BY KIRK STARRATT
Kings County Advertiser/Register
The next installment of county funding for the Blue Beach Fossil Museum project could soon be on the way.
Kings council voted unanimously to send the museum society’s request for the second installment of $33,500 in grant funding to the Municipal Economic Development Advisory Committee (MEDAC) for consideration. Area councillor Mike Ennis made the motion, pointing out many benefits to the project.
This followed the presentation of the society’s business plan to council at the May 18 committee of the whole session.
Museum society chairwoman Sonja Wood said there are always more hurdles and red tape to overcome, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. They worked for about a year-and-a-half to get the proper zoning and a development agreement in place for the museum.
Wood said she was pleased to see unanimous support. She said the museum would be a wonderful attraction in the county’s backyard, great for geo-tourism - especially considering the synergy with the near-by Grand Pre National Historic Site.
The society is also pleased with the job the Acadia Centre for Social and Business Entrepreneurs did preparing its business plan. It’s great to have it to hand over to people to read, but Wood points out that the fossils speak for themselves.
“This place is really starting to become an attraction,” she said. “It’s important to have the county step up to the plate.”
The county funding will help leverage funding from the provincial and federal governments, and the society is looking to other partners for support. The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency provided $5,000 for the business plan, for example, and Wood said the agency knows the society will be seeking further support.
The society board is also looking for people with enthusiasm and experience, as well as individuals with strong fundraising abilities. New members and advisors added recently include former Kings South MLA David Morse, Dr. Leo Elshof, former Nova Scotia Museum curator Robert Grantham and Department of Natural Resources educational supervisor Martha Grantham.
Robert Grantham told council the fossils preserved at Blue Beach 345 million to 360 million years ago are only known to exist here, a world-class collection. Thousands of fossils would have been lost if not for the efforts of curator Chris Mansky and Wood.
Business plan for Blue Beach
ACSBE business counsellor and consultant Joel Stoddart, project manager for the Blue Beach Fossil Museum business analysis, said a lot of research went into preparing the society’s business plan.
“Our goal for the business plan is to put the science aside for a minute and look at it as a business opportunity,” he said.
With the first installment of $33,500 from the county, Stoddart said the society was able to pay overdue bills to Enviro Consultants and Architects and hire ACSBE to prepare the thorough business plan. The society needs to firm up the design and plan for the museum so capital costs can be confidently predicted. For planning purposes, in 2010 dollars, the estimated cost is between $4 million and $6 million.
Attendance projections show there would likely be 20,000 visitors to the museum the first year, 25,000 the second and 30,000 the third. These numbers are based on visitors to Joggins, Grand Pre and other museums.
Earned revenue is projected to be $230,000 for the first year, increasing to $345,000 by the fifth year. The five-year revenue expense projections show an operating loss before contributions of $200,000 in year one, dropping to $155,000 by year three. On a percentage basis, this means that earned revenues are projected to represent between 53 and 69 per cent of the society’s total revenue.
In terms of economic impact, the construction phase of the museum is expected to last one year. Economic impacts from visitors are ongoing. The museum could generate annual spending of $1,200,000 and local income of $700,000.
The museum already has plus or minus 20,000 square feet of waterfront property with direct and easy access to Blue Beach. There is intellectual property related to the curation, care, cataloging and documenting of the fossil collection. The museum has catalogued 1,700-plus fossil tracks, 300 miscellany and 2,700-plus bones. The data collected is stored in three specific searchable databases, linked to a digital photo collection of 3,000-plus images. The current museum library fills 70-plus volumes, with more than 1,000 research papers and texts. The library is a comprehensive resource of nearly all the important or “seminal” researches pertaining to the Devonian-Carboniferous ecosystems. Most of the papers and articles were obtained through inter-library loans, and many are quite rare.
