In the first couple of weeks of October, a four month long project reached completion. The old side porch at the museum which used to house the book store was converted into two small rooms. One is a 4 x 6 utility room with cabinets, shelving and a deep sink to enable maintenance on the building and the other room is a 6 x 6.5 first floor restroom which is long overdue.

Another project reaching completion is the editing and proofing of additional Storme funeral home records from Herrin. The records will be printed up when finished and likely will be added to the existing Storme funeral records already on the website.

We also gained access to Ozment funeral home records this year and have been compiling those into digital form. Ozment operated in Marion from ca 1916 up into the 1950’s or so, I believe. When complete, the records will be made accessible as well.

A decision was made at the last board meeting held on Nov. 10^th to develop courses and programs in the coming year for the public. The board budgeted money to install a drop down projection screen and video projector for implementing videos and power point presentations. Courses that are definitely planned will be various levels of genealogy starting at the basic level and working up. Announcements will be made when the courses are available for registration. Additionally, history programs will be occasionally offered to the public as they are developed.

We will be limiting museum access after Thanksgiving down to Saturdays only through the winter months due to the cost of heating the building and will resume the full time schedule on the first of March 2017.

While we are on a limited time schedule through the winter, two rooms will be repainted and maintenance performed. We recently purchased four used glass display cases which are now located in the boy’s bedroom on the second floor that will be converted into a display room with rotating displays of various interest and the native American artifact room will be reworked.