Over at Lehigh Valley News Briefs, Jeff Ward suggests that the Da Vinci Science Center, just might be a big, fat boondoggle. He notes it has fallen far short of its projections of 400,000 visitors, $33 million in economic development and 287 jobs in 2024. It attracted just 160,000 visitors, which is actually fewer than it attracted when it was at Cedar Crest College. It has pretty much been a flop despite raking in $21.6 million over the last year, most of it in the form of grants from public and private suckers. But it has been an amazing success to CEO Lin Erickson and four other hotshots at the facility. Their combined salaries and benefits alone amounted to $763,695 according to the '990 for the year ending June 30, 2024. The number of employees in 2024 was 128, not even half the 287 projected. So I'd say that it is certainly a boondoggle with no real public benefit.
Northampton County, incidentally, wasted $300,000 on DaVinci when Erickson initially wanted to bring it to Easton. Erickson nearly conned Mayor Panto into spending $30 million Easton does not have for a gigantic 500,000 gallon salt-water aquarium, complete with laser beams attached to their heads. On top of the aquarium, a 100' tall Vitruvian man, minus penis, would stand.
A divided Northampton County Council actually voted to award a $10 million hotel tax grant (over 40 years) to support this facially ridiculous project. "It's insane," said Ken Kraft, who would become Council President in 2018. One of the first things he did was propose and pass a repeal of the grant.
Unfortunately, by the time the county reversed itself, DaVinci had already received $300,000 for a project that never got past the drawing board.
Unfortunately, by the time the county reversed itself, DaVinci had already received $300,000 for a project that never got past the drawing board.
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