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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Museum Of Science And History Advisory Committee - 01/06/2005 111101 Ili10 82526271823 y 0 MINUTES Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History o .`- 70, N Advisory Committee Meeting 7 . : 3 January 6, 2005 .iYS 81 The Museum Advisory Committee met in the Museum's DeDietrich Conferede '$pzofQ1%Not on Thursday, January 6, 2005. Members Present: Sharon Brower, Joe Martinez, ' - • s Riddle, Alex Sadovski, and Linda Scott. The minutes of the December 2, 2004 meeting were unanimously approved. The absences of Joe Martinez were unanimously approved. Business: A. Parking: With the opening of the American Bank Arena, parking has become an issue. That issue was anticipated and a plan is in place to address it, but now it must be managed cooperatively by all entities in the area. . Access: Both visibility and access to cultural facilities has been diminished. The focus of planning has been on events and conventions, with less emphasis on the needs of visitors to cultural facilities. Not all of the street improvements that were part of the arena master plan were funded. Port Avenue will be improved and Tonkawa Street will be improved and extended to Port Avenue providing alternate access routes, but access from Shoreline Blvd. through the Watergarden, which was part of the transportation plan, was not funded. Ongoing construction will make management of parking challenging. The Art Museum expansion beginning later this month will eliminate parking on the north side of the Watergarden and, with it, the ability of buses to drop passengers off on the Watergarden side of either museum. Additionally, the placement of the new Art Museum building may well preclude the possibility of opening the street connection to Shoreline. The Channel Utility Crossing project will take the Museum's Chaparral/Mesquite lot out of service for a three month period. However, for most events and for normal daytime activities, there is sufficient parking. There was considerable discussion regarding these changes. B. Attendance in 2004 was up slightly from 2003. Although school attendance dropped again, school children still accounted for 23% of attendance. A growing percentage(25%) of non- school visitors are from Corpus Christi. Additionally, attendance by local citizens continued to grow in real terms. San Antonio provided the highest percentage (19%) of Texas visitors, while California, Minnesota, and Oklahoma lead visitors from other states. C. The Committee discussed the need to identify strategies to address the Columbus ships and to improve Museum visibility and accessibility. Upon motion by Joe Martinez and seconded by Sharon Brower the committee unanimously agreed to recommend that the Friends revisit the December 1998 Visualized Concept Study proposal from Appelbaum and Associates. D. Rick Stryker reported that the City organization chart was modified returning the Museum to the chain of command headed by Assistant City Manager Margie Rose. A copy of the Museum Advisory Committee's report to the City Council was given to each member. There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m. SCANNED q N N ED J H L