By Kevin Bessler - Illinois Radio Network
Illinois lawmakers are urging representatives from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation to work out their differences in mediation.
Earlier this month, the museum cuts ties with the foundation after neither side could come to an agreement on a memorandum of understanding.
Representatives told a House Committee that it tried for several months to come to an agreement with the foundation but were met with silence.
“We have made every effort to be professional and diplomatic in our public comments about the foundation, but I have to tell you bluntly, I’ve never experienced anything close to this level of stonewalling or hostility,” said Melissa Coultas, acting director for ALPLM.
Photo: Saga Communications
Forget the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Check out this display by the leaders of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum … and the private fund-raising foundation which is no longer affiliated with it.
Interim museum director Melissa Coultas says she was never able to secure a new memorandum of understanding.
“Our patience with the foundation’s delay tactics is over,” Coultas told a meeting of the House Tourism Committee Thursday evening. “We have been told that we can’t move forward without trust, and we agree. Illinois taxpayers should no longer accept the nearly two decade long nod-and-wink from a foundation that wont even reveal its financial value to the state.
–Frank Zappa Now that I m immune – the second shot kicked in full force last weekend – I wonder what I should do. Are buffets safe? Are any left? Was I better off without all-you-can-eat fried chicken at the VFW and bottomless blue cheese dressing at the Hy-Vee salad bar? Probably, but no matter. Life, or its demise, is built from little things, cholesterol and saturated fat included. Speaking of buffets, toilet paper shortages seem eons ago. Covidiots without masks don t bother me as much. It s too soon to know anything for sure, but maybe a thrice-postponed flight to visit folks on the West Coast will come true at the end of May. The Summer Camp music festival in Chillicothe, a Memorial Day weekend tradition canceled last year, is on for August. No word about redneck fishing in Bath, but school crossing guards are out again.