Concord residents aren’t used to traveling far to get a new pair of skis.
For the past 50 years, the Capital Ski & Outing Club has held its annual Ski and Skate Swap, which offers loads of used and new winter equipment and clothing, including snowboarding equipment, hockey gear, snowshoes and cross-country skis and boots.
The event, which attracts an avalanche of attendees, is in a deep freeze as organizers look for a new place to hold the sale.
The swap has been uprooted from its former home at the old Circuit City location near the Steeplegate Mall thanks to the impending arrival of the Altitude Trampoline Park, where it has been held for the last three years, said board member Paul Maggiotto.
The board hasn’t been able to find a new home yet; the organization cannot return to its former location at the Green Street community center, because the event has grown too large and space has been taken up by Concord Police Department computers, Maggiotto said. If they don’t find a home by early November, the sale won’t happen at all this year.
“We’re desperate for a place,” Maggiotto said. “. . . At this point, we’ll take almost anything.”
Putting on the sale goes beyond its traditional one-day Saturday timeframe; the outing club needs to get insurance and fill out paperwork for its wares in advance. And then there is the arrival of the equipment, which starts on Thursday.
People can donate their own salvageable skis to the club, and sellers get 80 percent of the profit. If public- donated equipment doesn’t sell, the outing club needs time on Sunday for sellers to pick up their stuff.
The sale is the club’s biggest fundraiser, Maggiotto said, bringing in thousands of dollars each year. It’s not uncommon for them to bring in $100,000 – but after paying out the sellers and rental prices, that total ends up around $25,000.
The Outing Club’s volunteers groom all of the city’s cross-country skiing trails for free, Maggiotto said. That can cost a lot of money; last year, the club purchased a new grooming machine for $15,000.
Although they’re willing to compromise, an ideal location for the sale includes up to 15,000 square feet, plenty of parking, and rooms to feed volunteers and keep the money locked up. Outdoor spaces won’t work, Maggiotto said, because of security and safety reasons.
Not to mention the cold – the sale traditionally happens the first Saturday in December.
Maggiotto said he hasn’t lost hope yet. They’ve spoken to Steeplegate Mall about trying to find another spot and have reached out to the city’s municipal airport, local health clubs and some warehouses, to name a few.
That includes the city’s new community center gym – but club president Cheryl Haydon said the proposed rental fee might be too expensive at $90 an hour, and the event would require an expensive special rubber mat to protect the new floors.
“It’s just a great community event,” Haydon said. “We don’t want to see it go away.”
Anyone who wishes to contact the club can reach Haydon at 491-4703.
Concord will earn no less than $180,000 a year from three hydroelectric generating facilities along the Contoocook River.
The city council voted on Monday to enter into a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement with Briar Hydro Associates, which owns and operates the Rolfe Canal, Penacook Upper and Lower Falls facilities. The latter two facilities are partially located in Concord; the former is solely in Concord.
The city first entered into a PILOT agreement with Briar Hydro in 2013, which expires this year. Instead of paying taxes, the company pays the city a fixed amount determined by a formula.
The agreement retroactively began on April 1 and will continue until March 21, 2023.
The council also voted to continue its residential granite curb cost program to the tune of $130,000.
The program allows residents whose street is being redone by the city to install granite curbing in front of their property while the work is ongoing. It’s voluntary, and residents pay for the cost of the granite.
Money for the curbing work comes from the city’s Highway Improvement Program, which is an ongoing capital improvement program.
The city’s annual campaign to get residents to save water has come around again.
The “E-Z Pay for WaterSense” contest is open to all residents who are enrolled in the city’s automatic payment program. Through the end of October, residents will have the chance to enter the contest to win a “Shower Better” bundle, which includes an OxygenicsWaterSense-labeled showerhead and other miscellaneous items to “provide a luxurious water-saving shower experience,” says a city press release.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)