Little Beaver Snow Park waiting for more of the white stuff

Although some people may be hoping we’ve had the last of the big snowfalls this winter, Bob Hamilton would be more than happy to see another large dump of the white stuff.
For the past five years, Hamilton has been busy building the Little Beaver Snow Park on the old landfill site here, a personal venture that’s been taxing both financially and physically.
“I believe it was in October of 1995 that I first brought Mayor [Glenn] Witherspoon out to the site to see what I had in mind,” Hamilton noted last week.
“The actual physical construction of the park began in September, 1999,” he added.
Faced with many obstructions at the start, Hamilton has found himself working on the park longer than first planned.
“We had a lot of problems of a bureaucratic nature,” he remarked. “There were a lot of unnecessary concerns about the environmental impact the site would have.
“Since it is on an old landfill site, many people were worried,” he admitted.
But with public safety concerns now laid to rest, Hamilton has been able to concentrate his efforts on getting the structural aspects of the park completed.
“Currently, I have two cable tows at the top of the hill, as well as an operator’s kiosk on the top and bottom,” he explained. “I have already built a road up to the hill.
“That was a lot of hard work because the ground was very soft and swampy,” he noted. “It took work but I managed to get it done.”
The park, which was designed by Hamilton, includes six tubing runs, as well as lots of room for skiing and snowboarding.
“There is no sliding facility of this kind in the community,” said Hamilton. “This park would be the first and I am hoping people will want to use it.
“I have certainly gotten a reasonable amount of interest in it so far. So the future certainly looks good.”
Without help from a contractor, Hamilton has found himself responsible for all of the construction work, as well as the cost involved in such an endeavour.
“The money for this project has come out of my own pocket,” he remarked. “Right now, I would estimate that it has cost me about $300,000 to get the hill together. The lifts alone cost $70,000 each to install.
“I have basically been the general contractor on this project since I started.”
Though the cost has been high, Hamilton is hoping it will be returned by visitors once the hill is officially opened.
“Right now I am planning to charge about $15 a day for people to use the park,” he said. “Eventually, I am hoping to get my liquor licence, as well as an expanded menu so we can sell things like hotdogs and hamburgers.”
With construction close to being finished, Hamilton is now busy looking for people to help run things at the Little Beaver Snow Park.
“We have not started to interview people yet,” he noted. “But I am looking to bring on some people to help run the lifts, sell tickets, and rent out equipment.
“We are going to have tubes available and also a few snowboards on hand,” he added. “It looks like I am going to need people to help with pretty much every aspect of running and maintaining the park.”
Despite the work and obstacles involved, Hamilton still is very pleased with the how far he’s gotten in the construction of the site.
“I am very happy with how everything has been going. There is not that much left to do, except some drywalling and painting,” he said. “I am just hoping that we will get some more snow soon.
“It would be good to get an idea of what my attendance is going to be like but that is sort of out of my hands. I guess if we want snow, we are going to have to talk to the Man above,” he reasoned.