DOWNEY’S COLUMBIA SPACE CENTER—FROM MAJOR TOM TO MAJOR TURNAROUND

By the middle of last year, only nine months after it had opened, the Columbia Memorial Space Center was caught between a rocket and a hard place. Conceived as an educational tool and tourist attraction that would pay tribute and give a legacy to Downey’s role out-of-this-world exploration, the Space Center seemed to be doing a Major Tom—circuits dead and something wrong.

For one thing, by last June the $10 million, 20,000-square-foot place wasn’t even fully constructed yet, its October 2009 grand opening notwithstanding.

“The bottom line is the center is currently average and it should be exceptional,” said Scott Pomrehn, a deputy city manager. “It really needs to be outstanding.”

Easier said than done, of course, although Pomrehn appears to be doing both. After his straightforward assessment, Pomrehn was installed as the Space Center’s executive director—replacing Jon Betthauser, who was fired—and since then seems to have the place running spaceship-shape.

“We’re definitely in full gear,” Pomrehn said. “Our goal is to be at capacity and we believe it’s very attainable.”
Pomrehn’s first actions as commander of the flight deck? Expanding the Space Center’s hours of operation while keeping admission at $5, increasing outreach to area schools as a field-trip destination and extending its outstretched hand to corporate donors. That last part helped increase staffing at the Center, from two to 13.

As a result, when he wrote his 2010 annual report to the city, Pomrehn was able to say that the Columbia Memorial Space Center had changed its course—escaping its circling-the-drain obit and spinning optimistically toward … well … anywhere else. The report cited a total attendance of 14,400 and signs of growth.

“We’re already booked most of February and the entire month of March,” Pomrehn said. “Field trips have become weekly occurrences at the center with 103 groups of ten or more individuals visiting the center in 2010. As of January…25 field trips have been booked for 2011.”

Downey City Council member Roger Brossmer is the liaison between the city and the Downey Unified School District, and he says he likes what he has been seeing since last summer.

“We were all frustrated at the pace of this,” Brossmer said. “That’s why we staffed up, made changes and we have high expectations. It’s getting there, we’re starting to see it.”