The Winkler Heritage Society is facing some significant challenges.
John Epp, acting chair of the volunteer committee presented to City Council on Tuesday night.
He was not alone. The gallery of the council chambers was full of supporters and volunteer members of the Heritage Society.
Not only is the Society dealing with a financial crunch, but Epp shared they are also losing all three of their spaces this year, which includes the museum and storage space at the Southland Mall. In addition, they have also lost their archive space at the Winkler Library.
"We are being removed from our location in the library for the archives, and I mean we were given notice and that's entirely within their right, but we still must find another location for the archives," said Epp. At least 800 square feet for the archives, "And we have hopes in the future of digitizing our archives and that sort of thing. But that's a project for the future."
At the Southland Mall, the lease that houses the Winkler Heritage Museum will also run out.
"We have a museum that's currently in the Southland Mall. We have about 1500 square feet there, and of course we need more. Museums always do," Epp said with a chuckle. "
Epp noted the Southland Mall has also generously allowed the Heritage Society to store museum artifacts in an unused space at the mall. However, with the upcoming reorganization at the mall, the Heritage Society will lose that space as well.
"And so we're in a crunch right now. We have found some temporary storage, but our lease for the museum itself will be coming up at the end of the year. The plans, as near as I can figure, indicate they will be using our current space together with some others as one location. The rents indicate that they would be over double of what we currently pay," said Epp.
Epp said the ultimate dream is to find a permanent location for the museum, preferably in a heritage building, to house their diverse collection. One location they have had in mind is the old post office building.
Winkler Mayor Henry Siemens said this group has worked very hard to preserve Winkler's history, and they were glad to hear an update.
“Ultimately, they didn't have a specific request from us other than to share what they're going through and the fact that they need some help, and they need some help from the city.”
“We also had a gallery full of people. We rarely have a full gallery, so the fact that many people showed up to present and that many people showed up to support the society's request for help was noticed,” said Siemens. He said it certainly will affect how Council will respond.
“We don't know exactly what that response today looks like. But it is something that we will need to find some way of supporting.”
“I do know that as we step into it and try to figure out where we are, that there will be answers, that there will be ideas. We'll get together with the group to discuss those ideas and see what that might look like and how support might look.”
"This is something that is going to require some pretty fast response on our part,” noted Siemens. “So, we will quickly engage with them."
Siemens said City Manager Jody Penner is already looking into one of the suggestions brought forward by the Heritage Society. He’ll investigate whether it’s possible or what other options there might be to support them.