Friday looms as D-Day for the city's bid to house a world class greyhound training and racing facility.
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Orange City Council chief executive David Waddell is set to meet with Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association (GBOTA) interim CEO Daniel Weizman to assess an offer from council to house the facility in Orange.
The Highlands Paceway site, the former home of harness racing in Orange on the city's south-eastern outskirts, is still the frontrunner to house the multi-million dollar facility.
The details of any offers made, from either party, are being withheld due to commercial in confidence clauses. Councillors rejected the initial offer from GBOTA at Tuesday night's council meeting.
A keen supporter of a return for greyhound racing to the city, Orange councillor Jeff Whitton revealed council had formalised an offer and authorised Mr Waddell to meet with GBOTA on Friday.
Cr Whitton said the trotting track at Highlands Heritage was all but rubber-stamped as the preferred location for the facility, which is expected to be worth around $15 million and generate close to $20m for the Orange economy annually.
Bathurst, which has been the home of greyhound racing for the Central West since Wade Park's last meeting in 2004, is the other option for a new facility.
However, in an interview with ACM on Wednesday, October 18 Mr Weizman says the Bathurst sites that have been offered as possibilities are a "bit more problematic" than the former paceway in Orange.
"The concept to allow a track at that location was agreed upon by council," Cr Whitton said.
He said if Mr Weizman knocks back the council's counter offer it will remain Mr Waddell's job to continue negotiations. But those negotiations will remain out of the public realm.
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