Extra state funding pushes M of H museum budget to $10M

Gainesville Mayor Tommy Moore and NCTC Chancellor Brent Wallace revealed this week that state officials have kicked in another $5 million to raise the overall budget to $10 million for the museum. Half of the new money will go to hire a curator for the facility and do more educational programming, while the rest will allow for more meeting spaces, an eternal flame to honor past Medal recipients and more extensive interior design.

Moore said the original plan was to have the museum ready for next year’s Medal of Honor Host City celebrations, which are set for April 24-27; however, when the extra money came through, he and the committee thought it best to add a few things to the plan and take the extra time to complete it.

“It’s going to be a meeting place for the community, not just a place to go look at artifacts,” Moore told the Register this week. “We really owe to the legislature for helping us out like this.”Wallace pointed out that no local money will be needed to finish building or to staff the museum, which is set to open early next summer.

Wallace pointed out that no local money will be needed to finish building or to staff the museum, which is set to open early next summer.

“We’re not dipping into any tax revenue locally. We haven’t touched that for that museum, and we’re not even touching any other kinds of monies. It’s paid for itself,” Wallace said. “It’s gonna be a beautiful facility. We’re going to use a portion of those monies (the extra $5 million) to help sustain it.”

For more information about the Medal of Honor Host City program, visit https://medalofhonorhostcity.com/.