Discovery North Bay facing another deficit

For the 10th consecutive year the North Bay Discovery Centre is facing a deficit. President of the museum Rod Johnston says if the trend continues they are facing a 50-thousand dollar shortfall for 2008.

“As a museum we’ve always had a difficult time breaking even , we’ve always had in the end donations come through and I suspect that’s what will happen at the end of year as well.”

However, Johnston wants to find a way to stop this trend. There was a suggestion of raising the cost of a ticket on the heritage train and carousel from one dollar to two dollars. But strong opposition from the volunteers there has cancelled that idea for now.

“One thing we haven’t done in an organized way is memberships and corporate memberships for the discovery center,” says Johnston, “ and I think we have some wonderful benefits for being a member there and some wonderful gifts we can give out to people.”

Johnston adds that attendance is up with close to 8-thousands visitors in 2007. He says the facility continues to be North Bay’s best kept secret and hopes to find a resolution as soon as possible.