Decision on ski area deal? Maybe July 28

Baker County officials want to know what the public thinks about a preliminary business plan describing conditions under which the county might temporarily operate Ski Anthony Lakes pending creation of a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to take over the resort.

“We are listening to citizens, who want to see the resort remain open, but don’t want to use county tax dollars to do it, and I agree wholeheartedly,” said Fred Warner Jr., chairman of the Baker County Board of Commissioners.

The owners of Ski Anthony Lakes have offered to gift the resort to Baker County, including all buildings, triple chairlift and other equipment, as well as the remaining 30 years of a 40-year lease for the site from the U.S. Forest Service.

(The resort owns the buildings, but the ski area is on public land, specifically the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.)

The resort owners have set a deadline of Aug. 1 for the county to decide whether to accept their offer.

If the county says no, Anthony Lakes likely would not operate this winter.

In an effort to make a decision by that deadline, Warner said he has recruited a committee including Randy Guyer, Dan Van Thiel, Jason Yencopal, Brent Kerns and John Wilson to help the commission develop a business plan to be presented for comments at a 10:30 a.m. public hearing Wednesday at the Courthouse, 1995 Third St.

Public comments will be accepted, but no decision will be made at that meeting, Warner said.

To give the three commissioners time to review comments and information presented at Wednesday’s public hearing, a special commission meeting has been scheduled at the courthouse for 9 a.m. July 28.

At that time the commission is scheduled to approve at least a preliminary one-year business and operating  plan, and possibly make a decision on whether to accept the resort from the owners.

Warner said he’d like to make a decision at that meeting to accommodate the owners’ Aug. 1 timeline. But if the county lacks information or his fellow commissioners are not ready, he has no intention of rushing a decision.

“Our goal is to keep the resort open and operating for at least 10 years, but first we have to get through the first year,” Warner said.

While he does not envision the county actually operating the resort beyond the first year, or subsidizing its operation with tax dollars, Warner said members of the Baker County Economic Development Council feel the ski resort is important for economic development.

Financial reports provided by the resort’s owners so far show annual losses averaging around $45,000 over the past 10 years, but Warner said the owners have been spending more money than necessary on year-around employees when a primarily seasonal staff would do.

“You cannot run that facility with three full-time employees year around,” Warner said. “We cannot do that.”

While there was some talk earlier about the county using part of the $136,000 in lodging taxes Baker City is returning to the county to help market and fill the potential $45,000 gap between the resort’s revenues and operating expenses, Warner said, “That is not going to happen.”

He said the Economic Development Council voted Tuesday to use that money to contract for a county economic development manager.

Some of the money, as well as an additional $50,000 the city budgeted to pay the county to take over community and economic development activities, has also been tentatively earmarked to hire a county employee to manage community development for the county and cities within the county, Warner said.

However, he said those decisions don’t rule out the possibility of using some lodging funds — just not the $136,000 from the city — to subsidize Ski Anthony Lakes.

“The (lodging tax committee) may want to put up some initial operating capital,” Warner said. “It is incumbent on us to come up with some capital so this non-profit organization starts out with some operating capital.

“It makes sense for us to make sure this entity has some money to open, and a little bit of cushion,” Warner said.

He is also optimistic that a group forming called Friends of Ski Anthony Lakes will step up with volunteers and group marketing and promotional efforts needed to help the ski area succeed.

“Union County has pleaded poverty, but I told them they have to help out, and they are looking at that,” Warner said.

The resort’s lodge and ski runs are actually in Union County, just a few hundred yards west of the Baker County border.

Ski Anthony Lakes pays about $4,400 per year in property taxes to Union County.

Union County’s tax assessor estimates the resort’s buildings have a market value of $1.2 million.

Warner said there’s also a large contingent of Umatilla County skiers who ski at Anthony Lakes and have offered to help out and participate with skiers from Baker and Union counties in the Friends of Ski Anthony Lakes club.

In the meantime, Warner said the committee he convened is reviewing the financial information from Ski Anthony Lakes to identify savings and ways the county could operate the resort temporarily without losing money or exposing taxpayers to any losses or debt.

“We are working on a plan to where we have no exposure, and to where the ski resort can stay there long term,” Warner said. “We know we need to budget conservatively, because you never can tell about the snow year.”

He envisions the county’s role operating the resort would be for just one season while a 501(c)3 non-profit entity is created to run it long-term.

“We want people to come to the public hearing on Wednesday. We will have a preliminary proposal, and we’d like some feedback on it,” Warner said.