GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Tubing, snowboarding and skiing enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting enough snowfall to hit the hills. However, next year, Green Bay is hoping you won’t have to wait for Mother Nature to do her thing.
For the past few winters, the city hasn’t had much luck opening Triangle Sports Area for tubing and skiing.
“We’re not seeing the snow levels that we used to,” said Holly Baseman, the executive director of the Baird Creek Preservation Foundation.
“It takes eight to 10 inches of snow to have a base on the hill to be able to even use it for sledding.”
Two winters ago, the city opened the hills only three times. Last year, they didn’t open at all.
Now the Baird Creek Preservation Foundation is starting a $200,000 fundraising effort to pair with $500,000 the city already approved in ARPA funding to pay for snow making equipment and a used tractor to groom the hills.
“What our plan would be is to use the snow making equipment on the tubing hill primarily and then the ski hill closest to the tubing hill,” said Dan Ditscheit, Green Bay’s parks director. “Then, over time, we can expand it to the other hill.”
The goal is to raise the money by June.
Baird Creek’s foundation has experience with fundraising. It’s raised about $500,000 for a mountain bike skills course that is set to open next summer.
“I think the priority here is just getting kids outside in winter and doing one of those normal childhood activities that isn’t very accessible around here,” said Baseman. “We have smaller hills but not hills like Baird Creek and definitely not hills that allow for skiing and snowboarding.”
City officials say snow making would likely open the hills from mid-December through early March.
Right now, it costs $5 to ride a city-provided tube all day. By comparison, Titletown’s tubing hill costs $8 for a day of unlimited rides on non -gamedays.
“We would like to do more improvements to that whole facility. It’s kind of an aging facility,” said Ditscheit. “The parking lot needs to be replaced. We’re anticipating we’re going to need to expand it once we offer snow making capabilities.”
There aren’t estimates for how much revenue could be generated, but the plan would be to reinvest the money back into the park.
The city recently purchased a state-of-the-art conveyer belt to bring tubers back to the top of the hill.
The city’s parks committee provided initial approval of the fundraising campaign Wednesday evening. The full city council is expected to sign off on it at its meeting next week.
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