Sometimes this job surprises you.
At the last County of Barrhead council meeting, I was shocked when councillors approved a $50,000 request from the Misty Ridge Ski Hill. The money will go towards replacing the ageing tow-rope on its bunny hill.
As our regular readers know, over the last number of years, community groups have had difficulty prying open the county’s wallet.
And I for one was convinced that they would turn down the request.
To my mind, although the society answered why they need to replace the existing lift, their presentation in February left a few unanswered questions the first being what is their plan to become self-sufficient?
In addition to the lift, the ski hill needs a number of other improvements in the coming years, most of them of the costly variety.
The society is working at installing lights for night skiing, which potentially will help them bring in more revenue.
That is a good start.
But I’m not sure that will be enough. Especially when provincial and federal grants are never a given.
As we all know recreation is a costly endeavour and at the community level, one that rarely is a money maker. A ski hill is an especially risky venture in that it is weather dependent. In recent years, the weather more often than not has been a problem.
Perhaps the answer is that the society hopes the county will help them by offering an operating subsidy of some kind.
As an observer, I don’t think the current group of councillors would be open to this.
One of the reasons why Coun. Darrell Troock supported the request is that he believed it to be a one-off, saying next year the county might not have the same financial wherewithal, pointing to the growing issue of oil and gas companies not paying their property tax bill.
So the question in my mind becomes, what happens if and when the society has problems paying their operating expenses. Will councillors be willing to step in and cover the loses as they did two years ago?
And if they are not? How much is the county potentially on the hook for?
This is the question that needs to be answered.
As I understand it, if the society were to dissolve, its assets would transfer to the county, but not necessarily its debt.
The county would then have the option of either operating the facility themselves, find a third party to assume its operation, or choose not to operate it.
Regardless of which option they choose, there will be a cost. A month ago, county manager Debbie Oyarzun said they were in the process of going through the process of creating a recreation master plan. When it is complete I hope some of these outstanding questions will be answered.
Until then, I’m glad that skiers and snowboarder will get to enjoy the facility, because as Coun. Bill Lane says, it is the undiscovered jewel of the county.
