Neighbor in need: Saco Drive-In may get new home, life at Aquaboggan Water Park
Courtesy / Saco Drive-In
The iconic sign at the Saco Drive-In will move as part of the drive-in's relocation to the Aquaboggan Water Park.
The Aquaboggan Water Park in Saco plans to relocate and reopen the Saco Drive-In at the water park this summer, saving the theater and giving it a new home after more than 80 years in operation.
The water park announced Friday on its Facebook page that it's working on securing city permits that would allow it to soon open the Saco Drive-In at Aquaboggan. The water park and drive-in are located across U.S. Route 1 from each other. Aquaboggan hopes to use an area now devoted to overflow parking.
“Our goal is to have it up this season,” Ethan Mongue, general manager of the Aquaboggan Water Park told Mainebiz. “I grew up in Saco and spent my childhood going to the drive-in. We want to be good members of the community. We’d love to see it stay where it was, but this is the second-best idea.”
Hale Trailer Brake & Wheel, a truck trailer dealership in Portland, recently acquired the Saco Drive-In property from Biddeford-based Roberge Construction Inc.
“The past two years have been a challenge. Owning the property since 1986, selling the drive-in was one of the hardest decisions we had to make,” read a Facebook post from Saco Drive-In on Feb. 28. “COVID played a part in our decision from having to operate at reduced capacity, inconsistent supply chains, staffing shortages, movie shortages and online streaming to name a few.”
Hale Trailer is giving the iconic sign and the fountain to the Aquaboggan, Mongue said.
“Hale Trailer has been very generous. They said anything we can keep or use, they are donating. They’re also donating their time to help move the sign across Route 1,” Mongue said.
Mongue said he did not know yet the cost of the project, but said a similar project in Westbrook cost about $50,000 to $60,000.
“It’s a big-ticket item. It will depend on the type of screen we put up,” Mongue said.
Mongue said Aquaboggan plans to finance the effort on its own, rather than look to crowdfunding or community fundraisers.
“From our standpoint, these are uncertain times and there’s better uses for people’s money, so we plan to finance this ourselves,” Mongue said. “If we qualify for grants or something, that’s great. But otherwise we plan to finance it.”
The Aquaboggan has a field for overflow parking where it aims to put the screen. The screen will face the water park and the parking area and there will be space for 200 to 250 cars, Mongue said.
The Saco Drive-in opened in 1939. The other drive-ins in Maine are located in Westbrook, Bridgton, Skowhegan, Farmington, Hermon and Madawaska.
In 2013, the Saco Drive-In and many of the 400 other drive-in theaters nationwide faced closure with the conversion to a digital projection systems. Saco and the surrounding community helped raise money for the drive-in and it also won a national contest to get a new digital projection system.
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