On Wednesday, the Grand Traverse County Commission plans to approve $604,700 American Rescue Act funding for Mt. Holiday.
In December, the commissioners all voted to allocate the funding to the non-profit.
“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put money into the community like this. So we want to make sure that we do it right,” said Darryl Nelson, Grand Traverse County Commissioner.
The money would allow for major infrastructure upgrades at the non-profit ski resort, including expanding the water pond.
“The expansion of the pond will allow us to have water to blow snow. The expansion of it will also allow us to keep the water colder, along with some other things that will eventually add so when the water hits the snow guns, it cooler and then it gets more yield out of it,” explained James Pearson, Executive Director of Mt. Holiday.
The money will also help fix stormwater remediation problems.
“When they built this road, the water runoff ran into our ponds. So we’re adding salt from the roads in the wintertime, dirt, debris which clogs up the filters of the pumps,” said Pearson. “The salt will affect the temperature of the water, which we obviously don’t want.”
Mt. Holiday believes these infrastructure improvements are key to improving people’s time out on the slopes.
“I used to come here every day after school. I’d have my snowboard and all my gear. My car leaves school, drive here, and snowboard till they close. Then I’d go home. So it’s just that that community, that’s why it’s really important,” said Pearson.
“It’s been a lot of work as a county government. We’re in the business of spending money. We’re not usually in the business of giving out money,” added Nelson. “This has been a challenge for us and the administration. I’m proud of the work that we’ve done.”
National Alliance on Mental Illness Grand Traverse and Michael’s Place are also expected to get ARPA funding from Grand Traverse County.
