Editorial: Museum closure topic of discussion

Over the past week, the question of the closure of the Belleville Area Museum was a topic of conversation at public meetings at Sumpter Township, City of Belleville, and Belleville Area District Library.
Everyone is upset with the way Van Buren Township has handled the museum. VBT, which owns the museum building and its site in downtown Belleville, decided to close the museum and warn people to stay off the property. That was just before Harvest Fest that usually has several historical demonstrations inside and outside of the museum.
Belleville Mayor Kerreen Conley said she called VBT Supervisor Kevin McNamara and told him any other week they could have closed the museum and nobody would have noticed, but not on the weekend of the annual Harvest Fest. She said after that conversation and a meeting at VBT they decided to let people step on the property and even go inside the building briefly to pick up what they needed for Harvest Fest.
Councilman Tom Fielder said, for those worried about historic items they had loaned to the museum, he was told the township will have professional conservators come in and move things to safety before construction begins. Last week they began work on the link between the museum and the building behind, so it doesn’t look like it’s closed forever. VBT promised an open meeting on the subject.