Future: Keeping winter riders coming even without snow

Question: Are we steering our winter economy to the future—envisioning a preferred destination and acting to get it there on schedule—or just letting nature take its course?

I experienced Old Forge’s glory days of monster snow, hundreds of inches a year. I shoveled it, plowed it, and none of us thought those days would end.

It spurred the sport of snowmobiling locally, and businesses and recreationalists benefited for a few decades.

Ahh, deep snow and snowmobiles. Winter was heaven. Except for the plowing and shoveling.

Then for reasons that make little sense—to me anyway—our weather started plateau-ing in November, more or less, dragging itself to March.

And from December to February, all we could do was cross our fingers and pray that a Canadian cold-front would show us favor.

Now, however—in the year 2012—the question is:

Other than snow dances and divine intervention, is there more we can do to control our destiny and our economy through the long winter months, which can seem excruciatingly longer without snow?

The Town of Webb has over 7,000 acres of land that have little value economically unless the trails through them are covered with a nice base of packed snow.

The idea of opening our trails to ATV’s has been suggested a few times before. Yes ATV’s. All Terrain Vehicles.

And the idea has been dismissed for a variety of reasons, among them…

1) “The Town (and Rice, Romano, Cohen was sued in the ’80s after an ATV accident on town trails.”

2) “We don’t have the manpower to handle ATV accidents.”

3) “We don’t want them on our roads.”

4) “They will hurt our trails.”

And my personal favorite…

5) “We don’t want those yahoo’s up here.”

Full disclosure: I do not ride or own an ATV or own a business that would benefit directly from ATV yahoos or their wives or offspring.

As a self-employed electrician, I’ll admit I do eventually benefit when the local economy is prospering via the trickle-down effect.

However I have found through 25 years in business, I can do just fine with or without snow, so no, this is not about me.

This could address not only the need to business owners, but also the ability of said business owners to maintain jobs for their employees.

So, it’s worth examining the aforementioned opposition to ATVs, one point at a time…

1) The ATV of the ’80s was a 3-wheeler and not terribly safe. Today’s 4- and 6-wheel ATV’s are well-designed for safety.

2) I suppose if someone wanted to dismiss an idea, they could suggest every worst case possibility, no matter how unlikely.

3) Other areas have been successful in restricting ATV travel on certain roads.

4) For those concerned about harm to our trails, Webb owns over a million dollars in dirt moving, grooving, plowing, grooming, hauling equipment with skilled operators. And let’s remember the alternative: Caving to an anemic winter economy.

5) The ATV market is worth researching. New ATV’s are similar in cost to new snowmobiles, and many snowmobile owners are also 4-wheeler owners.

In essence, our visitor clientele may change very little—second home owners, responsible visitors etc.

I also know more than a few residents who own them. These local residents travel to Virginia, Kentucky and Canada to use them.

The Town of Webb board could create a citizen committee of interested parties to sincerely research, survey and study the issue.

Open minds and others could weigh in on the subject.

Make no decisions now, but after all information has been gathered and shared, give it due consideration based on the information submitted.

As our winters get less and less wintery, we can take steps ahead of time to address our winter economy. Or we can just sit back and let “nature have its way with us.”

Just a thought.