Chapel Hill Museum postpones meeting with town

NOTE: Wednesday's Chapel Hill News has a story on a planned meeting between the town and Chapel Hill Museum. The meeting was postponed today, after we went to press. Here is an update:

A meeting between the town and Chapel Hill Museum planed for Wednesday has been postponed.

The museum board asked to move the meeting to some time after Aug. 23, Town Manager Roger Stancil said today.

The museum on East Franklin Street closed July 11 after not getting as much operating money as it requested for the new fiscal year. The museum board also wanted the town to begin absorbing the private museum into town government, as it had the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission.

The museum board had asked for today’s scheduled meeting to discuss what went wrong between the two entities. The museum’s decision to close surprised the council. But museum co-chair Donald Boulton said he repeatedly communicated the importance of the town’s taking the museum over in order for it to stay open.

“I’m seeking clarification,” Boulton said Monday, “because I haven’t gotten any.”

Some local residents and the mayor of Morgnaton, N.C., who visited recently, have written letters criticizing the mayor and Town Council. Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt responded by saying museum officials rejected a deal that could have kept them open.

Civic leader Robert Seymour, a retired minister, asked community members to join him in donating money to the museum. But only six donations have come in, including from Seymour, totaling about $1,700, treasurer Stephen Rich estimated.