Business group leaders brief village leaders on plan

by Dan McClelland

In the interest of keeping all community leaders informed of their plans, the leaders of the Tupper Lake Business Group briefed village elected leaders Wednesday on the major points of their plan to build our economy in the years ahead through recreation.

The meeting, as most are now, was held via a conference call, with most of the village officials and department heads calling in.

Mayor Maroun announced the village board may begin meeting soon via the Zoom computer application soon.

As he did at a recent town board meeting steering committee member Mark Moeller introduced his group and thanked the board in advance for listening to and considering their plan to increase recreational tourism in Tupper Lake.

“You are aware that back in the fall we made a presentation to the town board of a three-phase plan that would cost $2.6 million to increase tourism here” by developing and expanding various community recreational assets, Mr. Moeller told village leaders.

“We realize $2.6 million is a lot of money, but at the same time we think this will set us up for 20 to 40 years into our future and therefore is a wise investment.” He said their comments that evening delve into phase one- a five point plan to acquire, if possible, the Big Tupper Ski Area property at county auction this year, the development of new snowmobile trails into the community from the west, the continued improvement of the James C. Frenette trails at the golf course so they are suitable for year-round multi-use activities, the irrigation of six fairways on the lower nine of the golf course and the creation of a six- to ten-mile mountain bike on state forest preserve land bordering the lake in the Rock Island Bay area.

“The cost of phase one originally priced out at $928,000. We’ve reduced that estimate by $45,000 to date and will continue to refine our pricing.”

Realtor Rob Gillis, another member of the steering committee, began his short address by thanking the village leaders for their service to the community. “We know how much your service is appreciated and how much effort you folks all put into it.”

“As community leaders, community property owners and taxpayers and business people, we know you realize how much our recreational assets like Big Tupper mean to a small community like ours!”

“The days of giving someone a map and a compass and telling them to go outdoors and have some fun are over!” he told the village leaders. “What people want now is planned recreation...they want a nice ski area to ski at, they want nice trails to hike and bike on...and that’s essentially what our recreational plan is!”

Mr. Gillis said he believes “everyone here has a soft spot in their hearts for Big Tupper” and its legacy of recreation and its importance in drawing tourists here for decades, beginning in the early 1960s.

He said he and his colleagues on the business group that was formed last March have asked the town leaders to buy the 440+ acres on Mt. Morris if it goes to county auction for back taxes this year.

“If there is any possibility the town gets a crack at buying the mountain before the auction...then it should jump and make that purchase!”

He said that “would give the town a seat at the table” in any future development of the facility.

The back taxes owed on the property by its owner, Preserve Associates LLC to the county amounts to $130,000. With interest and penalties the amount owed has grown to over $170,000.

“Every time you drive across The Flow and look up and see those trails that sit idle up there, you realize what a big shadow that is over our town, and how wonderful it was when Big Tupper was open and how wonderful it could be in the future if it was open again.”

The business group does not want the town to operate the ski area again as it did for nearly 30 years. The members have pledged to find an interested party to lease and operate it. Prospective operators could be the state, a regional college, a business group, a not for profit cooperative of skiers, a private business and more.

Kelly Fleury, one of the leaders of the Tupper Lake Snowmobile Club who serves on the business group’s leadership committee, briefed the board on trail improvements proposed in the recreational plan.

Before she began Wednesday, Mr. Moeller said her group has made some major advancements since the business group readied its plan last year. “The club has already done a lot of work since we began meeting last March.”

Mrs. Fleury said their group appreciated the board’s willingness to listen to the new plans to promote more tourism here.

“We’ve done extensive work already on the Billboard trail” which connects the Junction Pass trail between uptown and downtown and Upper Park Street near where the billboards are situated.

She said that trail clearing and improvement work were done by club volunteers and private citizen Jack Moody, with the help of heavy equipment from Mike Vaillancourt’s Sootbusters business.

“That trail is ready to ride this winter”- providing an important connection between the two parts of the village. “Snowmobilers are already riding it!”

“The additional trails we are hoping to have to bring new visitors into the community are in the downtown area” and they would circumvent Little Wolf Lake, which riders now cross but because it is a body of water it can’t be officially included on local or state maps.

