CITY OF HOMER  

HOMER, ALASKA

Mayor/Ladd

RESOLUTION 02-49

 

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF HOMER, ALASKA RECOGNIZING THE KEY ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL SERVICES PROVIDED THE COMMUNITY BY THE PRATT MUSEUM AND IF THE CITY OF HOMER ALLOCATES FUNDS TO NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS IN FUTURE BUDGET CYCLES, A SEPARATE LINE ITEM APPROPRIATION FOR THE PRATT MUSEUM WILL BE ESTABLISHED.

 

            WHEREAS, the Pratt Museum is dedicated to the process of education by exploring the natural environment and human experience relative to the Kachemak Bay region of Alaska and its place in the world, and

 

            WHEREAS, the Homer Society of Natural History, Inc., (the Society) was incorporated August 10, 1955 as a nonprofit organization to operate the Pratt Museum in order to inspire self-reflection and dialogue in its community and visitors through exhibitions, programs and collections in the arts, sciences and humanities, and

 

            WHEREAS, the Pratt Museum is the only accredited and reaccredited museum in the 25,600 square mile area of the Kenai Peninsula and serves a regional population of over 40,000 and hosts around 30,000 visitors each year, and

 

            WHEREAS, indoor exhibits focus on art, natural history, native cultures, Alaskan wildlife, homesteading in the Homer community, fishing, marine ecology, and the impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and

 

            WHEREAS, the Pratt Museum serves the Homer community as the repository of Kachemak Bay history with collections of artifacts, photographs and written records that provide a living history of the community’s past, and

 

            WHEREAS, through the Pratt Museum’s ongoing schedule of events and displays, thousands of visitors are attracted to the City of Homer where other small business and the City of Homer profit from visitor revenues, and

 

            WHEREAS, the Pratt Museum has been recognized nationally on numerous occasions by foundations such as the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment of the Humanities, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and others, and

 

 

Page Two

Resolution 02-49

City of Homer

 

            WHEREAS, the Pratt Museum supports the community through maintaining a highly visible website that features active links to the Homer Public Library, Homer Council on the Arts, and numerous other nonprofit organizations such as the Homer Chamber of Commerce that strengthen the community’s economy, and

 

            WHEREAS, the Pratt Museum has a unique relationship with the City and that the City of Homer will become owner of the museum should the Homer Society of Natural History ever disband and the City and its area citizens are very well served by the museum being an independent entity and not a department of the City, and

 

            WHEREAS, the City of Homer annually supports the economic position of the Pratt Museum through directly appropriating funds to the Homer Foundation which are then distributed to applying nonprofit organizations by the Foundation, and

 

            WHEREAS, August is the month in which the United States Congress in 1846 recognized the value of nonprofit historical museums such as the Pratt Museum through the founding of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 

            NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY OF HOMER HEREBY RESOLVES:

 

1.                  That the Pratt Museum serves as both a key economic and cultural foundation for positive growth and success of the City of Homer, and

2.                  That the Pratt Museum provides the City of Homer a valued service as the repository of records and other materials of our area’s historical past, and

3.                  That the Pratt Museum, like the Chamber of Commerce, is a nonprofit organization with greater economic purpose to the City of Homer than other organizations receiving City funds distributed and allocated through the Homer Foundation, and

4.                  That if the City of Homer dedicates funding toward nonprofit organizations in upcoming budget cycles, the City of Homer will establish a direct line item appropriation for the Pratt Museum as is presently done for the Homer Chamber of Commerce. 

 

PASSED AND ADOPTED by the City of Homer, Alaska this 12th day of
August, 2002.

                  CITY OF HOMER

 

                  __________________________________

ATTEST:                  JACK CUSHING, MAYOR

 

 

____________________________________

MARY L. CALHOUN, CMC, CITY CLERK

      Fiscal Note:  2003 Budget.