SPRINGVILLE — A clarification in the operations contract between Springville City and the Springville Museum of Art Association could take a bite out of the money the museum will have for acquiring new pieces.

Museum staffers estimated that a proposed change to the way the money earned from renting the museum is distributed would reduce the funds the museum has by $10,000 to $12,000.

The restructure is a slight change to the public/private partnership that has sustained the museum since 1903. Springville provides the building, upkeep and administrative staff, while the Springville Museum of Art Association, a nonprofit organization, provides the funds for art acquisition, educational programs and the wages of some employees.

The change is not creating any hard feelings, however.

Museum staff say they understand and support it.

"It will be difficult . . . but it's logical, and it makes sense," museum director Vern Swanson said. "We just have to be more creative and more diligent to make up those funds. But you know, it's OK."

In the past, the income from the rentals, which is roughly $21,000 per year, has gone to the city — but then been returned to the museum for art acquisition, insurance and other overhead expenses.

The museum can be rented for weddings and other such events.

However, according to the proposed 2007 budget, city officials would return to the museum only 40 percent of the rental funds.

Springville would then use 20 percent to pay for rental attendants — employees of the Springville Museum of Art Association who are paid with the rental money usually returned to the museum — to provide security.

The city would keep the remaining 40 percent.

Springville City Administrator Layne Long said the change is necessary to change some vague language in the contract between the city and the museum association.

"We were clarifying something that was in a previous contract . . . it was ambiguous in regard to who was responsible for what," he said.

Long said the original contract provided for the rental money to be split between the association and the city, but how it was to be split wasn't clear. The city needs its share, he said, to cover its costs, including liability and upkeep associated with the building.

Swanson, who is a city employee, said he thinks the new budget would provide a "just distribution" of the rental income.

"You know, the people come and they rent the building, which is owned by the city," he said. "But they pay as much as they do because of the wonderful art, which is owned by the association. So it's a 50-50 deal."