SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — The San Angelo City Council approved $75,000 in hotel occupancy tax funding for the Railway Museum of San Angelo and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts during its Tuesday, Sept. 3, meeting.

The railway museum has been granted $25,000, and the fine arts museum has been granted $50,000.

The Railway Museum of San Angelo has earned the funds after waiting several years, getting a new board of directors and enacting several changes requested by the City. The museum plans to use its portion of the money to complete several repairs on its historic Sante Fe Passenger Depot site.

“We have a new board at this time that has completed all the requirements that have been asked of us, and so we came back during the budget workshop this year and asked if we could have our contract amended to allow us to receive hotel occupancy tax funding,” Suzana Valenzuela, a member of the Railway Museum of San Angelo Board of Directors, said. “That’s going to be really big help for us because the building has a lot of historic preservation needs.”

The funding approval comes less than a month after the railway museum reached out to the public for help staying afloat after the organization had lost approximately $33,000 to fees related to historic preservation over the past three years alone, severely limiting museum programming as a result.

The museum sought help through sponsorships, naming rights, memberships and participation in events like San Angelo Gives. An online letter template was also made available online for members of the public to sign online or print out, with completed letters being sent to the City Council to show public support for the museum.

With the hotel occupancy funding finally approved, the railway museum will now be going full steam ahead toward repairing the Sante Fe Passenger Depot.