Dream team still undercover

The volunteer group which wants to run Jack Pine Hill during the upcoming ski season isn’t ready yet to identify itself, Coun. Dave Mendicino says.

Several weeks ago Marc Charron, chairman of the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority, had told council a “dream-team” had come forward offering to take over operations of the ski hill.

No sense
Names of the team members have been withheld, though, until they’re ready to go public.

“They’re in the process of getting corporate partners, they’re in the process of preparing a business plan, which is almost finished,” said Coun. Dave Mendicino, following Monday night’s city council meeting.

Mendicino said there’s “no sense” in the group coming forward unless “all that information” is available.

“Let’s face it, it’s going to be the media that’s going to be out there front and centre asking a lot of questions,” Mendicino said, “and they want to have all the answers, and certainly I can’t fault them for that.”

Cost allocations
Mendicino, a council representative on the authority, said the group wants to run the ski-hill in a “business-like” way.

Council attended to a little ski-hill business of its own during the meeting, $112,000 to the authority to cover the operating shortfall for Jack Pine for the 2003-2004 season.

City chief financial officer Brian Rogers stated in a report that he’d check all the cost allocations and found them to be “reasonable.”

In the past
As well council will forward $38,000 to the authority to cover the cost of preparing ski hill operations for the upcoming season.

Without spending that money, Mayor Vic Fedeli said, the ski hill will be unable to reopen.

Coun. Maureen Boldt said while she supports keeping the ski hill going, the public still wants to know the circumstances leading up to the authority’s $5.4 million debt.

“I’m definitely supporting the ski hill, but the information has to come back to council and the public about what happened in the past,” Bolt said.

“I think the public wants to know and has a right to know, and I want to know so we can share that with them.”

Bad time
She added council had already passed a motion calling for the authority to request a forensic audit and judicial inquiry. The authority instead assembled a volunteer group of financial specialists to examine the books and make recommendations on where to go next.

The group will likely now present its report sometime next month, Mendicino said, rather than the original deadline sometime this month.

“They’ve asked for more time because it’s a bad time of the year as far as the summer goes,” Mendicino said.

“A lot of them have been on vacation at different times so they haven’t been able to meet a lot as a group as a whole, I’m certainly hoping by the middle of September we’ll see something, and that’s the target date they’re working with.”