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Dubuque Museum & Aquarium Expansion

Sting rays are coming to Dubuque. Today the Iowa Economic Development Authority approved a grant for the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium that'll help it expand and add new exhibits, including a "sting ray touch tank."

President and ceo, Jerry Enzler, calls the new exhibit a "Mississippi River Delta Touch Pool."
The state grant of 468,000 dollars is part of a 2.3 million dollar expansion planned for  the museum and aquarium.

Enzler says another new exhibit will be the Iowa Machine Engine and Launch Works from Bellevue that closed 100 years ago - it'll be dismantled and re-created in Dubuque.

Credit National Miss R Museum & Aquarium
Dot the turtle at the Museum and Aquarium
ENZLER2.mp3
As it was when it closed in 1915 - leather belts powered the machinery.

The touch pool should open late next year (2016), followed by the machine shop in 2017.

With the state grant, he says the museum has just 340,000 dollars to raise over the next two years, to reach its goal. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.