One trail will run from Mountain Market Redemption Center, behind the Holy Name Cemetery and eventually to Berkley Ave. and the other runs on streets north of Little Wolf Lake. Both new trails will eventually connect to the train station site and the entrance to the new rail-trail corridor that will soon open there.

“Those trails will not be ready until next winter but we plan to get started building them this spring. That’s a number one priority for our club!”

“We believe that will increase our snowmobile traffic dramatically!

She said too with the generous donations of $5,000 from both the village and town last fall, the snowmobile club has purchased “a new to us” trail grooming machine and a pull-behind drag “so we are ready to groom the local trails and be very aggressive about it so that riders here have some nice trails to ride on!” She added her thanks to both boards for their recent donations and support for the work of the snowmobile club volunteers here.

“Snowmobiling is going to be an important part of the rail-trail corridor” which will open sled traffic to Tupper Lake and from here to many points east of here, added Mr. Moeller.

He said the third piece of the business group’s recreational strategy in the first phase involves the Frenette trails at the golf course. “You are all familiar with the great job John Gillis and his trail volunteers have done there” and particularly the new trail built in the woods and off the fairways last winter with the help of the village and town crews.

“We’d like to see the surfaces of the main trail improved so it would see four-season use including hiking and biking” in the warmer seasons, as well as for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in winter.

Another piece of the plan is a new mountain bike trail system on the shoreline tracts both north and south of the Rock Island Bay of Tupper Lake, south of here.

“The trails will go along the shoreline and there will be nothing else like them in the Adirondack Park. The trails will be cut by hand to mountain bike-specifications. They will also be able to be used for hiking and in the winter for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.”

He said steering committee member Matt Ellis has had many conversations with NYS Department of Environmental Conservation officials already “about the concept and how it can be done. Matt is an avid rider who regularly rides the mountain bike trail system at Wilmington. He has seen the explosion in mountain bike usage there!”

He said the business group would also like to see the new trail system there eventually connect to the Big Tupper property with future mountain biking trails there. “We’ve even thought about the possibility of asking the owners of the former Oval Wood Dish Corp. property which surround the former ski center if we could cut a trail from the ski center parking lot southwest to Route 30 that would take riders to the Rock Island Bay facility.”

Mr. Moeller explained the fifth piece of the plan is irrigation on six lower nine fairways at the golf course currently without it.

“We believe it’s time to irrigate the lower nine. In order to do that, our estimates are that the materials and labor would cost about $240,000.” Added to that, he noted, is another $60,000 to install a new water pump to supply the water to the watering systems on both nines.

He said the new watering system added to the lower nine would complement the work tackled by volunteers when they rebuilt the entire upper nine two decades ago.

The current total cost of all five pieces of the first phase is $883,000.

He said the group, with the help of advisor Rick Donah, has launched a petition drive on Change.org and has so far collected 1,000 signatures of Tupper Lake people who back their plan. “We’ve also started a gofundme page which in several weeks time has seen donations of over $6,000” that will help support the plan.

Matt Ellis was late into the meeting and picked up the presentation from there.

“One thing I’ve learned about mountain biking other areas like Wilmington is there has been a tremendous growth in the sport. I’ve been at the Wilmington trail system many times and it’s like ants on a hill. There’s just so many people now who love the sport. One day I was there and I started thinking about the places here where we could offer it.”

He said the former Litchfield Park property that was purchased by the state many years ago came to mind. “It’s really perfect for single-track mountain biking” with its lake views and varied terrain.

“Mountain biking is something very near and dear to me and I’d like to see a facility here and for Tupper Lake to get on this band wagon!”

“This will just be one other piece of the puzzle” that will bring more tourists to Tupper Lake each year.

Dan McClelland, another member of the group, said in the past week since the group last met with the town board, five committees have been formed to study each of the five goals in more detail. He invited the mayor and the trustees to join in some of that committee work, if they wished to in the weeks ahead.

“We would very much welcome the village board members to any of these committees for a full-scale view of what we are doing!” He said they have invited town leaders to join them.

