Smart Talk: Support for Civil War museum; Nickel Mines coroner
Photo by Scott LaMar/WITF
Blue and gray flags adorn the lawn at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg
What to look for on Smart Talk Monday, July 27, 2015:
The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg opened to great fanfare in 2001. It was the jewel of former Mayor Stephen Reed’s vision of five nationally renowned museums in the city to attract visitors and make Harrisburg a destination.
Fourteen years later, the museum is the scene of a war of words that threatens the museum’s very existence.
Current Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse has been critical of the museum saying it uses hotel tax money that could help promote other tourist sites and doesn’t pay a fair rent.
After former Mayor Reed was arrested earlier this month — in part on charges related to how he used city funds to purchase artifacts — Papenfuse called for the museum’s board to dissolve and return the museum’s contents to the city to be sold.
One of the museum’s board members — Gene Barr makes his case on Monday’s Smart Talk.
Gene Barr on Smart Talk
One of the most tragic events in central Pennsylvania history occured on October 2, 2006 when a gunmen murdered five Amish schoolgirls near Nickel Mines in Lancaster County.
Deputy Coroner Janice Ballenger was the on scene and inside the school house.
Ballenger wrote a book — Addicted to Life and Death: Memoirs of an EMT and Deputy Coroner.
She joins us on Monday’s Smart Talk.
