Board gives support for Cold War museum

Billy Curl pitched a proposed Alert Facility Cold War museum to the Blytheville City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee, Monday night.

After discussion with Curl over specifics of the museum, which would be housed at the old Eaker Air Force Base, the committee sent a resolution to the full council that was written for them by BGRAA president Barrett Harrison. The resolution states that the city will support the effort to create a USAF Alert Facility Cold War Museum but does not specifically state what form that support will take.

"A group of independent people…were appointed to a committee to see the possible validity of developing a Cold War museum out of the alert center at the air base. So that committee, through a grant that was applied for and awarded through the county, paid for a feasibility study from a company that came out of Pennsylvania, came out and looked at the property and said what a wonderful asset we have," Curl said.

According to Curl, if you compare data from the money earned from similar facilities that have been constructed into museums in other states, the estimated funds for tourism are quite high. The estimated number of people coming to the museum by year three is 50,000 visitors. Curl stated that if you go to the I-55 welcome center, you can find that already close to 2,000 people a year come to look at the air base.

"Where we are now is that we have privately raised funds for about 75 percent of the next step, which is a design cost analysis of what it is going to take if you want everything you want on this committee to happen at one time," Curl said.

The analysis will cost $30,000.

Councilwoman Barbara Brothers asked if the other facilities within the country have dilapidated structures surrounding them. She stated that if the alert facility is restored, much of the rest of the base is an eyesore. Curl stated that at the North Dakota missile silo it is surrounded by nothing but a dirt field.

"You are bringing up problems that I anticipated," Curl said, "And I'll give you one example, all the dilapidated housing that is on the south side of Westminster Village…if you took and bulldozed all that through it, great RV parking pads right there. The infrastructure is there for sewer and water…take the houses down and get rid of that," Curl said.

Councilman John Musgraves asked if the committee was seeking financial support from the city. Curl stated that he was not aware of that request being made and the resolution simply reads "support."

"I think we are just in the crawl, walk, run method. I think we are still in the crawling. We need to crawl through this next study and see if it is worth doing and if they say, ‘Hey yeah, it is,’ then we need to get up and walk a little bit and get more people involved," Curl said.

During the Public Works meeting, director Mark Key received a letter of recommendation for Barker Brothers Asphalt. Musgraves stated that excluding the Franklin work, Barker has done good work for the city in the past, and he did not have an issue using them for the McHaney overlay project. Brothers argued that since the Franklin project did not hold up perhaps the city should give more consideration before hiring them again.

"I think that just because you had that one incident, I don't think that means that you should just not use them again, and they've done real good work for us in the past. I'm sure that some other things played a role in the Franklin Street situation," Musgraves said.

He further explained that the weather was not appropriate for the job.

Brothers stated that Barker is the specialist and they should have warned the city of those situations, but they didn't and let the city spend money on the project anyway.

"Can we have some kind of contract for a time span to hold up? I feel like they were the specialist, and they should have told us," Brothers said.

Committee chair Councilman L.C. Hartsfield seconded the motion by Musgraves to hire Barker for the project.

He also asked if Key could look into a specific recipe for the asphalt like the state does.

Key also stated that the city has taken down seven houses this year and that the mayor has praised the department for the work in that effort.

Key asked if the committee could increase the department's sanitation budget to $80,000 so they could continue their efforts throughout the year.

gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com