SAN BENITO — The city is taking steps to secure its new museum.
Since its completion earlier this year, there have been no break-ins at the new $1.7 million San Benito Cultural Heritage Center.
But city leaders are planning to protect the priceless artifacts the museum will showcase.
Earlier this week, city commissioners approved a $19,113 purchase for 11 surveillance cameras from Internal Control Systems along the $1.7 million building’s exterior and interior.
The city plans to install five cameras along the building’s exterior and six cameras inside the 6,932-square-foot museum.
“It’s a great investment,” Rey Avila, founder of the Texas Conjunto Hall of Fame and Museum, said yesterday. “Some people think of this as an expense but it’s an investment. There are artifacts in there that are priceless. Something historical can’t be replaced.”
Artifacts include the instruments of conjunto pioneers such as Narciso Martinez’s accordion as well as relics belonging to the former Ideal Recording Co., including two Finebilt record presses and two Ampex Corp. reel-to-reel recording machines.
The building will house the Conjunto Hall of Fame and Museum and the San Benito History Museum.
It remains unclear if it will also house the Freddy Fender Museum.
The city has not released the date on which the new museum will open.
