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Council to take look at Kalahari ohio park

December 31, 2007 12:35 am

BY EMILY BATTLE

Four Fredericksburg City Council members and 10 city staff members will head to Sandusky, Ohio, this week to get a closer look at Kalahari Resorts' property there.

Mayor Tom Tomzak, Vice Mayor Kerry Devine and council members Debby Girvan and George Solley all say they think seeing the resort for themselves is important as the city prepares to vote on an incentives package to help lure the resort to the Silver Cos.' Celebrate Virginia tourism development.

"This is a very big project for the city," Solley said. "Part of the due diligence that we owe the taxpayer is to go up there and see it for ourselves."

The group will leave on Thursday afternoon and return on Saturday. While in Ohio, they'll tour the Kalahari Resort there and meet with officials in Erie County, where the resort is located.

Mayor Tom Tomzak said he hopes to get a sense for how such a large resort has affected local government services.

Fredericksburg will be taking its police chief, fire chief, building official, planning director, public works director and several other department heads on the trip.

Tomzak said the project's scale puts it in a different category from just about any other building in the city.

"Fredericksburg doesn't even have an escalator," he said. "This is going to be a whole new dimension."

The trip comes days before the Jan. 8 City Council meeting, when the council members hope to formally receive the terms of the incentives deal that helped lure Kalahari to Fredericksburg over Williamsburg and Hanover County.

City Economic Development Director Kevin Gullette said the city and Kalahari are still finalizing the performance agreement for that deal. He said recent negotiations have focused on how Kalahari will be billed for the water and sewer services it uses.

Gullette said he's hopeful those negotiations could be wrapped up with a signed deal during the Ohio trip. If that happens, the city could hold a public hearing on the deal Jan. 15, and the council could vote on it Jan. 22.

Devine said it's important that city officials see the facility for themselves as those negotiations are going on. "The more information we have, the better we can know what to put in the contract or ask for upfront and make sure we are looking out for Fredericksburg."

Officials from the city and the Silver Cos. have called Kalahari an "anchor" that will spur development of the rest of Celebrate Virginia.

The council members who are going to Ohio all said they'll be interested to see what other businesses Kalahari has sparked in the Sandusky area.

It seems that up there, water parks have spawned more water parks.

When Kalahari opened in Sandusky in 2005, it was following in the footsteps of Great Wolf Lodge and Castaway Bay, which is owned by the Cedar Point amusement park.

Girvan said she'll be interested to learn what Fredericksburg can expect as far as spinoff development from a water park resort here.

She said going to Ohio is the best way to get a feel for what Sandusky's experience has been.

"It always helps to see it in person," Girvan said. "The magnitude of the facility itself is supposed to be impressive."