Anyone who is over the age of 35 probably remembers raking leaves as a kid. Back then, doing any kind of yard work around the neighborhood was a good way to throw a few extra bucks into your pocket.

Of course, I haven’t seen a kid raking leaves or mowing a lawn in a couple of decades, but that’s another column for another day.

The thing about raking leaves is that you can work until your hands are blistered, and all it takes is a well-timed, well-placed gust of wind and you’re right back to where you started.

Hmmm … that’s kind of like the St. Joseph Museum.

In case you missed it, Joe Blumberg reported in Saturday’s News-Press that the city of St. Joseph and Museums Inc. have agreed on a contract on how to spend the yearly property tax money. The contract was to be introduced at Monday night’s City Council meeting and will likely be voted on at the July 14 session.

The contract details are pretty straightforward. Museums Inc. will receive $400,000. The first $100,000 must be spent on the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion and must be used for capital improvements, maintenance and repairs. The new nature center down by the casino will receive a chunk of the money, and the rest will go various places, including $1,000 to the city for an “administrative fee.”

Just a side note to the city here: I’d be glad to “administer” funds and would only charge $900. Hey, I’m just offering.

Anyway, here are two observations about this contract.

First, the St. Joseph Museum will not return to the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion. It will remain in the former state hospital building that housed the Glore Museum. So, after all the complaining, after all the lawsuits, after all the rancor and accusations between the Friends of the Museum group and some Museum board members, the museum will forge ahead on Frederick Avenue.

Second, remember the $100,000 that the Museums Inc. board must spend on improving the Wyeth-Tootle? Well, that money would have been spent anyway. The mansion does need work. It is a St. Joseph treasure that nobody in their right mind wants to see fall into disrepair.

The only difference is that the Museum board wanted to sell the mansion so that private funds — not taxpayer money — would pay for most of these improvements.

So, after a few years of raking, the wind has blown the leaves back onto the lawn, essentially where they were in the first place. This contract also mostly fulfills the vision that former director Alberto Meloni had for the St. Joseph Museum.

You remember Alberto, right? Kind of a big guy … spoke with an Italian accent …

Alberto had the audacity to suggest that the museum had outgrown the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion. He saw a better future for it, one with more space, enough facilities to properly care and store artifacts not in use and a great location that would draw more visitors.

For his efforts, Mr. Meloni was rewarded with several implied accusations, including that he tried to line his friends’ pockets by selling the mansion, that he violated federal law and that he stole artifacts himself. Although he left St. Joseph to take another job, Mr. Meloni was essentially run out of town on a rail.

I honestly don’t know much about real-estate investments, but selling a building, no matter how low the price, that requires extensive and expensive renovation doesn’t sound like such a sweet deal to me.

Early this year, the U.S. Department of the Interior said allegations put forth by Museum members John Tapia and Harrison Hartley that the museum had violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act were not true.

And, as far as the thefts go, an inventory led by the Rev. Jimmy Albright proved the collections are all there and intact.

So, we’re back to square one. The museum will exist on Frederick Avenue and the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion will receive a much-needed infusion of cash to help restore it to past splendor.

Gosh, maybe Alberto Meloni wasn’t such an idiot after all. His plan for both entities is essentially coming to fruition. He probably didn’t expect all the controversy and personal attacks on his character to take place when he suggested moving the museum a few years ago.

But, hey, sometimes being a visionary is tough.

Steve Booher’s column will return to its usual publication day next Monday. He can be reached at steveb@npgco.com.