Lake arrowhead

LAKE ARROWHEAD

SANTA’S VILLAGE MAY MAKE DEBUT AFTER THANKSGIVING

By Jim Steinberg

[e-mail] @JamesDSteinberg on Twitter

LAKE ARROWHEAD » The return of Santa’s Village will create a new entertainment mecca for the western side of the San Bernardino Mountains.

The new Skypark at Santa’s Village will include an ice skating rink, a log cabin community of singing characters and actors, new restaurants — one with an electric train zooming above diners — and multiple adventure activities.

And the park will meld technology and nature as Radio-Frequency Identification will allow the Village’s Santa to know what children want for Christmas (because the parents write that down before entering the park), and customers of a log cabin bar sip their brews resting on oakwood.

As heavy earth-moving equipment get the parking lot ready, actor/singers audition for Christmas- related character roles and the executive chef tinkers with menu offerings.

Santa’s Village work crews are working furiously to open the 1955-era entertainment venue byThanksgiving weekend — if not before, Bill Johnson, project manager, said last week.

This assumes San Bernardino County issues a temporary use permit for the facility that has been closed for 18 years.

“We had hoped to be open on Nov. 1, but clearly we are not going to make that,” Johnson said.

Ma ny it em s, such a s major c omponents of the skating rink are still in sea containers that have yet to arrive, Johnson said, during a recent tour of the 153-acre-park.

San Bernardino County is still on track to decide whether

VILLAGE » PAGE 6

Santa Claus, played by Bill Priest of Lake Arrowhead, sits in his home at the new Skypark at Santa’s Village in Lake Arrowhead. The amusement park is hoping to be granted a county permit to open and operate the Santa’s Village portion of the park by Thanksgiving weekend.

RACHEL LUNA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Village

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or not to grant Santa’s Village a temporary use permit prior to Nov. 1, David Wert, a county spokesman, said Friday.

“We will try to keep the skating rink going all year long,” said Michelle Johnson, an interior designer and Bill Johnson’s wife.

If it can’t survive the heat of July and August, the concrete pad the rink rests on would be used for rollerskating, craft fairs or some other activities, she said.

The ice-skating rink will be the first public ice skating rink in the San Bernardino Mountains since one in the community of Blue Jay closed in 2001.

“This will be a wonderful addition to Santa’s Village at Sky Park,” said Polly Sauer, executive director of the Lake Arrowhead Communities Chamber of Commerce.

“The big issue is to get that temporary use permit,” she said, which will allow the Santa’s Village portion of the adventure theme park to open in time for Christmas.

Due to the complexity of the project, its Environmental Impact Report can not be completed this year, so Johnson and his team made the decision to open only on the footprint of the old Santa’s Village this winter.

Doing so, however, limits parking to about 300 spaces — meaning the maximum capacity at any one time is capped at about 1,000, Johnson said.

The complete project, which is expected to open next year, would add another 300 spaces on the other side of Highway 18, he said, which would allow 2,000 people into the park.

Daily attendance could exceed those numbers as when one car leaves, another could come into the park.

Because of the capacity limitations, Johnson anticipates that the park may sell out for much of the Christmas season with online ticket sales which will likely start on Nov. 1.

“That way people can make plans,” he said.

Johnson said he is working to get some sort of sign placed at the bottom of Highway 18 to alert people about the park being full before they drive up.

In the event that “something odd happens” and the pa rk is u nable t o open on t he first few days that have been sold, “we will make refunds available,” he said.

Tickets will be $59 for adults and $49 for seniors and children 12 and under. There will be a parking fee, but the amount is undetermined at this point, Johnson said.

Not all of the park’s attractions will be functioning during the first phase which involves just the Santa’s Village footprint.

But the zipline, a custombuilt train which will carry passengers, a custom-made 30 foot climbing wall — w ith a waterfall — are expected to be functioning for the November opening, said Mike Newcombe, assistant general manager.

As the heavy earth-moving equipment worked to level a portion of the steeply sloped parking area for handicapped parking, auditions were being held for various singing elf roles in the park.

Forty people have already been hired as talent for the park, Michelle Johnson said.

“There is an entertainment layer to the park,” she said. “It will be like entering a live village.”

Local musicians will stroll through the park, there will be carolers every night, story tellers and even the Johnson family pet dog “Arrow” has been made into a character, she said.

Among those trying out last week was Ethan Nelson, 20, of San Bernardino, who has studied chorus for several years at Citrus College in Glendora.

Before learning about the potential of a job at Skypark, Nelson said, “I didn’t realize there was a place up in the mountains this cool.