CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Jackson County has lost $1.4 million during the pandemic which could result in its full closure.
State Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt told members of the state Senate Finance Committee Monday the $1.4 million loss represents a 87% reduction in revenue from the year before.
“We’re at a crunch point. If we don’t get some kind of additional funding we’re not going to be able to keep Cedar Lakes open,” Leonhardt predicted. “We’re doing the analysis now on how long we can go.”
The Department of Agriculture took over Cedar Lakes, located near Ripley, approximately four years ago. The center had been operated by the state Department of Education.
Leonhardt said they’ve spent the last four years taking care of deferred maintenance projects and trying to attract additional business. He said they almost had the facility, which has an annual payroll of $1.2 million, revenue neutral but then the pandemic hit.
There were no conferences, band camps, FFA gatherings or other events last year. The Mountain State Art and Craft Fair was cancelled in July, all reducing revenue. Leonhardt said he doesn’t know when that revenue will return. There hasn’t been a major event there since January 2020.
The center closed initially when the pandemic began but it has been opened to small classes and groups in recent months. But Leonhardt said the future remains uncertain.
“And even when we do get opened up it’s going to take some time to ramp that back up,” Leonhardt told the committee. “We don’t how long it will take the band camps to come back, the soccer camps to come back, those are the things that generated the revenue to keep the lodge open.”
Twenty-eight temporary workers were let go because of the pandemic. Some of the full-time workers have been shifted to other areas of the Department of Agriculture, Leonhardt said.
Leonhardt said he’s made a couple of requests to the governor’s office for supplemental funding.
Cedar Lakes is the home to the state’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) program.