Delegate seeks commission to study new ski resort ... - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports
January 31, 2010
Delegate seeks commission to study new ski resort possibilities
By Rick Steelhammer
Staff writer
Advertiser
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, is looking for the best places in West Virginia to go downhill fast.
As the lead sponsor of HB4192, Doyle seeks to create a West Virginia Ski Resort Industry Commission charged with, among other things, identifying promising locations for new ski resort developments and developing policies to encourage ski industry growth.
"There are dozens of places in West Virginia with elevations of more than 4,000 feet that would provide at least 1,500 feet of vertical drop," said Doyle, a ski instructor in his non-legislative life. "Even if just a few of them are eventually developed as ski areas, I'm convinced we could double the number of skiers that are coming here now."
Vertical drop is the distance between the summit and base of a mountain, measured straight down. If a ski run's top elevation is 4,000 feet and the elevation at its base is 1,000 feet, its vertical drop is 3,000 feet. The higher the vertical drop is, the longer and steeper a resort's ski and snowboard trails can be.
Snowshoe Mountain Resort's Western Territory runs, Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge, have vertical drops of about 1,500 feet, the biggest in the state. Timberline's top-to-bottom runs have a vertical drop of about 1,000 feet.
"We have something in West Virginia that the rest of the Mid-Atlantic lacks -- big vertical terrain in a snow belt," Doyle said. "We have several counties in our Eastern mountains with the potential to offer a product equaling what's available in New England. But we need more than two runs with more than 1,500 feet of vertical to compete with ski areas there and to the west."
By offering an abundance of longer and more challenging runs, "we could get the people who travel west or north to ski to come here for their big mountain skiing," Doyle said. "A lot of people in the Washington, D.C., area go to Pennsylvania to ski because they presume they'll find colder weather by traveling north. They don't realize we have colder mountain climates in our higher elevations. And there is nowhere in Pennsylvania with more than 1,000 feet of vertical."
Doyle's bill calls for creating a nine-member ski industry commission consisting of three delegates, three senators, two citizens with ski industry expertise, and the secretary of commerce or a designee.
The commission would issue a report on its findings and recommendations during the October 2011 interim meetings.
West Virginia's ski resorts currently draw more than 800,000 skier visits annually, pumping an estimated $250 million into the economy.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, is looking for the best places in West Virginia to go downhill fast.
As the lead sponsor of HB4192, Doyle seeks to create a West Virginia Ski Resort Industry Commission charged with, among other things, identifying promising locations for new ski resort developments and developing policies to encourage ski industry growth.
"There are dozens of places in West Virginia with elevations of more than 4,000 feet that would provide at least 1,500 feet of vertical drop," said Doyle, a ski instructor in his non-legislative life. "Even if just a few of them are eventually developed as ski areas, I'm convinced we could double the number of skiers that are coming here now."
Vertical drop is the distance between the summit and base of a mountain, measured straight down. If a ski run's top elevation is 4,000 feet and the elevation at its base is 1,000 feet, its vertical drop is 3,000 feet. The higher the vertical drop is, the longer and steeper a resort's ski and snowboard trails can be.
Snowshoe Mountain Resort's Western Territory runs, Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge, have vertical drops of about 1,500 feet, the biggest in the state. Timberline's top-to-bottom runs have a vertical drop of about 1,000 feet.
"We have something in West Virginia that the rest of the Mid-Atlantic lacks -- big vertical terrain in a snow belt," Doyle said. "We have several counties in our Eastern mountains with the potential to offer a product equaling what's available in New England. But we need more than two runs with more than 1,500 feet of vertical to compete with ski areas there and to the west."
By offering an abundance of longer and more challenging runs, "we could get the people who travel west or north to ski to come here for their big mountain skiing," Doyle said. "A lot of people in the Washington, D.C., area go to Pennsylvania to ski because they presume they'll find colder weather by traveling north. They don't realize we have colder mountain climates in our higher elevations. And there is nowhere in Pennsylvania with more than 1,000 feet of vertical."
