SANTA CRUZ – The City of Santa Cruz announced that the city’s iconic surfing museum located in the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse on West Cliff Drive is once again open to the public.
The museum, at 701 W. Cliff Drive, reopened Friday.
“It’s fantastic,” said Santa Cruz Vice Mayor Donna Meyers. “There’s close to 75,000 people that visit that little museum every year. It’s the icon of Santa Cruz. Surfing is iconic. We’re ‘Surf City’. It’s a great situation and I’m glad that we were able to keep some funding in the budget and get the museum open.”
The museum has been closed since shelter-in-place orders began in March. It received a $27,000 budget cut in early October in an effort to reduce $5 million in city spending during the pandemic. Santa Cruz City Council left $10,000 in the budget with the plan to eventually allow the museum to open with limited hours.
“We were poised to cut the full budget of the museum but what we decided to do was keep 10k in the budget to allow the museum to briefly open on the weekends,” Santa Cruz Mayor Justin Cummings said.
The decision to reopen the museum came after a push from community members.
“There are folks in the surf community that want to keep it open,” Cummings said. “I imagine there will be people volunteering and helping efforts to keep it open.”
Bob Pearson and Kim Stoner of the Surf Preservation Society reached out to Meyers and Councilwoman Renee Golder after hearing about the potential to cut the museum’s budget for the entire year.
“The lighthouse and the museum really represent a lot of what the community is,” Meyers said. “We all felt the same way that this was too important to lose and shut down for the whole year.”
Patrons can visit the museum from noon to 4 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Capacity is limited to 25% in compliance with California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy guidelines.
Santa Cruz County is in the red tier, also known as tier 2, which is classified as a substantial risk. The red tier permits indoor businesses to operate at limited capacity under modified guidelines.
Museum goers are expected to follow social distancing rules and staff will keep track of indoor occupancy to limit transmission of the virus. Red tier guidelines also require the use of face coverings and the regular sanitation of high-touch areas.
“I think it’s uplifting when we have even small positive news like this,” said Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews. “The surfing museum is beloved by the community and visitors alike. I know they’re doing it with a very careful eye to safety. That’s top of mind for everybody.”
Santa Cruz City Council is keeping a close eye on the current budget to keep the museum open for the next eight months..
“We may have to do a little shifting near the end of the fiscal year, but we think we have enough to get us through the end of June on a three-day-a-week schedule,” Meyers said.
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October 26, 2020 at 06:03AM
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Santa Cruz Surfing Museum is open to public again - Santa Cruz Sentinel
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