NOTN- The City and Borough of Juneau is scrapping its participation in the long-planned gondola project at Eaglecrest ski area after costs ballooned from single-digit millions to an estimated $37 million, leaving the city on the hook to repay Goldbelt during an already tight budget season.
Finance Committee Chair Christine Woll said the Juneau Assembly voted Wednesday night to move forward with pulling out of its agreement with Goldbelt, which had helped finance the project. The city expects to repay about $12 million that Goldbelt invested, roughly $9 million of which has already been spent.
“We knew that increases at Eaglecrest were going to be significant over time, just because of aging infrastructure, and we knew that the public tax dollars probably couldn’t sustain paying for those increases at Eaglecrest.” Woll said, “So the vision was that by installing a gondola that could help take advantage of summer revenue from our visitor industry, we could
provide a more reliable, non-taxpayer dollar-funded income stream at Eaglecrest, but for a price tag that big, it no longer becomes something that the city has funds to invest in.”
The gondola was originally projected to cost about $7 million, later revised to around $9 million when the city and Goldbelt signed their deal, Woll said. The latest estimate, about $37 million to install, pushed the project far beyond affordability for the City.
“It’s just terrible, what a waste of money, but we’re gonna have to figure out how to pay it back.” Woll said.
The decision to cancel the project now leaves Eaglecrest in a precarious financial position. Its future budgets had assumed new income from gondola operations during the summer months.
Woll said the Assembly has directed Eaglecrest to return with a much-reduced operating budget that fits within the traditional taxpayer subsidy the ski area receives.
The gondola reversal comes as Juneau is just beginning to create it’s annual budget for FY 27.
“Ultimately, the assembly is going to have to make some hard decisions about service reductions. We’re aiming to make about $2 million more in cuts before June, when we have to pass the budget.” Said Woll.
