Delbridge Museum Public Resolution – Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 6:00 PM
l3wis As you know Lenin’s Tomb of Dead Monkeys is headed to Notre Dame on Tuesday. A guest post from Mike Z;
On Tuesday, February 6, 2025 – the City Council is being asked to Adopt the following “Resolution” to Surplus, and Remove All Specimens no later than September 30, 2025. For All those who wish to attend this City Council Meeting, this meeting will take place at the Carnegie Town Hall with all members present – The Mayor and Eight City Council Members. The Meeting begins at 6:00 PM and each person shall have no more than 5 Minutes to Speak on this particular agenda item. “We” need at least 5 Council Members to Vote No on this Resolution to defeat it.
I Highly Recommend that All Residents to whom wish to Speak to the City Council this Tuesday, hereby contact the City Council as soon as possible, recommending that the council vote “No” on the following resolution, while further, recommending a plan forward that instructs the city council to invoke its chartered powers as per Section 2.09 to Investigate the Situation using their subpoena powers to hold further, all public officials, officers, agents, employees accountable for their actions in relation to the Delbridge Museum, let alone, allowing them to subpoena any documents, public records, emails, other important items, enabling the community to gather all facts, truths, and understanding of what the Mayor’s Office, Department of Parks & Recreation, Great Plains Zoo, and Sioux Falls Butterfly House and Aquarium have been attempting to do between September 1, 2022 and September 30, 2024.
The End Goal should be to instruct the City Council to bring forth a future ordinance to which does the following:
- Does Not Surplus the Delbridge Museum Taxidermy Collection
- Directs City Government to Refurbish, Preserve, Maintain Ownership
- Maintain Public Displays of Taxidermy on All Public Property
- Directs City Council to Fund Permanent Home of Taxidermy
- Keep the Taxidermy Within City Limits @ Zoo or Other Public Places
- Honors the Gifting Agreement as Established by C.J Delbridge
- Preserves, and Protects the Henry Brockhouse Family Desires, Memory
Below, is the Resolution in Question:
A Resolution that Promises to Surplus and Give Away the Brockhouse Animal Collection to Three Out-Of-State Institutions
A RESOLUTION DECLARING THE BROCKHOUSE ANIMAL COLLECTION SURPLUS AND AUTHORIZING THE GIFTING TO UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL HISTORY ARTS, INC., AND THE ODDITIES MUSEUM, INC.
- WHEREAS, Henry Brockhouse, a Sioux Falls businessman, was an avid hunter in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and, as a result, he acquired an extensive collection of mounted animals from six continents (the “Brockhouse Animal Collection” or “Collection”) which he displayed to customers and visitors for many years in his West Sioux Hardware store (“West Sioux”) until his death in 1978; and
- WHEREAS, many of these species are protected under the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Lacey Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; and
- WHEREAS, in 1981, C.J. and Alene Delbridge purchased the Brockhouse Animal Collection from West Sioux; and
- WHEREAS, between 1981 and 1985, the Delbridges gifted the Brockhouse Animal Collection in its entirety to the City with no reversionary interest; and
- WHEREAS, the City has full legal ownership of the Brockhouse Animal Collection, which are listed individually in the document attached hereto as Exhibit A; and
- WHEREAS, from 1984 to 2023, the City housed and publicly displayed the Brockhouse Animal Collection at the Delbridge Museum of Natural History (“Delbridge Museum”) located at the Great Plains Zoo campus; and
- WHEREAS, over the years, the Collection has undergone several assessments by consultants to determine its current condition and to identify its needs with its advancing age as the animal mounts are 50 to 80 years old; and
- WHEREAS, in 2023, the Zoological Society of Sioux Falls, the manager of the Great Plains Zoo, as part of its routine assessment of the Collection, sent in swab tests for chemicals and subsequently received lab results from Midwest Laboratories (“Lab”) that 79.5 percent of the Collection tested positive for arsenic, a chemical which had been used in the taxidermy process for the preservation of hides in the era when Brockhouse first acquired these animals in this Collection, which led to the closure of the Delbridge Museum in August of 2023 to explore other options; and
- WHEREAS, in September 2023, Mayor TenHaken convened a work group to specify the next steps for the Brockhouse Animal Collection; and-
- WHEREAS, the work group engaged A.M. Art Conservation, LLC, and George Dante Studios to assess the Collection. The site visit occurred February 5–9, 2024, and the report was finalized July 8, 2024; and
- WHEREAS, over several months, presentations were made to the work group showing the following: (1) Canopy Strategic Partners’ analysis of visitors at the Great Plains Zoo usage data shows poor visitation to the Delbridge Museum at 2.8 percent of total zoo attendees spending 7 minutes or more in the Delbridge Museum when it was operational between the period of 2017 and 2023; (2) A.M. Art Conservation, LLC and George Dante Studios provided a cost proposal to restore the mounts which was estimated at roughly $850,000 (excluding cost for cleaning, transportation, and arsenic treatment); (3) 18 of the specimens were deemed “not recommended for treatment”; (4) a new building to store the Collection was preliminarily estimated to cost between $6 million and $7 million, which includes the diorama expense and 6-foot-tall glass partitions ($1 million) or the fully-enclosed glass systems ($2 million), which is the best practice to safely display the Collection; and (5) there would be ongoing annual operating costs to include marketing of the Collection after this major investment of $126,000/year.
