The quest to purchase a snow groomer to maintain the cross country skiing trails at Beaver Meadow Golf Course is coming to a successful end.
Next month, the Concord City Council is expected to approve $46,500 in city funds to match private donations to purchase a 2017 groomer from the Holderness School for $91,200.
As skiing at the city-owned golf course became more popular, the wheels started to turn in 2020 on purchasing a groomer that could help make the snow skiable for more days out of the year. The city agreed to match the contribution from private donations organized by the Ski the Beav group and had already approved spending as much as $50,000.
In February, Ski the Beav organizerrs held a 5k race to help raise more money to get closer to the purchase.
Concord High School Nordic skiing coach Sam Evans-Brown helped organize the event and said many participants gave more than the $25 charge to participate in the race, which raised more than $5,000.
“And then in that same week, we had a donation from an anonymous community member of $13,000. And so so that got us over the finish line,” said Evans-Brown. The City Council is set to vote on accepting that donation at their meeting on Monday.
Initial estimates for a new groomer ranged from $130,000 to $160,000. Evans-Brown said the Holderness school made a conscious decision not to maximize their earnings from the sale shaving $20,000 off the going rate.
“They gave us a really good deal. The city at first was a little leery of buying a used machine. But then a couple of the city staff went up and looked at it has been meticulously maintained. It looks like it’s brand new off the showroom floor. It’s only got like 400 hours on it.” Evans-Brown said. “It’s it really is essentially brand new. So we’re super psyched. We got a really good deal on a really good machine.”
The groomer is just the first piece in the puzzle of improving Concord skiing which has suffered from recent mild winters.
“The snow melts and then freezes and then we’re on bulletproof ice,” said Evans-Brown. “And so we need something that has the power to can break up the ice and make the skiing good again.”
Step two will be the addition of snow-making machines at the Beaver Meadow course. The groomer is also key to making that heavier and wetter artificial snow good for skiing. Step three would be the addition of lights to allow skiers to continue past dark.
Even without the second and third phases, skiing will be dramatically better in Concord next winter.
“The groomer by itself will hopefully lead to more days of good skiing at Beaver Meadow, no matter what we do,” said Evans-Brown. “But it also unlocks the possibility that if the community is bought into the idea of making some sort of small modest snowmaking loop then we can do that. So I would just say if folks are psyched about our vision for what this community facility could be, they should reach out and let us know.”