ThisWeek CW 01/08/2015
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/01/05/no-reopening-date-yet-for-national-barber-museum.html
A December fire at the Canal Wigwam restaurant has added to struggles the National Barber Museum and Hall of Fame were already trying to overcome, leaving the timing of the museum’s reopening further in question.
The museum is located on the second floor of the building housing the restaurant, 2 S. High St., and suffered smoke damage in the Dec. 5 blaze. Wigwam owner Mark Savino predicted it would be two or three months before he could reopen.
Museum director Mike Ippoliti told Canal Winchester City Council Dec. 15 that it might be even longer before the museum resumes regular hours, thanks to damage from the fire and the lack of a full-time curator. He said the museum is behind in inventory projects and will return to a by-appointment-only viewing schedule.
“Without a curator, the museum will have to run the way it has, by appointment, which is only when I’m available,” Ippoliti said.
A temporary worker from AARP has been helping inventory the museum’s collection and has provided more opportunities for the museum to be staffed, but the appointment is nearing an end, he said, and without staffing, regular open hours can’t be maintained.
Even before regular hours can be considered, however, the museum has to deal with a massive cleanup effort to rid the museum and its artifacts of smoke damage; Ippoliti said he’s thankful the fire itself didn’t reach the museum, and there was no water damage.
He did say insurance is covering most of the cleanup expenses.
“ServPro took our electronic equipment and cloth stuff to get processed and cleaned,” he said. “We have people coming from a restoration company to look at everything to take an inventory of what needs shipped out to be cleaned and what can be cleaned on-site.
“I have no idea how long before the museum can be functioning again because there’s just too many people involved.”
Ippoliti said he is committed to reopening, though, because the museum has become a popular source for researchers interested in the history of barbers and barbershops.
“We’re still getting phone calls, and our new website that went up June 1 has gotten about 10,000 hits just for the barber museum, with another 500 hits a month for the Canal Winchester Historical Society museum page,” Ippoliti said. “Just the other day, we had a woman from Paris, France, call looking to do research. We regularly get worldwide requests.”
The museum has more than 1,300 publications in its library, a figure that continues to grow, he said, and it has attracted the attention of the Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society.
Council approved a $1,650 bed tax grant for the museum for 2015.
“Basically, with the bed tax grant, Mike’s looking for money to keep promoting the museum, which also promotes Canal Winchester,” Councilman Jim Wynkoop said. “I think, regardless of when it reopens, we still need to promote it.”