A few years ago, residents of a city in Texas named San Benito voted in favor of having a new museum built in the city. The construction of the museum was a success, but unfortunately, the brand new museum has been standing for an entire year now, and visitors are still not allowed to enter. However, city officials have good reason for not letting visitors enter the building, and this reason is termites. Ever since the museum was completed a year ago, termite problems have plagued the structure. Happily, after a long struggle against the termites, residents and tourists will soon be able to catch a glimpse of the museum’s exhibits.
Residents of San Benito spent 1.7 million dollars on the new museum. The museum, which is being called the San Benito Cultural Heritage Center, was completed one year ago, and the fact that it has not opened has made some residents wonder if their tax dollars were wasted. According to the City Manager, Manuel De La Rosa, a termite infestation has delayed the museum’s opening to the public. Areas of office space, as well as some of the exhibits were reported to have contained termites. During the past year, there has been much concern over the state of the museum’s exhibits. At one point, there was talk about having the exhibits moved into a new museum in order to prevent them from sustaining termite damage, and some had already sustained termite damage. However, this idea was shot down by De La Rosa, who said that there was no reason to put other city-owned buildings at risk of termite infestations by moving infested exhibits into them. The exhibits are not owned by the city; rather they belong to private owners who are responsible for maintaining the well being of their exhibits. San Benito contains three other museums, one of which, the Conjunto Hall of Fame Museum, had been infested with termites several times since 2008. However, the owner of this museum claimed that the termites were not terribly damaging, and they should not have prevented the new museum from opening, as “termites are everywhere in south Texas”.
If you owned exhibits in the new museum would you promptly have them removed in order to spare them from termite damage?
