Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - DCHS and MNHS pair up on Sibley Historic Site - 9/13/2015DCHS and MNHS pair up on Sibley Historic Site
Jesse Poole
news editor
Linda E. Andersen/
Review
Mendota
Garden Club
Mendota has seen a little spike
members
in volunteer gardeners outside
Janice Jaworski,
the Sibley House, working to sep-
Rin
left, and Beth
arate the flowers from the weeds
Olson work
around the relatively small Sibley
on the gardens
Historic Site.
, `'
�, outside the
According to Leslie Radloff,
t Sibley House
chair of the Sibley Site Commit-
►' '' * a
in Mendota.
tee, this recent boost in land-
scaping comes in the wake of an
agreement between Minnesota
Historical Society and Dakota
County Historical Society to part-
staff the site and create programs
"It is our goal to work to raise
the of the Sibley House and
ner up on operating the site.
That means there will be more
for its visitors, while MNHS will
continue to preserve and maintain
profile
to make people more aware of it
staff, more programs and more vis-
the site and its collections.
as an important and central site,"
itors; hence the effort to tidy up
To be inviting, you have to look
Achartz said.
ahead of time.
"The gardens had been taken
inviting," Radloff said.
According to Tom Achartz, pres-
'This is a partnership'
over, Radloff said. It may be gor-
but way out of con-
ident of the DCHS board of trust-
ees, this change means multiple
DCHS, which is in the process
of working to stabilize its funds
geous, also
trol."
things, one of which is the goal to
see Sibley on page 3
Come January, 2016, DCHS will
invite a wider audience.
t't T1
South-West Review
Sibley...
continued from page 1
from past years of defi-
cit spending, is planning
to "take it slow," Achartz
said.
But, according to Ben
Leonard, manager of
community outreach and
partnership for the his-
toric sites and museums
decision of MNHS, as the
local society makes its
plans it can also count on
the support of its state-
wide cohort.
"This is a partnership,"
Leonard said. "We don't
expect any of our part-
ners to bear the financial
burden of taking on a
new site."
Leonard explained
that the decision to part-
ner was based "solely on
what was best for the
site."
"We were looking at
Sibley and looking at
dreams and aspirations
of where the site could
be," Leonard said. "We
thought that a partner-
ship would be the best
way to reach those goals."
Those dreams, accord-
ing to both Leonard and
Achartz, include revital-
ized programs and addi-
tional open hours.
"It was a win-win,"
Achartz said. "It's a very
important historical site
within our county....
We're all really looking
forward to 2016."
Beginning in Janu-
ary, Andrew Fox, who's
worked for both DCHS
and MNHS in vary-
ing capacities over the
past several years, will
become the interim site
manager of the Sibley
Historic Site, and accord-
ing to Achartz, has
already begun planning
programs for the future.
Until then
"It really is just a win
for the site, a win for
Minnesota Historical
Society, it's a win for
Dakota County and a
win for the public," said
Leonard. "It's just the
best way to provide more
programming and more
opportunities for the
Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015 Pacle 3
Linda E. Andersen/Review
"[The partnership] really is just a win for the site, a win for the Minnesota
Historical Society, it's a win for Dakota County and a win for the public" says
Ben Leonard, manager of community outreach and partnership for the his-
toric sites and museums division of Minnesota Historical Society, speaking of
the partnering of MNHS and Dakota County Historical Society for the Sibley
Historic Site.
public to engage with the
history of Sibley."
Meanwhile, until the
partnership comes into
effect, Radloff said, visi-
tors will find a newly -
energized group of volun-
teers working to "spiff up
the grounds."
Jesse Poole can he reached at
jpoole@lillienews.com or at
651-748-7815. Follow him.
at twitter.com/JPooleNews.