Doyle's bill calls for creating a nine-member ski industry commission consisting of three delegates, three senators, two citizens with ski industry expertise, and the secretary of commerce or a designee.
The commission would issue a report on its findings and recommendations during the October 2011 interim meetings.
West Virginia's ski resorts currently draw more than 800,000 skier visits annually, pumping an estimated $250 million into the economy.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.
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http://www.mountainsnowshoe.com is the place for your Snowshoe Mountain Resort Real Estate info on rental and for sale homes and condos!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Fortress debt goes to aution
At least I'm not working for Intrawest anymore.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34966859/ns/business-world_business/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34966859/ns/business-world_business/
Friday, January 8, 2010
Snowshoe property owners must oppose quarry expansion
I pulled this from the From SPOC listserv email from---DALeatherman@cs.com --you can read more below or go to www.spocnews.com to make comments
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What quarry?
Though many homeowners are unaware of it, the Slatyfork Quarry owned by Waco Oil & Gas Co. (Ike Morris) lies on Route 219 one mile south of the resort entrance.
Nearly ten years ago Morris’ application for a permit to expand the quarry was opposed by a united effort in which Snowshoe Mountain Resort, 24 local businesses and countless individuals took part.
Why was expansion a concern?
1) Constant blasting would cause noise and air pollution and could disrupt water in wells, caves and local trout streams. 2) Trucks hauling limestone gravel from the quarry would create additional air and noise pollution, traffic and damage to roads.
The quarry issue was presumed dead until mid-December 2009, when a local businessman learned that expansion efforts have resurfaced, couched in an application for federal stimulus funding. Though the application states that the project has the approval of state and local agencies, this does not seem to be the case. Officials contacted so far have no knowledge of it.
What grant?
The application for a U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER Discretionary Grant for $31,587,900 is titled “West Virginia State Rail Authority Upgrade of WV Central Railroad/Upgrade of South Branch Valley Railroad/Various Counties West Virginia.” TIGER = Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery.
The purpose stated in the application: to transport a possible MILLION TONS of gravel yearly from the Slatyfork Quarry. Ten years ago we were up in arms about an increase from 30,000 to 300,000 tons. Here's what we looking at now: To transport a million tons a year, 104 trucks would make a daily round trip from the quarry to a proposed loading dock behind Beckwith Lumber on the Upper Elk River.
This dock, which is presented as an "upgrade," does not exist, and is in an area under consideration for a protective national Wild & Scenic designation. At present, fishermen park here to access the river. We must also consider the 10,000 railcars that would rumble along the tracks every year within hearing distance of many local homes.
What does this means to you as a property owner?
The application does not mention the presence of Snowshoe, the state’s premier ski resort. It does not address the impact this project would have on the resort or the quality of life for second-home owners, retirees and owners of rental property at the resort.
Can you imagine skiing the Western Territory when it overlooks a vast crater of bare earth and the mountain view is obscured by a haze of limestone dust? Can you imagine the effect on tourism and your real estate values?
The grant application also fails to address the project’s impact on Pocahontas County’s reputation as an eco-tourism destination with pristine air and water quality and natural attractions such as the Upper Elk River, one of the last places in the East where you can fish for naturally reproducing Brook, Brown and Rainbow trout.
Nearly one-quarter of the people living in the county work in tourism, and many more are in jobs bolstered by tourism. Many of these jobs would be sacrificed for the sake of a few additional jobs in mining and trucking.
The WV Central Railroad that would be “upgraded” to transport limestone has been unused since the early 1990s (when CSX filed a petition to abandon and sold it to the state) and has been heavily damaged by flooding and neglect. A better use of federal funds would be to turn it into a rail trail for hikers and bikers, in keeping with the county’s recreational focus.
The upgrade of the South Branch Valley Railroad, an entirely different project in other WV counties, was apparently included in the application so that it would meet the minimum requirements for TIGER Grant funding.
