BELLEVUE, Neb. (KMTV) – Bellevue is moving forward with plans to open a city-owned museum after the Sarpy County Museum's sudden closure left the community without a place to preserve its history.
- The Bellevue City Council passed an ordinance to create a city-owned museum, planned for the same building where the now-closed Sarpy County Museum sits.
- The Sarpy County Historical Society's board has been given a 60-day extension to vacate the building while volunteers sort through artifacts and the city hires a museum director and makes repairs.
- The Bellevue Museum is expected to open within three to four months, with the city working alongside the historical society to move some artifacts into the new space.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Bellevue is moving forward with plans to open a city-owned museum after the Sarpy County Museum's sudden closure left the community without a place to preserve its history.
The Bellevue City Council passed an ordinance to create its own museum. The plan is to place it in the same building where the now-closed Sarpy County Museum currently sits.
City Administrator Jim Ristow said the trouble began when the Sarpy County Museum announced plans to move to Papillion in 2022.
"For Sarpy to pack up and say they are going to Papillion or wherever they are going to locate, that still meant the first city on Nebraska is not going to have a museum and how are we going to do that."
The museum announced its sudden closure in February. Since then, donors have raised concerns about the artifacts inside and what happened to plans to build a new museum on land near 90th and 370, which the historical society bought for $1 million in 2023.
"We never wanted to lose our museum in the very beginning at all," Ristow said.
Originally, Sarpy County Historical Society board members were given until June 1 to vacate the building. Ristow said museum volunteers asked for more time as they continue to sort through the artifacts. The city extended the deadline 60 days.
During that time, Bellevue will hire a museum director and make repairs to the building.
The city is also helping the historical society store artifacts in a climate-controlled space while the historical society makes a plan for where items will go. Bellevue is also working with the historical society to move some artifacts to the new Bellevue Museum.
I contacted the historical society for comment on this development and had not received a response as of my deadline.
The Bellevue Museum is expected to open within the next three to four months.
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