Zipline park to close after new requirements from R.M. of Lumsden

A family-run zipline park near Lumsden is figuring out what’s next after it decided to shut down for good at the end of the month due to what it’s calling “high financial costs associated with unrealistic requirements placed on us.”

Outer Edge Adventure Park announced the news on Facebook on Saturday.

“We’re a small mom-and-pop business, and we only have so much resources. The fact of the matter is we can’t afford a traffic analysis of $10,000 and geotechnical survey of $1,500,” co-owner Terry Deck said while speaking with 980 CJME on Monday.

He said that for the past two years he and his wife, Cheryl, have run the business on their own property, which sits north of Highway 20 between Lumsden and Craven. In 2017, the R.M. of Lumsden gave them a discretionary recreational permit to run the park.

Starting in August this year, they began showing movies at a drive-in theatre on their property. The drive-in was operated by Moonlight Movies.

On Aug. 23, the R.M. of Lumsden drafted a letter that renewed the park’s discretionary use application. The R.M. approved the zipline park and the bed and breakfast the Decks were running on the site.

But part of the renewal required the Decks to complete and submit a “favorable geotechnical report” and a “traffic impact analysis (ITA)” of the gravel road leading from Highway 20 to the zipline park.

Deck says the R.M. owns and manages that road.

The R.M. also denied them the right to run the drive-in movie theatre component on their property.

Deck estimated that doing the traffic analysis and the geotechnical report would put him and Cheryl at least $12,000 in the hole. He also said he’s baffled as to why the R.M. is putting that request on his business now, two years after it opened and received approval from the R.M.

He said that aside from the Aug. 23 letter, he hasn’t had any contact with the R.M.’s council members or its reeve, Kent Farago.

In an email, Farago responded to 980 CJME’s request for an interview. He referred it to the R.M.’s director of planning and development, Luke Grazier. This story will be updated with Grazier’s comments, when he responds.

Deck said he’s open to talking and speaking with the R.M’s council, especially because he and Cheryl want to keep their business going.

“If we can’t all get along and work this out, it puzzles me. why don’t we talk to each other like humans, across the table?” he said. “We pride ourselves on running a business that’s good for the whole family, from eight (years old) to 88.”

The best solution is for R.M. council members to sit down with the Decks to figure out a path forward that works for both sides, while still keeping the zipline park open, Terry said.