(Arnolds Park)– This past weekend marked the third anniversary of a successful last minute fundraising effort to save the Arnolds Park Amusement Park from the bulldozer.
To commemorate the occasion, the museum’s board of directors held their annual meeting Sunday.
Treasurer Brett Thacker reported an 11.6 percent in general admissions; season membership sales were also up considerably while sales of daily passes set new records. And Thacker reported a thousand individual ride tickets had been sold as of July 30th. While increasing income, Thacker says they were able to decrease expenses by about nine percent.
A Treasurer’s report shows operating income of 1.645 million dollars with expenses of 1.437 million for a positive cash flow of slightly more than 209 thousand dollars. Total assets were put at slightly more than 17 million dollars with liabilities of 3.22 million and a net equity of 13-point-eight million. One-point-three six million dollars in pledges from the Save-The-Park Campaign are still outstanding.
Maritime Museum President Mike Johnson said he’s confident the park has turned the corner. But he says more needs to be done.
He says a top priority is to accomplish the dreams of the late Steve Kennedy. Among those is an expansion of the Maritime Museum to include the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and artifacts from the fun house.
At the same time, Johnson said the board will continue with it’s philosophy of not taking on any more major projects until it has the money in hand for them.
