Board votes against Winter Clove Road closure for race
The Daily Mail
Mar. 10, 2009

CAIRO — The Cairo Town Board narrowly turned down a request by the owners of Glen Falls House, in Round Top, to close a section of Winter Clove Road for a skateboard race in June.

The agility race, which would have been similar to a ski slalom race, would have been part of a larger skateboard slalom event stretched across a few days and states, Glen Falls House owner Maria Rosado said.

Rosado, and her husband, Richard, expected that around 50 athletes and their families would flock to the area for the weekend of June 13 and 14.

She said her skateboarding guests would be very interested in heading to any other events in town that weekend, such as the Summerfest at neighboring Reidlbauer’s Resort. Race organizers usually promote local businesses, she said, by asking some to create trophies that reflect a race host’s character.

“We were very excited,” she said before the board’s vote Thursday.

However, not everybody in the town was looking forward to the event.

A stretch of Winter Clove Road from Winter Clove Extension to the bridge below Glen Falls House will have to close to accommodate the racecourse.

In early February, Ed Maassmann, of the Round Top Fire Department, told the Town Board that his department was not in favor of closing the road.

He cited a recent road closure in the area for a soccer tournament that made an already busy and dangerous intersection more of a hazard.

“It was a disaster,” he said.

He also worried that emergency response time would slow down if responders driving personal cars had to show identification to guards at the top and bottom of the race.

Managers of Reidlbauer’s Resort worried that access to their resort would be cut off from one direction and people might get lost or be inconvenienced by having to take a detour to find their Summerfest.

There is a private road that runs from above the race course to Riedlbauer’s Resort, however it is unpaved and therefore could not be opened over that weekend, Ursula Nussbaumer, who owns the resort with her husband, said.

She said every event at her resort occurs on her property, not on any town property or roadways.

Despite her objections, she said in a letter to Cairo’s Town Board, she and other resort managers are not against any business promoting tourism through innovative means.

The Nussbaumers worry about the precedent set by the road closure.

“Usually roads are closed for parades, religious events or government events. When a business is making a profit on an event they should not be using a town road that is maintained by the taxpayers. If one business can ask for the town to close the road, then any business can ask the town to close the road in the future,” the letter reads.

But Rosado told the Board they were under no obligation to invite the tournament back for another year if the first race was not a success.

The Town Board also questioned how the race organizer’s insurance policy would protect the town from liability.

Councilman Raymond Suttmeier warned that even if the town was protected by an insurance policy, any athletes who were injured during the event could present a problem.

“The town will still be named in a lawsuit,” Suttmeier said.

They suggested that the race be moved to a park in town, however, Rosado said that the race’s organizer had been a long-time visitor at Glen Falls House and Winter Clove Road had been the attraction that led him to want the race in Round Top.

She suggested at last week’s meeting that some parts of the race could be moved to the park in order to shorten the duration of the road closure.

In the end, only two councilwomen, Alice Tunison and Janet Schwarzenegger voted in favor of closing Winter Clove Road for the race.

They thought the race would help stimulate economic growth in the area.

“I see the potential with it drawing people here,” Tunison said.

Councilmen Suttemeier and Richard Lorenz voted against the road closure.

Suttemeier said he was worried about the precedent closing the road would set. Lorenz said his vote was based on the advice of emergency responders who saw dangers in closing the road.

Supervisor John Coyne cast the deciding vote against the closure.

He said the town’s insurance carrier worried about the town’s liability if there was a problem, although at other points in the discussion, Coyne said that he did not want to discourage resorts from trying new things and bringing new people to the town.

The Rosados have owned Glen Falls House for about a year. Before the Board’s final decision, the Rosados discussed how their event might work with a number of other resort owners and business owners in the region.

Immediately after the vote, Maria Rosado asked how the town allowed the children to use a skateboard park.

Coyne said the park and a parents’ organization that supported the park have fallen apart, and the Board would have to address safety issues in the park this summer.

Rosado said that next year she would put the insurance companies for the town and the race’s organizer together and hope that the policy concerns that halted this year’s race could be ironed out.

“We know exactly what the town is looking for,” she said.