Who Owns Mountville Museum Collection? [Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA)]

BY DEAN LEE EVANS

Correspondent

Exactly who owns a dress, a rare bank note, hand tools, photos and more than a 1,000 other artifacts that span 199 years of Mountville history and currently reside in a new museum at the Mountville Area Community Center?

"That's a big question," Mountville councilman Harry Morgan said Monday, drawing a punctuation mark in the air with his finger. Council was drawn into the ownership debate of the museum pieces when Morgan, chairman of the general government committee, said operators of the museum recently ran into problems obtaining insurance on the vast collection of items.

The museum opened in early September inside the community center, which was formerly Mountville Elementary School, 120 College Ave.

Every item coming into the museum is photographed, scanned and tagged by volunteers with the intent of having the collection compiled into a searchable database.

But Morgan said insurance underwriters had questions about the ownership of all the pieces coming into the museum, and that has left the collection in the museum, as well as items in storage, in legal limbo.

Morgan said that before insurance can be obtained on the collection - or on the more valuable pieces - the Mountville Bicentennial Historical Committee needs to determine which pieces belong to the museum through donations and which pieces, if any, are on loan.

He cautioned that until the collection is properly insured, the borough could be on the hook for lost or damaged pieces currently in storage or on display in a 700-square-foot room at the community center.

The collection includes butcher scales, a parlor organ, a safe from the Mountville National Bank building, clothing, photographs, signs and other memorabilia spanning the borough's history.

Councilman Lenny Heisey, who was a member of the Mountville Borough Authority before joining council last year, recalls discussion on the authority board that museum pieces would be on loan to the museum "as long as there was a museum."

But that led to discussion of exactly who is the museum?

"No one in the museum can legally accept the donated items because (the museum doesn't) exist as a legal entity in Pennsylvania," Morgan said.

"Right now, they are an unknown entity," he said.

The Mountville Bicentennial Historical Committee, which oversees museum operations, is intended to serve as the precursor to setting up a Mountville Historical Society, which would take over museum operations next year.

However, Morgan said, before that happens, someone would need to take the necessary steps and form a nonprofit organization - something that was never done in the years preceding the opening of the museum.

Council president Paul Chin expressed frustration with the entire matter.

"Once again, we put the cart in front of the horse," he said. "It falls into our lap."

Another matter that needed to be addressed, Morgan said, dealt with who is legally responsible for the museum space itself.

Currently, no lease agreement exists between the borough, the authority or the museum committee and that, too, raised questions during the effort to obtain insurance.

Chin pointed out that the Mountville Library and other organizations operating out of the community center have formal lease agreements with the authority.

Formerly Mountville Elementary School, the building was sold to the borough after completion of the new Mountville Elementary School next door.

The borough subsequently created an authority to manage and operate the property by renting space in the building.

The museum in the building was dedicated in September as the prequel to festivities leading up to the borough's upcoming 200th anniversary next year.

As of the Monday meeting, Morgan said the borough had not spoken to its own insurer about the dilemma with the museum.

Chin said that before the borough brings in its own solicitor to review the issues, council should wait and see what happens after steps are taken to incorporate the museum as a nonprofit organization.

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