SASKATOON – The Western Development Museum (WDM) says it’s saved and lost money over the past year due to closures and can now reopen on Mondays for nine months of the year.
Effective tomorrow, the WDMs in Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Saskatoon, and Yorkton will reopen on Mondays, with the exception of January, February and March.
Last spring, executive director Joan Champ said WDM had an operating deficit of over $400,000.
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On April 2 2012, the four museums closed Monday services in an effort to maintain a balanced budget.
As of today, the WDM says they have managed to absorb costs associated with inflation and eliminated its deficit.
The WDM also recently conducted a thorough analysis of the impact of the closures along with several other initiatives and concluded they’ve succeeded in addressing a budget shortfall.
While the museum managed to pinch pennies during Monday closures, officials say they missed out on revenue that could have been generated from admissions, gift shops and food services.
“We decided that really it was about 50/50 and it’s really important for us to serve our visitors, especially school kids. We were down to four days instead of five to have education groups coming through,” said Champ.
In the upcoming fiscal year, the WDM will continue addressing budgetary constraints through a variety of cost-saving measures, as well as some new initiatives to increase revenue.
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