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Damned if we do

It was a deal to finally rid the money-losing Tawatinaw Valley Ski Hill from Westlock County’s books, but the latest development has the municipality, and its ratepayers, back in the tow-rope line.

It was a deal to finally rid the money-losing Tawatinaw Valley Ski Hill from Westlock County’s books, but the latest development has the municipality, and its ratepayers, back in the tow-rope line.

County councillors will now have to figure out what’s next for the facility after agreeing June 28 to suspend the $2.2 million lease/purchase agreement it inked with DK Consulting just this past December.

In other words, that means until there’s a new contract the county won’t collect rent, or taxes from DK. And as to when the municipality will see any more of those payments … well, that’s only if a new deal can be reached after a new CAO is hired.

According to reeve Bud Massey the current deal fell flat because of outstanding issues at the site highlighted by a slumping parking lot that gets washed out in the summer and the fact that the leasee has been losing money.

Want to know the best part?

It’s only going to cost a reported $500,000 to remedy those problems, of which ratepayers would be on the hook for at least half of … if the old lease/sale agreement is to be honoured. Or course ‘estimated’ costs and ‘actual’ costs for any fix at Tawatinaw never seem to line up, so as to how much these ones will add up to is anyone’s guess.

So, now what?

Well, that’s the fill-in-the-blank-cheque question. It’s hard to imagine any business turning a profit at Tawatinaw — remember it’s operated in the red since its inception. And like any other publicly-owned facility why would it?

Schools don’t and neither do pools, or arenas.

But we digress.

We were never fans of the original deal and figured the county took far less than what the site was worth. We get that councillors, and by extension ratepayers, wanted to rid themselves of the seemingly never-ending repair and maintenance costs, but its worth noting that the county is in the third year of repaying a two decade, $1.5 million debenture for the new chalet — a chalet which ended up costing us $3.1 million. But the worst part, if there can be only one, is that if things can’t be ironed out with DK it’s hard to imagine anyone else stepping in. And if there’s no one else, then the county takes over ownership … just into time to spend more money on repairs.

Yes dear ratepayers, it appears we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

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