A new society with hopes of operating the ski hill has been registered, and it has made an offer to the Town of Drumheller to get the wheels rolling.
The Town owns a portion of the lands that the ski hill occupies, typically described as the hill from the second ski lift tower and up.
A new society called the Drumheller Valley Ski Hill (Friends) has been formed. Throughout the process, the Town of Drumheller has had the position that it would be open to working with a non-profit group to have skiing return. This week the paperwork for the new society was approved.
The new society has since made an offer to the Town of Drumheller to deal with outstanding issues, including a bill for water consumption and an offer to purchase the land.
“We made an offer that is just below the $30,000 mark, and we believe it is an offer that is substantially larger than the last one and it covers everything,” said Zrinko Amerl, who now sits on the new club’s board.
Mayor Terry Yemen said the Town of Drumheller has received a new offer from the new Ski Club, and Drumheller Town Council will be looking at it at Monday’s Town Council meeting.
The new board includes Zeke Wolf, Vicki Meyers, Shelley Jorgensen, Debbie Herman and Zrinko Amerl.
Amerl said while there is a new society, they are in the process of resurrecting the former Drumheller Valley Ski Club (1997) in order to deal with lawsuit issues, as well as to live up to obligations made by the former club.
The hope is that the ski hill will be up and running this season under the new society. When the old society is resurrected, it will then sell the ski hill to Ski the Badlands Ski Hill Ltd. The new society would continue as a friend of the ski hill.
“The new board is organized for the future. The future of the new club is to support and promote skiing in Drumheller,” said Amerl.
Recently the Town issued a press release to quell some rumours that it is in negotiations to redevelop the land.
“There are rumors that the Town of Drumheller is in negotiations with developers to redevelop the land. That statement is absolutely false. We are not negotiating with any developer for that property. Right now our main priority is to ensure that the land will be used for a ski hill,” said Mayor Yemen.
Amerl said he is committed to making sure the ski hill remains viable.
“The big concern for the Town is that the land remains a ski hill for 10 years, and I moved here to keep the ski hill running, otherwise it would have closed down in 2007,” said Amerl.
“I believe at this point, the Town, myself and the ski club are intent on getting this organized and done once and for all.”
After an agreement has been reached, Amerl said it would take 7-10 days to have the hill up and running.