The Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre will be left in the hands of the city as of Aug. 1.

'We have come to an agreement with the board of the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre society and (user) clubs on a new operational and organizational structure that we look to implement as of August 1,' Mayor Ernie Bourassa reported at Monday evening's council meeting.

Council voted in favour of paying off the centre's $114,000-debt to local businesses and taking over operating the centre, with the exception of the curling rink and the cross country skiing area.

The Whitehorse Curling Club will operate the rink, with the Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club looking after its site, which includes the wax room.

That will leave the city to look after the banquet hall and the common areas.

Bourassa said that last Wednesday, he had direction from council to propose the agreement to the recreation centre's executive at a meeting he had with its members last Thursday. The Aug. 1 date was set for the change because of the centre's July 31 fiscal year-end.

'In addition, at this point, the curling club has indicated they no longer wish to look after the lounge or the restaurant services part of the operation, and the city will be examining alternatives,' Bourassa said.

The city is putting out a request for proposals for a commercial agent to work on leasing out commercial space in the Jeux du Canada Games Centre the multiplex sports facility being built below Mount McIntyre. The agent will likely also be tasked with looking at the lounge/restaurant area of the recreation centre.

Existing multiplex staff will be used to operate the city's portion of the facility.

A transition planning team made up of city staff has been formed to begin the work on the centre moving into the city's hands.

Team members will meet with centre officials over the next few months to discuss the operations of the facility located on Sumanik Drive, off Hamilton Boulevard. In that time, an operational plan will be developed for Mount McIntyre.

Bourassa said both city officials and executives from the centre, curling and ski clubs agree the new set-up is in the facility's best interest.

'We hope that we will be able to get a handle on costs and make the centre sustainable,' the mayor said.

'I think, in a way, it's good for both the curling club and the ski club in that their members will now be able to concentrate solely on their sport and their piece of the facility rather than becoming facility managers for the rest of the building.'

Although the centre is owned by the city, it's been operated by the volunteer board. A report to council by city administration notes it's faced financial problems since 1999. In 2003, the city put $88,000 towards paying off part of its debt.

Then last November, the centre's board asked for the $114,000 to clear up debts from 2003 and for an additional annual grant of $120,000 to continue operating in future years.

That request was turned down during budget discussions only to be approved last night. However, Bourassa told reporters after the meeting he has no regrets with the decision.

'We had to investigate a proper course of action for this thing. And you don't just do that overnight.'

He later said there was some urgency to last night's decision with the outstanding bills needing to be paid fairly soon.

Centre manager Derek Charlton said this morning he's happy to see the business community will be paid. He's working on a list of the centre's debts so the city will know how to distribute the $114,000.

The mayor said it's still unknown how much it will cost the city to operate the centre. However, the city is confident it will be less than the $120,000 it's being asked to provide annually.

'So we all feel that this is going to reduce the overall exposure, not only to the city, but to the individual groups that are up there,' Charlton said.

Over the last five months, a number of cuts have been made to reduce costs.

'But I think council, at the same time, recognized there was a bigger issue with the overall organizational structure of the facility that we also needed to address in order to make sure the facility became sustainable,' Bourassa said.

Charlton noted the four full-time staff members at the centre were informed this morning of last night's council decision.

With the number of reductions made over the last few months, it didn't come as a surprise to staff. Two of the four full-time staff had already been informed their services would be reduced to part-time casual hours.

'We knew either way, changes had to happen,' Charlton said.

He hasn't yet decided what he'll be doing after Aug. 1. For now, he said, his main priority is helping the society and city make the transition.

As for skiers and curlers, it's unknown how the change will affect fees in the coming year.

'When we get the areas metred off so we can determine what our utility costs are, it may well be that we're still going to be within the same spending that we're doing now,' Bill Curtis, president of the ski club, told reporters last night.

Part of the club's contribution to Mount McIntyre has been $30,000 in allocation costs with another $10,000 in membership fees.

'So that $40,000, we hope, should meet the utilities for the wax room and change rooms that we currently use,' he said.

While the bills will be paid off, there's now another sense of urgency for the curling club to work out a deal with the city on the 2006 national curling event it's hosting, said curling club treasurer Pat Molloy. The club had a cost-sharing agreement with the recreation centre for the event.

'If we can't honour our agreement because of this change, we have to deal with it very, very quickly,' Molloy said, suggesting a new agreement, or at least the principles for it, has to be in place within the month. Bourassa agrees that's a realistic goal.

'The August 1 date is simply because that's the year-end for Mount Mac (Intyre), but I think the intent is to quickly get a new operational agreement and plan in place just with an actual implementation date of August 1,' he said.

The recreation centre is also planned to be used for some of the 2007 Canada Winter Games events, which Bourassa said was 'part of the equation' in the decision to take over operating the site. The centre, he said, is an integral part of the community's recreational infrastructure.

'If we had to shut it down, it would be a huge blow in terms of curling and cross-country skiing, not only for Canada Games, but for local residents,' he said. 'So the Canada Games were a very small part of it.'

The city wants to make the recreation centre sustainable for community residents.

As for whether the Mount McIntyre board is dissolved on Aug. 1, that will be part of the operational plan developed in the coming months. The mayor said there could be some benefits in keeping a smaller board or changing its function to more of an advisory capacity.

'At this point, the role of the society's going to be greatly reduced,' Bourassa said.

There will likely be 'very regular' meetings between city and Mount McIntyre officials over the next month or two, he added.

'I know from our point of view, parks and rec (department) staff are in the midst of doing an awful lot of work for commissioning the multiplex, and adding this to the mix wasn't something we did lightly,' he said.

The additional duties will create some headaches for staff, he conceded.

'But I know they're up to the (task).'

Parks and recreation manager Linda Rapp said today it's still unknown the impact the decision will have on workers.

Last night's council vote puts staff in more of an information-gathering mode as it begins the transition, she said.

'It may be something positive,' Rapp said of the move.

Curtis pointed out the new arrangement is closer to the original allocation agreement made on the centre in the early 1980s, where the curlers and skiers paid for their individual areas. The banquet hall and lounge had been expected to pay for themselves at that point, he said.

The change will mean curlers can curl and skiers can focus on skiing instead of worrying about running a banquet hall, he said.

'Because we've demonstrated we're not very good at it,' Curtis noted.

The move will give the city the opportunity to integrate the multiplex in with Mount McIntyre more effectively.

'We may be able to work some deals for curling club members and Mount Mac (Intyre) members to get, say, reduced rates at the multiplex, those kind of ideas,' Bourassa said.

Another concept would see ski trails lead to the door of the Jeux du Canada Games Centre.

'The idea is to really make this area the centre point of the community, a real community centre, so it becomes the place to be in Whitehorse,' the mayor said.

The ski chalet part of the facility opened 25 years ago, with the curling portion added on in the 1980s.