Mayor, director push back against defunding Miss Laura’s Museum

There appears to be little interest by the Fort Smith Board of Directors in a plan to cut funding for Miss Laura’s Museum as part of an overall effort to reduce city expenditures in the proposed 2026 budget.

The Fort Smith board on Monday (Nov. 17) held an almost six-hour budget hearing to tackle deficit spending in the city’s general fund budget, which provides significant funding to police, fire and other essential city services.

The proposed 2026 budget as presented to the board projects an $8.092 million deficit. The proposed budget anticipates $53.695 million in revenue and $61.788 million in expenditures.

In 2024, the general fund budget posted a $6.47 million deficit and is projected to end 2025 with a $15.56 million deficit. The city’s fund balance was $35.472 million at the end of 2024. It is projected to be $19.911 million at the end of 2025 and down to $11.818 million at the end of 2026.

One of the cuts proposed by Acting City Administrator Jeff Dingman was $260,000 for ongoing support of the Miss Laura’s Museum in downtown Fort Smith near the riverfront. Pushback, primarily through social media, of Dingman’s proposal emerged. The museum is located in what was a former brothel and is one of only nine brothels on the National Register of Historic Places, according to Ashleigh Bachert, executive director of the Fort Smith Advertising and Promotion Commission (A&P).

“Miss Laura’s Brothel Museum was once a premier Victorian brothel, built in 1898 and run by Laura Ziegler and later Bertha Gale,” notes the museum website. “Known for its elegance and high standards, it was a popular establishment in Fort Smith.”

The Fort Smith board in December 2024 approved an operating agreement between the city and A&P for the city to operate the facility as a museum for five years, with provisions to continue after the five-year term.

Bachert and Museum Manager Angel Tracy offered on Monday a different assessment to the board about the cost to the city. Revised budget information showed that closing the museum could cost the city at least $520,000 through “decommissioning” and return of artifacts, and the city would still have costs related to building upkeep.

Tracy said her goal in 2025 was to get the museum up and running, which has happened, and then begin the process of creating a nonprofit that would in a few years take over “ownership and stewardship for preservation” of the building. Also, the museum has generated more than $37,000 in admission fees at $8 per person since June, and Tracy said the admission fee will rise to $11 in 2026.

City Director Christina Catsavis on Monday reminded the board that when it approved the December 2024 agreement, “the intention was for the city to take care of it and continue with it and not shut it down.” She said the museum and building “is something the community desires and really wants,” and she supports the effort by Tracy and Bachert to “get it off the city books and into private hands.”

Mayor George McGill said the board should not cut funds for the tourist attraction.

“We have one of the most iconic historic places in the nation right here in Fort Smith,” McGill told the board. “And, if anything, we should be upscaling it and making it even a more better attraction. So I’m strongly encouraging the board, take care of it, at least give them an opportunity to establish something. … At this point I don’t think we should pull the rug from under this iconic tourist attraction we have right here in our city.”

The board is set to review and possibly vote Dec. 2 on a 2026 budget.