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Forest Service Sells Harts Pass

Cornered by shrinking budgets and a rising backlog of maintenance needs, the Forest Service has quietly sold its Hart's Pass "special area" to the Have-a-Ball Recreation Opportunities Management Group based in Belarus. Promising a "painless" transition to the new ownership, RecBall, as it is also known, will start with basic changes like parking meters and a zip line.

The Forest Service, in return, will receive 1.2% of after-tax net profit and a spot for volunteer interpreters inside the new pierogi take-out stand. A source inside the agency, who gave no name, said, "I know many might see this as defeat but we see it as a win-win partnership. In the end, when folks are riding the miniature train to Windy Pass I doubt they will miss the old Hart's Pass."

The transaction had been held up by historic preservation requirements for the guard station at the pass. But a RecBall executive known only as Hammerhead said he was able to "make a couple of calls" to resolve that issue.

4/1/2012

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