Great Falls Tribune - www.greatfallstribune.com -... -
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Published on: 1/27/2007
Last Visited: 1/27/2007
The Montana Historical Society is moving forward with plans to buy the Capital Hill Mall as the site for its new museum, Director Richard Sims said Friday.
But other locations will remain in play in case the society is unable to reach an agreement with mall owners, he said.
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"The new facility will be in Helena, as close to the Capitol as possible, and the Capital Hill Mall remains the prime piece of real estate we're looking at," Sims said Friday at a weekly meeting of Helena area lawmakers and community leaders.
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"The trustees passed a resolution instructing Richard to vigorously proceed with trying to put together (a deal for) the Capital Hill Mall, realizing all the problems there are there," he said.
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Sims stopped short of saying the society will be prepared to ask for money by the end of the current session.
"I'm not opposed to windfall philanthropy, but we are not in the governor's budget," he said.
Sims said he sent a letter this week to mall owner Westfield Properties, based in Utah, to keep the talks moving forward.
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"We're going to have to get the public involved with major philanthropy - checks with two commas in them," Sims said Friday.