Topeka ? Commerce Bank & Trust Co. has asked guarantors for the Kansas International Museum, including the Topeka Convention and Visitors Bureau, to help cover the museum’s debts.

The museum ended its 2002 fiscal year about $606,000 in the red.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau was one of the first organizations to pledge its support to the museum’s plan to bring the exhibit “Czars: 400 Years of Imperial Grandeur” to Topeka. The bureau acted as a guarantor for $250,000.

President Richard Forester said Monday he had received a letter about a month ago from Commerce Bank about the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s financial obligation as a guarantor.

“We’re in negotiations at the present, and our attorney is involved,” Forester said. “Our guarantee was for KIM’s loans with Commerce Bank. I know they had a line of credit. I don’t know if they used up the full line or not.”

Betty Simecka, co-owner of the now-defunct Cultural Exhibition and Events Inc., said 10 or 11 individuals, groups and businesses agreed to be guarantors for the Kansas International Museum, which contracted with CEE to bring the czars exhibit to Topeka.

Simecka said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were among the reasons the museum ran into problems.