Brian Chilson
TERRY MANSION: City and museum have failed to maintain the property and accountability are lacking.

I’m catching up after three weeks away and continued reporting in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on two important subjects that appear to me to be easily summarized.

PRESIDENT BIDEN’S COVID ORDERS: The University of Arkansas has no intention of moving expeditiously to comply with them, preferring to obey the state legislature’s interposition on behalf of the spread of the virus. The key sentence about the word salad UA spokesman Nate Hinkel dished up to the D-G’s Jaime Adame on the question of required vaccines for employees or people with whom it contracts:

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THE CRUMBLING PIKE-FLETCHER-TERRY HOUSE. The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts has washed its hands of this historic Quapaw Quarter home, entrusted to its use decades ago. That’s been evident for years, which prompted a lawsuit by heirs who donated the property to the city. Moreover, despite being the beneficiary of tens of millions in public tax dollars, the museum powers believe they have no obligation to provide a precise accounting of how the institution spent some $2 million in contributions to maintain the house.  The arts center has a good lawyer. He will use the museum’s puppeteer, its controlling private foundation, as a shield to public accountability. He’s certainly right that the museum doesn’t own the property. Legally, he may prevail in refusal to provide the information sought in court.  In every other way, the museum, sitting on city property and enhanced with millions in public dollars, owes a full accounting. The city, which owns the property, is primarily responsible for the erosion of this civic asset. It should have called for a museum accounting long ago. But that would have meant ruffling powerful feathers. They chose slow rot instead.

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