Aaaaah, August in Maine. The vacation month, in the vacation state.

The time when minds should be trained onto warm weather recreation – golf, swimming, biking, wakeboarding, kayaking, canoeing, barbecuing, Frisbee, wiffleball … napping in hammocks. Anything but those harbingers of winter.

Skiing. Snowboarding. Snowshoeing. Who cares how fun they are? Cold weather and its related activities are unwelcome right now, when skies are blue and temperatures in the red.

Yet, with the transaction of Sugarloaf USA and Sunday River to the management of Boyne USA Resorts, our attention is trained onto the slopes of Newry and Carrabassett Valley. There’s a great optimism from this sale, as new management is saying all the right things about the future of the resorts.

“If anyone’s been to our resorts elsewhere, you can see that we are pretty in tune with trying to create true four-season destinations,” said Stephen Kircher, the president of Boyne, in comments published in the Boston Globe on Friday. Boyne, which owns ski resorts in the Midwest, is promising renewed attention on the spring, summer and fall for its new Maine properties, to complement the already thriving winters.

This is great news for Western Maine, where tourism is a key economic driver. Catalyzing the four-season potential for Sugarloaf USA and Sunday River could bring much needed stability to the region, by creating two all-year magnets for weekender eco-tourists and new seasonal residents alike.

Four-season development will likely bring new construction to the region – it’s inevitable – which is also positive economic news, as long as the rural splendor of Western Maine is preserved and enhanced through the work.

Given the success of these resorts is aided by the rugged character of their communities, doing so should seem to be firmly in Boyne’s best interest.

American Skiing Co. and its muse, Les Otten, deserve credit for making Western Maine a skiing destination, but the company’s recent, well-known financial issues prevented its Maine resorts from reaching full potential. Boyne and its backers are entering the picture to make good on this promise.

This is overdue, and should make the community overjoyed. Kircher says everything from conference centers, water parks, trails, spas to bocce courts and croquet lawns are possible. If Boyne walks this considerable talk, the future for the region is rosy.

It would make thinking about Sugarloaf USA and Sunday River in August not feel so unnatural, too.