The Lacombe Cross Country Ski Club will make its own trails this winter after receiving a $2,300 grant.
The Echo Lacombe Association provided the grant to the ski club so it could buy a snowmobile and renovator to groom cross-country trails at the Lacombe Golf and Country Club.
“When we heard we’d get the funding we were pretty darn excited,” said Brent Bouwsema, Lacombe Cross Country Ski Club president.
In the past, the ski club has borrowed snowmobiles or had a man from out of town do the grooming. Last year they used a homemade groomer, which Bouwsema described as a big sled pulled behind a snowmobile.
“The disadvantage with this was that we couldn’t create new trails or move our trails until we had four to six inches of new snow,” said Bouwsema.
Last year there wasn’t much snow, so the club ended up with icy trails for a good portion of the season.
That won’t be a problem with the new snowmobile and renovator, he added.
“The nice thing about the new equipment is that it has teeth that will dig up the existing trail, basically creating fresh snow that we can then groom into brand new trails.
“We’re excited about the possibility of providing trails for a longer season,” said Bouwsema.
Bouwsema said club members are excited to get on their skis as soon as possible.
“We’re just itching for the snow to come down,” he said. “In previous years it’s been the third or fourth week of December when we’ve had enough snow to start doing our grooming operations and I don’t see that being any different this year.”
Drayton Bussiere, Echo Lacombe Association president, said the ski club is a great thing to fund.
“We saw a net benefit to the community by helping them run their operation better,” said Bussiere.
The association provides grants for community projects that benefit the community, Bussiere said. How they benefit the community can change from project to project, he added.
“One of the things we’ve done to keep things open is not openly define what a benefit to the community is … so we can decide more freely how something helps, which means we can help out more projects,” he said.
Grant money comes from Echo Energy, a gas and power retailer.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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