- WHEREAS, the work group recommended that state law be changed, which would allow disposition of the taxidermy mounts to out-of-state nonprofit organizations; and
- WHEREAS, in early 2024, House Bill 1100, amending SDCL 6-13-15, passed and became effective July 1, 2024, which secured an exemption for taxidermy to allow the Delbridge mounts to be legally transported out of state, facilitating donation to other out-of-state nonprofit institutions; and
- WHEREAS, on September 20, 2024, the City issued a Request for Qualification and Expression of Interest (“RFQEI”) to gauge interest from qualified entities for future ownership, management, preservation, and utilization of the Brockhouse Collection; and
- WHEREAS, the City received six proposals in response to the RFQEI and no qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization from South Dakota submitted a proposal; and
- WHEREAS, the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc., and Oddities Museum, Inc. find it desirable to acquire a portion of the Collection as follows: • 117 specimens—University of Notre Dame • 33 specimens—Oddities Museum, Inc. • 2 specimens—Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc.
- WHEREAS, the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc., and Oddities Museum, Inc. are all 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations; and
- WHEREAS, pursuant to SDCL 6-13-1, the governing board of a public subdivision may gift property which the governing board has, by appropriate motion, determined is no longer necessary, useful, or suitable for the purpose for which it was acquired; and
- WHEREAS, pursuant to SDCL 6-13-15, any municipality may provide as a gift to any nonprofit organization that is recognized as an exempt organization under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended to January 1, 1996, any collection of specimens preserved by a taxidermist that has been housed in a museum or other display owned by the municipality. The gift may include collection display and storage fixtures and related tangible personal property; and
- WHEREAS, based on the above findings, the City hereby finds the Collection is no longer necessary, useful, or suitable for the purpose for which it was acquired; and
- WHEREAS, the Sioux Falls Zoo and Aquarium Board met on August 23, 2023, and unanimously recommended the Collection be declared surplus; and
- WHEREAS, the Brockhouse Animal Collection at Delbridge Museum work group met on January 17, 2025, and unanimously recommended the Collection be declared surplus and recommended the City Council authorize the gifting of the Collection to the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc., and Oddities Museum, Inc; and
- WHEREAS, the Parks and Recreation Board met on January 29, 2025, and unanimously recommended the Collection be declared surplus and recommended the City Council authorize the gifting of the Collection to the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc., and Oddities Museum, Inc.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD:
Section 1. That the recitals above are adopted as findings and are incorporated herein by reference.
Section 2. The City hereby declares, pursuant to SDCL Chapter 6-13, the Brockhouse Animal Collection housed at the Delbridge Museum of Natural History to be surplus property and is no longer necessary, useful, or suitable for the purpose for which it was acquired. In support of this determination, the City found that one, all, or a combination of these factors listed in the recitals support a determination for surplus.
Section 3. That, pursuant to SDCL 6-13-15, the Brockhouse Animal Collection identified in Exhibit A is hereby gifted to the following 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations: the University of Notre Dame; the Oddities Museum, Inc., and the Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc.
Section 4. The above-described Collection shall be divided as follows:
- 117 specimens—University of Notre Dame
- 33 specimens—Oddities Museum, Inc.
- 2 specimens—Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc.
Section 5. The City shall publish this resolution with attachment after its passage. The attachment is on file and available for inspection in the office of the City Clerk.The division of the Collection is depicted in Exhibit A
As per the contracts being agreed to, All Specimens must be Removed from the Delbridge Museum no later than September 30, 2025