Spirit Mountain Asks City of Duluth for $250,000

DULUTH - It's another cry for help from Spirit Mountain, and this time it's in the form of a quarter million dollars."Right now our line of credit is at a million point two,” explained Spirit Mountain's executive director, Brandy Ream. “That is not a good situation." To date, Spirit Mountain owed tax payers over $1 million and now officials are asking for $250,000 from the tourism tax fund. The city says it's mismanagement that's caused Spirit Mountain to fall into the slum. Spirit Mountain's Adventure Park and weddings are popular in the off season, but they don't bring in enough cash to keep all of the bills paid. Spirit Mountain has had to ask the City of Duluth once again, to bail them out."Spirit Mountain is not in a good situation right now," Ream said. Spirit Mountain’s executive director has only been on the job for three months. After back to back incredibly cold winters and slow off season, Ream is forced to ask the city for financial help. “This should not be the norm for Spirit Mountain and this is not the path that I anticipate that we are going to continue on,” said Ream. City officials believe the new and more experienced director will be the key to pulling the business out of debt. “It is a lot of money, and if not for the change in leadership, there's no way I would have ever supported providing this money,” said Duluth city councilor, Joel Sipress. A master plan to make skiing on the mountain an experience of a lifetime without charging more is in the works, but Ream says she needs more time to bring Spirit Mountain to its full potential. “We've stopped focusing on skiing, and that's what we are at the end of the day is a skiing and snowboarding facility,” Ream said. “That's where we need to get back to.” Spirit Mountain leaders made their plea to the city council on Thursday night and at Monday's meeting, the councilors will decide if spending quarter of a million dollars to help out Spirit Mountain is worth it. To try and get people up to the mountain this weekend, they're having a fall frenzy mountain bike festival. For more information on the event, click here.