Hanse Society to own Upper Clements Park

By Carolyn Sloan

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

The Hanse Society will soon become the new owners of Upper Clements Park, having spent a year of negotiations with the province to reach an agreement of transfer.

In addition to purchasing the Park for $1, the society will receive $1 million from the province for capital improvements as well as $310,000 in transitional operating funding.

The $1 million provided for capital improvements will fund a list of general maintenance projects and a few improvements that have already been identified and are scheduled to be completed over the next two years.

Hanse society chair, David Brown, says that once the capital and operating funding is in place, the board will be in a good position to take ownership of the attraction and secure its long-term future. Ultimately, Brown envisions the eventual possibility of turning a profit, which could then be reinvested in the Park. “I think there will be opportunities every year to make things more successful,” he says. “We wouldn’t have agreed to carry on and take on the Park if we didn’t think there was light at the end of the tunnel.”

Brown notes that as operators for the past decade, they have managed to improve the overall efficiency of the Park’s operations, showing major gains in the last two years. “We’ve increased our income and reduced our costs,” he says. “We want to see the Park be here and be open and create employment and that’s basically the bottom-line.”

As owners of the Park, the society will no longer receive annual operating funding from the province, though they will still be able to apply for government grants should the need arise. In the meantime, Brown says that the $310,000 in transitional funding will be stretched as far as possible over the next couple of years.

The society has also been successful in obtaining $300,000 in funding for future developments from the county, conditional upon reaching an agreement with the province.

The recent agreement does not include the adjacent Wildlife Park, which will continue to be operated by the Hanse Society through its existing lease agreement with the Department of Natural Resources. “The Hanse Society has done an excellent job operating Upper Clements Park,” says Len Goucher, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage. “They’re a passionate group of community-minded Nova Scotians and we’re pleased that they’ve accepted our offer to own and operate the park.”