Meadowbook Park trying to stay afloat during pandemic

BASCOM — Meadowbrook Park is facing the loss of $175,000 due to the pandemic. A late start to the summer season and reduced use of park facilities are causing financial issues, said Dick Freeborn, a park manager. Unlike the city and county parks, Meadowbrook is owned by Hopewell Township and has no levy or city financial backing. It relies on providing services to its customers, much like a business. Freeborn, who manages Meadowbrook with Troy Breidenbach, said the park normally serves 157,000 people every year. But this year he expects the park to lose $175,000 if conditions continue as they are through Labor Day. "From the business side of things, it's a disaster from our normal," he said. "Therefore, how are we going to make up and move forward because we have no tax money." He said the only reimbursement available is Hopewell Township's portion of federal CARES Act dollars, which is $12,338 to pay for virus-related expenses for the entire township. Freeborn said there's no way to replace the money the park is losing this year on its four methods of making money - camping, swimming pool fees, ballroom rental and shelter rental. "We usually do large weddings (in the ballroom) because we can handle 600 people and still have a dance floor," he said. "Now we've limited it to 300 people and no dancing, so everybody is canceling and trying to move to other places." He said the park already has lost $57,502 from reduced use of the ballroom. Freeborn said the picnic shelters are "another catastrophe." Every summer they're rented for family reunions and similar get-togethers. "Now families are nervous about getting together," he said. That has resulted in another $7,200 loss in rental income so far this year. The swimming pool is open, but not nearly at capacity. Normally, on a hot summer day, he said 500-600 people will be at the pool. "We're now limited to 225 people inside the gate," he said, and pool attendance has reached its limit seven times this year. "Once you're in, if you go out you have to go to the end of line to get back in," he said. Although it caused some hard feelings in the beginning, he said people are getting used to that change now. The average pool income for the last three years has been $49,300, he said, and this year he's expecting half of that. By July 15, he said the pool had earned $10,000. "We're going to lose $25,000 on the pool," he said. The campgrounds have been the only "bright spot" this year, he said. Meadowbrook actually has two campgrounds - one solely for seasonal campers and one that is partially seasonal and partially available for overnight or weekend visitors. He aid the loss from opening a month late was about $57,000. However, he said people aren't traveling far but they want to get away, so the weekend camping area has been fairly full since it opened Memorial Day weekend. "We're holding our own there, but there's no way to recover what we lost," he said. "We're walking a tightrope," Freeborn said. "We're doing our best to maintain payroll and maintenance." Although the township owns the park, he said the trustees took possession in 1976 so people could continue to use the park with the understanding that it would be financially self-sufficient. The park was created as an amusement park by James Garfield Haugh, owner of Gem Manufacturing Co., a woodworking shop that formerly stood where Bascom's new fire station is now located. Haugh left the park to the Bascom community in his will. However, Bascom is not incorporated so there technically is no "community" to take possession. Probate court established it as a charitable trust and oversaw its operations in various forms until the 1976. In the 1970s it gradually changed from an amusement park to a community park and campground. "We kind of fall in between there," Freeborn said. It's a public park, but it is dependent on customers like a business. "That's why we depend on grants and donations to move forward," he said. Freeborn said park officials have been in touch with Congressmen about the park's plight, and are working to get money for operations. During the Great Depression, he said Haugh promoted the park as a get-away. "His speech at that time was that they we're doing great things during the Depression," he said. "We'll re-do the park and enlarge it and give people a place to go and forget the Depression for the day. "That's our push to stay open," Freeborn said. "Doing what our predecessors did."