The Olympic Regional Development Authority is set to receive $5.5 million in the new state budget to connect the North Creek Ski Bowl with Little Gore Mountain.
     The funding is the latest -- and most significant -- drop in a money pool which will finance a planned transformation of Gore Mountain, the Ski Bowl and the village of North Creek into a winter resort on par with some of the best ski areas in the Northeast.
     The $5.5 million fund boost is outlined in the state budget, which is being finalized this week. It will help construct a ski lift that will connect the North Creek Ski Bowl to the top of Little Gore Mountain. That will open up trails atop the mountain that were popular from the 1930s to the 1960s, said Johnsburg Town Supervisor William Thomas.
     From the top of Little Gore, skiers would have access to a trail leading to yet another planned lift included in Gore Mountain's expansion plans. That lift would dispense skiers at the Gore Mountain base lodge.
     In a separate development back at the Ski Bowl, Mac Crikelair of Front Street Mountain Development is seeking approval from the Adirondack Park Agency this summer for a $200 million private project that would build 175 townhouses, 20 single-family homes, two inns, a member-exclusive lodge, an equestrian center, a golf course and a restaurant to the Ski Bowl area.
     Put all the pieces together, and they create a means by which tourists and homeowners in the Ski Bowl would be able to access Gore Mountain trails without having to take off their skis and drive.

      Johnsburg Town Board member Sterling Goodspeed has said in the past that the inter-connect would allow skiers to ski from the top of Gore Mountain down to the Ski Bowl and directly into the village of North Creek in little more than a half hour.
     State Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, said she was so excited when she found out the money was in the budget that she telephoned and directed a receptionist to call Thomas so she could tell him.
     "He was in a meeting. I told him to come out of the meeting; It was worth it," she laughed.
     Thomas said the news, indeed, was worth coming out of a meeting for.
   "I've been waiting 16 years for this," he said.
     Though Little had originally hoped for an $11 million line item when the budget was first revealed in January, she said she'll take the latest amount.
     "I think you can do a lot with $5.5 million," she said. "I'm very optimistic."
     Thomas said the money will hopefully lead to even more state funds to finance the Olympic Regional Development Authority's expansion plans for Gore, as well as separate Warren County plans to resurrect a historic train route that would allow skiers from as far away as New York City a direct train ride into North Creek."
     This is big stuff," Thomas said of the $5.5 million. "It's part of the big dream -- a major part of it."
     -- Reporter Maury Thompson contributed to this report.