The "Sugarbush Thread"

[cdskier]

Valley Reporter article:

The Valley Reporter - Fire destroys Hogan’s Pub at Sugarbush Golf Course in Warren

Fire destroyed Hogan's Pub and heavily damaged the Sugarbush Resort Golf Club club house on Wednesday, September 24

www.valleyreporter.com

 

[doublediamond]

Did they store the carts in the basement? There's been numerous golf course clubhouse and maintenance building fires due to carts charging and catching fire or starters on gas carts going.

 

[Hawk]

No, the carts are all outside. the Positive......If you are a golfer this is probably a good thing. I am sure they will rebuild with the insurance money and a little help from Altera. The clubhouse was old and could have used some love. Now that they have a chance, they will build and have new locker rooms, pro shop, nice bar and deck and probably a new big function room for Weddings. The down side is this will take precedence over the Northridge, Slide brook and Bravo repairs I fear.

A side note from the other discussion above, the Mad River is as low as I have seen it. If it does not start raining big time over the next months we will have NO snowmaking. The pond is empty and levels are no where near where they have to be to allow water withdrawal.

 

[HowieT2]

No, the carts are all outside. the Positive......If you are a golfer this is probably a good thing. I am sure they will rebuild with the insurance money and a little help from Altera. The clubhouse was old and could have used some love. Now that they have a chance, they will build and have new locker rooms, pro shop, nice bar and deck and probably a new big function room for Weddings. The down side is this will take precedence over the Northridge, Slide brook and Bravo repairs I fear.

A side note from the other discussion above, the Mad River is as low as I have seen it. If it does not start raining big time over the next months we will have NO snowmaking. The pond is empty and levels are no where near where they have to be to allow water withdrawal.

I'm not a golfer, but it didn't look like that clubhouse was any great shakes. Assuming it was adequately insured, they're probably better off in the long run while using a temporary structure in the meantime.
I don't see why/how this would effect repairs/maintenance of any ski lifts.

The drought situation is very concerning. Hopefully some beneficial rains start soon

 

[Hawk]

If you are spending your limited money rebuilding a clubhouse, you are not spending it on lifts. Simple as that. Insurance pays for nothing. Those companies don't profit by giving out fair settlements.

 

[kbroderick]

If you are spending your limited money rebuilding a clubhouse, you are not spending it on lifts. Simple as that. Insurance pays for nothing. Those companies don't profit by giving out fair settlements.

If they had third-party coverage (as opposed to self-insuring), they would likely get a payout, but even if they do, it's unlikely to cover the full loss (presumably at least a significant deductible involved). And even if it did cover the full cost, they'd need to invest staff time into managing the project, which means that staff has less bandwidth for other projects.

 

[HowieT2]

If you are spending your limited money rebuilding a clubhouse, you are not spending it on lifts. Simple as that. Insurance pays for nothing. Those companies don't profit by giving out fair settlements.

I'm assuming they were adequately insured. If not, Alterra has the capital to build a new structure without deducting from other financing needs.

 

[HowieT2]

If they had third-party coverage (as opposed to self-insuring), they would likely get a payout, but even if they do, it's unlikely to cover the full loss (presumably at least a significant deductible involved). And even if it did cover the full cost, they'd need to invest staff time into managing the project, which means that staff has less bandwidth for other projects.

Lift mechanics aren't going to be managing any rebuild of a clubhouse at the golf course. Architects and contractors working on building the new clubhouse don't have anything to do with ski lifts.

 

[Lotso]

Agreed on water issue. I doubt the rains this week, though welcome, will do much, and then dry for the next week. October needs to be very rainy or things will be bleak on the slopes.

 

[thetrailboss]

Fire at the golf course last night...Hogan's Pub and the Clubhouse were destroyed

Sugarbush Resort

Last night at approximately 10:30 PM Warren's volunteer fire department responded to a fire occurring at the Sugarbush Resort Golf Club. Thankfully and most important, nobody was hurt or injured....

www.facebook.com

I saw that. Holy shit.

 

[doublediamond]

I’ve never played there or been by there so I looked on Google Maps Street View. While yes it looks like carts are stored outside, there is definitely a lower level garage in the basement. Street View shows maintenance equiptment in there including a Toro spray tank. My bet is something in there set it off. There have been multiple courses were keys were left on and a bad starter on maintenance a cart set it off. This has burned down multiple maintenance buildings in the golf industry including the club I’m a member at and when they arrived once the scene was cleared all that was left of the maintenance carts were puddles of aluminum on the floor.

The Valley Reporter article says some carts and equiptment were driven away to save them. Now it comes down to what wasn’t able to be saved. Golf maintenance equiptment have LONG lead times (like 2 years for Toro stuff). If there’s no spray tank they ain’t putting down snow mold spray before winter and there will be significant dead spots on the greens next year.

Wish them the best.

 

[thetrailboss]

Any word on cause and origin?

 

[Plowboy]

My son is on the Waitsfield Fire Department. The mowers and some other equipment were driven out by the firefighters. You can see from the pictures most of the damage is in the kitchen, bar and restaurant area. He thinks it may have started in the kitchen area, but until the investigation is done..who knows.

 

[Shredmonkey254]

My son is on the Waitsfield Fire Department. The mowers and some other equipment were driven out by the firefighters. You can see from the pictures most of the damage is in the kitchen, bar and restaurant area. He thinks it may have started in the kitchen area, but until the investigation is done..who knows.

This was the best place for lunch in the valley, out on the deck and taking in the views. Especially this time of year. Really a bummer.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Also takes a bunch less quantity of snow to get a beginner/intermediate trail open than a steeper expert trail, so the early season trail count can climb a bit faster

Doesn't matter how much less terrain you have to cover if you don't have the temps to begin with.

 

[Lotso]

Doesn't matter how much less terrain you have to cover if you don't have the temps to begin with.

Or the water...

 

[Hawk]

I'm assuming they were adequately insured. If not, Alterra has the capital to build a new structure without deducting from other financing needs.

Howie, sorry but you have to look at what has been going on up here. Altera financed the HG lift and then has gone basically silent. They canned all summer activities including MTB, they have been cutting costs on most other things and they canned early ups. Also what about North Ridge and Slidebrooke. Crickets..... Capital has dried up. People around the valley are even saying that they haven't seen that much maintenance this summer. We will see that they are reporting come the Columbus Day gathering.