By CRISTINE MEIXNER

Express Editor

SPECULATOR - The PistenBully the village uses to groom the slopes at Oak Mountain Ski Center has died. “The PistenBully is kaput, completely,” according to Mayor Letty Rudes.

The Hamilton County Industrial Development Agency, which owns the ski center, bought the refurbished machine from Mohawk Ltd., Chadwicks, for $29,980 plus a $10,000 trade-in PistenBully in the fall of 2009.

In exchange the Village of Speculator, which operates the ski center, agreed to spend up to $6,000 each year to maintain it.

Mountain Manager Michael O’Rourke told the Board of Trustees Monday, Jan. 23, “The auxiliary hydraulic motor broke on the PistenBully; there is no pressure whatsoever and one of the tracks is frozen [because of that].

“The guy from Mohawk says there is only one of these pumps in the country and it’s in Reno, Nev. It’s $9,000.”

“Oak doesn’t have the money to fix it and the IDA won’t,” Rudes said.

William Osborne of the IDA, Town of Lake Pleasant Supervisor Neil McGovern and O’Rourke are all trying to find a solution, Rudes said.

In a Jan. 24 e-mail McGovern wrote a “good” groomer has been located at Titus Mountain Family Ski Center in Malone for $11,000, “one that has less hours on it than our current Bully...,” and appealed for donations to purchase it.

In other business, the board held a public hearing on Local Law 1-2012, which will allow the trustees to adopt a budget with a tax levy exceeding the state-mandated 2 percent cap if necessary. No member of the public attended and the law was adopted.

The Board of Trustees will next meet Monday, Feb. 13, starting at 7 p.m. at Village Hall.