Forty Mile Park looking at governance change

Written by production

Thursday, 28 January 2010 17:18

There will be a change in governance at Forty Mile Park, and the exact nature of the details of that change are currently being figured out, though one way or another the best interests of the lease holders at the park should be protected. Recently St. Mary’s River Irrigation District (SMRID) decided to look at offers to purchase its property at Forty Mile Park. “We (the County of Forty Mile) sent SMRID a letter indicating we don’t support the sale of Forty Mile and we are prepared to manage it,” County Reeve Lyndon Hutchinson explained at Wednesday’s meeting. Council sent a similar letter to the park council indicating their intent. County councillors felt that there was a need to reorganize the governing body for the future operation/management of the park. The new park committee will be made up of three county councilors and three park lease holders with the reeve as the committee chair. Although a conglomerate of lease holders made an offer to buy the land that SMRID is selling, as of last Wednesday as far as county council knew, the organization is still looking at offers. Since lease holders need to make their payments soon and other business involving the park needs to continue, county councilors felt they had to organize a governing body as they are mandated to take care of the public portion of the park anyway. “The group from the park has made an offer but they haven’t received a response yet as far as we know. We don’t know when SMRID will address the issue. In the meantime the county will take over the administration of the park and include three lease holders from the park to assist in making decisions regarding the future operation of the park,” Hutchinson said.