WinterSports2002.com, Friday, June 07, 2002

SLOC pays bill to Salt Lake for use of ice sheets

The $2.4 million check comes 11 months early

By Diane Urbani
Deseret News staff writer

Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson was delighted to receive a man-size slab of cardboard this week.

The cardboard was a dummy of the $2,450,228.32 check from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for use of the Steiner ice sheets before and during the 2002 Olympics. SLOC president Fraser Bullock presented it to the host city almost a year ahead of schedule.

"You'll probably make $100,000 on interest alone," after receiving the payment 11 months before its April 2003 due date, Bullock added. He said SLOC's fiscal management put it "in a position to make this payment early," before the committee officially dissolves at the end of this year.

The Steiner ice sheets, two 100- by 200-foot rinks, are open year round at 645 S. Guardsman (1580 East). Learn-to-skate classes for future figure skaters and hockey players are offered.

The $2.4 million is part of the "one-time money" Salt Lake City plans to spend on special projects in fiscal 2003. Mayor Rocky Anderson has asked the City Council to invest it in an endowment fund for citywide youth programs and in building a plaza and small amphitheater beside the new Main Library. Council members, meanwhile, have also advocated using some post-Games money to build Olympic monuments in neighborhoods across the city.

"We're leaving a legacy of venues all over the valley," said Bullock. SLOC also wants to give Salt Lake City a $4.5 million Olympic Legacy Cultural Center, with the Medals Plaza's Hoberman Arch, an amphitheater and a replica of the Olympic Stadium caldron. Anderson advocates locating it all in Pioneer Park, so the City Council and Historic Landmarks Commission will spend the next several weeks wrangling over whether that's the right place.

E-MAIL: durbani@desnews.com

© 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company