone in the department for their service during the cold winter. A moment of silence was held for Gryning, who 24 years worked for the department.
Museum’s Lack of Space
The majority in the room stayed to hear a presentation by Bob Ashman, trustee for the Stone Harbor Museum. Terrie Cwik, museum president, related recent events before introducing Ashman. “The Stone Harbor Museum opened in 2000,” Cwik said. “The building is owned by the board of education and leased to the borough for museum use. In recent years, it has been determined that a space of at least 2,450 square feet is needed. The present location has 900 square feet.”
“In 2008, the museum accepted an invitation to move into an 1,800-square-feet location in the proposed library,” Cwik continued. “Since then, the expansion plans have been put on hold. Now that the library will be built on the small lot, another location for the museum, which is still growing both in content and in scope, has to be found. The soon-to-be-built library has not enough space to accommodate the museum. It has been determined that the Pebbles guest house would be an ideal location for the museum.”
Ashman then began his presentation by reiterating Cwik’s sentiments that the museum’s location, a seaside cottage at 235 93rd Street, is not big enough to contain the more than 50,000 historical artifacts.
“The mission of the museum,” Ashman said, has always been to “acquire, preserve, display, celebrate and promote archives, artifacts and items relevant to the development of our unique cultural heritage and to delight, inspire and educate the present and future generations about the story of Stone Harbor.”
The Pebbles
Where Cwik stated that a minimum of 2,450 square feet was desirable, Ashman spoke of the museum’s long-range hopes for 3,500-4,000 square feet. This is where the Pebbles came in.
The Pebbles guest house has been a fixture in the borough since 1909. The family-owned building at 9400 First Ave. is one of the oldest remaining structures in the borough and has been on and off the market for the past three or four years. The current owner, John Curto, would like to see it preserved, Ashman said.
“Do you have a written agreement from Curto to purchase the site?” asked Councilmember Joan Kramar.
“He hasn’t signed anything yet, but he would be agreeable to it, if council were to go forward,” Ashman responded. The purpose of bringing the request to council was to obtain its recommendation to Cape May County Open Space board for funding to purchase and maintain the Pebbles for museum use.
Curto, who was in Portugal at the time, could not be reached for comment.
Ashman’s Presentation
Ashman broke down overall costs into two phases for Open Space funding applications.
Phase One is land acquisition and would cost approximately $1.9 million, with no matching funds. If the borough were to go forward with the recommendation, and Open Space granted the monies (and the county approved), Stone Harbor would acquire and own the property. The borough would then lease the Pebbles to the museum for $1 per year.
Phase Two is historic preservation and is estimated to cost approximately $50,000 (with an anticipated $50,000 match of funds). That would cover the cost of an Americans With Disabilities (ADA) compliant elevator plus any other requirements.
The projected annual operating expenses for the museum at the Pebbles is $79,201. That figure includes gas, electric, maintenance, cleaning, $1 for the rent, etc., but the largest sum included in that figure would be $40,000 for an executive director’s salary.
As a part-time employee, the executive director would be responsible for all things museum-related, including fundraising. Ashman said that the museum is waiting to apply for certain grants with the help of the county Director of Cultural Heritage Pary Woehlcke Tell.
“The museum has a plan to create a $1-million endowment to ensure funds would be available for any future capital projects. The building itself is in excellent shape, though,” Ashman said. “The owner put a new roof on five years ago, put new windows in, reinsulated it, put on shingles…”
The target date to request funds from Open Space is June 14 because, according to Ashman, “every month that goes by, additional projects are submitted to the Open Space board for review. The longer we wait, the more projects we compete with.”
Council’s Questions
The first question asked was by Walters. She wanted to know: if the museum was relocated to the Pebbles, would they still need the old museum location? “Not necessarily,” Ashman stated. “Most likely we will not need that building.”
“Wait, so what was the answer?” Council member Joselyn Rich asked.
“The Pebbles has adequate space for what we need now. The only reason we might need the old building is for digitalizing old materials,” Ashman replied.
“OK,” started Kramar. “I’m sure – and I’ll speak for myself – I support this as a museum but right now, I’m not so sure, monetarily. So if it were to come to fruition, you’re anticipating the borough support two buildings, two maintenance, two water bills, two everything else?”
“The only reason we would need the old building would be if that’s the place to do this digitizing work,” Ashman reiterated. “But the plan would be that the Pebbles would be big enough to do all that work. I know that’s sort of a confusing answer…”
“At this point, I really don’t see the need for two buildings unless it was a temporary thing,” interjected Cwik. “There’s ample space at the Pebbles to do the work we need to do. And the boats would be stored at the ground level of the Pebbles. There’s an additional garage there where we would be able to work on the boats and they would be protected there better than they are now.”
