Matching funds extended for Tower renovations Tower Corp. has six months to raise money to be matched by feds BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer EDISON - Armed with a congressional resolution signed into law by President George W. Bush, and a six-month extension on matching federal funds, the Edison Memorial Tower Corp. is gearing up to raise the remaining $279,000 needed to renovate the aging obelisk on Christie Street in Menlo Park. Nancy Zerbe, of Tower Corp., said that with a little over $100,000 in the bank already, the corporation is looking to take the six-month extension for matching funds from the federal government and become more aggressive about fundraising. "We are continuing to reach out to individuals and businesses," Zerbe said. "We're also trying to organize a fundraising dinner for May with a keynote speaker." Zerbe said that the corporation has been trying to raise money for some time, but timing hampered some of their endeavors. "Many of the foundations we looked at last year said 'You're too late in the year to apply,' " Zerbe said. "Now that we are at the beginning of the year, we are putting in applications to those foundations. We're being aggressive and doing the best we can to raise the money." The corporation received another break early last week when a decision from the U.S. Mint, from which the corporation would derive the matching funds, pushed back the start date the corporation could use to accumulate the funds that would be matched. The funds come as part of the Thomas Alva Edison Commemorative Coin Act passed in 1998, which said that the first $5 million received from the sale of the coins would be donated to several nonprofit entities, including the Edison Memorial Tower Corp. Zerbe said that she figured the start date for the accumulation of funds to be matched would have been when the coin was issued in 2004, but the U.S. Mint returned a decision that interpreted the start date as when the corporation was founded, a date which Zerbe said is a little ambiguous but further in the past than they ever expected. "We've been focusing on the end deadline," Zerbe said. "The interpretation came back from the U.S. Mint, and we can go back to the beginning of our organization." Zerbe said that means the funds collected for pavers at the Edison Tower under Mayor George Spadoro would be admissible, though she does not have a definitive answer on how much that amount would be. "It's not going to put us over the top," Zerbe said, "because we have to raise another $279,000, and brick pavers were nowhere in that range. But every little bit [helps], so I'm looking into it." The funds collected so far are being used for various preliminary estimates on renovations to the site, and Zerbe said that two firms have been hired to assess both engineering and museum planning. "Work at the tower is under way," Zerbe said, "it's not just saving money for future projects. We are using a state grant, and we have under contract a very well-respected architect and engineering firm who are doing the next step of updating the conditions assessment of the tower and starting to develop primary plans." The corporation has also began assessing the future of the museum as a whole, enlisting the services of Farewell, Mills and Gatch, an architectural firm that specializes in museum planning. "We want a better museum at the site in honor of how important the site is," Zerbe said. The corporation is planning a series of public focus groups, starting in March, to assess the community's desires for the future of the museum. Zerbe said it was a way to get the public involved and ask them what kind of museum they would like to see, because it is there for the benefit of all area residents. Zerbe wanted to make sure the public knew that the corporation is not just raising money for a rainy day, there are actual and tangible improvements in the works right now. "I don't want people to pick up the paper and say, 'Oh, they are dreaming,' " Zerbe said. "We're not dreaming." The corporation's fundraising dinner, which is tentatively scheduled for the first week in May, would be a chance for the public to help raise money for the tower. Zerbe is looking to invite Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Personal Transporter, to be the keynote speaker at the dinner. Kamen would be an obvious choice for several reasons, Zerbe said. "He would be a major draw," Zerbe said. "It seems very appropriate. He is an inventor and has many patents. He is also a business man, like Edison was, and he's also very committed to science education." Jack Stanley, the museum curator, said that the federal government approving the extension was a great step forward for the Tower project. "It's wonderful," Stanley said. "It gives us the opportunity to raise the matching funds, and I hope we do, and we ask everyone for their help. We are dealing with an historic site here that has so much history to it that it is almost unfathomable to realize the history that is here."