Historical Society may close Gorrie Museum and Convention Museum

Members of the Apalachicola Area Historical Society plan to take up the issue of the possible closure of the John Gorrie Museum at their monthly meeting, slated for 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 30 in the Carriage House of the Raney House Museum.

During development of legislative budget requests for fiscal year 2009-10, all state agencies were asked to submit plans to reduce their annual operating budgets by up to 10 percent.

The spending reduction plan proposed by the Division of Recreation and Parks called for temporary close 19 museums and parks in Florida including the John Gorrie Museum State Park in Apalachicola. These would remain closed until "the state's economy improves and revenues return to normal levels".

"The closing of the Gorrie Museum would be a serious blow to Apalachicola's efforts to develop new economic resources based on museums and historic tourism," said AAHS President Bill Spohrer. "The Oct. 30 meeting of the AAHS will provide the opportunity to discuss this plan and how Apalachicola can mobilize to save the Gorrie Museum."

A spokesman for the state's Division of Recreation and Parks said the 19 state parks in the proposal to temporarily close public access were chosen based on low visitation numbers and revenue compared to relatively high operating budgets.

If closed, these parks will remain under the supervision of a full-time caretaker. Where feasible, the department will do everything in its power to retain displaced staff in other agency positions, said the spokesman.

She said that if faced with closure, current, full- time staff at the affected state parks would have the option to be transferred to other parks. Funding for OPS staff (temporary and seasonal employees who do not receive benefits) at the affected parks would be eliminated or reduced.

The Gorrie Museum saw 3,323 visitors in fiscal year 2007-08, and has one full-time employee, and no OPS staff.

Also slated for possible closure is Constitution Convention Museum State Park in Port St. Joe, which saw 2,534 visitors last year, It too has one full-time employee and no OPS staff.

Another nearby facility slated for possible closure is San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park, which had 10,422 visitors last year. It has one full-time employee, and one OPS staff member.

"DEP's state parks will continue providing high quality service to the public while decreasing expenditure where possible," said the department spokesman. "We fully intend to re-open the 19 parks potentially facing closure when the state's economy improves. While this was a difficult decision, the proposal reflects our effort to reduce expenditure while protecting the greatest number of staff members."