A non-profit ski area in Michigan will be upgrading its snowmaking pond thanks to leftover pandemic relief funds. 9 & 10 News reports that the Grand Traverse County Commission was planning to approve $604,700 in funds on yesterday from the American Rescue Plan Act for critical infrastructure improvements at Mt. Holiday in Traverse City, Michigan.
The American Rescue Plan, passed by Congress in 2021, allocates funds for counties to help out local businesses with economic relief or financial assistance on new projects.
According to The Ticker, the approved funds will help the ski area transition from its current water system, which comes from a well to East Bay Township’s municipal water supply. Some of the upgrades that the money will go towards are the expansion of their snowmaking ponds, the new water main that will lead to expanded snowmaking efforts, the creation of a fire suppression system for their lodge, and improve their stormwater remediation problems.
These improvements will help Mt. Holiday reach its next step of capital upgrades, which is expanding its snowmaking network. More than twenty snowmaking machines will eventually be added.
James Pearson, Executive Director of Mt. Holiday, described the significance of these approved funds:
“The expansion of the pond will allow us to have water to blow snow. The expansion of it will also allow us to keep the water colder, along with some other things that will eventually add so when the water hits the snow guns, it cooler and then it gets more yield out of it.
When they built this road, the water runoff ran into our ponds. So we’re adding salt from the roads in the wintertime, dirt, debris which clogs up the filters of the pumps. The salt will affect the temperature of the water, which we obviously don’t want.”
Daryl Nelson, one of the Grand Traverse County Commissioners, described why they were for approving the funds for Mt. Holiday:
“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put money into the community like this. So we want to make sure that we do it right. It’s been a lot of work as a county government. We’re in the business of spending money. We’re not usually in the business of giving out money. This has been a challenge for us and the administration. I’m proud of the work that we’ve done.”
Image Credits: Mt. Holiday
