[BCMA] Building Security Issues

Sat Apr 11 10:43:46 PDT 2015

Hi Hazel, 

Here's some thoughts on your problem: 

Marshall your arguments, get your justifications in line, then go talk to the City's lawyer. 
Bring up the danger to the public and city liability if anyone is hurt in a fire, or by the drug paraphernalia. 
If your museum runs school programmes, emphasize risk to children and the resultant liability, risk to city reputation, bad press. 
You need to know what the law states and what the city is willing to do to back you up. 
It might be possible to mitigate the danger in some ways if you cannot get a high enough fence.; close in the porch with glass so it is not accessible after hours, (yes, not authentic in a period building generally, but some did have 'conservatories'), remove bark mulch and replace with nonflammable gravel (again, not authentic, but neither is bark mulch), hedge with holly trees which will grow into an impenetrable barrier, and put in a lockable gate. Build the gate first, let people get used to it, then when the holly goes in, they have little to complain about. Ask for increased police patrols. 
The Craigflower school house museum in Victoria burnt a few years ago. Find out the circumstances and use what you can to reinforce your argument. 

Ultimately, the solution is to find proper housing and treatment for these people, not fence them o ut. Can you talk to the local Salvation Army and get some tips on client management? Maybe host an exhibit of homelessness in Mission? There were lots of homeless men in the Valley during the 1930s Depression - what happened then? My dad talked about washing up at school pumps and sleeping under bridges during the Depression. He taught for decades, got a Masters from U of T and retired as the Director of Instruction for the Langley School District. Some of the current lot of homeless have the same potential. 

Dr. Barbara J. Winter 
Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology 
Department of Archaeology 
Faculty of the Environment 
Simon Fraser University 
8888 University Drive 
Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 

t. 778.782.3325 
f. 778.782.5666 
bwinter at sfu.ca 
www.sfu.museum 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv." <bcma at lists.vifa.ca> 
To: bcma at lists.vifa.ca 
Sent: Thursday, 9 April, 2015 4:09:04 PM 
Subject: [BCMA] Building Security Issues 

Please Help! 

We are facing some security issues at our museum which pertain to the outside space, the museum grounds. Unfortunately, because of the location and style of our building, as well as very limited open hours, it has become somewhat of a local “hangout” where groups of street people will gather, smoke, eat, spread their stuff out etc., along with other undesirable activity, much illegal. The worst part about it is that our 108 year old building is at serious risk. Cigarette butts are constantly snuffed out on the wooden porch or flicked into the nearby bark mulch (even during a 35 degree summer day) plus excessive garbage is always left behind and vandalism to the building is a constant problem; new “tags” are added daily despite us constantly painting over them. Sometimes dangerous garbage (drug paraphernalia) is also left behind, leaving other members of the public as risk. 

I have done a lot of research into possible solutions to the problem and have come to the conclusion, after trying many more subtle approaches, that the only way to keep this from happening is to have our grounds fenced in, monitored for trespassing, and only open during the hours that the museum is open. However, our building (and the grounds) is owned by the District of Mission and leased to the Historical Society for $1 per year, so I have run into the argument that you cannot fence in “public” grounds. As far as I’m concernd, the grounds are just an extension of the Museum and if you can’t wander through the Museum (which is a public building) when it is closed, why should you be able to wander through the grounds? 

Does anyone else have this security situation in place? Do you know of any Museum’s (in Canada) that do? As in, the building is owned, but not run, by the city/district/town and yet the grounds are fenced? I am hoping to find examples of where this does happen to present with my argument. Could anyone suggest any other Museums for me to contact that may have such a system in place? 

Please respond via the listserv or directly to info at missionmuseum.com 

Thank you in advance for any input on this matter, I appreciate any and all help I can get! 

Hazel Godley 

Manager 

Operated by the Mission District Historical Society 

604-826-1011 

info at missionmuseum.com 

www.missionmuseum.com 

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