For several months now, the end of the Friends of Mt. Revelstoke & Glacier has been a mere formality. That formality will likely happen on March 26, when the Board of Directors holds a full members meeting to disband the society.
“We’re going to discuss the situation with the members and basically wrap it up,” said David Rooney, one of the remaining active directors.
The Friends’ announced in December that it was facing $214,000 of debt and its board told its members it was recommending they dissolve the society at a future vote. Since then, the debt has actually turned out to be much higher – in the range of $250-260,000, said Rooney.
That includes about $36,000 in taxes owing to the federal government. To pay it off, they’ve been selling off merchandise to retailers in town, and a major sale of what’s left will likely take place in April.
“Our bank accounts have been frozen by the feds,” Rooney said. “We’ve been selling what we can and putting it into the account, and the feds have been sucking it up.”
Other people left owing money will likely be left in the lurch. Rooney said they had a good idea of who was responsible for the fiasco, but no legal action was going to be taken against anyone.
“We have a very good idea of where the responsibility lies and there’s plenty of blame to go around,” he said. “I’m not going to get into pointing fingers here. We would have to prove it in a court of law and nobody has the money or the energy to do that. Basically, we’re done, the whole issue’s done.”
