Evergreen Park asking for $800,000 from County

Evergreen Park says it will ask for the same $800,000 from the County of Grande Prairie in 2018 that it received this year.
 
General Manager Dan Gorman says this would be used for operational expenses.
 
“We’ve had a very good year in 2017, we’ve met all of our goals and objectives so far, both in our revenues and our expenses. (We are) very pleased to present that information to the County.”
 
A delegation from the Park that spoke to council Monday also suggested the County could help with $300,000 in loan payments in lieu of some of that other funding. County budget talks will start December 4.
 
Gorman says there are no plans for big capital projects in the coming year.
 
“There (are) a couple of upgrades that we have talked about as far as maybe putting a small storage area on the back of the ENTREC Centre and just doing a couple of minor improvements on some of our buildings that are aging. Our Capital Asset Committee meets on that every quarter and decides how that funding should be spent.”
 
He adds total attendance at all park events has topped a half-million people this year.
 
“That doesn’t even include some of our other on-site user groups that don’t provide us with their guest and visitor information, so, well over half-a-million, yes.”
 
The delegation also told County Council Monday that Evergreen Park has also cut its debt. It had $8-million in debt at the end of 2011. That is expected to be down to $4.2-million by the end of this year.