Now, with the decision to create a cultural resources leader position, who also will spend time at the T.J. Davis Recreation Center, the city is beginning a push to recharge the museum.
Rodney Pierce, who has been working with the city since September of 2011 as an administrative support assistant and local government channel administrator, was chosen for the position, City Manager Joseph Scherer confirmed earlier this week.
The selection of Pierce puts the city in a position to begin using the museum more as was intended when it first opened in 2007.
“It’s an asset that needs to be utilized more,” Scherer said. “It’s such a nice facility. It will give the museum some additional exposure so it can be utilized for economic development and tourism.”
The Canal Museum at dusk.
With no one manning the museum fulltime it became difficult to stage events and field trips, the city manager said.
The city has already had conversations with the Halifax Convention and Visitors Bureau to recruit more regional events like a companion race to the Canal Half Marathon. “I think it’s an excellent facility,” Scherer said. “It’s well kept up and the Canal Trail is an outstanding natural resource.”
The hiring freeze, Parks and Recreation Director John Simeon said, limited the amount of program opportunities that could be held at the museum. “Our numbers went down significantly, our tours were down significantly, which in turn brought our revenues down.”
The city was not able to keep up with traffic numbers on the Canal Trail. “We’ve not had school and educational field trips.”
Closing was never an option, Simeon said. “It’s an asset to the city and the Roanoke Valley area. There is a lot of grant money involved and we have to follow the grant guidelines. Closing was never put on the table.”
The city began talks about two months ago to see how to revitalize the museum. “The Friends of the Museum came forward with others to look at discussions on how to revitalize the asset,” Simeon said.
They chose Pierce as a piece of the puzzle to help spur that revitalization. “Rodney has a lot of skills he can bring to the revitalization — his professionalism, his outgoing personality and people skills. He has superior knowledge about social media, which will be a key component of this revitalization.”
Simeon also cited Pierce’s current work with the city as being one of the important factors for choosing him for the position.
In this position Pierce will do some programs and the library has already started having its reading club at the museum. The Parks and Recreation department has also announced the last day of its summer camp program will be held at the museum.
For Pierce, his first few days on the job have been a learning experience. “I’m pretty much trying to immerse myself in the museum and learning as much as I can.”
He is also trying to come up with ideas on his own with the city’s blessings that will work to revitalize the museum. He has already reached out to the chamber of commerce for assistance in getting connections.
Pierce has already acclimated himself to the building’s history, learning the early proponents of the canal for business and power generation as well as the engineering and architecture that went into building the canal and its locks with stonemasons and slave labor.
“I feel very blesses to work in my local municipality,” said Pierce, who in the fall will begin working on a masters certificate that will eventually lead to a full masters.
Pierce, who brought his family in for a tour of the museum, said he wants to see it used. “I want to see young people learn about their history. There’s a lot of history and a lot of firsts. I’d like to see a lot of education tours. The museum is oozing with potential and should be a beacon of pride for the people of our county.”
There are no immediate plans for expansion. The immediate goal, Simeon said, “Is to get people back in the museum, get it back in the public eye.”
