by Sarah Miley
STAFF WRITER
Tooele County plans to issue a $3 million bond to fund the expansion of Deseret Peak Complex with the hope that the expanded facilities can pay for themselves over time.
Officials hope the bond will be issued around August, with construction beginning immediately afterward. The proceeds of the bond will be used to pay for an additional indoor arena and a convention/conference center, as well several other improvements, according to Tooele County Commissioner Jerry Hurst.
Hurst said he's anticipating the conference center will generate revenue for the county over time.
"What we're looking at doing is getting some revenue source in there like this convention center and arena, so you could rent it out on an hourly or daily basis and get some revenue coming in to offset some of our costs," he said.
Deseret Peak Complex is currently subsidized by the county.
Hurst said the original estimate for the expansion was $1.6 million, but since that time several items -- including a stage, plus expanded concessions and restrooms areas -- have been added, so it's figured that the expansion will cost close to $2 million. The bond, however, will be set for $1 million more than that projection.
"We're bonding to $3 million so we have some cushion there," he said. "We won't be penalized if we don't use it all. We just pay back what we actually spend."
County Auditor Mike Jensen said the bond will be a sales tax revenue bond, which means sales tax revenue will be put up as collateral to back the bond.
A public hearing about the bond will be held at the county commission meeting on May 27.
The county's plans for the expansion include adding on to the existing arena with a conference/convention type center, which will include meeting rooms that will be divided with the option of opening up into one large room. Hurst said those involved with the project are starting to fine tune the design.
Hurst said county officials hope to attract conventions and conferences to town, and believes there is a market for a new convention center.
"We have a lot of meetings and are always looking for places to have them," he said. "We're convinced that it will be busy when we get this thing up and running. This is just going to give us more flexibility in what we can do and what types of things we can bring in. Then when we bring conferences in that will increase expenditures at our restaurants and motels and fueling stations, it's going to be an economic boost to the business district as well."
He said the fire museum, which wasn't primarily meant for meetings, has been in constant use, and the expansion should ease demand on that facility.
The new facility will also include kitchens, more restrooms and storage space, which Hurst said is a huge need.
Plans to improve the concessions area, as well as construct a stage-type dock that can be used for outdoor concerts, is also part of the plan.
The new indoor or "warm-up" arena will be built on the north side of the existing indoor arena.
"When we say warm-up arena, that would allow them to warm up their horses in that arena when we have an event inside the main arena," said Hurst. "And there'll be a breezeway right into the arena."
Hurst said the new arena would be used on a daily basis for training and riding horses. It would also have the capacity to accommodate equestrian events, such as barrel racing, team roping and calf roping, and could be used for events like the county fair. It would include a small concession stand, restrooms, and a small bleacher area.
He hopes construction can start the week after the county fair in August, so the facility can be up and running for next year's county fair.
The construction process shouldn't affect too many of the activities at the complex.
"I've asked them [architects, builders] to make sure we're not impacting what's going on there on a continual basis so we can still have our activities in our buildings," he said.
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