Outreach director for the Oklahoma Historical Society, Kathy Dickson, has announced that exhibit designs are complete for Altus’ Museum of the Western Prairie, and that reconstruction should begin within the month.

Dickson said that a bidding packet for the part of the work that isn’t being done by the Society is currently on the desk of the state’s Department of Central Services.

Total reconstruction cost to get the museum up to par with handicap-accessible restrooms and new exhibits is going to be about $130,000.

A fund raising open house was just held for the museum earlier this month. The museum has been closed to the public since July 2007 for asbestos abatement and due to statewide funding cuts for Oklahoma museums.

According to Dickson, the Altus museum’s full-time staffer will be retained.