Ski Club Plans Feasibility Study For A New Day Lodge
July 3, 2008 - By Jim Mihell
In accordance with the resolution made at the May meeting, we’re actively making progress towards a new day lodge. At this point, we’re on the verge of submitting an application for a Local Initiatives Fund Grant to perform a feasibility study. That feasibility study will have in scope the following:

• Identify key features of the day lodge, including:
  • Finalize site selection;
  • Size and function of required space;
  • Site planning;
  • Identify the key parties for executing the design and construction (e.g., users, architect, green consultant, constructors, cost consultant, energy modeler, commissioning agent)
  • Define physical plant infrastructure requirements based on design and operational goals (“green” building design, functional requirements);
  • Establish the basis for coordinating the design elements and design requirements of the various key parties (“Design Sharette?”)
  • Generate preliminary design based on the results of the size and space allocation study as well as the goals of exploiting concepts of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources;
• Provide detailed estimates of construction and long-term operating costs
• Identify potential partners and/or tenants (especially during off-ski-season months) to maximize the utilization of the facility and to help cover capital infrastructure and operating costs;
• Identify potential sources of public and private sector funding
  • Ontario Power Generation Grant for Energy Modeling;
  • Ontario’s Standard Offer Program for solar-generated electrical power
  • Local, Provincial and Federal Grants

We’re hoping to initiate the feasibility study by the end of this summer so that we can be ready for construction in Spring of 2009.

The new day lodge will be designed first and foremost to meet the needs of cross-country skiers, although as noted above, we’ll be looking to identify any other partners, users, and/or tenants to maximize the utilization of the facility and to help cover capital infrastructure and operating costs. Currently, we’re anticipating that the day lodge will be located on land owned by SFNSC – specifically, on the tennis courts.

At this time, we’d like to notify our membership and other interested parties of this initiative so that people can get started thinking about the idea. We’re specifically interested in hearing from anybody who would like to be actively involved in this exciting project. A project such as this is large in terms of scope and capital outlay for a club such as ours. Therefore, in order to get this project underway and completed on time and on budget, we’ll need to be turning to our membership base as well as other interested parties to assist in mitigating costs. Surely there are people with relevant skills and experience involved in building design, construction, building trades or project management who might be interested in getting involved. If so, we’d love to hear from them. A simple note detailing your skills and/or area of interest / desired level of involvement sent to contactus@soofinnishnordic.com would be much appreciated. Your input will be used to help us generate a project plan during this important feasibility study phase.