Garbage Museum Denied Fundraising Extension, Will Close Immediately

An ambitious fundraising effort to plug a roughly $200,000 hole in its operating budget came up short, and the Garbage Museum will close in 2011.

"They wanted to see promises and checks," said Paul Nonnenmacher, director of public affairs for the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, whose board of directors voted Thursday to close the Garbage Museum immediately.

Nonnenmacher said had an amount of about $100,000 in fundraising been shown to the board today, an extension to keep fundraising may have been granted. But only $68,000 had been raised as of today, which all came from area municipalities in commitments tied to the amount of trash recycled at the facility adjacent to the educational children's museum.

Staff at the 16-year-old museum had hoped to win $50,000 in grant money as part of an online voting contest called the Pepsi Refresh Project.

"[The board of directors] knew about it," said Nonnenmacher. "And while we were running very strong, it's not a promise."

As of Thursday afternoon, the Garbage Museum was number 11 in the $50,000 tier. The top 10 in the tier potentially receive $50,000 each. Winners are announced at the end of the month.

Over the past month museum personnel sent out applications to several different types of organizations soliciting funds, but none have been returned, said Nonnenmacher, adding that at this point it would take "a couple home runs" for the board of directors to reconsider their decision.

"I got to say I admired the way they hung in there," Nonnenmacher said of the museum's staff, which consists of two part-time educators and one full-time employee. "They have done everything to try and preserve that museum."

Nonnenmacher said all three employees were notified in July that their position might be terminated. With the recent decision to close the museum, the part-time workers will remain on payroll until October and the full-time staffer will stay on payroll until January, Nonnenmacher added.

"I know we've done everything we can," he said, "but sometimes it's just not good enough."