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OCTOBER 19, 2017 | Volume 30 No. 125
Sun Rivers Partnership in financial turmoil
No more balls will be teed up on McArthur Island as the golf course has been closed permanently. The city has reached an agreement with Bill Bilton to return the property to the city’s control, ending a span of 25 years of Bilton leasing the land to operate the course.
LINE OF CREDIT MAXED, ACCOUNTS FROZEN TIM PETRUK
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
KAREN REPKA PHOTO
END OF GOLFING ERA AS CITY TAKES CONTROL OF MAC ISLE LAND ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
The developer running the McArthur Island Golf Course has given up his lease on the cityowned property. Manager of parks and civic facilities Jeff Putnam said the city has reached an agreement with Bill Bilton to return the property to the city’s control, ending
What do you think?
Tell us what the city should do with the six-hectare property on McArthur Island.
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editor@kamloopsthisweek.com 25 years of leasing. “I have fully enjoyed my 25 years of developing and operating the McArthur Island Golf Course; however, with
the recent floods and the growing success of tournaments on the island, I made the tough decision not to renew my lease. I fully support the city’s
vision to bring new recreational opportunities to the island,” Bilton said in a city press release. The nine-hole course was the subject of extensive flooding this past spring, described by Bilton as the worst he has ever seen on the property. “It knocked the hell out of the course,” he told KTW in September. See CITY TO STAGE, A11
The company behind Sun Rivers resort community is in default, its operating line of credit maxed out and its bank accounts frozen, according to testimony from its CEO in court. Rick Siemens, CEO of Sun Rivers Limited Partnership, gave evidence in small claims court on Tuesday in a payment hearing stemming from a default judgment made against one of the company’s subsidiaries last month. On Sept. 15, a judge ruled in favour of a Kamloops couple that sued Sun Rivers Construction for $11,200 — the cost of faulty stone cladding installed on their home in the community. The payment hearing was scheduled to determine how the judgment would be enforced. In court on Tuesday, Siemens said Sun Rivers Construction is insolvent and the par-
ent company’s operating line of credit is maxed out. “We still have some land to sell,” he said. “We have some tool inventory of about $57,000. We have some accounts receivable that we need to collect, but at the present time, we are in default with Interior Savings [Credit Union], so they have frozen our bank accounts.” Siemens said Sun Rivers Construction also owes more than $1 million to trades workers who have not been paid, $650,000 of which is the subject of ongoing court actions. According to Siemens, Sun Rivers Limited Partnership is going through an inter-
nal shakeup. “We are working through a restructuring of the whole operation,” he said. “Under that restructuring, there will be some funds injected into the company by one of the partners. Some of that money, plus the land, will be used to try to negotiate a deal with the trade accounts.” But, Siemens said, the parent company has no cash for the time being. “It won’t without a further injection from one of the partners,” he said. “Right now, being in default with our bank, our hands are tied. We can’t sell off anything.” See RESORT, A10
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