BETHEL — Provided that temperatures remain at or below freezing this month and next, and the Bethel Regional Chamber of Commerce can raise $2,000 in that time, the town will host to a 149-foot mountain of ice next month.

That spiky spectacle, which will be built in Bethel Station across from the chamber, is the envisioned centerpiece of Winterfest 2011, held Jan. 22-30. Chamber officials said they hope it will encourage more tourism and help them promote Bethel businesses.

At Thursday night’s public meeting between Bethel Water District Trustees Mike Broderick and Reggie Brown, ratepayers and chamber officials, Broderick and Brown declined the chamber’s request to donate roughly 100,000 cubic feet of water for the project.

They said it wasn’t in the best interests of the district’s ratepayers. Instead, they decided to charge the chamber a flat rate of $2,000 for the water, unless Superintendent Lucien Roberge’s calculations come in lower.

Project engineer Jim Sysko told trustees on Nov. 16 that the project would entail 124,875 cubic feet of water, which would equal 934,065 gallons. That amount, Roberge said, would fill the Bethel Inn’s 40,000-gallon pool 23 times.

On Thursday night, Sysko admitted he’d miscalculated and that the amount needed would be about 100,000 cubic feet of water, which dropped the estimated price from $2,490 to $2,000, which was considered doable by chamber officials.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link