Hogadon Master Plan to be Reviewed Again on Tuesday

Casper City Council is scheduled to take a closer look at the master plan for the city-owned Hogadon Ski Area at a work session this Tuesday.

The review comes after estimates for a new ski patrol and maintenance building came back roughly three times over the expected $460,000 price tag that was outlined in the Hogadon Master Plan.

According to the packet for Tuesday, council will discuss whether they want to move forward with the plan as it was written last year, or re-evaluate the plan and its timeline for several needed improvements at the ski site.

“We are recommending replacement of all the buildings at Hogadon – most of them are in excess of 30 years old, they’re in deteriorating condition and some of the buildings were built from the packing containers from the lifts,” Melissa Butcher, a project manager with PB Communications and Strategic Solutions, said in July 2013.

Butcher’s consulting firm oversaw the development of the master plan last year.

Council also recently had to pump the brakes on a plan to reconstruct Mike Sedar Pool after bids came back sharply higher than that project's $1.9 million budget. One early-round low bid eclipsed the $5 million mark.

The city was hoping to construct the new ski facility with 2014 one-cent funds and with funds approved in 2013.

The Hogadon master plan outlines $6.4 million in capital improvements at the site over multiple years and one-cent funding cycles.