Saw this in the Glen Rose Reporter newspaper (the official Glen Rose newspaper) week of July 14, 2010. The article was about how Land of the Dinosaurs, which plays at the Amphtheatre for a brief run, has cut back from 4 nights a week to one. (Ends August 21).  Guess what, 75 out of 125 tickets were people paying full price, the rest were getting discounts, that's about 60 percent of the tickets. Since Dooley is not only the manager of the Ampitheatre but also an investor, looks like he won't be making his cut.

Here's what gets me though. As mentioned here before, the Land of the Dinosaurs people clearly said back in September 2009 that they had private funding and didn't need to come looking for a handout from government. That ended in 2010 when Dooley and the LOD president came before the 4b committee and asked for moolah. And got it.  The amount, in audio here, was $80,000.  My question has always been, if LOD doesn't get the revenue to pay BACK the loan that they got from the 4b, what happens? Anything? Does the 4b call this a wash and just say "Oh, well, we're out the money?"

As a side note, It's not clear to me that Somervell County Commissioners Court has worked out the deal for Billings to come to Somervell County. UPDATE: As of today (July 15 2010) the deal has not been finalized, with the contract signed and final approval by Somervell County Commissioners Court; when that happens the terms of the deal, including contract will be available through public records.

There was an agenda item on June 18, 2010 regarding Land of the Dinosaurs.- I think that was the week I had computer issues so am reposting and relinking here. The relevant part is this.

3. Motion was made by Commissioner Ford and seconded by Commissioner Wirt to approve deferring payments from the Land of the Dinosaurs program until the end of the season, per the attached proposal.  Motion carried. All voting aye.

So.. last month, the LOD people knew that revenues weren't so great and they made a deal with Commissioners Court NOT to start making the payments back to them they were supposed to, but to wait till the end of the season. UPDATED-LINK TO PROPOSAL TO DEFER PAYMENTS THAT MIKE DOOLEY MADE TO THE COMMISSIONERS How ARE they going to make those payments back if they're cutting back to one day a week? And how ARE they going to make the payments back to the 4b committee?

P.S. I saw this in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Letters to the Editor on June 10, 2010. I think the show has been reworked since this letter.

Not enough roar

The "Land of the Dinosaurs" show in Glen Rose should be named "Land of the Lost Adults." Our three grandsons asked to leave before the intermission. The show started 30 minutes late and had maybe 60 seconds of dinosaurs roaring in the first half of the show. A show with dinosaurs in the title should be geared for kids who want to see and hear roaring dinosaurs, not a listen to a cast of adults and kids sing songs to canned music.

-- Tom Pryor, Pantego

UPDATE: More on this failure from Billy Huckaby at the Glen Rose City Retreat on July 17 2010