Dunn County Historical Society Fundraiser

The HVAC system at the Dunn County Historical Society has failed, both making it difficult to heat and cool the building and endangering the collections at the Rassbach Museum. I spoke with Melissa Kneeland from the historical society. This is the video of the zoom call and a machine transcript:

MK - So we, we decided to first to send out we've been working hard on making new ways to reach our members more regularly. And we primarily had been sending out physical mail. And we've been working on this new e newsletter that we're just do once a month just to update folks on programming and, and things like that. So we're in more constant contact. And when the after the second HVAC went, and then Westconsin so amazingly stepped up. To do this match, we decided we would first send out the call to our members and and send that out through email. And then our plan was basically kind of in two parts that will three parts really, because Wisconsin is also sharing the, the donation information on their television screens and things like that, that they have their drive up. So that was that's kind of one aspect of it. And then we also have our E newsletter that we sent out. And then halfway through the month, our goal was to then do the Facebook part of the drive kind of the more public end of the drive. So we would do it in a couple of different phases. So

Steve Hanson 1:36
Okay, so why don't you tell me about what has happened and why?

MK 1:41
Well, so you know, we are building this the Rossbach site is a building was built in 1998. And so we have these four HVAC systems on this side of the building, and HVAC is the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, really the thing that keeps our building a steady temperature and humidity. And so these units that we have are going on 25 years old. And and we knew that that the time was coming that they would potentially need to be replaced. And so we're kind of slowly but surely putting aside funds to make sure that we could replace them as they failed. But the cold snap that we had this winter was so long and so cold that two of the units actually ended up the heat exchange just cracked.

The first one happened, and we thought, okay, we thought this might happen, we've got some funds set aside and we'll deal with that. Then, only a few weeks later, the second one went. And not only the first one was in an area of the museum that's actually like exhibits and had enough airflow that that it was okay. The second unit that went is in our what we call the collections area, and that is where all of the or the majority of the artifacts, photographs, papers that we store for the county are kept. And it was the cold Not only is an issue, of course, any extreme in temperature is not good for preserving artifacts. We're having a lot of those extremes. It's Yeah, exactly, exactly. those extremes really, really are bad news. And we want to do our best, of course, to hold our museum to the highest standards possible for preserving everyone's beloved pieces of their families and their history. And so the issue was was so we sent out that that message, and not only is the cold, of course an issue, but summer is not that far away. Um, and the humidity is is, I would say an even bigger risk. Um, and so getting getting the funds together to get that h vac system in place so that we can keep the transition from that heat to the air conditioning to keep the temperature control as even as possible is is a vital importance for us. That was a long winded answer, but

Steve Hanson 4:47
Everything is long-winded if you know anything about so how much of a crisis is this moment? I mean, are you going to be able to get through the next few weeks or?

MK 4:59
The thing that we have done in order to regulate the temperature at this point is we have the doors open, all of the access doors to our collections area, which generally for not only security, but also again, temperature regulationinstalled. So

, we don't do. But those are open and we have fans running, to keep the air flowing. And then we just are monitoring that monitoring that situation. So um, so we are, we're making it making it work until until we can finish and get those funds together to have the second unit 

Steve Hanson 5:55

If people want to help out with this, how would they go about that?

MK 5:58
Yes. So it to help out, what people can do is we have a couple of different ways. I will be sharing on our social media, donate button for PayPal. But if you're on PayPal, and you look up the Dunn County Historical Society, you can donate there, and you can make a note that it's for the HVAC you can just put HVAC, if folks want to write a check, you can also send a check to our PO box, which is PO box 437. And that's just right in Menominee here, and you can put HVAC in the memo line. And folks can also give us a call, if you want to do a credit card over the phone, we can do that as well. And that's just at the museum phone number, which is 715-232-8685. So all of those different ways. If you have questions about it, too, you can give us a call and I can give you more information if you need that as well. Sorry, go ahead.

Steve Hanson 7:08
Oh, thank you. Anything else that you want to say?

MK 7:11
Folks can also, if you wanted to learn anything else about all the exciting stuff we do have going on at the museum, you can go to our website, just www.dunnhistory.org. Again, Facebook, under the done County Historical Society or on Instagram too. So we've got lots of different ways to contact us. And we are just, we're just over the moon that once again, this community in this county has is stepping up to show support to help preserve our shared story. And of course, that Wisconsin has been such an amazing community partner, and is really making this happen for us so that we can continue to continue to do our work.

Steve Hanson 7:59
All right. Well, thanks a lot. I've been talking to Melissa Kneeland from the Dunn County Historical Society about their HVAC problems and what you can do to help and thanks for talking to me.

MK 8:09
Well, thank you so much, Steve. Have a great day. Bye-bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai