Reggie Thomas / CorrespondentThe Rail Festival featured model trains at the Meridian Railroad Museum on Nov. 5, 2016. The Queen City Model Railroads said they are being displaced by a decision by the Meridian City County to allow the museum to share space with the Jimmie Rodgers Museum.

Although not all parties were notified in advance, those involved in the proposed consolidation of the Meridian Railroad and Jimmie Rodgers museums say they want to move forward.

While no exact date has been set, parties from both organizations plan to meet in the near future.

Archie McDonnell, CEO of Citizens National Bank — one of the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation’s community partners – said he was recently contacted by Brandon Harper, a representative of the Meridian Railroad Museum.

“We need to sit down and talk and figure out how to consolidate these two museums,” McDonnell said. “I don’t know what their understanding is because that meeting hasn’t taken place yet. In the meantime, nobody is going to show up and make off in the middle of the night with all [their] stuff.”

Jim Askew of the MRM wrote in a statement last week “we hope soon that a meeting will in fact take place to sort out what the future holds for both organizations.”

However, Askew also wrote in the statement that neither he nor anyone else with the museum had been contacted about consolidating the museums. According to the statement, he knew nothing about the deal until he saw it on the news.

The statement was posted on the MRM Facebook page Sept. 21, just two days after the city council approved a lease agreement with the JRF to combine the two museums, making it the Jimmie Rodgers Railroad and Music Museum.

“As of this statement, no city official has contacted anyone with the Meridian Railroad Museum to notify us of any of these changes,” he wrote in the statement. “After hearing the news reports we reached out to several individuals associated with the JRF and the City of Meridian in an attempt to gain insight on what may lay in the future for the the MRM. A meeting has been proposed by a non-city official, but no date or time has been set.”

Jimmie Rodgers Foundation President Ed Snodgrass said he is willing to work toward an equitable arrangement.

“I wasn’t made aware of there being a problem by the city nor by the railroad museum,” Snodgrass said. “But if there is a problem, we will work with them to resolve it. We want this to be a very valuable museum to the city, and the railroad component will not be devalued or minimized.”

Mayor Percy Bland referred questions to the city’s Chief Administrative Officer Richie McAllister, who could not be reached for comment.

McAllister was quoted last week in a news report saying, however, that the MRM is owned and maintained by the city, and the museum board “went vacant in late 2012.”

According to Askew, the museum has been open two Saturdays a month for the last 15 years and for the last year has been open every Saturday.

Railfest is also held the first weekend in November “and has secured some of the best railroad display equipment to visit Meridian as would be found anywhere in the country,” Askew said.

Other upcoming events include the GM&O Historical Society annual meeting and a Mississippi Railfan Group annual meeting.

“The museum is far from closed or unused,” Askew wrote. “Thousands of visitors come through the museum yearly and we are excited at the possibilities that lay ahead for downtown Meridian and want to be a part of the process.”

The Meridian Model Railroad Club is also active in the facility.

John Morgan, a member of the club, said he feels the city has ignored the museum.

“There needs to be some conversations going on,” Morgan said. “We go up there and volunteer and we put in hours and hours of labor and not really ask for any money at all.

“The public loves the museum — children love the model trains. I don’t even know if the mayor or the parks and recreation man have even been down there.

“It’s really like we just got completely ignored and Jimmie Rodgers is going to come in and take over the building and not discuss anything with us.”