Twin Falls picks canyon jump partner

The Twin Falls City Council will negotiate with a Texas stuntman who needs to stage a leap across the Snake River canyon — an occasion that could yield upwards of $ 1 million for Idaho schools.

‘Big Ed’ Beckley

The city will negotiate with “Big Ed” Beckley for the up coming two months, but in the end, the council could go one more route, The Instances-News reported Tuesday.

Even though the City Council voted 6-one to negotiate with Beckley, another bidder, REO Improvement, emerged as the city’s backup plan. The bidder just lately bought 13 acres on the north rim of the canyon, as a possible landing web site.

Beckley, who touts himself as the “world’s largest motorbike stuntman,” is leasing state lands as a likely landing site. And that is in which the state’s public college endowment enters into the equation.

Beckley was the winning bidder at a Sept. 27 state auction, securing the rights to stage an occasion that would mark the 40th anniversary of Evel Knievel’s failed canyon jump. The auction gave Beckley a two-year lease on 1,147 state acres on the north canyon rim, costing him $ 50,000.

But the huge money for colleges comes in the kind of a $ 943,000 “bonus bid” to secure event rights. Beckley has currently paid the $ 943,000 to the state — despite the fact that the leap is nonetheless contingent on Beckley lining up permits with the city of Twin Falls.

In the course of their Oct. 15 meeting, elected officials with the state Land Board debated whether or not the state would require to return the $ 943,000 if Beckley’s ideas fall via. Lands Division personnel says the state is not obligated to return the cash.

The state also stands to get a minimize of the action if Beckley attempts the canyon jump: 3 percent of revenues from sponsorships and Television and World wide web broadcasts, and five percent from all other occasion revenues.

Twin Falls picks canyon jump partner