Sugar Loaf will not open this winter

UPDATE: There’s a lot more in this story about Sugar Loaf in the Leelanau Enterprise.

This week’s Northern Express reports that despite hopes to the contrary, Sugar Loaf will not open for the 2006 ski season. The article (which doesn’t appear online) quotes owner Kate Wickstrom’s attorney Joe Quandt as saying that it didn’t make sense to rush the opening.

Not to be catty, but opening Sugar Loaf in just about ANY state makes a huge amount of sense to a ton of businesses in the area. One would presume that it would make sense to township and county governments (from a tax perspective) and to Sugar Loaf as well (because, well, you bought the resort to open it, didn’t you?).

What doesn’t make ANY sense at all (at least to me) is that hill sitting dormant for yet ANOTHER ski season. Seriously, this is tens of millions of dollars every single winter that is sucked out of Leelanau’s economy. Is it too much to ask that the ownership and our state and local governments treat this issue with the urgency it requires?