This is an artist’s rendering of what the current Osoyoos Home Building Centre on Main Street should look like when it becomes the new home of the Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives, which is scheduled for early 2020.

The leadership group with the Osoyoos & District Museum and Archives is excited now that the window for applying for major provincial and federal grants has opened as the museum prepares to move into its new home in the spring of 2020.

Mat Hassen, the president of the board of directors with the museum, made a presentation to Town of Osoyoos council on Monday detailing how all of the major grants the board will be applying for are either available or soon will be.

With the museum board planning to take ownership of the current Home Building Centre on Jan. 1 of 2020, the board is preparing to submit funding requests to numerous provincial and federal organizations and foundations in the coming weeks and months, said Hassen.

“We are now in the window of applications for grants … as most are in the 18 to 24-month window,” said Hassen.

There are numerous federal and provincials agencies and foundations that accept applications for funding for projects of this nature and the board will be applying to all of them, said Hassen.

The Osoyoos Museum was originally scheduled to move into its new home in the fall of 2016, however, council extended its current lease until the spring of 2020 in order to save numerous jobs at the successful home building centre.

Following this announcement, Hassen and the rest of their board expressed their disappointment, but rallied around a new plan they called “Our Vision is 2020” to move into the building in the spring of 2020.

Plans by Home Building Centre’s head office in Ontario to build a modern new retail outlet near the Osoyoos Airport were scrapped at that time due to what the company called “economic realities” and the retail outlet has continued to operate on Main Street without any further word of a new location in Osoyoos.

Hassen told council on Monday that several supporters involved in finding a new home for the Osoyoos Museum have been involved more than a decade and they are excited the new building remains scheduled to open in two years.

“We still have a very long way to go and we will be successful,” he said.

The budget for the new museum remains $2.5 million with $2 million of that going towards the purchase and upgrading of the building and the remaining $500,000 going towards exhibits, said Hassen.

The funding that is currently in place includes $500,000 from a capital reserve fund, $60,000 in a Legacy Fund and $125,000 in committed donations, for a total of $685,000, said Hassen.

The museum board remains confident that the majority of funding that needs to be raised will be generated through provincial and federal grants as well as private donations, he said.

“Continued community support is essential,” he said.

Numerous local residents have indicated a willingness to make generous donations once it’s confirmed the museum board will take ownership of the building in early 2020, said Hassen.

Donations of cash, goods and services and artifacts to the museum are expected to pour in “only when they are housed in a safe and secure environment,” said Hassen.

An organization called Canada Helps, which allows organizations like the Osoyoos Museum board to accept donations online, is also being looked at, he said.

The board is moving forward with the idea that it will take ownership of the building on Jan. 1 of 2020 and that renovations and upgrades, as well as installation of exhibits, will take several months and the new museum will open to the public in late spring or early summer, said Hassen.

In order to meet this timeline, it’s expected the museum board will start making inquiries of getting a contractor in place beginning in early 2019, he said.

Kara Burton, the executive director at the museum, said the society was established in 1963 “for the express purpose of collecting, protecting, preserving and providing access to artifacts and information regarding the history of the Osoyoos area.”

Burton and one other full-time employee work with a group of more than 20 volunteers to provide quality exhibits and artifacts to museum visitors.

The annual budget remains at approximately $100,000, which varies depending on the success or lack of success with grant applications, she said.

Osoyoos Museum hosted seven open house events in 2017 and is holding another one this coming Saturday, she said.

Partnerships with the University of British Columbia Okanagan and the University of Victoria will continue and a second annual Great Osoyoos Day of Adventure is also planned in 2018, she said.

Walking and group tours as well as school group visits and visits to local classrooms will continue and anyone wishing to volunteer will be given tasks they enjoy, she said.

Five of the nine interpretive signs spread across town have been damaged through graffiti or vandalism and the board is getting a price to fix those signs in the near future, she said.

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times