City seeks county recreation funds and loans to help replace Hogadon ski lift

City staff asked councilors to approve applying for public funding to help replace the Hogadon Basin ski-lift, describing a capital plan that relies on roughly $2 million in private donations and approximately $2 million in public funding sources to reach an estimated $4 million turnkey cost.

The Recreation Joint Powers Board application would seek up to $150,000 (a 25% match), and staff said that match could come from facility-fee revenues, private donations or other grant matches. Staff said facility-fee revenue collections underperformed during a recent poor snow year and reported about $27,000 collected toward an expected $37,500 match, but private donations of about $1.25 million are already committed.

Staff said the city submitted a loan application to the Wyoming Business Council and had applied to the Wyoming Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund; they also noted a separate SLIB loan request of $794,000 over 10 years. The additional $1.5 million cited in the packet would fund enhanced snow-making capacity and other equipment but is not required to obtain a new lift and reopen operations.

Staff cautioned the council that if Hogadon were to close because of catastrophic lift failure, Wyoming’s sanctioned alpine race program could drop below the state minimum of six teams, putting the statewide program at risk unless other communities quickly stood up teams.

A councilor said they wanted a fuller business-plan discussion and a report on the most recent snow season before formally accepting grants or loan obligations; staff said that discussion is already docketed for a future meeting. Councilors signaled that staff should continue preparing funding applications and partnerships but did not take formal approval action at the pre-meeting.