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Saranac Lake aims for multi-million dollar curling facility

Mayor: Would be paid for with grant; maybe multi-sport as well

Saranac Lake Mayor Clyde Rabideau (Enterprise photo — Chris Knight)

SARANAC LAKE — This village aims to secure a grant to pay for an $8 to $9 million indoor curling facility that may also double as a multi-sport center where locals and visitors alike can take part in other forms of indoor recreation.

“We’re reaching for the stars,” Saranac Lake Mayor Clyde Rabideau said Wednesday evening.

Rabideau emphasized that the village doesn’t plan to use taxpayer dollars to create such a facility. He added that the facility would be in the ballpark of 40,000 square feet and be located in the village’s downtown, and stressed that the facility would accommodate the existing downtown and “only enhance traffic flow.”

“We’ve got a unique and original idea that will add to the square footage of downtown and also not take away one square foot of anyone else’s space,” Rabideau said. “We are working on it; it’s a work in progress.”

The mayor declined to elaborate on a potential location for the facility, but he did add that Thursday at noon he will meet with officials from the state Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism and three representatives of the International University Sport Federation at the Belvedere Restaurant on Bloomingdale Ave. FISU Winter Universiade Director Milan Augustin, Sport Coordinator Paola Matringe and Executive Assistant Jiho Kim are currently on a multi-day tour of sporting facilities and lodging locations in Lake Placid, Wilmington, Saranac Lake and the surrounding area.

ROOST CEO Jim McKenna also said Wednesday that a potential curling facility in Saranac Lake would be the only sporting facility that would have to be constructed to put on the 2023 games.

Rabideau said the village is still working on renderings of the potential facility. He described potential indoor curling lanes consisting of dimensions of 146 to 150 feet deep and 15 to 16 feet wide. He added that an international-caliber facility would have six lanes all together.

“It would also have locker rooms and other amenities,” Rabideau said. “And what if you add another floor or addition to it, for indoor soccer or indoor recreation for the village? Wouldn’t that be phenomenal?”

Rabideau said the village is interested in the facility because it sees curling as a growing sport, one in which some locals travel as far away as Ottawa and Utica to play. He also highlighted the village’s curling history, including a curling club that was once located at what is now Madden’s Warehouse.

“Curling brings in and attracts people from all strata of life,” Rabideau said, “and it’s extremely popular with the older population.

“To have a facility in Saranac Lake will be a phenomenal attraction,” he added. “So we’ve got some ideas that we want to present to the World University Games people tomorrow and we’ll talk about it. They’ll walk through our downtown, we’ll meet and guide them and hopefully they will see all of the virtues of Saranac Lake.”

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