LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to add a third facility to the county's museum system.

The Tuesday morning board vote approved a proposal from Lake County Public Services Director Lars Ewing and County Museum Curator Tony Pierucci to have the county run the Gibson Museum and Cultural Center in Middletown.

The Gibson Museum will join the county's two other museum facilities, the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum and the Historic Courthouse Museum in downtown Lakeport.

The Gibson Museum is located at 21267 Calistoga St. For eight decades it housed the Middletown Library, until a new facility – located across the street – was opened in April 2013.

In May 2014 the Gibson Museum opened. It is named for Chauncey W. Gibson, who in 1929 donated the funds to build Middletown a library, which opened the following year.

During its Sept. 14 budget hearings, the board approved adding the Gibson Museum's operations to the Public Services Department's budget.

Ewing has concluded the cost to run the third museum will be about $16,000 a year, which includes $6,000 for utilities and $10,000 for an additional extra help employee to open and close the museum three days a week – 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday through Saturday – for visitors.

“There's a lot of benefits to this, but the emphasis here is the professional services that Tony and his staff can offer this museum,” Ewing told the board.

Pierucci explained that the Friends of the Gibson Museum has been operating as a committee of the Lake County Historical Society since 2013.

“They've shown themselves to be a really great group of people who can put on fantastic events,” said Pierucci.

However, he said the group has had consistent challenges with staffing, receiving and cataloging donations, and putting on large-scale educational events.

With the building already owned by the county – which also takes care of repairs – Pierucci proposed that he and his staff take over the Gibson Museum's operation, with the Friends of the Gibson Museum to help fund any costs over and above the projections to run the facility.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington asked about the source of the $16,000 needed annually to run the Gibson Museum.

County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson pointed out that $15,000 already had been budgeted, with staff to address the remaining $1,000 at the midyear budget review.

When Farrington followed up by asking if there would be any funding issues, Huchingson said no.

Voris Brumfield, president of the Friends of the Gibson Museum as well as a member of the Lake County Historical Society, encouraged the board to approve the proposal, adding that the Gibson Museum would be the “third jewel in the crown” of the county's museum system.

It's also important for its location in Middletown, which Brumfield pointed out is a gateway to the rest of Lake County.

“We as a group of citizens in south county will be there to support and to help potentially underwrite, should that be necessary, the operations of the museum,” Brumfield said of the Friends of the Gibson Museum group.

Supervisor Jim Comstock, who represents Middletown on the board, moved to approve the proposal, with the board voting 5-0.

Visit the Gibson Museum's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CGibsonMuseumCulturalCenter or its Web site at http://www.cgibsonmuseum.com/ .

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.