At last week’s city council meeting Mayor Bill Diak and the city council voted to fund the Powell Museum and Visitor Center $70,000 for fiscal year 2018-2019.

The Powell Museum and Visitor Center originally asked council for $78,000 at the May 23 city council meeting, during which the mayor and council voted to fund them only $60,000 for fiscal year 2018-2019 and to suspend their role as the city’s official visitor center.  Councilmen Mark Cormier and Darby McNutt were absent at the May 23 meeting.
Since then both Cormier and McNutt have argued in support of Powell Museum and Visitor Center, with McNutt arguing that the Visitor Center should get the $78,000 it originally asked for.

The role of the visitor center to the city of Page has been heavily discussed and debated since then, and voting on its budget was tabled until last week’s meeting when more city council members could be present.

Powell Museum Director Cheri Brown was happy with the outcome.

“I think in the big picture we’re quite pleased they at least kept us at last year’s funding,” she said.”

In fiscal year 2019-2020 the city’s funding for the Powell Museum and Visitor Center is scheduled to drop to $60,000.

The main reason the museum asked the city for $78,000 was to cover increases in their employees’ wages due to the increase in Arizona minimum wage, said Paul Ackerman, vice president of the Powell Museum board of directors.

Over the last few weeks the city and museum has changed the language on their contract which  will allow the museum to set their own hours of operation as well as the hours their employees work. Having the flexibility to allow employees to work fewer hours during the museum’s slow time will help them trim their operational budget, said Brown.

The mayor and all the council members voted to approve funds for the visitor center for $70,000 for fiscal year 2018-19 with the exception of councilman Mike Bryan, who was absent, and councilman Darby McNutt, who voted nay, because he wanted the visitor center to receive the full $89,000 they originally requested.

He’s also against the new contract which decreases the visitor center’s budget each year for the next four years.

“In my mind, it’s irresponsible and unfortunate that the city thinks we don’t need a visit center,” he said. “A big part of Page ‘s business model is tourism and we [the city] should do what we can to fee that economy.

“This is one of the few opportunities the city has to reinvest our taxpayers’ money in a way that benefits of the businesses in town and comes back to them. I’d wager that for every dollar we spend on the visitor center that four or five dollars goes back to the community.”