Har-Ber Village Museum

PROJECT PURPOSE

With the help of funding, this project will benefit the Grove community, school children that use our educational programs, Trail walkers, Cafe diners, and the various tourists that flock to our property by helping to ensure their health and environmental safety for many years to come. We now have a more heightened awareness of the dangerous health exposure with a faulty septic system, an aged HVAC that does not have the state of the art ventilation/sanitation qualities, the need for larger restrooms and more restrooms so guests can be spread out. All of these are magnified by the fact that 100,000 people a year come to a place where close personal interaction can pose unreasonable health risks. Our retaining wall poses an environmental and health risk. We want to mitigate all future health and environmental risks, with a plan of action to ensure the safety of the public. We are a nonprofit and that very definition is to take care of your community. We do that in varying ways. Education, Health, Dining, Tourism Dollars, etc. We have been a staple in the Grove community and state since 1968. We have international travelers, national travelers, school children, programs for disabled individuals. We want to ensure their safety when they visit and do not want to be the reason for any public outbreak.

EVIDENCE

We have spoken to County Health Department officials, ODEQ, and City and County Commissioners about our 30% increase of guests since the beginning of the pandemic. We have been a tourist attraction, educational facility, travel destination for Grove since 1968. In that 54 years we have brought in 2.8 miles of Nature Trails that are free for public use year round. We offer a Cafe onsite bringing in even more tax dollars. We want the ability to make sure that guests health is a priority for us. Everyone we have talked to agreed that there is a necessity to this as Har-Ber Village is a tourist destination and gem to Groves tourism industry, not to mention the school students we educate about our state each and every year. Since the pandemic started we have averaged over 100,000 people through here each year. That is a 30% increase. Our infrastructure was not made to handle that.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Har-Ber Village Museum was impacted by an increase of visitors by 30% since the birth of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are an outdoor open air Museum on 38 acres and offer 2.8 miles of Nature Trails for use of no charge to the public. Our Museum is a nonprofit with a very minimal admission cost. We not only serve the Delaware County community, we offer school student education programs. We are a tourist destination and have been for 54 years. We provide numerous tourism dollars to the community with travel groups that we bring in. We are the number one tourism destination that is not on the Lake in Grove, OK. Over the last 2 1/2 years we have seen 100,000 plus individuals on our property. Those are numbers we haven't had to deal with in the past. It has strained our infrastructure beyond its intended mission. It has been broken down 3 times faster than anticipated and budgeted for.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

In 2018 we were awarded a Grant by the Oklahoma Trails Systems, we will chart our performance and completion in the same formula to be completed throughout the project with photographic, analytic, and invoiced data. We will upon completion track the number of populace that has increased. We are currently tracking the influx of guest numbers beginning at the inception of the pandemic.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding