Mayor & City Manager Join FL Boating Museum Board

GENEVA, NY (Feb. 10, 2010) – Geneva Mayor Stu Einstein and City Manager Matt Horn have joined the Board of Trustees of the Finger Lakes Boating Museum.The boating museum reached agreement with the City of Geneva last fall to establish a permanent home on the Geneva waterfront in association with the Visitor Center. The facility will be located on the current Geneva Chamber of Commerce site.The museum board appointed three new trustees at its meeting on Feb. 1 at the Belhurst. Joining Einstein and Horn on the board is Phil Beckley of Geneva.“We’re delighted to welcome Mayor Einstein, City Manager Horn and Mr. Beckley to our FLBM Board,” commented Bill Oben, president. “Their expertise and strong commitment for this project will be of great value as we work together to establish the boating museum in Geneva.”Einstein, who is in his third year as mayor of Geneva, also is director of Success for Geneva’s Children. He served on the Geneva Board of Education for more than 12 years and was a member of the Geneva Human Rights Commission.Horn was appointed to the Geneva city manager post in 2008. He relocated here from Georgia where he was engaged in economic development and municipal work with Sandy Springs, Ga.Beckley is a partner in SPLASH Public Relations and Marketing and is a retired publisher of the Finger Lakes Times. He is currently president of Geneva Growth, which was instrumental in bringing the boating museum and the city together. He also serves as president of the Geneva Rotary Club and on the boards of the Finger Lakes Regional Arts Council, Finger Lakes Health and Jobs for Geneva.The trustees discussed plans for their annual boat show at the meeting. Oben said the museum is excited to stage the annual show in Geneva on July 24 and 25 on the lakefront during the Cruisin’ Night weekend.The 300-member boating museum anticipates occupying approximately 20,000 square feet of space initially, with future expansion on the lakefront and off-site eventually growing to approximately 60,000 square feet of space. The boating museum has assembled a collection of more than 90 wooden boats built in the Finger Lakes over the past 100 years, as well as numerous related artifacts and extensive reference material. Portions of the collection will be displayed on a rotating basis within the new facility. Also planned are interactive workshops and displays to engage visitors in the design, construction and use of the boats and an active on-water program including sailing and small boat handling. The boating museum is a 501c3 not-for-profit corporation and was chartered by the New York State Department of Education in 1997 to “research, document, preserve and share the boating history of the Finger Lakes region.”Additional information about the boating museum may be found on its website (www.flbm.org).