HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Aug. 12, 2026) – What a difference a year makes for the Holland Museum.
In the spring of 2025, the museum warned of layoffs and program cuts if it couldn’t raise $100,000 by May 1st. This was due to rising costs and financial strain from federal funding cuts, and officials said that they were at a crossroads. That plea was heeded, and enough money was raised to avoid that situation.
Fast forward 12 months, and things are looking quite different. After establishing a funding goal of $450,000 for Fiscal 2026, the museum announced last week that it ended up with a “modest surplus,” although Executive Director Michelle Stempien didn’t disclose just how modest it was.
There was talk a year ago of putting a museum millage question before voters last November, in an effort to avoid a similar situation, but that proposal was apparently shelved. A two tenths of a mill “all or nothing” regional levy was defeated at the ballot box in November of 2014, as rejection by Holland Township offset passage by the City of Holland and Park Township.
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