There may be a renewed effort under way to find a solution for the future of the Lake Lanier rowing venue at Clarks Bridge Park.

Whether anything will come of it is still uncertain.

For years, supporters have said the venue, site of the flatwater events of the 1996 Olympics, needed serious upgrades to stay competitive with other rowing venues in the country.

But as a facility jointly owned by the Hall County and Gainesville governments, previous efforts at changing the site's management have never come through.

However, both county and city officials say they have renewed those talks in recent months.

City officials say they are considering a new management agreement - one in which the city would manage the day-to-day operations of the venue.

A top county official, too, says the government is seeking to maximize the venue's potential.

Currently, the two governments swap maintenance duties every year, each spending about $25,000 on upkeep but focusing very little on the future viability of the venue.

This year, it's the county's turn to foot the bill for a lawn care contract, building maintenance and trash detail.

Gainesville Parks and Recreation Director Melvin Cooper says city and county officials have discussed changing the agreement to allow for a full-time facility manager, much like the agreement the two governments have for the Allen Creek Soccer Complex, which might allow for a coordinated effort at attracting canoe and kayak events.

With Allen Creek, both governments still own and fund the facility, though only Hall County is responsible for its day-to-day management.

"Currently, at Clarks Bridge, there's not that coordinated effort," Cooper said.

Cooper and Gainesville City Manager Kip Padgett met with county officials in early August about the idea.

But both Cooper and Mike Little, manager of Allen Creek who was recently named the county's parks director, concede that little has happened since that meeting as the county, under financial duress, has spent much of the last two months reorganizing its own parks department to meet budget demands.

"I've got too many other priorities right now," Little said. "...From our standpoint, with our budget cuts and the way our department is right now ... we're concentrating on the now thing."

Cooper said anything that comes from the talks definitely won't materialize before the end of the fiscal year in June 2012.

"It's on the radar," Cooper said.

City and county officials have tried before to find a better management solution for the venue, and talk of helping the venue fulfill its economic potential resurfaces regularly.

"There's been negotiations going on forever that I can remember about how to best operate this facility," Little said.

But the only time any of that talk came to fruition was in 2003, when Lake Lanier was host to the 2003 Canoe and Kayak World Championships, and both the city and county doled out some money to add on to the venue.

Later, in 2007, the city and county discussed paying utility bills at the venue.

But when county officials didn't include the money in the government's fiscal year 2008 budget, Gainesville officials backed off the proposal, too.

Then the economy tanked, and both county and city officials were furloughing employees to make ends meet.

Money for capital needs at a subsidiary venue just wasn't there.

But this year, as Gainesville officials discussed a $1.5 million budget surplus in June, the possibility returned when Councilman Bob Hamrick, who has long been a champion of the venue's economic potential, said it was time to reconsider investing in the venue.

County Administrator Randy Knighton said the conversation is ongoing, even though there have been no formal meetings since August.

"We're both working very hard to develop an arrangement that's viable and provides the best situation for the rowing venue in the future," Knighton said. "We're in constant communication about that right now."