The Galveston County Daily News

LEAGUE CITY — City officials are negotiating a lease for the Butler Longhorn Museum, the city’s first step toward handing over control to a nonprofit group.

However, the takeover could take up to three years as the Friends of the Butler Longhorn Museum could not afford the $300,000 the city spends annually on museum employees’ salaries, building maintenance and utilities, City Administrator Chris Reed said.

The city had planned to turn over control of the museum to the group when the museum was self-sustaining. Former curator Jennifer Wycoff-van der Wal’s unexpected resignation has sped up that process, city officials have said.

“We’re going to have to ween this project off from the city somehow,” Councilman Tim Paulissen said.

Wycoff-van der Wal might return to head the museum as an outside consultant, because the nonprofit group can’t afford to pay a curator and the city is unlikely to hire her back. The former curator, accused of shredding four records in her personnel file, has said she does not wish to return as a city employee. Her salary was $44,787.

Wycoff-van der Wal resigned April 30, just days after the museum opened to the public. Wycoff-van der Wal, who has denied destroying the records, has declined to comment on why she stepped down.

The museum has since been closed.

Supporters of the museum have been clamoring for Wycoff-van der Wal to come back. Some threatened to pull their donated artifacts if the city didn’t ask her back.

At a Wednesday workshop, Wycoff-van der Wal told city council members that the city needs to fulfill its promises to the cattlemen and other donors who gave money and artifacts to the museum. The museum is nearly finished and requires an infusion of $75,000 to finish the downstairs displays and ready the museum for the public, Wycoff-van der Wal said.

League City has spent about $1.7 million to buy the Walter Hall House and renovate it for the museum. The museum, criticized for delays and cost overruns, has become a political hot potato, Paulissen said. It originally was scheduled to open about five years ago.

Before the city signs a lease, the nonprofit group must present a business plan showing how the museum can be self-sustaining, Paulissen said. He said he would support hiring Wycoff-van der Wal as a contract employee to get the museum open.