Winnebago County Takes Steps on UWO-Fox Cities Campus

OSHKOSH, WI—(WISS)—At the Winnebago County Board meeting Tuesday night in Oshkosh, over a dozen people spoke about the importance of the UWO-Fox Cities assets. They were primarily concerned with the Weis Earth Science Museum and the Barlow Planetarium. The county board voted to pass a resolution to transfer full ownership of the Weis Earth Science Museum to Outagamie County. In exchange, Winnebago County will receive the rest of the campus, including Barlow Planetarium, for $1.

The resolution effectively transfers the tax base and all of UWO-Fox Cities’ buildings and collections to Winnebago County. The only exception to that is the Weis Earth Science Museum and its assets. Currently, the two counties share ownership of the UWO-Fox Cities campus.

“It’s understandable that having a single governing entity and one board to negotiate these agreements would make developing the rest of the property easier,” said Winnebago County Executive Gordon Hintz. “It’s hard to, at times, get two county executives and two full boards to try to figure out the best way to go about doing things. So the result of the agreement tonight, giving that to one executive and one board, to be able to work forward, clearly, removes some of the obstacles.”

If Outagamie County approves the transfer, the Weis exhibits and collections may move to the History Museum at the Castle in downtown Appleton. The Weis Earth Science Museum is Wisconsin’s official mineralogical museum. 

Pros and Cons

While community members opposed moving the Weis, Dr. Dustin Mack, executive director of the History Museum at the Castle, assured the board the asset would remain…just in another place.

“By moving the Weis to the History Museum at the Castle, we can ensure that this community asset is preserved, but enhanced for the next generation,” Mack said. “It’s not about taking something. It’s about preserving it.”

Dr. Don Mikulic, curator of the Weis for the past 24 years, said moving the Weis will cause it to lose its uniqueness.

“The Weis is a unique museum. It doesn’t exist anywhere else in the state. There’s 161, at minimum, history museums in the state,” Mikulic said. “Why are we giving something unique to just another one of these museums?”

Mikulic said moving the Weis collection may also affect the Barlow Planetarium.

“They do not understand the uniqueness and the importance of the relationship between the Barlow and the Weis,” Mikulic continued. “Together, they are a one-stop place. That will not exist anymore if you split us up and move all our assets down to Appleton Avenue.”

The Outagamie County Board is responsible for the next step in the saga of the campus at UWO-Fox Cities. At an upcoming meeting, the Outagamie County Board will vote on the resolution.