SP Land and Durkee reach agreement, Ski Village to move forward

SP Land (SP) and Steve Durkee reached an agreement which will allow the Ski Village project to move forward. This is a significant step in that Durkee's appeals will be dropped eliminating the last court delays in securing permits and approvals from the state.
Details are sketchy but the parties apparently did a land swap in the area of Mountain Side Properties which will allow SP to save significantly on construction of water lines. There also may have been some cash considerations. The land swap will take about sixty days to finalize.
Rumor also has it that SP is entering into negotiations with a developer on the project and something could happen as soon as August.
This is great news for the local economy!
In other happenings there is not so good news for Killington taxpayers. Apparently on Tuesday the Selectboard voted to include a $100,000 gift to the Killington Resort in the proposed 2018 budget apparently feeling voters are going to be magnanimous in the post World Cup euphoria. Meanwhile the Board is facing a budget increase of 8%, the largest in recent memory. Why are we giving money away to a $60 million dollar a year private business?
The supposed rationale is that it is a marketing expense. Frankly it is not. The resort was going to spend what it was going to spend no matter what. Supposedly they ran over what they expected to spend and that is why Chris Bianchi in his best Christmas spirit decided to suggest this to the board and they, apparently feeling the holiday cheer as well, agreed to put it in the budget. Now mind you the only way to oppose this is to vote the whole budget down. Someone must have been to pork barrel university - maybe all three of them. What's next a bridge to nowhere? We already have a sidewalk to nowhere.