The director of the Watkins Community Historical Museum has been dismissed as part of a shake-up in the management of the struggling non-profit.

In a short press release, the board of directors of the Douglas County Historical Society – which oversees Watkins – announced that Rebecca Phipps no longer was director of the museum.

When contacted this afternoon, Phipps said she did not resign from the museum, but she declined to go into specifics about her departure.

“At this point, I don’t want to comment until I’ve had a chance to talk to an attorney,” Phipps said.

An attempt to reach Phyllis Tiffany, chair of the historical society’s board of directors, was not successful.

But the press release did say that the museum’s structure was being reorganized to make it “more appealing to patrons and perspective patrons and to develop a plan for programming and funding.”

That reorganization became clearer on Monday when the Douglas County Commission – which provides a significant amount of funding to Watkins – agreed to provide $18,000 in funding to Destination Management Inc. to oversee many of the museum’s management functions. Destination Management Inc. is the new organization formed to manage the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage area. It is led by Judy Billings, who also is the director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau.

An attempt to reach Billings for comment wasn’t immediately successful.

Phipps had served as the director of Watkins, 1047 Mass., since February 2003. She replaced longtime administrator and historian Steve Jansen, whose demotion and eventual departure sharply divided the historical society’s membership.

More details as they become available.