Island Grove Park

parties. We’re a really great facility for our community. We do a lot of fund raising events here, like United Way; our Chamber of Commerce does a fundraising dinner for a thousand, every year. We do lots of diverse events.” Many of the community events at Island Grove are provided free, or at a very low cost, and so, Welch reports that the park operates at a deficit. “We are definitely not self-sufficient,” he admits. “If there’s a city or county-sponsored event, then rent fees are waived. The County’s 4-H Club is run out of here, and anytime they’re doing anything, there’s no charge. It’s the same way with city and county meetings; they’re free of charge. We have seven rooms that will hold 50-100 people. You can rent any of them for $125 for the day Monday through Thursday. That includes equipment – audio visual equipment, microphones – anything you need, there’s no extra charge. We figured out a long time ago that’s it’s better to have people in them than to let them sit empty because we’re trying to charge too much money. We have an expenditure budget of roughly $2.1 million a year and we bring in about $800,000 in revenue. So the city and county each subsidize this park to the tune of another $1.3 million.” In fact, over the last 15 years, Island Grove’s two governmental owners - the City of Greeley and Weld County - have partnered with its three biggest users – the Greeley Stampede, the Colorado Farm Show, and the Greeley Kennel Club - to put in over $15 million worth of capital improvements at the park, including a $4.5 million Arena expansion; a $6.5 million Event Center; $1.1 million for the Buckle Club/park restroom facility; the $1.2 million Aven’s Village Playground; and the $1.6 million sports turf softball/soccer field. Regarding the park’s revenue, Welch reports, “Dog shows pay a lot of our bills. We are a big dog show venue. We do, typically, four or five national specialty breeds shows here, a year, and we’re booked with dog shows from mid-August all the way through October. Last year, the Greeley Kennel Show was voted one of the top three dog shows in the country, which is something we’re pretty proud of.”