The Friends of Tawatinaw are not giving up their ski hill without a fight.
Over 120 people piled into a scorching 36 C Pine Valley Ski Resort chalet at Tawatinaw Aug. 8 for an update on the future of the hill, which Westlock County council announced would be shuttered as of Oct. 1 after a 7-0 vote at their July 24 meeting.
"This hill means a lot to me, actually," said 11-year-old Tianna Kohlsmith, who has been skiing at the hill for three years. "My parents bought me skis specifically to come down here and ski. It's better to come here because it's closer, it would be a lot harder to find somewhere else to ski."
Friends of Tawatinaw representative Heather Toporowski told the crowd they had met with the county following the announcement, though council has not changed its mind. She said the friends will make a 15-minute presentation to Westlock County council Aug. 14 in an attempt to convince them to keep the hill open for the winter.
"We know we're getting close to the drop-dead moment," said Toporowski, noting the ski hill needs to be ready for the winter season or its clientele will go elsewhere and it will be very hard to get them back.
Their plight has reached sympathetic ears in high places. Toporowski said she was informed by the Ministry of Tourism that there are several grants available the hill has never accessed and Canada West Ski Areas Association president Christopher Nicholson is flying out in person to join the Friends at the meeting.
Toporowski said much of the presentation is going to focus on finding ways to cover the $1.5-million upgrades the county stated should to be done before Oct. 1 to keep the hill open. But the county still has not released information as to what those upgrades are.
"We're hoping to meet with them and get that number broken down and see if there are grants that could cover part of it," she said, noting that when they toured the chalet and hill as part of the proposal process, they were told the building was stable, but there weren't any big problems with it. She added if they knew about the required upgrades, they would have factored that into their proposal.
The Westlock News reached out to the county for a breakdown of the upgrades, but chief administrative officer Leo Ludwig was away from the office until after press time.
Toporowski noted that since the Friends had not been told about the $1.5-million capital costs when they were preparing their initial proposal, they went ahead and made their own estimate and could only find $462,000 which they figured would have to be spend over five to 10 years.
Reeve Lou Hall said she did not know where administration's $1.5-million figure came from.
"My recollection is that it's for lifts, equipment and upgrading what needs to be upgraded," she said. "There's a lot of things needed to be brought up and running to ensure it meets the standard. As you know, there's been problems with the building, and if D.K. Consulting isn't operating it anymore, we would have to cover the costs of rental skis and other equipment that would need to be purchased.
"(But) you guys probably know more about what's going on than I do."
Hall added she was astounded by the efforts the Friends of Tawatinaw had put in trying to keep the hill open, though she would not comment if council is open to changing its mind.
"I'm really glad that they're doing that, they've done a lot of work. I've never seen a group that's so passionate and dedicated to something as the Friends of Tawatinaw," she said.
Recreation budget slashed
During the presentation, Toporowski said outside of the upgrades needed, the net cost to cover the facility is roughly $250,000 a year, which she worked out to roughly $38 per ratepayer.
This year, Westlock County budgeted $297,403 for the ski hill.
In 2014, the county budgeted $877,289 —just under seven per cent — to recreation and spent $1,042,037 — eight per cent. In 2018, the county has budgeted $790,918, which comes out to four per cent of its budget going to recreation.
Toporowski said as part of her research she compared Westlock County to other municipalities with similar populations and revenues. From that she concluded that if the county cuts the costs of the hill from its annual budget, it will have one of the lowest recreation budgets among them. She believes will hurt the county's growth in the long run.
"People want to live where there's things for their kids to do," said Toporowski. "If people are taking their kids to Edmonton to practice, they're buying their groceries in Edmonton and running their errands in Edmonton."
In comparison, between the Rotary Spirit Centre, curling rink, swimming pool, libraries, campgrounds, museums and sports fields the Town of Westlock budgets roughly 21 per cent of it's annual operating costs on recreation. This year that came to $3,721,821.71 in expenses with $1,302,133.35 in revenue.
Even if the hill does shut down as planned, ratepayers will still be on the hook for $860,000, which is still owing on the chalet.
Province to the rescue?
Another area the Friends are exploring is emergency provincial funding.
Noting their original proposal already received letters of support from Barrhead-Morinvile-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken and Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA Colin Piquette, Toporowski said she was looking into a possible emergency grant available from the province.
The Friends figure a targeted letter and phone campaign to local MLAs, tourism minister Ricardo Miranda, municipal affairs minister Shaye Anderson and even to premier Rachel Notley herself may be enough to shake enough change out for the hill. They are giving supporters a list of numbers to contact.
Friend of Tawatinaw Colin Felstad said everything hinges on the county letting the Friends prove they can do it.
"We're a committed group," he said, adding he was amazed by the amount of support they were getting. "People in our group have run this ski hill before. They know what needs to be done. It's just a matter of getting the go-ahead.
"Most of the costs here are fixed, so if we can rachet up the amount of visits, that starts chipping away at the operating deficit. That's our goal, but it's not something you're going to accomplish in a year. We realize it needs to be financially viable, and we think our plan is the first step in making it so."
Toporowski said if the hill stay in operation, the first step is to get the ski hill in operation for the winter. Then the Friends want to track the hill's user base to determine who is using it and where they are from, noting a lot of skiers trek from Athabasca, St. Albert and further. Once they have concrete numbers, they can approach those municipalities for extra funding.
She added if they can get that far, the hill would become a regional recreation program and can access even more grants to keep it running.
At least one user of the hill is hoping they can.
"If you don't have something to do at home, you can always come here and ski for the whole day," said 12-year-old skier Kaedyn Biro. "If the hill wasn't here, there wouldn't be as many people going out and getting active."
