Should he continue with a permit application, the opponents

Should he continue with a permit application, the opponents in Harris ^ Hollow would fight the camp with “emotional” arguments, he predicted. “I could counter anything they say with logic and facts, but that won’t make any difference . . . It’s not worth it!”

He called the old ski area site “a perfect location” for a summer camp for children and noted that such an operation there would boost the local economy. “I would have been hiring Rappahannock kids (as summer counselors). . . buying lumber, buying horses, buying feed for the horses and groceries for the camp, a whole list of things.”

Mr. Sleucher conceded that he “had not put a whole lot of thought into alternative uses” of the facilities during the off-season but had planned only to make it available to clubs and other “small groups.”

Countering charges from neighbors that the camp would be a pollution source for surface and groundwater, Mr. Snead pointed out that the ski area served around 3,000 a weekend at its peak. The camp would bring only 50-60 children for a week at a time to the county, he said. And even with its much more intensive use, the ski area’s sewage system — a septic tank and leach field no longer permitted under upgraded health department regulations on waste disposal - never created any pollution problems with ground or surface water, Mr. Snead noted.

“Twenty head of cattle pastured in a field would cause more pollution to surface water,” Mr. Sleucher said.

A summer camp for children and small convention/retreat center during winter months “is the mildest form of business I can possibly think of,” said Mr. Snead. “The only thing that group (of Harris Hollow opponents) will be satisfied with is two single family residences . . . It’s probably going to be a white elephant for an awfully long time.”