Ski Area Pact Sets Conditions Mt. Spokane Ski Corp. Has Until March To Make Decision

The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission has reached a deal with the Mount Spokane 2000 Study Group over the future management of Mt. Spokane Ski Area.

The state’s park contracts manager, Wayne McLaughlin, said the parks commission earlier this month authorized him to go ahead with the agreement with the study group.

The group has followed the bidding for the Mount Spokane concession since the process began in 1992.

The local business and civic leaders who make up the study group want to replace Mt. Spokane Ski Corp., which has run the mountain for 20 years. The study group wants to run the ski area as a non-profit entity.

Mt. Spokane Ski Corp. has until March 10 to review the agreement between the state and the study group. If it wants to abide by the conditions set in the agreement, it can run the concession for another 20 years.

If Gregg Sowder, the ski company’s president, doesn’t like the deal, he and the study group will negotiate a buyout of the company’s investment and equipment at the ski area.

Just how much that equipment and investment is worth has the company and the study group at odds.

A ski resort appraiser valued it at $3.5 million last year. If the two sides could not reach a price, binding arbitration would be the final step to settling the price, McLaughlin said.

The study group wants to turn itself into a public development authority. Sowder and his ski company have challenged that effort in court, but if Sowder wants out, the study group will likely take charge of the hill for the 1996-1997 ski season.

Attempts to reach Sowder at the Mount Spokane lodge and at home were unsuccessful last week.

Early in 1994, the state asked for bids from ski operators to run the area. Only Sowder’s company responded, and later the state recognized the study group as a negotiating party.

In a July parks commission meeting, the commission endorsed the study group’s vision of how the mountain should be managed and told McLaughlin to make a deal.

McLaughlin said the study group’s bid to run the ski area was “very close to the original request for proposal that we sent out.”

The study group’s offer gave the state more money for the right to run the ski area. It also includes money to help the state plow the roads leading to the ski area in the winter, a sticking point in the negotiations, McLaughlin said.

The Mt. Spokane Ski Corp. pays the state a small percentage of its gross receipts each year. The study group’s proposal would up that amount, though McLaughlin said he could not say how much more.

Ted Stiles, head of the study group, has said the group wants to make the ski area more responsive to the community.

, DataTimes