“The town department of public works, under Bob Degrace, and the town highway department, led by Bill Dechene, were very important to the creation of the new golf course trail completed last winter. “With the board’s blessing, if Bob could be available to help advise us and help us on some of these trail projects, I know the business group members and the community at large would appreciate it.”

He also asked the mayor to don his county legislator’s cap for a moment. “We appreciated the meeting you had with us a few weeks ago. We know the possible purchase of the Big Tupper property, if it becomes available, it’s going to take some finessing and we know you will help us.”

“If we can do anything to help you by way of talking to other county board members or if we can make a presentation to the full board, if it helps lighten your load, our group would certainly be willing do that. We’d certainly take our marching orders from you. Acquiring the Big Tupper lands is an important piece of our first phase!”

Mr. Maroun said he would keep the business group fully informed on any matters relating to the county and the possible purchase by the town of the ski center tract.

“I can’t tell what can happen at the county right now. It’s very complicated!”

He said Judge Robert Main hasn’t signed the in rem proceeding to permit the auction to move forward. On each property in that sale, the property owners can come in until the last day and pay off the back taxes, he explained.

“There are some liens and mortgages that could or could not be carried over to a new owner by a judge’s order. So there’s a lot going on.”

He said he would welcome any help from the business group to talk with county officials to convince them of the wisdom of passing the title of ski center parcel to the town for the back taxes owed. -Or he said he would arrange for the group to address the full county board “when the time is right!”

The mayor turned the meeting over to the trustees for comments or questions.

New Trustee Jason McClain applauded the business group’s work “calling it very important” for the community to attract new tourists each year. Your work is appreciated by many here!”

“As a new trustee, I’m beginning to understand how much effort it takes to invest in our community in ways to make it better and more prosperous!”

Trustee Clint Hollingsworth was very outspoken in his support of the recreational plan.

He began by thanking the business group leaders for all they have done to date in preparing these bold plans.

At the top of the list, he said, was the Big Tupper reacquisition. “Big Tupper is the biggest recreational asset in our community. It is the anchor of major recreational development here!”

“Now that doesn’t mean the other things can’t happen without Big Tupper- because they can.” He called the ski area “the golden nugget” when it comes to advancing recreation and the commerce it will bring here.

“If we don’t do everything in our power- as village and town leaders- to obtain and secure this asset, there’s a good possibility we could lose it forever!”

He calling snowmobiling another major winter-time recreational asset to the community that is extremely important to the area. “It’s great work you’re doing- Kelly and the whole snowmobile club- with new trails and connecting trails. Cutting trails is hard work. That represents some dedication!”

“Like Big Tupper, snowmobiling is an important part of your plan,” he stressed.

He also applauded the development of the new hiking and mountain bike trails in the plan, calling them “a secret” about the Adirondacks that “is getting out and that needs to fully get out.”

He said different types of recreational trails developed here will help greatly Tupper Lake’s future.

He said the new town grant to light some of the cross country trails at the golf course will bring many skiers there in future winters. “I remember skiing under the lights at Big Tupper and how much fun it was!”

He predicted the new lights on the cross-country trails will shine that recreational gem.

He thought too the group’s plan to develop mountain bike trails along the Tupper Lake shoreline was an excellent concept.

“I’ve hunted those peninsulas and there’s some amazing landscape there.” He said the Rock Island Bay parcels offers some incredible “vistas” of the lake and the mountains beyond.

“-And bringing water to the lower nine and upgrading that section of the course will be a huge improvement!”

He said he figures these first five initiatives will create “a domino effect” in Tupper Lake, which will bring many more good things.

The town is where our growth is and in the town we have to capitalize on these recreational assets and new ones we can create, he stated.

He predicted the development and growth of recreational facilities here is going to create “an economic boom here” in the years ahead.

“I’m all in on your plan...hook, line and sinker,” he told the business group members. “I’m 100% behind this plan!”

Trustee Ron LaScala said he agreed with his colleagues. He too applauded the group for its work. “We are a community which thrives on tourists who want to come here and be active.” He said the community’s recreational assets are a large part why people visit Tupper Lake and build their summer places here.

“Your plan is a great idea and I continue to support your efforts!”

“We are going to continue to work with you as we move these projects along,” the mayor said in summary that evening.