11 Feb. 2017 Update
SB1415 – Transfers the Mining & Mineral Museum to the University of Arizona permanently.
Earlier this week, AZGS Director Phil Pearthree and I met with Univ. of Arizona lobbyists and Sen. Gail Griffin and her chief aide to discuss SB1415, which transfers the Polly Rosenbaum Building and assets of the former Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum to the University of Arizona.
The chief purpose of SB1415 is to, ‘Transfers the Mining, Mineral and Natural Resources Educational Museum (Museum) to the University of Arizona (U of A) permanently. The original 2016 bill placed the museum with the AZGS and returned the museum to the Arizona Historical Society by July 2018, in the event AZGS had not opened the museum. The new bill specifies the University of Arizona as the primary institute for operating, maintaining, and managing the building and its assets. UA administrators assure us there is still a large role for AZGS to play in developing content and channeling museum design. We anticipated this change in language, we embrace it, and we are ready to go forward with UA committed to the task.
SB1415 comes before the Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee between 2-4 p.m. on Tuesday, 14 February.
