March 28, 2024

Boyne makes a splash with new waterpark

May 25, 2005
Northern Michigan‘s newest waterpark resort opens its floodgates Memorial Day weekend with the debut of Avalanche Bay at Boyne Mountain.
The indoor waterpark is part of a $70 million resort development which includes the all-new Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa.
Boyne USA officials say the combined resort/waterpark represents the largest and most significant tourist development in the state, coming at a time when Michigan desperately needs tourist dollars.
With the downhill ski market growing iffy over the past few years due to warmer winters, the new resort gives Boyne Mountain a weatherproof boost for all seasons.
The new Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa is a 220-room four-star luxury condominium hotel that serves as the centerpiece of the Swiss-Austrian themed resort. Together with Avalanche Bay, the property offers a complete resort experience, featuring a variety of indoor and outdoor amenities with an 88,000 square foot indoor waterpark and an 18,000 square foot spa.
The Swiss-Austrian theme has required a Teutonic attention to detail with custom carpeting, wrought-iron work, hand-carved chairs, and hand-hewn timbers in the expansive lobby, and mantels in the guest rooms. The rooms also include a European touch of vintage posters, custom-made snow globes and cuckoo clocks, among other details. If the Old Country style gets wearisome,
visitors in the larger suites can fall back on the comforts of high-definition, 42-inch plasma TVs over the fireplace.
The 18,000 square foot Solace Spa housed in the Mountain Grand Lodge features an extensive menu of services inspired by the four seasons of Northern Michigan. The facility includes 19 treatment rooms, making it one of the largest in the Midwest.

SURF SIMULATOR
On the waterpark side of the resort, visitors to Avalanche Bay will be greeted by a Clock Tower entrance. The giant clock’s chime and the mountain rumble of the park‘s Splasherhorn play structure signal the release of an 800-gallon avalanche of water on the guests below.
With 88,000 square feet of rides, slides, waves and pools, Boyne Mountain anticipates raising the bar for waterpark enthusiasts with its thematic treatment, toboggan and tube slides, Rip Zone surf simulator (the region’s first), climbing walls and towers, spacious locker and family changing areas and a mega-arcade with over 100 games.
Other amenities will include a 25 foot-climbing wall, oversized park characters for the entertainment of kids, including Fritz, the St. Bernard mascot, and a sophisticated array of moving murals on the walls.
Of note, the park will also reportedly offer day passes, with its opening planned for Friday, May 27. For more information and photos visit www.mountaingrandlodge.com and www.avalanchebay.com.
Down in the dumps
Would Michigan voters really vote to raise their trash collection fees just to spite Canada?
That‘s the assumption of house Democratic Leader Dianne Byrum, citing a survey of 600 residents by Public Sector Consultants.
The survey states that 70% of respondents would support a higher dumping charge to boost recycling in the state and that 96% are concerned about Toronto‘s daily shipments of trash to Michigan.
“The poll shows that Michigan‘s citizens want more recycling and less Canadian and out-of-state garbage,” Byrum said in a release. “A high dumping charge is the best solution because it will boost recycling and reduce imported trash.”
Respondents were asked if they would support a dumping charge higher than the current 21-cents-per-ton if it would support recycling programs across the state. Some 70% said they would support a $3-per-ton charge and 56% said they‘d support a $7.50-per-ton charge.
Missing from the release, however, is whether respondents were informed that they too would have to pay extra for imposing additional dumping charges on Canada.

Muddy water
The Great Lakes - along with streams and rivers in six upper Midwest states (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) - are being inundated with billions of gallons of raw human waste and other untreated sewage that cities and towns should be cleaning up, according to a new report issued by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).
The report finds that the failure of Great Lakes states and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address “combined sewer overflows” poses a major threat to public health and will degrade upper Midwest waterways for several decades to come if the sewer overflow problem is not brought under control.
The report also claims that, “more than half of the municipalities in the Great Lakes states do not meet even minimum Clean Water Act requirements for combined sewer overflows.”

Impeachment call
Local Veterans for Peace are backing a call to Congress to impeach President George Bush and Vice President Cheney.
The national organization is made up of military veterans, including those who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War. Members of the group have been active in antiwar demonstrations in a number of communities in Northern Michigan.
Veterans for Peace has sent letters to each member of the House and Senate claiming that the war is “increasingly unpopular with Americans“ and is a violation of the Constitution and federal law which the Executive branch of the government is sworn to uphold.
Not surprisingly, there has been no response from the Republican-controlled House and Senate.



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