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Kittitas County approves roughly $9.06 million in lodging-tax awards for local projects

Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners ยท November 4, 2025

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Summary

The Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners approved amendments to lodging-tax resolutions to allocate about $9.06 million for local projects, including funding for Roslyn, an event center, the Washington State Horse Park, an Upper County recreation center and additional grandstand costs.

The Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners voted to amend lodging-tax authorizations and approve awards totaling roughly $9,063,000 to several local projects.

County Auditor (speaker 11) outlined the proposed allocations, citing prior lodging-tax recommendations and a legal review by County Prosecutor Greg Zempel that concluded the county faces low financial risk in moving the contracts forward despite the City of Cle Elum's bankruptcy-related concerns. The auditor said prior approvals included $450,000 for Roslyn and $3,000,000 for the Grama Sands event center; the board was asked to approve new awards of $3,275,000 for the Washington State Horse Park (requested by the City of Cle Elum), $3,288,000 for the Upper County Community and Recreation Center, and an additional $2,500,000 for arena grandstands to be paid out via debt service over 10 years.

"We did get a memo from the county prosecutor's office'he had analyzed the situation with his team and, basically, has determined that it is a low risk to the county to move those contracts forward," the auditor said (speaker 11). The auditor's cash-flow analysis indicated that, while commitments exceed the fund balance, expected revenues and payment timelines should maintain a healthy fund balance.

Commissioners voted to approve the amendment to resolution 2025-141 on the record; the minutes record "aye" votes and the motion passed but do not list a full roll-call tally in the transcript. The board also approved a related resolution authorizing tourism infrastructure projects (resolution 2025-214).

Next steps: staff will finalize contracts and schedule any required disbursements and debt-service arrangements; the auditor indicated the grandstands supplemental payment will be amortized over a 10-year debt schedule.