By LINDSAY PEDERSEN
A historic event for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and the Wasatch Mountain State Park began Thursday morning with a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad.
Members of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and Utah officials took a short train ride from the station in Heber to the future site of the Olympic Cross-Country, Biathlon and Nordic Combined competitions. There, they formally signed the agreement which allows SLOC to use the Soldier Hollow venue for Olympic use.
The area was first considered for the Olympic games when the venue came up for presentation. Courtland Nelson, director of State Parks and Recreation, said that the Soldier Hollow area might be a good location and could meet the International Organizing Committee’s requirements.
Fran Anderson, executive director of the Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce, helped to introduce the area for possible selection.
“We pulled a team together and put a presentation together … and eventually (the Soldier Hollow area) won on its own merits and was chosen to be the place,” Anderson said.
The agreement was signed by several SLOC, the Utah State Park & Recreation Department and construction officials.
“It’s a state park, and the agreement allows SLOC, the organizing committee, to stage events during 2002,” said Ranch Kimball, director of Permanent Venue Construction for SLOC.
“In exchange for (staging the events), SLOC is building 23 kilometers of prospective biathlon trails, a shooting range, a competition management building and a road system which will be left for the community after as a training and competitive facility,” Kimball said.
Other facilities and construction projects left for the Heber County community will include a permanent snow-making system on at least five km of trails, and utilities, including culinary water, snow-making water, sewer, gas and electrical power lines. Temporary facilities constructed for the Olympic Games will only be athletic compounds, operation support compounds, transportation facilities and ski test areas.
“The design and construction will be managed and funded by SLOC,” Kimball said. “We work with the parks and recreation and Division Facilities and Construction Management because it is a state park. So they will oversee the work, but it is actually managed by SLOC, the organization committee.”
Besides managing the construction, the SLOC has made several contributions, totaling $1.4 million, towards some of the projects.
Anderson said the facilities would be well received in the community. “It fits into the Wasatch County goals and the chamber’s goals, which are the county’s five-point strategic plan,” Anderson said.
Besides taking the officials to and from the venue site, the Heber Valley Railroad line, which is only a fourth of a mile from the venue, will also be available for transportation during the Olympic Games.
The railroad became a state agency in 1992 before it was determined that Soldier Hollow would be an Olympic venue, and it will need additional funds to prepare it for 2002.
