A local ski club will pay for the trail with donations and will provide maintenance.
AUBURN – The Auburn School Committee gave its OK Wednesday for a logging company to clear and create a trail behind Auburn Middle School.
A corporation owns the land behind the school. It has agreed to let the school system use it for a two-mile skiing/running trail.
Snorada, a local ski club, will pay for the $7,500 trail with donations. The group will also provide the equipment and manpower needed to groom and maintain the trail.
“This is going to be a real treasure for Auburn. It’s going to be great,” said Jim Wilkins, a volunteer athletic coach at Auburn Middle school and a member of Snorada.
The trail will go 50 to 75 yards into the woods and border the nearby soccer field.
When the trail becomes a reality, Snorada members hope it will open an opportunity for Maine Winter Sports Center, a program that seeks to decrease childhood obesity and encourage participation in winter sports, to come to Auburn. The program leases skis, poles, bindings and boots to schoolchildren for a nominal fee.
They also hope to build a ski building on the land so children will have a place to store and care for their equipment.
The trail will be open to the public.
The School Committee had to approve the trail since Snorada is an informal group working through the school system.
Loggers will begin clearing the land in the coming weeks. The trail is expected to be done by mid-October.
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