Nederland Town Trustees on Tuesday night gave unanimous approval to a bold plan to purchase Eldora Ski Area. The price: $120 million.
That’s a big bite for a town of 1500 with an annual budget of a little over $3 million a year. But the town says it will not be taxpayers on the hook for the purchase because the money to pay back bonds will come from operating revenues.
Town administration Jonathan Cain has described it as a minnow swallowing a whale. “I think so, and we’ve been taking little bites, and we’ve got a bunch more to take, but I think we’re getting there.”
The town will go into business as the operator of the ski area by also approving a plan for a two-year transition in which the current owner, Powdr, will continue to run the ski area while the town gets up to speed. The ski area has hundreds of workers who would eventually become employees of the town…