A new ski patrol building may be coming  to the city-owned Hogadon Ski Area next winter.

During a Tuesday work session, Casper City Council gave tentative approval to a plan to install a roughly $200,000 modular ski patrol building at the site. Council also gave initial approval to a plan to pour the foundation for a future maintenance building.

Casper mayor Paul Meyer said the plan to install the roughly $200,000 building makes good financial sense at a time when bids for several city construction projects are coming back sharply over estimates.

“Other resorts in the western United States are doing the same thing due to the exorbitant construction costs, and I believe we saved about $600,000 or $800,000 by doing it,” Meyer said.

Plans for a combined ski patrol and maintenance building were scrapped after bids came back roughly three times over the anticipated $460,000 budget.

City officials are hoping to install the building in 2015.

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