Czech museum/library and City Hall sign $1-a-year deal as prelude to $16-million move and expansion

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Council and the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library have signed a $1-a-year lease that will allow the facility to move its flood-hit building across the street to higher ground and on to city property that used to house the city's Roundhouse.

The lease comes with an offer to the museum and library to purchase the site for $10 within five years, Gail Naughton, president/CEO of the facility, reports.

The museum/library's $16-million project will expand the facility to nearly twice its size on the new site. The building's opening is slated for May of 2012.

In addition to the donation of city land, the project is being funded by Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds, state I-JOBS funds, a Hall-Perrine Foundation grant and private donations. The museum/library also is hoping to secure a state Community Attraction and Tourism grant.

The former Roundhouse had been flood-damaged, and a Czech Village group has disassembled it and intends to reassemble it elsewhere in the village.