Residents say they were disappointed in ‘sterile’ workshop on museum

The long-awaited Belleville Area Museum Visioning Workshop promised by Van Buren Township to discuss the museum’s future was held June 1 at the Belleville Area District Library next door to the museum and there was a large turnout.
But many who attended voiced disappointment for what they found when they got to the meeting.
Residents of Van Buren Township were invited, along with residents of the City of Belleville, where the museum is located, and Sumpter Township.
Belleville and Sumpter support the museum with yearly donations of $10,000 each to the township which owns the museum in downtown Belleville.
“We walked out in protest,” said attorney Barbara Miller, a resident of Van Buren Township, explaining why she and Keith and Ginger Bruder of Willis were on a park bench outside the library’s front door as the 5 p.m. gathering started.
Claudia and Donnie Roullier of Belleville also left the meeting after they saw what it was, saying they were very disappointed. She said she already took the online survey on the museum and this meeting was asking the same questions she already answered.
Miller said they let the people inside know that they had expected a meeting where people sat in chairs and someone was in front from Van Buren Township to explain what was happening with the museum, which has been pretty-much closed for two years without explanation.
But those who expected such a meeting were disappointed as the layout for the museum gathering was with tables around the walls of the Cozzad room meeting area and visitors expected to put colorful round stickers on boards asking for their age and other questions. There also were sticky notes, so brief comments could be written and pasted on boards set up around the room.
The township’s department directors were placed around the room with some of their staff members and they all encouraged people to put their comments on the boards. There were no elected officials present, at least for the first hour.
This was the same format as the public meeting for the Sumpter Road Corridor Plan that Van Buren Township held last summer in the fire station on Hull Road and also the community center before that.
Miller said there was no way to discuss things that were on her mind, which included having this museum be a cultural center instead of just a museum, so the Council for the Arts and other groups could have headquarters.
Tom Fielder of Belleville, president of the Museum Historical Society, said the public isn’t being encouraged to ask questions, but just to answer the questions on what’s already been decided.
He said he made a list of all the things the museum had been doing and took it to Van Buren Township without response.
Mary Ban of Sumpter Township said she was very disappointed in the workshop.
“The meeting should have been held with in-person comments with the elected officials,” said Ban, who promotes the study of history at public meetings and has been looking forward to this June 1 meeting to find out when they were going to open the museum and what they are doing with it.
Ban said she wanted to ask about the antique items that families have loaned to the museum. Will they get them back if the museum closes? She said a Sumpter official said Sumpter could start its own museum, but she said the tri-community is a family and should stick together in treasuring its history.
“I agree,” said Mary Jane Dawson of Belleville, concerning the way the meeting should have been held. She said she left a message for Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara. “They want a meeting. Talk to them.”
Another person added, “This is a sham. You already know what you want to do.”
Retired attorney Doug Peters of Van Buren Township said the meeting was “ill-conceived” and “poorly planned,” adding it was “cold and mean-spirited.”
He said such a gathering is a good thing to do but do it after a meeting.
“Kevin should be there and stand up and explain himself,” Peters said of Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara. Peters said he was told McNamara was out of town.
“It’s false advertising … in law it’s a bait and switch,” Peters said of the meeting that was expected to be a give and take of ideas. “I like Kevin, but it’s poorly handled.
“The way the previous director left, brings questions about who made decisions,” Peters said, referring to Director Katie Dallos who announced on Facebook that she had been fired.
“It’s pulling the cart without a horse,” he said.
“I expected chairs and Mr. McNamara up front explaining what’s going on,” Dawson said.
Peters said he has lived in other communities and, “In New Hampshire, you’d get ridden out on a rail. This is sterile and cruel.
“That’s what a community is: You look people in the eye and tell them what you know,” Peters said.
Elaine Gutierrez of Van Buren Township defended the procedure for getting input from the public. She said about 15 or 16 years ago, the library had a strategic plan for what they should do in the future and held a session like this in the basement of the Methodist Church. She said they got good ideas this way.