Discovery Place committee meetings will be public

CHARLOTTE — The committee that will decide Discovery Place Nature Museum’s future will meet in public.

Channel 9 reported on Thursday that commissioners Mark Jerrell, Laura Meier, Susan Rodriguez McDowell and Yvette Townsend Ingram will serve on the committee.

Despite Commissioner Leigh Altman’s motion to investigate the issuing of the loan, Rodriguez McDowell says she and several others were aware since it was on the agenda.

She says the focus now should be on what happens next for the museum instead of litigating the past.

“I’m willing to listen,” Rodriguez-McDowell said on the phone. “But the board’s will was never to put more money than the $10 million that we intended. It was never our will to go above that number in any kind of permanent way. So, I believe we have to get that money back for the public.”

A meeting date has not been announced.

Commissioners are weighing whether to hold the museum in default and take over or allow the Discovery Place to open and be put on a repayment plan

A decision is expected by the end of the month.