MARSHALL — The Lyon County Historical Society is asking for increased funding from Lyon County next year.

In a presentation to county commissioners this week, historical society board members said they hoped to have more competitive salaries for LCHS staff.

LCHS acting president Bill Palmer said the society board had analyzed salaries for the executive directors and curators at historical societies in nine different Minnesota counties. The counties had populations ranging from about 8,000 to 47,000, and the historical societies had budgets ranging from $120,000 to $340,000.

In order to make a better comparison, Palmer said the board narrowed down the data to cover counties with populations at or below Lyon County’s, and historical societies with budgets similar to LCHS.

“We were concerned immediately that we were below our peer organizations,” Palmer said.

On average, the historical societies that were LCHS’s peers or smaller had an executive director salary of around $44,000, while LCHS was in the $33,000 range.

The LCHS board wanted to make salaries for its executive director and collections manager more competitive with similar organizations, Palmer said.

To do that, LCHS was asking for an increase in county and city funding.

“Our plan is to do this over three years,” said LCHS treasurer John Sherman.

After 2025, funding requests would return to a maintenance level.

“We hope this would bring us in parity with other groups,” Sherman said.

The proposal Sherman and Palmer brought forward included a 9.8% county funding increase in 2023. That would bring the county’s funding for the historical society to about $85,262, compared to $77,650 in 2022. The proposal also called for a 9.33% funding increase in 2024, and an 8.92% increase in 2025.

Palmer said the LCHS would also be approaching the city of Marshall with a funding request next week.

Sherman and Palmer said the LCHS’s current budget is roughly around $200,000. The society uses donations to fund programs, and not operations. The majority of the historical society’s operations budget comes from county and city funding, with a small amount coming from food and gift sales.

Commissioners didn’t take action on the request Tuesday. But Commissioner Steve Ritter said they would consider the request as the county goes through its 2023 budget process.