What action can you take?
Go to SPOCNews.com for a link to the TIGER application.
The time for action is NOW. Grants will be approved in late January or early February. Snowshoe Mountain Resort is still fact-finding and has not taken a position.
To protect yourself as a taxpayer and property owner, please don’t delay. E-mail the following people, asking them to help stop the funding of this project. Here’s a suggested message:
>>>
Please do everything in your power to stop the funding of the TIGER Grant application to upgrade the Slatyfork section of The West Virginia Central Railroad in Pocahontas County. The request for millions of dollars of federal money for the sole use of one customer, WACO, is based on a deficient application. It is a thinly veiled attempt to impose a million-ton per year quarry on our resort community—even though (as stated in the application) no customers exist for this limestone gravel.
The quarry, which lies a mile from the entrance to Snowshoe Mountain Resort, would create an eyesore visible from the resort and devalue the second-home properties that provide more than half of the tax base for Pocahontas County. It has the potential to do irreparable damage to the county’s air and water quality, and destroy the native trout population in the Upper Elk River. The proposed loading station would be built in an area of the river now under consideration for Wild & Scenic status.
The application seeks funding to “upgrade” a section of railroad that CSX petitioned to abandon 20 years ago and has been repeatedly damaged by flooding. In 2004 the West Virginia Rail Authority determined that it was not cost effective to restore the tracks for freight or tourist trains.
West Virginia surely has projects more worthy of stimulus money, projects that bolster local economies rather than destroy them, as this one has the potential to do.
>>>>
Contacts:
Tigerteam@dot.gov
Attn: Joel Szabat/Lana Hurdle
Subject: Request to deny TIGER grant
(Cindy Butler, Acting Executive Director)
Cindy.k.butler@wv.gov
State Rail Authority Secretary Paul Maddox
Dot.secretary@wv.gov
Senator Robert Byrd’s office
Caryn_Compton@byrd.senate.gov
Representative Nick Rahall’s office
Jim.zoia@mail.house.gov
Pocahontas County Commissioners
Martin Saffer -- martinsaffer@martinsaffer.com
David Fleming -- fleming42@gmail.com
Reta Griffith – retagriffith@frontiernet.net
WVDNR: stevebrown@wvdnr.gov
mikeshingleton@wvdnr.gov
WVDEP: Scott.G.Mandirola@wv.gov
USFS: mdowen@fs.fed.us
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What quarry?
Though many homeowners are unaware of it, the Slatyfork Quarry owned by Waco Oil & Gas Co. (Ike Morris) lies on Route 219 one mile south of the resort entrance.
Nearly ten years ago Morris’ application for a permit to expand the quarry was opposed by a united effort in which Snowshoe Mountain Resort, 24 local businesses and countless individuals took part.
Why was expansion a concern?
1) Constant blasting would cause noise and air pollution and could disrupt water in wells, caves and local trout streams. 2) Trucks hauling limestone gravel from the quarry would create additional air and noise pollution, traffic and damage to roads.
The quarry issue was presumed dead until mid-December 2009, when a local businessman learned that expansion efforts have resurfaced, couched in an application for federal stimulus funding. Though the application states that the project has the approval of state and local agencies, this does not seem to be the case. Officials contacted so far have no knowledge of it.
What grant?
The application for a U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER Discretionary Grant for $31,587,900 is titled “West Virginia State Rail Authority Upgrade of WV Central Railroad/Upgrade of South Branch Valley Railroad/Various Counties West Virginia.” TIGER = Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery.
The purpose stated in the application: to transport a possible MILLION TONS of gravel yearly from the Slatyfork Quarry. Ten years ago we were up in arms about an increase from 30,000 to 300,000 tons. Here's what we looking at now: To transport a million tons a year, 104 trucks would make a daily round trip from the quarry to a proposed loading dock behind Beckwith Lumber on the Upper Elk River.
