12/19/2013 Exceptional Experiment: Discover! Children’s Museum Celebrates Success, Looks to Future

Future: Discover! Children’s Museum Exceeded Expectations, Seeks Support for Permanent Location
December 19, 2013
By Kyle Spurr, The Chronicle

The pilot Discover! Children’s Museum in the past 11 months showed organizers the Lewis County community is ready for a full-scale children’s museum. 

With the experimental pilot museum exceeding all expectations, organizers are now pursuing land off of the Chamber Way exit, near Home Depot, in Chehalis to build a permanent fixture. 

“We really need something like this in the area,” Marilynn Chintella, interim director of the pilot museum, said. “There is nothing else like it in the area.” 

The experimental pilot museum opened in the Twin City Town Center in February for a six-month trial run that was later extended through December. As of Sunday, more than 14,600 adults and children had paid admission to the museum, nearly tripling projected attendance. 

The pilot museum will officially close on Sunday, Dec. 29. Admission will be free that day. 

The Children’s Museum Advisory Group, which operates under the nonprofit Friends of the Chehalis Community Renaissance, agreed this week to explore a 1.2 acre site by Home Depot on Chehalis-Centralia Airport property. 

“The board is ecstatic. We feel rejuvenated and have more refreshed energy now that we know we have this plan in our future,” Chintella said. 

Allyn Roe, the Children’s Museum Advisory Group vice chair who is also the airport manager, said the permanent museum will cost about $3 million to build and will be leased at market value. 

The city of Chehalis, which recently took sole ownership of the airport, will be the landlord, Roe said. 

Organizers will start early next year on designs and working out the details of a lease with the city.

Currently, a 20-year lease is being considered, Roe said.  

The new museum is expected to be about 18,000 square-feet, larger than the current 3,300 square-foot rented space.

Roe said the advisory group is also considering renting some of the new space to early childhood development programs and local preschools. 

Groundbreaking on the permanent museum is not scheduled until this time next year. 

Organizers will use the coming year to spearhead a fundraising campaign focused on private contributions and grants to reach the $3 million mark, Roe said. 

“We are now evaluating the feasibility of the site and constructing a new building out there” Roe said. “What we have identified so far are exploring the areas of private contributions, foundation grants and exploring any possibility for public funding.” 

Once the new museum is constructed, it will cost about $115,000 to cover operational costs such as salaries for four to five employees, Roe said. The pilot project was run using all volunteer support. 

Many of the popular exhibits at the pilot museum, including the “Power of Air,” green screen and train table, will be placed in storage until the new museum is built. 

Other items will be returned to donors, Chintella said. 

When determining a location for the permanent museum, the advisory group put a significant emphasis on a place with visibility, ample parking and a high drop-in rate. 

Of the nearly 15,000 paid attendees at the pilot museum, about 5,000 were drop-in visitors, according to the advisory group. That is a drop-in rate of about 30 percent. 

“We believe that the only location that has sufficient volume of traffic of folks with young children with them is somewhere in the vicinity of Walmart, which has by far the highest traffic volume of any retail location in Lewis County,” the advisory board wrote in a memorandum sent Wednesday to the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team.  

Despite the success of the pilot museum, Chintella said, its time to move into a bigger space. 

Chintella said the new museum could hold more exhibits for older elementary and middle school kids. The museum could also host more weekend events and birthday parties, she said. 

“If we stay here we are not getting any better,” Chintella said. “With that said, for the pilot this has been the absolute perfect location.”