MIDDLEFIELD - A partnership from New York and Pennsylvania opened the bidding Tuesday on roughly 115 acres of Powder Ridge.

Members of an ad hoc committee set up by the town received the bid to either sell or lease the ski area property.

The proposal was prepared by CDF and Associates LLC of Windham, N.Y. and Snow Time Inc. of York, Pa.

However, an apparent delivery snafu held up a second bid - by Alpine Associates, a corporation with membership in Pennsylvania, Utah and New Zealand - and the group voted to change its bid regulations to allow the second bid to be considered.

The committee spent most of Tuesday evening in executive session, discussing the CDF-Snow Time proposal based on a previously-developed selection rubric which includes assessing the management team, business plan, financial strength and responsiveness to the town and to the request for qualifications and bid process.

According to Dave Lowry, ad hoc committee chair and a member of the Board of Selectmen, the next meeting, on Tuesday, July 15, will hopefully involve consideration of the second bid and interviewing of principals from CDF-Snow Time.