Ft. Wright city council last week declared certain pieces from the shuttered James A. Ramage Civil War Museum as surplus property.
That enables the pieces to be donated to the Behringer-Crawford Museum in Covington.
The Civil War Museum was permanently closed following a long dispute between the city, which owns it, and the museum’s board of directors.
Following the closure, city officials attempted to find owners of multiple items still in the collection. Following the return of many items, some remained.
Those leftover items were catalogued.
“It looks like we’ve got seven or eight black powder rifles that we’re transferring over to Behringer-Crawford, which is cool, they will be able to exhibit them well, and they’re nice looking rifles,” Councilmember Jay Weber said city attorney Tim Theissen. “Do we have to do any special paperwork to be legal with the federal firearms administration and those guys?”
Theissen said that he really didn’t know but that he would look into it.
There was an itemized list of things that the former Civil War Museum would retain.
Mayor Dave Hatter thanked everyone for the efforts to save the artifacts and to make sure they were safe.
In a related issue, council voted to support a holiday event at the Behringer-Crawford Museum where Ft. Wright residents get in free during a specific time. Mayor Hatter said that the city did this back in 2019, and a lot of residents took advantage of the discount.
Councilwoman Margie Witt told council that the berm on the corner of Dixie Highway and Kyles Lane will be planted with three natural redbud trees, some evergreens, and some low shrubs. She said that the city finally got the OK from the state to plant on the land.
The plantings won’t affect drivers’ visibility, she said.
The annual Santa visit to the city will take place on December 11. City Clerk Maura Russell said that the route will be posted on the city website.