Citing a desperate need for repairs, state and Baltimore County officials pleaded for donations for the state?s premier fire museum as they kicked off its first capital campaign Monday.
The Lutherville museum hopes to raise $500,000 by the end of June 2008 to repair a leaky roof, replace obsolete lighting, build a handicapped-accessible bathroom and install air conditioning, officials said.
Lawmakers meeting at the museum kicked off the campaign with a $100,000 state bond and a $20,000 county grant, but much more is needed, they said.
“We?ve just never really gone out and asked for money before,” said Wendy Codd, the museum?s development director. “We?d like to expand, but first we need to protect.”
Codd said the museum?s low-cost admission and school groups fund the entire operation. But with no air conditioning, the museum can reach 105 degrees in the summer and is forced to close.
The museum could only afford $500 for advertising last year, Codd said, and little expenses?like $1,500 to restore an antique fireman?s hat?add up.
“The lights we have, you can?t even get bulbs for them anymore because they are so old,” she said.
Identifiable only by a paint-chipped sign off a busy stretch of York Road, officials called the museum a state treasure many people don?t know about. Marking its 35th anniversary this year, the museum features more than 40 engines, a working fire alarm telegraph office and audio guided tours of the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.
Immediate donations are critical to the museum?s preservation, said Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who was designated chair of the capital campaign.
“First-responders need resources and this museum needs resources,” Ruppersberger said. “Failure is not an option, folks. We?re going to roll up our sleeves.”
