St. Joseph City Commissioners have approved plans for lighthouse tours this year. At a Monday meeting, they heard from new Heritage Museum and Cultural Center Director Marco Tomasi. He said last year saw 2,400 visitors, with Sunday being the most popular day for tours. His proposal this year is to extend the Sunday hours and have tours later into September. Tomasi told us this should be a year for growth.
“We want to continue offering tours, walk-in tours on the weekend and also appointments,” Tomasi said. “You can come in throughout the week and we’ll have somebody there. You can come in, you can tour the lower level for free, and then if you want to climb up to the upper levels and get that view of the lake, of the city, from the top of the lighthouse, then it’s $10 to climb up it and see.”
Tomasi said last year’s tours were possible thanks to volunteers, and they’re needed again this year.
“We could always use more volunteers to help us with these tours, to help showcase the people, the stories of this area, the importance of the lighthouse and our commercial port that we’ve had here.”
Email the Heritage Museum to sign up. The address is info@theheritagemcc.org. Some museum volunteers spoke to commissioners Monday, saying there’s been a lack of marketing of the museum and lighthouse tours since COVID. They noted advance bookings for tours have been down. With Tomasi just taking on the role of director in November, it’s hoped more can be done to grow the Heritage Museum and Cultural Center in 2023.
