The Mayor had formulated a Resolution concerning the town's portion of annual funding for the new museum -- that is, the Library's annual piece of the pie. Alice Armour Armstrong quoted her, in the Camperdene Daily Journal: "The new Museum of the Year 2012 Board must realize that an unresolved dichotomy may paralyse operations, and they must work to resolve the issues and build consensus. Dissent is a fact of life that provokes discussion and warrants respect, but it is harmful if it paralyzes action. Camperdene's new Museum of the Year 2012 Board should understand that museums must adapt to changing needs and constraints and have qualified personnel and clear lines of responsibility in order to carry on existing business, to be aware of new service possibilities and to move forward in implementing appropriate courses of action."

Early in November, on a brisk and windy Saturday morning, state senators, town officials, department heads, school officials, assorted Board members, and Camperdene's townspeople all gathered for ground-breaking ceremonies for the new museum. Neil's boy Mark was particularly pleased and impressed, hobnobbing with senators, constables, the police chief, and the fire chief.

Soon, Fusaro Corporation workers began their work at the Lake Street property, clearing trees to prepare the site for blasting and concrete work, big front-lift caterpillars and trucks busy scooping the earth, leveling out the ruts and rolling sweeps, creating the foundations. Mounds of dirt were set all around. The museum was built in interlocking blocks built on top of each other. Concrete was delivered to the blocks in buckets. After each bucket was delivered, four or five men called puddlers would tromp around, packing down the concrete, making sure there were no airholes. One rainy day, Neil and his son Mark went down and joined in, puddling to their heart's content. The rainwater swept down along newly dug ruts, draining into the rising Pond.

Neil began interviewing for new Museum of the Year 2012 staff, asking candidates to summarize their work history. Any previous experience in public service? Museum service? What attracted you to this position? Assets/Liabilities you think you'd bring to this particular position? Summarize your experience with computers and with computer automation. How do you relate to co-workers? What knowledge or attitude do you find most useful, when working closely with the public? How do you deal with stress? How do you defuse potentially 'explosive' situations? What kind of supervision most effectively motivates you? Hobbies, foreign languages, reading interests? Anything else about yourself that you'd like us to be aware of? Why do you feel you could be the best candidate for the position? Any questions?

Likewise, Neil had questions for the candidates' references. How long have you known the candidate? What capacity/working relationship? How does the candidate relate to the public? How does the candidate relate to co-workers? Attitude? Responsibility? Flexibility? React under stress? Work quality? Work quantity? And so on.

Negotiations began with the Camperdene Association of Paraprofessional Employees (M.A.P.E.).

A performance evaluation process was put in place: "I, the undersigned new employee of the Museum of the Year 2012, understand that I am subject to a ninety-day probationary period, at which time my performance will be evaluated. If at that time my job performance does not meet the expectations of the curator of the Museum of the Year 2012, I understand I may be subject to the termination of my employment."

By mid-February, the staff was known: curator, Neil Wright; Collections Development, Audrey Morris; Exhibitions Curator Assistant (MAPE), Lizzie Cunningham; Curatorial Assistant I (MAPE), Mary Tuchlein; Curatorial Assistant I (MAPE), Frannie Micheline; Curatorial Assistant II (MAPE), Patty Stenikaan; Curatorial Assistant II (MAPE), Colleen McCartney; Curatorial Assistant II (MAPE), Francie Marshall Hearst (proposed); Archivist I, Francie Marshall Hearst; Archivist II, Susan Sanderson; Archivist III, Don Underwood; Director of Educational Outreach, Julia Seymour-Stanton; Educational Outreach Assistant, Debbie Joss; Maintenance Supervisor, Hayden Brown; and part-time help, three positions (to be determined).

Once the temporary museum was in place at the Majestic Theater, Neil kept busy at all hours filling out government procurement documents and placing orders by the fistfuls. Soon, furniture, shelving, supplies, and artifacts were coming in by the truckloads. It was a good, wild time. At home, Minna was eager to conceive child number three. Once the kids were put to bed, she put on silk and lace or nothing at all, blossoming like a raindrenched flower in a garden of forbidden delights. She attempted bizarre esoteric sex acts that she'd read about in some of the abundant liberal books now streaming into Camperdene -- books formerly banned by the Association Library. The gymnastics left Neil dizzy, exhausted, and happy. The two emerged from the all-night love-fests to shower, dress, and make breakfast for the kids. The kids bounced through the rooms as if to mimic the night bouncing of their parents.

Work on the museum went forward that winter at fever pitch. Drilling and blasting at the site went on amid the screams of warning sirens until the foundation outline, the building footprint, was achieved. It wasn't very long before work started on the storm drains and basic plumbing and the fundamental electrical and mechanical stuff. It was not at the new museum but, rather, at the Majestic, that a ludicrous problem now sprang up. Museum staffer Lizzie Cunningham showed up at work wearing "transparent underclothes," as Board Chair Michael Bonaventura protested -- "only cellophane, actually -- and bra-less to boot -- an inexcusably obscene outfit." Insisting she was only "in synch with" fashions which in her opinion certainly would be forthcoming in the year 2012, Lizzie filed a formal grievance with the clerical union.

Reporter Alice Armour Armstrong wrote in Camperdene Daily Journal, "Some members of the new Museum of the Year 2012 Board are outraged because details of their decision regarding a grievance filed by a museum employee have been leaked out to interested parties prior to the decision being sent in writing to the union representing her. It has been leaked out and is being played in the papers,' said angry Board member Ben Mulvane. On Monday night the new Museum of the Year 2012 Board met in closed door executive session to discuss the weighty issue of the Exhibitions Curator Assistant's clothing, hearing the grievance Lizzie Cunningham has filed against museum trustee chairman Michael Bonaventura and museum curator Neil Wright.

"'It was fine. Everybody was fine,' Trustee Chairman Michael Bonaventura said. 'There was no yelling or screaming or hostility'. The trustees unanimously rejected library worker Lizzie Cunningham's charge that she was constantly harassed by the museum curator. Fran Micheline, president of the Camperdene Association of Paraprofessional Employees (M.A.P.E.) says Wright contends Cunningham 'was altogether off the mark, off the wall -- out of line'."

Obviously, Barrow and Cunningham had this all planned out ahead of time and, luckily, their stupid shenanigans fell through -- or at least fizzled out... for a while.

In the next issue of the Camperdene Daily Journal came the news that "employee Lizzie Cunningham was 'considering an apeal of the trustees' finding that Museum of the Year 2012 curator Neil Oppenheimer Wright did not unfairly single her out for her choice of clothes at work, Milford's Association of Paraprofessional Employees (M.A.P.E.) President Fran Micheline said, declining to discuss the Board's decision, saying the issue has been 'blown out of proportion."