The U.S. Olympic Museum, facing a March 31 deadline to raise $8.8 million, has applied for $500,000 from the Colorado Springs Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax fund.

The LART fund has about $200,000 in unobligated money carried over from 2016, an excellent year for tourism, said City Councilman Tom Strand, a non-voting member of the LART Committee.

The museum is seeking $200,000 this year, another $200,000 in 2018 and $100,000 in 2019.

LART is best known for helping to finance festivals and other events, but it also can grant money for capital improvements that would enhance tourism or help lure new tourists to the region. It is contributing $1 million over four years, for example, to the Summit House being built atop Pikes Peak.

The $75 million Olympic Museum would be a 60,000-square-foot showcase in southwest downtown for the nation’s Olympic and Paralympic movements, with a Hall of Fame honoring Olympians.

“Dick Celeste talked about what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame did for Cleveland, bringing in tourists,” Strand said. “Not only the (Olympic) museum, but the Hall of Fame would bring in untold numbers of tourists.”

Celeste, a former two-term Ohio governor, past Colorado College president and chairman of the museum board, has helped raise $40 million in private donations and commitments for the project.

Now, UMB Bank, Academy Bank and FirstBank have agreed to buy $39 million in bonds, with $26.2 million of the proceeds to go to the museum. The Urban Renewal Authority, its financing entity, would issue the bonds.

The rest of the bond proceeds would go toward public improvements in southwest downtown, where Nor’wood Development Group and others plan major developments.

“We have asks from coast to coast,” Celeste said. “In the end, the real value is most clearly recognized here in Colorado Springs. And the impact in terms of jobs and tourist revenue will be strongest right here.

“We expect at minimum 350,000 visitors a year. A little over 80 percent of those we anticipate will be from out of state. My own feeling, based on what I saw from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum, we could attract more than that number. But that’s what our consultants and analysts say is a good number.”

The LART committee met Thursday. “I was surprised when all (six) voted for it, but they did,” Strand said.

The committee will recommend the funding to the City Council in February. A couple of council members already have indicated their opposition.

Councilwoman Helen Collins, a nonvoting member of the LART committee, “let them know right off the bat she wouldn’t support this,” Strand said. Collins regularly opposes expenditures of tax dollars.

Councilman Bill Murray balked at the very concept. “It’s bull—-. Can I be any more precise?” he said Friday. “We’ve rejected so many organizations asking for LART funds. And for them to waltz in and ask for $500,000?”

But Strand said he’s leaning toward supporting it.

And voting members at the Thursday meeting unanimously supported it. They are Daniel Kammerer, Douglas Martin, Laurel Prud’homme, Jack Damioli, Kathleen Fox Collins and Paul York.

Fred Veitch, committee chairman, recused himself from all discussions of the application because he works for Nor’wood.

“There are enough obstacles in the world without creating a sideshow,” Veitch said.

Mina Liebert had to miss the meeting but read the proposal and got a briefing from fellow voting members.

“I believe it would be a great space from a tourist attraction perspective,” she said of the museum. “We’ll see what the council says. From an opportunity to expand our reach outside of our region, I think it’s a positive.”

Celeste wouldn’t speculate on a council vote.

“I retired from politics a number of years ago,” he said. “It’s in their hands. I respect their decision-making. I believe this would be positive, and it’s consistent with what LART is about. I believe the museum and Hall of Fame will generate a significant increase in LART funding.”