Athens County Commissioner Bill Theisen expressed concerns at a meeting yesterday about plans from a private developer seeking to commercialize part of Athens County's Lake Snowden area, which is run by Hocking College.
Hocking College has been in discussions with Moondance Development since late August about purchasing and developing 200 acres ' about one-third of the total property, which sits southwest of Athens ' into a resort, restaurant, spa, fitness center and residential areas, said Michael Daniels, who is directing the project plans for Moondance.
Daniels said he has no estimates of the cost of the land because an appraisal has not been done yet. He said the development of the land would be a multimillion-dollar project but could not give a specific estimate.
The legality of Hocking College selling part of the Lake Snowden property was called into question at an Oct. 12 commissioners' meeting by an Ohio University employee.
Devon Jacobs, an accelerator engineer in the department of physics and astronomy, said the Lake Snowden land was obtained by the state through eminent domain in 1965. An agreement signed then by five political entities, including the county commissioners, said the land must be public property used for recreation for 100 years, he said.
Hocking College President Joh Light said the college's lawyers from the Columbus-based Bricker and Eckler law firm are investigating the legality of the sale.
We are going to do what is legal
he said.
Daniels said Moondance is going to trust what Hocking College's attorneys say about the legality of the sale.
Hocking College has owned the land since 1998, Light said. The college would consider selling the park because student participation at park programs held at Lake Snowden is not what he would like it to be, and the college's income is going down while the cost of maintaining the park goes up, he said.
Last year, the college posted a net loss of about $160,000 for Lake Snowden, Light said. Since the beginning of the college's fiscal year in July, Lake Snowden has generated about $46,000 in revenue and about $73,000 in costs, for a net loss of $27,000, he added. 17
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