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SPANISH FORK — The Spanish Fork City Council has approved an agreement to create a man-made tubing hill on the driving range at The Oaks at Spanish Fork golf course.
The agreement is with company Gateway Parks, which will use snow makers to create a tubing hill at the golf course. The hill will have several tracks for tubing, a magic carpet lift and a section where people can learn how to snowboard and ski for free.
"The biggest benefit is nothing like this exists anywhere around here. To have an opportunity for families to do something unique, something fun without having to travel an hour or more to do it, I think is a huge incentive," said Councilman Kevin Oyler.
Parks and recreation director Dale Robinson echoed the same idea when he presented the agreement at last week's City Council meeting. He said city officials were intrigued by the "neat, family atmosphere" that provides residents with a recreational opportunity they don't normally have access to that exposes children to winter sports.
The tubing won't interfere with golf play, as it will be on the driving range, which is typically closed from November to March due to weather. People can pay for 1.5-hour sessions on the tubing hill.
The agreement lets Gateway Parks conduct a commercial venture while also giving the city 3% of the profits. A similar tubing hill from Gateway Parks in Idaho made $95,000 in a season.
City Manager Seth Perrins said Gateway Parks approached Spanish Fork officials in late summer after "falling in love" with the geography and topography of the driving range location.
Oyler said he was happy to learn Gateway Parks wanted to hire local workers to staff the hill. The city has lots of seasonal employees and this agreement provides those residents with job opportunities during the winter.
Because the company makes the snow, the tracks will be changed throughout the season to make different experiences. Construction and hill prepping will start about Nov. 1; tubing sessions are expected to start after Thanksgiving.
"I think this is a very prudent use of a piece of property that's going to be sitting idle, for the most part, during those winter months. It's really a one-year agreement, so it's a test drive — see if we like this," Robinson said.
After this first season, the council will meet in the spring to discuss if it's beneficial to the city to enter into a long-term agreement. The City Council will analyze whether the setup worked for the city and the company.
If the city goes into a longer-term contract, the annual percentage of revenue the city receives would increase.
"This is something the city staff, mayor and council are thoroughly working through. We have liked (Gateway Parks') model. This isn't some brand-new idea; this is something that is tried and true and is successful as a business venture for them and as a community opportunity for our residents," Perrins said.
Citizen concerns
When city officials were first approached about the tubing hill, the initial conversations included a lot of hesitancy, Perrins said. "The initial pitch we had a couple of questions they needed to answer, and they were able to address those."
The biggest concern was traffic.
The driving range is next to Powerhouse Road, where Spanish Fork hosts the Festival of Lights from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Robinson said the busiest nights of the festival see more than 700 cars and the area near the golf course can get congested.
Robinson said Gateway Parks agreed to not have the 7:30 p.m. tubing sessions on the busiest days of the Festival of Lights. Gateway Parks also offered to provide staff during the festival for traffic control.
After the City Council announced the agreement was approved, some residents voiced concerns on social media about having to pay to sled on a hill that they have always been able to sled on for free.
"Financially speaking for the golf course, this was a pretty easy decision. But the biggest question, I think, that we had as staff was: What about those that have historically been sledding on the hill? How are they going to be treated? What will their experience be like? Will this be a loss?" Perrins said.
The city manager explained that the hill has been used in the past for sledding when it snows but, because of its location, some years there are only 10 days that have enough snow for sledding. With the company coming in and using man-made snow, that increases the number of days people can use the hill.
People will have to pay to use the tubing tracks, but a portion of the hill will be free for anyone to use to learn skiing and snowboarding with the help of Gateway Parks employees. Perrins thinks this will give residents a chance to try winter sports without having to drive hours to a ski resort and pay hundreds of dollars for lift tickets.
