Group decides that single yurt would suffice, save money for town and ski clubs
Polar Bear Ski Club representative William Hollister spoke to the Town of Webb Board last Tuesday at the board’s monthly meeting, to give an update to a presentation he given on the club’s behalf last month.
The Polar Bears had proposed that two yurts be erected at McCauley Mountain, which is owned by the Town of Webb.
That plan has changed, according to Hollister.
To ease costs to the participating ski clubs and to the Town of Webb, Hollister said the Polar Bear committee has decided to scale the effort back, at least initially, to a single yurt.
Hollister also said the town’s McCauley Mountain Committee is involved in creating a plan for the chalet, and that the Polar Bears felt it appropriate to take a modest approach and allow that committee to do its thing before proposing anything major.
“With the McCauley Mountain Committee working towards the development of the lodge, and helping the lodge get better, we all decided that we had better slow down and not try to rush into anything permanent at this time,” Hollister said.
“[We decided] that we should instead work with the McCauley Mountain Committee and the Town to better McCauley down the road, and to do it right… So we decided to team up and go with one yurt,” he said.
Through a donation of a heating unit, the Polar Bears are now capable of heating and maintaining the yurt on their own, which would effectively lower the overall cost to the town to no more than $3,000.
The addition of the yurt to the McCauley Mountain grounds will also help eliminate the bags and belongings of forty to sixty people from the Chalet every weekend, and greatly benefit the Polar Bears when they host the Kandahar Ski Race in March of 2012, Hollister said.
Also new to the discussion was the local Code Enforcement Officer’s suggestion that the Polar Bears file a Jurisdictional Inquiry Form with the Adirondack Park Agency (APA), to determine whether APA permits are necessary.
Hollister said the Polar Bears would handle that process.
He added that the APA would likely not claim juridisction due to a sufficient distance between the proposed site and neighboring wetlands.
Still, if the APA were to require permits, the time involved in that process would certainly delay the project for at least a year, according to Hollister.
Which would not doom the two-year plan to host Kandahar. Hollister said the Polar Bears would make due by erecting temporary tents for the events.
After some discussion a motion was made to approve the Polar Bear plan to install a single yurt at McCauley. The motion was approved by a 5–0 vote.
