Presque Isle-area residents and officials are making a new push to preserve and reopen the city’s shuttered Nordic Heritage Outdoor Center after the asking price for the property was recently cut in half, from $2.9 million to $1.5 million.
The enthusiasm for reopening the center was evident on a recent weekday night, when more than 40 people packed City Council chambers to share ideas and memories. It was one of two sessions City Manager Sonja Eyler has called to discuss the center in response to an overwhelming number of calls from people asking what plans were for the ski area.
For 25 years, the 750-acre venue welcomed skiers, hikers, cyclists and student athletes to competition grounds and more than 30 miles of all-season trails traversing its wooded landscape. Last year, its builder and operator, the Portland-based Libra Foundation, closed it and put it up for sale. Schools and trail users were left hanging. Despite a public outcry, Libra didn’t change its mind and no one interested could afford to buy it.
“I think organizing is what’s missing here. Heart is not enough,” Eyler said. “I think, ultimately, Libra wants this land to stay public, [but] I think that door of them donating it to us is closed.”
Designed as a world-class biathlon venue and ski trail system, the facility was built in 1999 as part of the Maine Winter Sports Center, which also included the Fort Kent Outdoor Center. The Libra Foundation, a Portland-based charitable organization that also owns Pineland Farms of New Gloucester, helped fund and operate them.
Libra gave the Fort Kent facility to its board of directors last year, and the board has launched an endowment to fund its operations.
The Presque Isle facility saw some changes over the years. Libra stopped funding the center in 2013 and passed the torch to volunteers. At that time, the Maine Winter Sports Center had a Caribou site and contributed money, but then that group rebranded as the Outdoor Sports Institute and left Aroostook County.
Presque Isle’s Parks and Recreation Department took over Nordic Heritage’s operation in 2022.
Then last year, Libra closed the venue. The grassroots group Friends of the Nordic Heritage Center organized to try to save it. Local legislators also made a plea to keep it open, but the property went on sale for $2.9 million in December.
During the hourlong listening session on Tuesday, people spoke mostly about the trails. Some mentioned their importance to local ski teams and to residents seeking outdoor serenity. Others said the center was a draw for new residents and professionals.
One of the center’s biggest problems was its marketing, several residents said. Many people saw it as an elite athletic competition ground and didn’t realize it was for public use.
“I repeatedly brought people up there who had no idea that they could go there,” resident Heidi Bartley said. “At first it was sort of this elite racing place, and people didn’t know they were allowed to go there.”
But the biggest roadblock is that the former owners seemed to compare the facility with larger southern Maine venues, she said. Aroostook County just doesn’t have the population to compare with the numbers of people who use a place like Pineland Farms.
“I don’t think we marketed it the way we should have,” Renee Fournier said. “It’s not sustainable doing it with volunteers. We couldn’t take it to the next level.”
Those in charge of the center didn’t effectively open it up to all members of the community and there was an “elite feel” attached to it, Noah Rush-Mabry said.
Some speakers thought the trails should remain only for non-motorized vehicles, but Rush-Mabry disagreed, saying with 750 acres there should be enough space to have not only multi-use trails, but areas only for snowmobiles or ATVs that wouldn’t disturb people seeking calmer places.
His father used to man the welcome center, he said. Besides people traveling from other states to snowmobile, autumn also drew visitors.
“Once it hit peak colors, you had people that were doing photography up there, taking pictures with their families because of how beautiful the colors were,” he said. “So you can’t look at it as just a place for hiking, biking, skiing.”
Others in the audience suggested the name should be changed, since “Nordic” implied the facility only had one purpose. Now that Libra has cut the cost, reimagining the property could work, several residents said.
In a way, Libra did the community a favor because people now realize what they were taking for granted, said Chris Condon, a member of Friends of the Nordic Heritage Center.
The facility is now listed at $1.5 million, which offers hope, Condon said. Whatever the purchase price is, an endowment of another $1.5 or $2 million would have to be established as a funding stream, he said. If the price tag had stayed at $2.9 million, that would have totaled at least $4.4 million.
But the price cut could bring it down to $3 million. That’s a big number but seems a lot more reachable, he said.
Another listening session will take place at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at City Hall.
Eyler said she appreciated the large turnout and the fact that several children were also in the audience.
“I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know what the plan is,” she said. “But I know that if this community wants Nordic in whatever version that preserves our essence, that we can manage, the time is now.”
