Post Classifieds

Better Late Than Neveplast

By Samantha VanSchoick

On September 16, 2011

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It's been a slippery slope, but Ski and Ride members are back on their feet.

The club has received the funding it needed to purchase an artificial snow surface—again.

The motion passed by a vote of 159 (69%) to 72 (31%) yesterday.

Club president Samuel Pierog was ecstatic about the outcome of the vote, "I was telling everybody in the dining hall really fast. That was pretty much the first thing I did."

Last spring SGA's final session resulted with $18,930 worth of funding requests being granted to Lyndon State College clubs. The largest amount given to a singular club that day was $10,000 to LSC Ski and Ride to purchase artificial ski surface, Neveplast. However, the money came with two stipulations.

"One was that it had to be passed by campus planning, the other was that it would be done by June 30th," explained current SGA president Nick Russo. Russo was also the SGA financial controller last year under the administration that set the conditions. "They didn't meet either therefore…[the money] went back into the general fund."

In order for the issue to have appeared on this week's ballot, Ski and Ride had to get 10 percent of the student body to sign the petition. The official count was 175 signatures, allowing the issue to be put on the ballot.

The question still remains why the deadline was not met the first time the money was allocated to Ski and Ride. "We didn't get approval from [Campus Planning] in the timeline that we had because it was such a big investment and because there was so much riding on it, they wanted to get more information," explains Pierog.

Wayne Hamilton, Dean of Administration and head of Campus Planning, would agree that more information was part of the hold up. Hamilton explained that the practicality and operational aspects of the project were their primary concern. Hamilton listed that questions the committee had as: "How much maintenance does it require? How durable is the material? How well does it perform?"

Hamilton asked Ski and Ride these questions via email in late May. "There was no further action at that point from the committee because we were waiting to hear back if the purchase was going to go forward based on the product issues and that's kind of where we are today," said Hamilton. "The day following the last campus planning meeting in May I communicated back to the club reps as well as to Nick Russo where things stood at that point… I don't know where those discussions went to be honest with you."

"It's hard to do anything if we don't have great communication…There was a period of about three weeks where we didn't have any from Ski and Ride about what was going on with the project," Russo explains.

According to Pierog, the delay was caused by difficulty finding answers to Campus Planning's questions regarding the material due to the availability of the Neveplast representative. "It was hard to keep in contact with him because he had a project going on in Colorado," said Pierog.

Pierog hopes to soothe worries about the product with a soon to be scheduled conference call with a Neveplast sale representative, "Once we can figure out the date of that, we can move forward."

The issue of where the terrain park will be located still remains. Last spring, Ski and Ride had representatives attend a Campus Planning meeting to ask for the committee's consideration for possible sites. The focus had been to put the slope on Presidents Hill, where there has been a terrain park in the past. Concerns about the site arose due to limited accessibility and difficulty for Public Safety to police the site.

"We can't be everywhere and we can't be everything for everybody. It should be a concern because some have proven that they cannot be trusted with the freedom," George Hacking, Director of Public Safety explained. "We're talking about 18 – 24 yr olds using this hill… Unfortunately there are a few who tend to push the limits and create problems for the rest of the students who want to use that area."

Hacking suggested that if money could be raised for cameras to monitor the site, it may become feasible.

There are five other more centrally located sites that have been suggested, though when a decision on the location should be expected is still up in the air until the Campus Planning's questions about the material are answered.

"I don't care," said Pierog when asked where he would like to see the park. "I just want it to be here on campus so the students can enjoy it."

Pierog is optimistic about the future of the park, "We just have to keep pushing it forward."