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By Curtis Galbraith

Brighter financial picture for Dinosaur Museum

Nov 28, 2017 | 4:30 AM

Finances are better these days for the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

A delegation told County of Grande Prairie Council Monday that while revenues are $204,160.34 lower than budgeted for so far this year, expenses are $717,612.00 dollars below budget.

Board Treasurer Loretta Lieverse says that is because the museum did not have the opening costs this year that it had in previous years.

“We opened in ’15, which carried into ’16. It was late ’15 we opened and so a lot of finishing was done in ’16, where this year, (was) just the first year of operation, so we didn’t have to worry about warranty work on some of the capital that we put in and stuff like that. We were able to do that and we had a few vacant payroll positions, so we were down there, too.”

Lieverse adds the museum was hoping for more visitors.

“Admissions aren’t necessarily down, the numbers we had up there (at the County presentation) was our budget. We were anticipating bringing in a lot of people and so, they were just down a bit. Also, that comes in from a (declining) economy too, right?”

There were more educational visits to the museum this year, rather than museum people going to the schools.

Lieverse says fund-raising was much better this year.

“Our big event is always the Dino Ball and we always do a big raffle and this year, they were just very exceptional. The economy was also up, so you can really tell that in the amount people have to spend.”

The Dino Ball and raffle raised a combined total of $179,039.84.

Museum people will gather for a strategic planning session December 12.

“A lot of it is just coming up with where we see it going. We have to keep expanding. The museum’s fantastic, but you’ve got to add other aspects to it to keep people interested to come back. That’s what we’re going to look at, where do we see the museum in five years and how do we get there, so that it’s more well-rounded so people aren’t just coming to see the dinosaurs. Maybe there’s something else to draw them, or maybe that means changing exhibits more often, so that’s what we’re going to look at.” adds Lieverse.

 

by Curtis Galbraith