Council member Judith Davies-Dunhour wanted to know what the assessed value on the Pebble was. Ashman said it was around $2.5-$2.6 million.
Kramar then asked about membership. Cwik relayed that the museum currently has 324 members and collects approximately $18,000 a year from members.
“We’re going to be asking for larger contributions on top of the regular membership dues,” said Ashman. “As it is now, some people donate more than their membership dues so we suspect that that will continue.”
“I certainly applaud you for setting your goals so high,” said Kramar. “But you are anticipating receiving $1 million from the public. Is that realistic?”
“I think that yes, it’s a pretty good shot,” Ashman said. “There is a lot of wealth in this town by property owners. They tend to be very generous for projects that are important to them. It is possible, but it’s not going to happen all at one time. There will be a campaign that we will start once things get underway.”
Council member Karen Lane thought the $100,000 figure in the budget was a little light for all the renovations needed including the addition of climate controlled rooms. Ashman answered that yes, several architects have given estimates and the biggest cost would be the ADA-compliant elevators.
“I guess one of my concerns is,” Lane continued, “have you considered any alternatives to this that doesn’t have such a heavy cash outlay attached to it?”
Ashman said they have looked at other properties but the Pebbles is their best bet at success.
“Almost every building in Stone Harbor is going to cost at least a million dollars,” Ashman said. “However this proposition has $0 of cash outlay. The money is already there from the property owners who pay 0.11 percent of their real estate tax every year for this Open Space fund. That money is already there. We are trying to come up with a proposition that brings some of that money back for a permanent, good thing.”
Lane continued to say that she was concerned that if the borough were to own the museum and somewhere down the road, it failed and there was no one left to run it, then the borough would be stuck with it. “And then we have the building and there’s nothing we can do with it,” she said.
“If, in the unlikely situation, the museum were to go away, the borough would be able to use the building for any other purpose that would be open to the public, just like you would with a playground or anything else,” Ashman said. Council wasn’t sure of the validity of that statement and they intend to look into it further.
There were other questions that were raised, one of which, from Dunhour, concerned the executive director’s salary. “With a building that size and with the amount of interest I think it would generate, I almost think it couldn’t operate without an executive director…I feel like it’s a good project for the borough to partner with. I just think a challenge would be to count on that grant money each year. That’s a floating figure. I don’t want you to misunderstand me, I love this idea. I just think we need to make it really definitive – where the (grant) money is coming from.”
Ashman, Cwik and other museum trustees are ready to begin planning fundraisers, including parties at the Pebbles, as soon as council decides to go forward with recommending the proposal to the Open Space board.
Public Support
The large public audience in attendance (easily the largest crowd so far this year) got its chance to speak and those who did were in favor of the project.
“I think it is a marvelous opportunity,” said Rev. Wayne Conrad. “I think we need to understand what a potentially important asset it is to the whole community, not only in terms of how we feel about the community but also in terms of architectural value and even taxation value.”
“I think this is an absolutely spectacular idea,” said Douglas Wear. “I can’t imagine a town without the Pebbles building. To see it disappear would be a crime. If I could put my realtor hat on, it is my opinion that if the Pebbles were to be bought by a public person, it would get torn down and rebuilt to be modern. It does not lend itself to being a single-family unit. I would ask the council to consider: how would you feel without this building in Stone Harbor?”
“For somebody that’s packing and moving down here,” said Betsy Bretz, “I went down and looked at that building and wow what a perfect building it is for a museum! When you look at it, I can see people sitting on the wrap-around porch, people looking out on the ocean, and there’s so much space there for a museum. The historical value of that building – my God… This seems to be the real opportunity to be the glue for Stone Harbor. Let’s give it a chance and get something we can all be proud of.”
Other residents also spoke their support, including Sister James Dolores of Villa Maria by the Sea.
Absent Council Member Weighs In
Council member Albert Carusi is also liaison to the Stone Harbor Museum. Carusi was absent from the meeting, but shared his own thoughts with the Herald in a telephone interview. “This has been in the works for awhile,” Carusi said. “The museum folks were looking for a spot when it was proposed to go into the library. But that proposed space was too small. So now they’re faced with the choice of making do with where they are or going after a new space in the Pebbles. It’s a neat location, it has enough square footage and it could really be a beautiful site to show off Stone Harbor’s history.”
Carusi added that he likes the idea of bringing the proposal to the Open Space Board and fully supports it.
To contact Bryon Cahill, email bcahill@cmcherald.com.