2014 Silver ADDY Award Winner
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 8
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THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE VILLAGE OF ELLICOTTVILLE AND THE TOWNS OF ELLICOTTVILLE, GREAT VALLEY AND MANSFIELD, NEW YORK
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MAY 2 - 8, 2014
Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Ellicottville, Great Valley, Little Valley, Mansfield, Olean, Salamanca, Springville and Surrounding Communities
By Alicia Dziak
Adventure seekers rejoice! Sky High is opening its “doors” for the season on Friday, May 2, which translates into endless outdoor fun for all! Sky High, located near Holiday Valley’s Tannenbaum Lodge, is made up of three sections— the Aerial Park, the Climbing Forest and the Mountain Coaster. Each section requires a separate entrance fee, although some packages are available that include multiple sections. Sky High Aerial Park is comprised of platforms and bridges, built in a fouracre section of the woods, challenging visitors to move one from platform to the next, combining strategy and balance. Various degrees of difficulty range from easier, yellow-marked courses, to difficult, black diamond courses, including the all-new “Black Widow” course. “We have installed a new single black diamond course called Black Widow. It has 17 very challenging elements and a very unique ending,” said Brian Halloran, manager at Sky High. Other improvements have been made as well. “We have installed a new briefing area to help expedite our guests to the park and we have also installed a zip-line practice area where our guests can practice using the equipment before they reach the park,” Halloran explained. “We have installed new endings to our blue courses, Waterfall and Riptide, and also our double black diamond course, Commando. These elements will bring a new thrill for those completing the courses.” The Aerial Park is open to everyone ages seven and up, whose weight does not exceed 250 lbs. Guests wear a harness with a special locking lanyard that safeguards them from falling if they slip or let go. “The average climber can
Calendar of Events
Adventure Calls Sky High Aerial Park and Climbing Forest Open This Weekend
May 2 Sky High Scheduled to Open Holiday Valley May 3 Great Valley Fireman’s Regatta May 3 Art Crawl Downtown Springville May 10 Zoar Valley Fest 2014
© 2014 Keystone Designers Inc.
Mountain Coaster Re-opens May 23
May 15 Night Lights at Nannen Arboretum Begins May 17-18 Routes to Art Tamarack Lodge May 20 ECS Budget Vote and Board of Education Election May 30 - June 1 Geobash Allegany State Park June 6-8 Cycling Weekend Holiday Valley June 6-8 Springville Dairy Fest June 7 Relay for Life Ellicottville Central School June 14 Mudslide Obstacle Trail Run Holiday Valley July 4-6 Summer Music Festival Ellicottville & Holiday Valley
See Adventure Calls page 6
Progress on HV Road, Blueberry Lake Planning Board Reviews New Developments by Holiday Valley Vice President for Operations Bonnie Koschir on the realignment of Holiday Valley Road. Koschir came to the meeting bearing drawings of the planned road revision. She said that, after many months of work with the town’s highway superintendent, engineers and many other experts, all agree that the plan she is now presenting “provides for better traffic flow in and out of parking areas and, most important, improved safety for pedestrians who will no longer need to cross the main road to get to the lodge.” The plan calls for rerouting Holiday Valley Road between the Tamarack Club and Valley By Jann Wiswall Village. The new route will head up the hill across The Town of Ellicottville Town Planning from Tamarack, along the top of the existing Board had a full agenda at its meeting on third tier parking lot and then back around to Monday, April 28, beginning with a presentation See Planning Board Reviews page 5
Holiday Valley: $3.7M in Upgrades Variety of Improvments Planned With the successful conclusion of the 201314 winter season, Holiday Valley’s President, Dennis Eshbaugh, announced the reinvestment of $3.7 million in resort improvements. According to Eshbaugh, “One of the keys to Holiday
See $3.7 M Upgrades page 6
As part of Governor Cuomo’s NY Open for Fishing and Hunting Initiative, the 2014 spring turkey season opened May 1 in all of upstate New York. “Approximately 100,000 turkey hunters will take to the field this spring, making it a very popular activity,” said Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Martens. Spring Turkey Season runs May 1-31. Hunting is permitted in most areas of the state, except for New York City and Long Island. Hunters must have a turkey hunting permit
Kean Plans Ashford Plant, Springville Offices By Jann Wiswall
See Kean Wind Turbines page 5
is the installation of 54 new HKD Impulse automated snow guns. The new guns will be installed on Snowledge, the Wall, Morning Star and Crystal. The existing 161 automated snow guns installed over the past several years
Spring Turkey Season Opens May 1
Enclosed Wind Turbine Blows Away Competition effective and efficient way to harness renewable How about this idea? Invent a better windmill energy, produce lots of the wind turbines using that provides an exponentially more cost- green technology, commit to manufacturing them in your own backyard using the local workforce, rely only on local investors and sales — not government subsidies, grants or tax abatements from Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) — to fund production and expansion, and pour the profits back into the community. This is the mission of Kean Wind Turbines, a company born from a great idea based on solid Newtonian physics, precise mathematical science and logic. And, thanks to inventor Kean Stimm, the backyard is Western New York — specifically Erie and Cattaraugus counties. Stimm expects that the new turbine — whose pre-production prototype will be tested for
Valley’s success is that we consistently reinvest in our resort. We stay at the forefront of technology, but also keep our guests coming back because they know we work hard to make their time at Holiday Valley memorable and fun.” Headlining the projects
See Turkey Season Opens page 3
Ellicottville School Board Prepares Bid Requests By Jann Wiswall
By this time next week, Ellicottville Central School will have sent out requests for bids for construction of the school renovation project, set to begin at the end of the academic year. As ECS Superintendent
Mark Ward reported at the school board meeting on Tuesday, April 29, the bid documents have been approved by the school’s attorney and the school will be scheduling a walk-through for potential bidders in the next few weeks. The only hold-up at this
point is the state’s official approval of the project. Ward expects this to come through some time in the first two weeks of May. Bids cannot be awarded, of course, until approval is received. In preparation for construction, however, school See ECS School Board page 9