This dock, which is presented as an "upgrade," does not exist, and is in an area under consideration for a protective national Wild & Scenic designation. At present, fishermen park here to access the river. We must also consider the 10,000 railcars that would rumble along the tracks every year within hearing distance of many local homes.
What does this means to you as a property owner?
The application does not mention the presence of Snowshoe, the state’s premier ski resort. It does not address the impact this project would have on the resort or the quality of life for second-home owners, retirees and owners of rental property at the resort.
Can you imagine skiing the Western Territory when it overlooks a vast crater of bare earth and the mountain view is obscured by a haze of limestone dust? Can you imagine the effect on tourism and your real estate values?
The grant application also fails to address the project’s impact on Pocahontas County’s reputation as an eco-tourism destination with pristine air and water quality and natural attractions such as the Upper Elk River, one of the last places in the East where you can fish for naturally reproducing Brook, Brown and Rainbow trout.
Nearly one-quarter of the people living in the county work in tourism, and many more are in jobs bolstered by tourism. Many of these jobs would be sacrificed for the sake of a few additional jobs in mining and trucking.
The WV Central Railroad that would be “upgraded” to transport limestone has been unused since the early 1990s (when CSX filed a petition to abandon and sold it to the state) and has been heavily damaged by flooding and neglect. A better use of federal funds would be to turn it into a rail trail for hikers and bikers, in keeping with the county’s recreational focus.
The upgrade of the South Branch Valley Railroad, an entirely different project in other WV counties, was apparently included in the application so that it would meet the minimum requirements for TIGER Grant funding.
What action can you take?
Go to SPOCNews.com for a link to the TIGER application.
The time for action is NOW. Grants will be approved in late January or early February. Snowshoe Mountain Resort is still fact-finding and has not taken a position.
To protect yourself as a taxpayer and property owner, please don’t delay. E-mail the following people, asking them to help stop the funding of this project. Here’s a suggested message:
>>>
Please do everything in your power to stop the funding of the TIGER Grant application to upgrade the Slatyfork section of The West Virginia Central Railroad in Pocahontas County. The request for millions of dollars of federal money for the sole use of one customer, WACO, is based on a deficient application. It is a thinly veiled attempt to impose a million-ton per year quarry on our resort community—even though (as stated in the application) no customers exist for this limestone gravel.
The quarry, which lies a mile from the entrance to Snowshoe Mountain Resort, would create an eyesore visible from the resort and devalue the second-home properties that provide more than half of the tax base for Pocahontas County. It has the potential to do irreparable damage to the county’s air and water quality, and destroy the native trout population in the Upper Elk River. The proposed loading station would be built in an area of the river now under consideration for Wild & Scenic status.
The application seeks funding to “upgrade” a section of railroad that CSX petitioned to abandon 20 years ago and has been repeatedly damaged by flooding. In 2004 the West Virginia Rail Authority determined that it was not cost effective to restore the tracks for freight or tourist trains.
West Virginia surely has projects more worthy of stimulus money, projects that bolster local economies rather than destroy them, as this one has the potential to do.
>>>>
Contacts:
Tigerteam@dot.gov
Attn: Joel Szabat/Lana Hurdle
Subject: Request to deny TIGER grant
(Cindy Butler, Acting Executive Director)
Cindy.k.butler@wv.gov
State Rail Authority Secretary Paul Maddox
Dot.secretary@wv.gov
Senator Robert Byrd’s office
Caryn_Compton@byrd.senate.gov
Representative Nick Rahall’s office
Jim.zoia@mail.house.gov
Pocahontas County Commissioners
Martin Saffer -- martinsaffer@martinsaffer.com
David Fleming -- fleming42@gmail.com
Reta Griffith – retagriffith@frontiernet.net
WVDNR: stevebrown@wvdnr.gov
mikeshingleton@wvdnr.gov
WVDEP: Scott.G.Mandirola@wv.gov
USFS: mdowen@fs.fed.us
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