DULUTH – Spirit Mountain survived a tough season. Now the city wants to make it more resilient.
The mayor will soon convene a task force to get the public ski hill on firm financial footing and conduct an economic impact analysis that could help make the case for increased taxpayer investment.
A team of city and business leaders will "examine all options to achieve financial sustainability," Jim Filby Williams, Duluth's director of public administration, told Spirit Mountain's board Thursday night. That's something the city has been seeking since the mountain was bailed out with $235,000 in tourism tax dollars in December following a business-busting blizzard.
Right now, the mountain's finances are in survival mode, board member Dave Kohlhaas said.
"When you're having a hard time making payroll it's hard to start envisioning or embracing other opportunities," he said. "I do think we have an overriding strategic plan for the hill in terms of operation and the community, but I don't know there's been a financial strategy we're trying to achieve — except we're trying to pay our bills."
The mountain closed this week due to the coronavirus and will draw down its cash to about $76,000 by the end of April. Even though season pass sales exceeded expectations this year, the closure and cancellation of Snocross due to the Thanksgiving weekend blizzard was a huge loss.
At the time, Executive Director Brandy Ream told the city in an e-mail that "things do not look promising on the horizon."
An audit of last year's finances, a more typical season, shows the bills do get paid and the mountain generates enough cash to sustain its operations, but not enough to cover needed capital investments.
