PFMA May Withdraw From Role At Historic Courthouse Museum

By Linda Kor
   Petrified Forest Museum Association President Bill Jeffers attended the June 10 meeting of the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors to address issues of concern regarding PFMA involvement with the chamber.
   “Our relationship to the chamber comes from the fact that the museum association pays the wages of the staff manning the front desk of the historic courthouse museum,” explained Jeffers, referring to the fact that the front desk personnel answer the phones for the chamber office, which is also located in the old courthouse.
   According to Jeffers, PFMA came up in connection with the chamber regarding the chamber’s current accounting issues.
   “I want to state that we have had a review of our books for the past one and a half years, and we are very satisfied with the financial accounting of PFMA,” said Jeffers.
   “Our only direct connection with the chamber is that we have one-half of the ownership of a juke box that was purchased for the museum. We (the PFMA board) have decided to donate our portion over to the chamber.”
   He added that the only question for the future would be whether PFMA would stay in the museum and keep it open. The benefit to operating the museum had been to sell books and other items associated with PFMA, as well as inform visitors regarding the Petrified Forest.
   PFMA has been paying the wages of front desk personnel for the museum for the past eight years.
   “We had hoped to break even on this endeavor, but we haven’t even done that for the past five to six years,” Jeffers said.
   According to Jeffers, PFMA has been subsidizing the chamber and the city in this endeavor, and has been fine with that association. But with the recent events involving the chamber, Jeffers was not sure that the board would want to continue operations after the contract expires in September of this year.