Fortuna considers River Lodge lease, Depot Museum closure amid budget crisis

Fortuna’s budget squeeze had reached the point where city leaders were weighing whether to hand off the River Lodge and close the Depot Museum, a stark signal of how deep the city’s financial distress had become. City officials said Fortuna still faced a roughly $1.8 million structural gap and needed about $500,000 more in reductions to balance the General Fund.

The River Lodge sat at the center of the debate. Finance Director Aaron Felmlee said the city spent $470,000 from the General Fund on River Lodge operations last year and recovered just $194,000. Since 2021, he said, Fortuna had spent about $1 million more on the facility than it had taken in. Felmlee estimated the city would need to charge renters $2,880 per day to break even, well above the current average of $1,356. City leaders ultimately decided not to sell the 6,000-square-foot property outright, instead directing staff to research leasing the city-owned facility to a third-party operator.

That choice reflected a broader attempt to keep one of Fortuna’s municipal assets while confronting a budget hit from several directions at once. City staff said the next fiscal year already included $550,000 for a state-mandated General Plan update, $40,000 for a new phone system and another $200,000 in police salary increases. Fortuna also had been hit by falling sales tax and hotel tax revenue, along with higher liability and health insurance costs. The city implemented a hiring freeze in November 2025 for positions paid with General Fund money.

The River Lodge itself, built in 1998 and listed in city budget documents as the River Lodge & Monday Club operating line item, has never made a profit or even broken even. City materials describe it as a conference and event center with three flexible conference rooms and one executive board room at 1800 Riverwalk Drive. A previous public budget fight in 2025 drew support for keeping the lodge in city hands, with Councilmember Kyle Conley saying it was part of Fortuna’s culture and daily life and Councilmember Tami Trent saying she could not give it up because it was too important.

The same fiscal conversation also touched the Depot Museum, housed in Fortuna’s historic train station, built around 1889 or 1893, purchased by the city in 1974, moved to Rohner Park and opened as a museum in 1976. The museum has long served as a link to Fortuna’s railroad and logging past, but it now sat inside the same hard accounting that could reshape what the city keeps open. Fortuna’s next budget is due June 30, and the decisions made before then will show whether leaders can close a structural gap without giving away more of the city’s civic identity.