QuickTake:

The director, who is charged with sexual abuse of an underage girl, is no longer working at the Florence museum. Two board members have resigned as well, and the museum is closed for now. A former mayor of Florence said he hopes the museum can one day reopen.

Geoffrey Cannon, accused of sexually abusing an underage girl identified in published reports as a volunteer at the Oregon Coast Military Museum, is no longer the museum’s director.

Cannon, who had been on paid administrative leave, did not respond to a voice message left Monday seeking comment.

The privately funded Oregon Coast Military Museum opened its doors in 2015 with lots of help from volunteers, said Joe Henry, former mayor of the seaside town of Florence.

“One person donated the land,” recalled Henry, while others donated materials for the museum’s construction.

Now, its future is uncertain. Florence police in July arrested Cannon, at the time the museum’s director, on suspicion of sex abuse. In recent days, a statement posted on the museum’s website says “the Museum’s Director was terminated.”

The statement seemed at odds with a news release provided to Lookout Eugene-Springfield by a former board member. The press release, listing new board members, stated that Geoffrey Cannon resigned from his position.

The seaside community is one of four Coast Guard cities, a designation authorized by Congress, and Henry — at one time a volunteer member of the museum’s board of directors — described the museum as helping with the city’s efforts to bring more visitors to town.

“In the past, we were a fishing and timber community, but we’re now a tourist destination city,” Henry said.

But no one is visiting the museum now, with the facility having temporarily shut its doors after a backlash to the museum intensified over the summer.

Published reports of audio from an informal meeting of museum board members and others included disparaging remarks made about the girl whom Cannon, 27, is alleged to have abused: a museum volunteer, who was 15 years old last year when the abuse began, according to statements from the girl’s family.

“Volunteering is in our DNA,” the girl’s mother said on Facebook last month. “When the opportunity presented itself to help the Oregon Coast Military Museum, our entire family leapt at the chance to support an organization that we believed stood for everything we love.”

But the statement went on to describe her daughter as “being groomed, manipulated and sexually assaulted by her boss.”

After the arrest, the organization’s board of directors, which included Cannon’s father, Gary Cannon, placed Geoffrey Cannon on paid administrative leave. The statement from the girl’s mother said their “pain was amplified by the shocking response to Geoffrey Cannon’s arrest from several Board members and volunteers at the museum.”

After publication of statements from the girl’s mother, social media posts and other online efforts, a Change.org petition seeking the ouster of the museum’s board of directors gained traction.

Henry, the former mayor, in a phone interview Monday called it an “unfortunate alleged situation.”

“I hope that it never happens again,” he said.

Others with past ties to the museum have spoken out more directly to those in charge.

Nine former museum board members signed a letter dated Aug. 29 asking that Geoffrey Cannon’s employment “be terminated immediately due to the legal issues surrounding his future which is detrimental to the Museum’s standing in the community.”

The August letter, addressed to the museum’s board at that time, also asked for Gary Cannon and another board member to resign because of a conflict of interest. The letter, in addition, asked the board to remove a volunteer whose “offensive comments” were “inappropriate.”

According to the statement posted on the museum’s website, the decision to fire Cannon by board members “not affected by any conflicts of interest” apparently did not involve Cannon’s father.

The museum’s statement posted in recent days announced the resignation of board “members with conflicts of interest in the ongoing matter,” not naming which members resigned.

Geoffrey Cannon has been charged in Lane County Circuit Court with four counts of second-degree sexual abuse. Each count is a Class C felony, carrying a maximum penalty of five-years in prison.

The nonprofit museum has operated on a shoestring budget, listing total annual expenses of $34,513 on its most recent IRS return.

According to the statement posted on the museum’s website, the backlash experienced after the public accusations included threats. It also caused difficulties in finding people wanting to serve on the museum’s board.

“Over the last two months, we have made concerted efforts to recruit new members from the community to join the Board and facilitate a smooth transition. Unfortunately, some of these individuals withdrew their applications, either after facing direct threats from both within and outside the community or due to their inability to commit sufficient time during these challenging times,” the directors said in their statement, also citing unspecified “threats of violence” to museum volunteers.

The separately issued news release, which included the names of six board members, stated the museum “will remain closed until further notice,” but that board members will take steps to reopen.

Joe Henry said that the museum has always relied on volunteer support and donations, which he thinks will continue from the local community.

“That would be my guess, and my hope, that the museum would continue to function,” he said.