Haliburton County will not be submitting a bid to host the 2014 Ontario Youth Summer Games.

Councillors on the county's economic development committee made the decision at a March 14 meeting after learning the City of Kawartha Lakes was not interested in partnering with Haliburton County on the bid.

At a previous meeting, councillors had agreed they would only proceed with the bid if the county's neighbour to the south was interested in getting onboard, which would have meant splitting the $200,000 the host community must set aside in case of shortfall.

"At this point, we do not have a monetary agreement from the City of Kawartha Lakes," county economic development and tourism director Bob Smith told councillors, explaining the municipality was not interested in splitting the $200,000 deposit or the $6,000 fee for comprising the bid.

Consultant and Dysart et al Councillors Dennis Casey, who'd performed the task for other events in the past, would have been contracted to put together the bid, which would have included a thorough analysis of all the sporting venues.

Casey had told councillors that at least five events - including baseball, track, lawn bowling, rugby and swimming - would have to take place outside the county since it doesn't possess adequate facilities.

It was partially for this reason that councillors felt a partnership with the City of Kawartha Lakes, where most of those events would have taken place, was a logical conclusion.

The municipality had been willing to commit some of its staff to the event.

"It's done," said Minden Hills Reeve Barb Reid. "It doesn't make sense if they're not even willing to put up $3,000."

Her colleagues agreed, although Dysart et al Reeve Murray Fearrey said he had some mixed feelings about the situation.

"I've had lots of people come to me and say, 'we can do this,'" Fearrey said, stressing he thought the Ontario games were a valuable event. "Maybe this one is a little too big for us today."

Fearrey said he wouldn't mind seeing the county proceed with an evaluation of its facilities anyway, just to know how extreme the deficiencies are, but this seemed to arouse little interest in other committee members.

Casey had said that some of the county's facilities would need to upgraded - dugouts would have needed to be built for ball diamonds, for example - at the expense of the lower tiers.

The games, with 3,500 visitors, would have required about 1,000 volunteers.

The county had submitted a letter of intent to event organizers and the committee, comprised of the four reeves, recommended that letter be withdrawn.