Harrisburg museum to stay open amid scandal

HARRISBURG - The board chairman of Harrisburg's National Civil War Museum says it is likely to remain open despite the unfolding scandal involving the ex-mayor who was the moving force behind it.

J. Michael Love said Wednesday the nonprofit that runs the 14-year-old museum has a legal responsibility to keep it open. He also says the museum annually attracts tens of thousands of visitors, which provides the city with revenue.

Current Mayor Eric Papenfuse says the museum should be shuttered in light of the long list of criminal charges against ex-Mayor Stephen Reed, who allegedly diverted public funds to buy artifacts for the Civil War museum and other museums he planned. Papenfuse called the museum "a monument to corruption."

Reed was arrested Tuesday on charges that over the years he illegally diverted funds borrowed by municipal agencies for other purposes that later helped push the debt-strapped city toward bankruptcy. He allegedly used the money to buy thousands of artifacts for the Civil War museum and for planned historical attractions that included a Wild West museum that was never built.

Reed, a Democrat who served for 28 years until he was forced out in 2010 by an election defeat, faces hundreds of counts of theft and misapplication of property as well as criminal solicitation, bribery and tampering with evidence. He has said he will fight the charges.