Musem board sets date for meeting with fair board over items on fair grounds

The H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum Board announced today it has set a date to meet with the Great Northen Fair Board to draft a memorandum of understanding about museum items on the Great Northern Fairgrounds.

Museum board Chair Lela Patera said the meeting is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Havre Inn and Suites.

The boards have been in contention for about a year about which board is responsible for items the museum has on the fairgrounds, including a Great Northern Railway caboose, farm equipment, the Faber Schoolhouse and the Homestead Shack.

The museum used to be housed in the building on the fairgrounds that now houses the fair office.

In the 1990s, the museum moved into the former U.S. post office and federal court, now named Havre Historic Post Office on the 300 Block of Third Avenue.

It later moved into Holiday Village Mall, then the museum foundation bought the building on the 10 Block of Fifth Avenue that housed Griggs Printing to be the future home of the museum.

The foundation and board are in the process of preparing that building to house the museum, which is still located on the east end of the Holiday Village.

After the fair board started discussing using the caboose on the fairgrounds, the museum board informed the fair board the caboose belonged to the musuem.

The two boards have been discussing who exactly is responsible for care, cleaning and maintenance of the museum items at the fairgrounds since then.

The meeting Thursday is to draft a memorandum of understanding on which board is responsible for what with the items on the fairgrounds.