INDIAN MUSEUM TO STAY OPEN ON WEEKENDS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LAKE LOS ANGELES - The Antelope Valley Indian Museum has avoided a threatened closure on weekends.

State parks officials found emergency funds to continue paying two part- time weekend workers, and the museum will also remain open through early June for prearranged group tours Tuesdays and Thursdays, although curator Edra Moore will be the only paid worker during the week.

``I'll be doing some dusting and mopping and stuff like that. We'll just soldier on here,'' Moore said Thursday.

The museum had sent out an announcement this week that it was going to close on weekends because of a tight budget, but officials quickly retracted it after figuring out a way to pay the part-time workers who collect admission fees and coordinate the volunteer docents.

The weekday group tours for schoolchildren and organizations will be conducted by volunteer docents, supervised by Moore.

The money shortage is statewide, a continuation of budget problems, said Al Pepito, the state park system's Mojave sector superintendent.

A historic park in the state system, the quirky, Swiss chalet-style structure displays more than 3,000 stone tools, woven baskets and other artifacts from coastal California, Great Basin and Southwest peoples. It has a gift shop and a picnic area, and a nature trail winds through the boulders around it on Piute Butte.

The museum will close after June 11 for about a year of scheduled work to reinforce the fragile building, which is almost 80 years old.

Starting in summer or early fall, the overhaul will proceed as planned at a cost of about $2 million, despite the budget crunch, Moore said.

The 1920s museum was originally a family home that artist H. Arlen Edwards built, partly out of movie-set materials that he scavenged from the Hollywood studios where he worked. Edwards also started the collections now displayed in the museum.

Parks officials say Edwards used Joshua tree trunks as roof supports, and they have little structural strength. Boulders form part of the walls and floor, and the building is not attached to a foundation.

The building is settling and actually shifts in high winds, officials say.

In addition, the museum is cooled by big evaporative coolers that pump in damp air that could hasten deterioration of some of the artifacts. The makeover will include installation of a climate-control system.

The museum will be reinforced in a way that doesn't change the appearance of the historical building itself, officials say.

The museum collection includes thousands of items that aren't displayed but can be viewed online through an electronic catalog made possible by the Getty Grant Program. The Web site, at www.avim.parks.ca.gov, will continue operating during the reconstruction.