by James Coulter
The Lake Wales History Museum will be receiving more than $26 thousand for much-needed renovations to its Yellow Depot building now that the City Commission has approved the expenditure.
At their regular meeting on Tues. Nov. 5, Lake Wales city commissioners voted unanimously to approve its consent agenda.
One agenda item pertained to an expenditure of $26,926.41 to Semco Construction, Inc. for renovations at the Museum’s Yellow Depot building.
The expenditure will be used for repairs to the Yellow Depot building’s windows and walls. Specifically, a ceiling grid will be added to help regulate temperature inside the building.
Currently, the building is being used by the museum’s curator to store artifacts and to perform their curator duties.
However, due to the lack of a framed ceiling, the building’s HVAC system is unable to maintain a proper temperature for the museum’s operations.
“By performing the renovation of adding a ceiling grid and tile system this will reduce the area that will need to be kept at the proper temperature for the museum’s operations,” Mark J. Calvert, Public Works Operation Manager, wrote in the city memo for the agenda item.
“In addition to the ceiling grid there will be new LED light fixtures added and some HVAC additions added for the new ceiling,” he continued.
The Lake Wales City Museum recently celebrated its grand re-opening on Fri. Oct. 25.
“While we originally planned for all of our updated exhibits to be completed and open to the public by our re-opening event ‘Beers with Pioneers’, due to ongoing construction, building restoration, and hurricane-related delays, the museum has made the decision to open our updated exhibits in phases,” a Facebook post on Tues. Oct. 15 stated.
The post continued: “As we continue our phased reopening, we will share progress updates and announce the opening of new exhibits on our website, Facebook, and Instagram pages. The Lake Wales History Museum remains committed to being a valuable community resource during this time.”
Museum Director Angela Rosado, in an e-mail, explained that the museum’s main Pink Depot had a bid placed by the city to replace its roof. The bid was placed on Thurs. Nov. 7, and bids are being reviewed at this time.
