|
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 The current Kodiak Maritime Museum. Toby Sullivan photo
One day, hopefully, the Kodiak Maritime
Museum will be a real
place you can visit. In the meantime, the museum without walls- headed by Executive Director
Toby Sullivan- is housed in a Harbormaster utility building in Dog Bay.
Sullivan says the office-slash-museum is about 15 feet by 15 feet and packed
with computers, printers and boxes and totes stacked on top of more boxes and
totes.There's also the website, which hosts hours of oral history and numerous
photos detailing Kodiak's colorful maritime past and present.
The
museum was recently awarded a $200,000 grant from the State Legislature to fund
a conceptual design. If the governor approves the grant, that process could start
this year. For now, Sullivan says
they're focusing on choosing a site. Three parcels, all owned by the city, will
be discussed at a meeting tomorrow. Site one is near the public
restrooms at St. Paul
Harbor. Site two is near
Alaska Fresh Seafoods and the third site is near the gazebo on Oscar's Spit. An
engineering study showed that the technical aspects of all the sites are
similar. Sullivan says the site selection will have a lot to do with
aesthetics.
"Which place might have the
best view or which might look best. A lot of people seem to favor site number
three, which is out on the channel by the gazebo, but we want to hear what
people think about all three sites just to see if there is anything we haven't
thought of. We'd like a lot of input on that."
Aerial view of proposed museum sites. Courtesy of Kodiak Maritime Museum
Tomorrow's meeting is open to the public. Sullivan says people should come ready to share
any concerns, suggestions or ideas about how to make the Kodiak Maritime
Museum a reality.
"I think we want to hear from
people on basically where a museum would be a good fit for the downtown area.
We also want to hear if people have reasons why it might not work downtown. We
certainly want to hear why it wouldn't work before it got further down the
line. We'd like to hear what people would like to see in a museum building, but
at this point the big focus is on finding a site for the museum that fits with
people's understanding and appreciation for the downtown area."
The meeting will
be at Fishermen's Hall in the Harbormaster's Building at 7:00 Friday night.
|
