"Money bought meals, trips, no kids museum"

[mkirkaldy@aol.com]

See:  
http://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/news/z1/06-02-05_z1_news_01.html
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Gary (Indiana) Post-Tribune

Money bought meals, trips, no kids museum
June 2, 2005

By Steve Walsh / Post-Tribune staff writer

A 5-year-old, $500,000 state grant to build a childrenâs museum never 
bought a brick or dinosaur bone, but it paid a $262 breakfast tab and a 
$165.39 hotel bill for a night in Indianapolis.

Responding to a request from the Post-Tribune, the East Chicago 
Redevelopment Commission released a list of claims the city paid for 
Childrenâs Discovery Center of Northwest Indiana. The city agency has 
housed the grant for the proposed museum since the state released a 
check for $500,000 on Feb. 18, 2000, from the Build Indiana Fund.

<big snip>

The State Board of Accounts audit is expected to find fault with the 
Discovery Center board using money from the Build Indiana Fund to hire 
dinosaur expert Don Wolberg as its director in 2004.

Records show the Discovery Center board started paying Wolberg in March 
2004; his monthly salary averaged out to $75,000 a year. The Discovery 
Center board also paid him $5,000 in moving expenses and $734.64 for 
interviewing expenses. He was paid through September, a total of 
$49,484, before the payments stopped.

Sources close to the project said the State Budget Agency began looking 
at the Discovery Center in response to a call from a dissident member 
on the East Chicago Redevelopment Commission. The member questioned the 
last $12,500 payment to Wolberg.

Wolberg holds the license for Dinofest, an interactive display whose 
last successful run closed at Navy Pier in Chicago in early 2001. The 
paleontologist has since declared bankruptcy.

âDon was more of a program person. With the qualifications he presented 
at the time, he seemed like a viable candidate,â Cera said. âIn 
hindsight, it seemed like we need more of a fund-raising person.â

<big snip>
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Mary