By Carol McIntire
Editor
July 3, 2012

Carroll County Commissioners were expected to sign a lease for the operation of Atwood Lake Resort and Conference Center. 

Commissioner Tom Wheaton said Monday, that after a couple months of negotiations, the contract with Radius Hospitality for Atwood Resort, the golf course and adjoining property was just about ready to go.

“I expect to receive the contract yet today and have it ready to sign this afternoon,” he said. Commissioners were set to go back into session at 2 p.m. in the afternoon.

He  noted Attorney Jonathan Downes of the law firm Downes, Hurst and Fishel of Columbus, handled the contract negotiations for commissioners and Carroll County Prosecuting Attorney Donald Burns has not yet reviewed the contract.

“I would like to approve it with an outclause that our prosecutor has not yet reviewed it and it will be approved if he does not find anything contrary to Ohio Revised Code,” Wheaton noted.

Wheaton noted he is excited to finally have the contract done and to transfer the expenses of employees and utilities to Radius.

Commissioner selected Radius Hospitality to operate the facility under a five-year lease from a field of four groups that submitted proposals.

County commissioners acquired ownership of the facility in February when they finalized a deal with the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District to donate the facility and nearly 500 acres of land to the county.

Last month, commissioners signed an oil and gas lease with Sierra Buckeye, a Houston, TX, company, for the land. The lease calls for a bonus payment of $4,500 per acre, payable within 90 days, an additional $1,500 per acre if a well is not drilled within 180 days of the date the bonus payment is received and an additional $6,000 per acre if a well is not drilled and the company opts to renew the lease. The lease includes a no-drill clause for the property. Sierra Buckeye has leases on adjoining land and plans to drill the vertical well on that property and drill horizontally under the Atwood property.

Wheaton declined to discuss terms of the lease until it was signed. 

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