The Riley Boyhood Museum, next to the Hoosier Poet’s childhood home on Main Street in Greenfield, is the repository for the collection of Riley-era artifacts.
Daily Reporter file photo
GREENFIELD – The city and a nonprofit organization have reached an agreement over artifacts related to a prominent Greenfield resident.
The arrangement resolves an impasse between the Riley Old Home Society and the city that lasted about three years.
The society owns thousands of historical items relating to poet James Whitcomb Riley and his contemporaries. Many of those items are stored at the James Whitcomb Riley Boyhood Home and Museum, a property owned by the city.
A dispute arose between Greenfield and the society amid the city’s desire for access to the artifacts and an inventory of them to aid in developing exhibits and conducting programs.
The new operations agreement between the society and the city identifies the society as the owner and caretaker of the artifacts. The document also includes a process for how the city accesses and requests the items. Additionally, the agreement calls for the society to provide updated information to the city on a semiannual basis identifying the artifacts.
“The society is the owner of all the artifacts,” said Greenfield city attorney Gregg Morelock. “All we ever wanted was an inventory and access and method to be able to get them. That’s been achieved.”
The agreement includes the society’s collection policy, a mechanism for resolving disputes between both parties, and a $1 annual lease for the society’s storage space in the museum property. Per that lease, three society officials have 24/7 access to the space and if they send someone else, they must inform the city in advance.
Morelock said the society’s hiring of attorney Kevin Harvey was instrumental in arriving at the agreement and resolving the impasse.
“We really tried to – Kevin and I and our clients – to think about all the potential problems that had occurred and might occur and tried to address those in advance,” Morelock said. “We tried very hard to make this hopefully, if not the last, then one of the last documents and agreements that we need moving forward for the next 10 years or so, if not longer.”
Harvey said the society worked hard with the city to negotiate the new agreement.
“It’s a detailed agreement that addresses and resolves a lot of the issues that resulted in the need for a new agreement, and the Riley Old Home Society is elated with the new agreement, and looks forward to continuing its long-term partnership with the city of Greenfield to preserve the heritage of James Whitcomb Riley for the citizens of Greenfield,” he said.
