The Greater Redmond Historical Society hopes to open a new historical museum in Redmond with exhibits documenting Redmond High School graduate Gov. Tom McCall, the military and airport, tales of the early railroad, housing and life of early settlers, and the city’s famed potato story.

The historical museum’s board of directors has submitted a business plan to the City Council in hopes of finding the best way to present Redmond’s history after the Redmond Museum closed earlier this year.

The historical society serves as caretaker for nearly 4,000 city-owned artifacts and operated the Redmond Museum in the Lantz Building on Seventh Street from 2009 until the museum had to pack up its exhibits when the city planned to redevelop the building.

Now, the group of volunteers can start the discussion with the City Council at Tuesday’s council workshop about what the future holds.

“We had a lot of time to talk about what we wanted while we were packing things up,” said society president Judy Fessler.

“We were pretty good getting our goals together and we know where we need to be so I hope they ask a lot of questions.”

The plan includes one-, three- and 10-year goals regarding funding, memberships and volunteers. This year will mark the third consecutive summer that the museum has not been open to the public and the memberships have suffered, Fessler said.

“Right now we don’t have any active members,” she said. “We have really suffered not having a museum open for people to come look through.”

The group of volunteers hopes to acquire 50 members and 20 volunteers in the first year and 500 members and 100 volunteers by year 10, according to the plan. The plan also includes a part-time assistant in the first year to help navigate the process of reestablishing a museum.

The society and the museum board of directors worked closely with Steven Curley, director of the Small Business Development Center at Central Oregon Community College. Curley helped establish the business plan that the Redmond city staff had asked for in December.

The business plan includes the idea to establish history in public places that will help the community become more familiar with the society, Curley said.

“Having a location would be the ultimate goal, but there are some interim steps that can be done,” he said. “There might not be a building today or tomorrow but the goal is to get recognition in public places that would ultimately lead to a space in the future. It’s going to take funding, but we have a plan that would get them there eventually. They are a solid group that is passionate about the history of Redmond and passionate about bringing that to the community.”

The society will meet with the City Council to go over the business plan so that the council will have a better understanding of how it should get involved, said Keith Witcosky, city manager.

“There’s not going to be any action in Tuesday night, but what council needs to do is hear about the different options that exist regarding where the museum could go next,” Witcosky said. “We will get a better understanding of what subsidy is needed to for the museum to have a presence in the community.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829, acolosky@bendbulletin.com