Oak Harbor City Council may be deciding the future course of the Whidbey Island Marathon next week.

During the last meeting, Councilman Joel Servatius asked for a detailed financial report on the marathon as well as options for either continuing or severing the contract with the Elks Lodge for running next year’s marathon.

Management of the marathon turned into a controversy last year when Oak Harbor Mayor Scott Dudley took the contract away from longtime organizer Tamra Sipes. Dudley said that he was unhappy with aspects of the event and wanted a nonprofit organization to run the April race.

Council members, however, were supportive of Sipes. Under her leadership, a total of 2,683 people participated in 2014, which was a record high.

Dudley put out a request for proposals and chose the Elks Lodge to run the race. Dudley said he’s now worried the council will cancel the Elks contract.

Oak Harbor Finance Director Doug Merriman recently crunched the numbers and calculated that the city lost $56,000 in this year’s marathon. The Elks  received a flat fee of $30,000 to run it.

The city lost $70,500 in 2014; Sipes received $28,000 plus a $23,000 bonus for increasing the number of participants.

Dudley was critical of her for cutting participation fees in order to boost attendance, though he was the one who came up with the bonus idea. Dudley said he said didn’t expect Sipes to lure more runners by cutting the registration fee.

Merriman said the city lost $49,000 in 2013.

He pointed out that city leaders didn’t expect the marathon to be a money-making event.

“It’s meant as a community service, an event for the community,” he said. “There’s the indirect benefit of people coming to town, filling hotels and spending money.”

That said, Merriman and other city leaders said they want to see the event get closer to breaking even.

Elks member Theresa Reed gave a presentation about the April 19 marathon during the last council meeting.

Reed said participation this year was 1,639 total runners in the four different events,  comparable to 1,684 participants in 2013. She said the Elks didn’t cut the registration fees.

Reed said the money the Elks earned from the marathon will go back into the community through help for children and veterans.

“We gave over $45,000 this year to all of our community therapy programs,” she said.