County will take ski area

The Baker County Commissioners voted 3-0 Wednesday morning to take control of the Ski Anthony Lakes resort.

What’s not yet certain is whether the county will operate the ski area this winter, or a yet-to-be-formed nonprofit will take the reins.

“I think this is a really good scenario and I think we should do it,” said Fred Warner Jr., commission chairman, who was en route to Washington, D.C, and participated in the meeting via speakerphone.

Warner said the county has the next three months to either start a 501c(3) non-profit organization or take full ownership of the resort.

Commissioners said during a meeting earlier this month that they prefer transfering responsibility for the ski area to a nonprofit.

The three couples who have owned the resort since 1998 will keep the business until Nov. 1, giving the county time to plan the transition and organize a business model.

“We have a lot of work in the next few months, and we want to keep you all involved,” Warner said at the close of the 15-minute meeting.

They own the chairlift, lodge and other buildings, but the resort is located on public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

The structures are worth $1.2 million, according to the Union County Assessor’s Office.

(The resort is in Union County, just across the Baker County line. The owners said they asked Union County officials about participating in a joint venture with Baker County, but that Union County was not able to do so.)

During the three-month transition, Baker County has agreed to work with the owners and their employees to get accustomed with the business, make necessary repairs on equipment and prepare the resort’s winter budget.

Warner said even though the county might take over the Ski Anthony Lakes, none of the resort’s current employees, full-time or seasonal, are expected to lose their jobs.

“We will not have current county employees operating the resort,” he said. “We have the next three months to let all the Anthony Lakes employees know what will happen.”

Warner has said that the county would consider using lodging tax revenues to subsidize the resort if necessary.

The current owners say they’ve lost an average of $45,000 per year over the past several years.

Warner said he had had conversations with Forest Service officials about what would happen should the resort fail to continue operating under its 40-year lease, which is 10 years old.

“If Anthony Lakes goes away, the owner needs to remove all improvements,” Warner said.