This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Salt Lake County Equestrian Park's future is still in doubt, but at least it will have better dirt.

County Council members voted 6-3 on Tuesday to spend $66,000 to replace worn-out soil in the 85,000-square-foot arena at the park, 2100 W. 11400 South, in South Jordan.

"This is maintenance and common sense, not making a commitment to the future," said County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, arguing that until the Equestrian Park's fate is decided, the safety of horses and riders depend on a fresh layer of dirt.

Her argument held sway with two-thirds of the nine-member council, overcoming the objections of Aimee Winder Newton, Richard Snelgrove and Max Burdick. They did not dislike the project, but they felt any outlays of money should wait until the council receives a staff recommendation in July on what to do with the money-losing facility — "the million dollar bleed," as Wilson called it, referring to its annual deficit.

"I'm not concerned about the funds, but about the process," Newton said, noting that the council rejected Mayor Ben McAdams' budget request for the soil in the 2016 budget, preferring to wait until the county completed a master-plan process evaluating four options for the park.

That process is supposed to be wrapped up in the next couple months, following a town hall meeting that attracted several hundred people last month, presentations to the council by horse devotees desperate to keep the equestrian center in place and visits to the facility by several council members.

"We don't want to send a message to the public that we've made a decision before hearing the process through," Newton argued.

Snelgrove concurred.

"This [funding proposal] short circuits the process that's in place," he said. "It disenfranchises those who bought into the process. I'm uneasy about an end run around that process."

But Councilman Arlyn Bradshaw said it was pretty clear to him that, even if the study is not yet done, the council is unlikely to eliminate horses from the facility.

"There's a growing consensus we won't close the Equestrian Park to horse users, so it's more than appropriate" to fund the replacement dirt now, he said, knowing it will continue to be used after the council decides what to do with the 120-acre site, which includes a three-quarter-mile track, polo field, five outdoor arenas and 306 horse stalls for show boarding, monthly boarding and nightly boarding.

Councilman Steve DeBry, whose district includes the horse park, voted against the funding in November, but he changed his mind after learning more about the safety issues caused by worn-out soils.

"Dirt is the right thing to do," he said.

Wilson added that the Equestrian Center's ability to support itself financially will be hurt if its ground-down arena surface is not to the liking of horse-show promoters.

"When we have shows come and we're not creating an amenable surface at the level that's expected, it's unlikely those people will come back," she said. "There's a risk to the reputation of the facility."

Snelgrove pushed hard to cut material costs by using sandy soil excavated in West Jordan for a new district attorney's office building.

That idea probably will be reviewed when the Equestrian Park is addressed again upon the study's completion, but McAdams said he doubted it actually would save much money.

When county officials looked at doing something similar with soils from the new Hale Center Theatre, he said, they found it was too expensive to sift the materials to remove rocks and other contaminants.

Take the survey

I To weigh in on the future of Salt Lake County Equestrian Park, go to http://www.slco.org/community-services/equestrian-park.