The Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club believes the city has overcharged it by $10,000 for the use of the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre in a new lease signed this year.

William A. Curtis, president of the ski club, said the club has been paying $30,000 a year in rent for the use of the centre but was looking for a discount on rent now that the city has taken over the facility from the Mount McIntyre Society.

The society had been running the facility at a deficit and finally dissolved itself on July 31, bringing control of the facility under the owner, the city.

'For years we were paying more than $30,000 (but) we were paying to offset the losses,' Curtis said in an interview.

He said now that control of the facility is under the city, with whom the club has a good relationship, the club only wished 'to pay its own way' based on heating costs for its share of the facility.

Earlier this year, the club contracted the services of Northern Climate Engineering to assess the ski club's share of heating costs for the facility.

Curtis said the results of the assessment were that the club was overpaying by more than $10,000. He said while the ski club has entered into a one-year lease and would pay the $30,000, he was hoping the city would come up with its own estimates so that his club would no longer be subject to overcharging.

'All we're asking for is a fair deal,' he said.

In a July 25 letter from Curtis to the mayor and city council, the club president urged the city to stop basing the rental agreement on past agreements and charge the club according to what it uses.

'In the interests of being co-operative and resolving this matter, we have agreed to that amount for the first year only and emphasize that we wish more detailed analysis and estimations before the next lease negotiations,' reads the letter signed by Curtis.

He also voiced concerns that the area his club uses for its activities is 'being squeezed' due to the development of the multiplex. Consequently, his club is also looking for assurances that the area it uses would not be further reduced if it was determined that more space was needed for the new facility.

'The second area of concern involves the use of the stadium and trails on city property. We wished to have those areas identified in the lease, to provide more certainty as to what (the ski club) has jurisdiction over. There are two points that need to be cleared up shared access and location,' the letter reads.

'The term approximate location' (in the current lease) is used ... as you are aware the ski club has given up a significant portion of the area it used to use as a stadium and we have been pushed to one end of the bench.'

Robert Fendrick, the city's director of administrative services, said the $30,000 was based on previous agreements with the club and was the city's 'best estimate' of what the club should actually be paying.

'On the absence of hard data, we elected to go with what they had done before. Where that number came from, nobody knows,' he said.

He said the city had providing the Mount McIntyre Society's board of directors, which included members from the ski and curling clubs, with tens of thousands of dollars over the past several years to cover their debts and would adjust the rent after city officials had conducted their own assessment.

'They (the society) had lost over $100,000 in the last seven years. In 2003, the city offered $88,000 to pay out the outstanding payables,' Fendrick said.

'The city's position is that we've offered a one-year lease until we can conduct our own study.'

He said funding for the city's assessment would be up for approval in the new year and that the city required the current rental amount from the ski club to make the 'agreement workable.'

Fendrick also said the city 'had no designs' on moving the ski club off its current land but that the club's area could be moved slightly if more area was needed for the multiplex.

'Our position is not to impact on the stadium or the bench; we're not trying to reduce their space.'

He said the ski club's area may have to be moved by a few metres but that any movement would not be substantial.

'We are respectful of (the ski and curling) club's contribution to the social fabric of the community,' he said.