Marshals Museum public meeting scheduled

The U.S. Marshals Museum is holding a public meeting 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Dec. 14, in the West Room of the Riverpark Events Building in downtown Fort Smith.

The meeting is the first of what the Museum board and staff anticipate will be periodic public updates on what the USMM is doing in fundraising and in other areas. The meeting will also provide the public an outline of what’s coming up in the next 12 months, and will be open for questions.

The U.S. Marshals Museum board of directors and staff are underway with what will be a $30 million to $50 million national fundraising effort. The roughly 50,000-square-foot museum will be built in downtown Fort Smith next to the Arkansas River.

In January 2007, the U.S. Marshals Service selected Fort Smith as the site for the national museum. To fund the effort to get the museum built, the project received $100,000 from the city of Fort Smith, $115,000 from Sebastian County, $200,000 from the state Legislature and $2 million from Gov. Mike Beebe.