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Insurance Travel Information
 Photo by Bob Stern / The RepublicanJames Michaels, of Otis, displays his most recent electric bill that jumped by $35.
By TED LaBORDE
 Photo by Don Treeger / The RepublicanConnor M. Litwin, 6, of Westfield slides, down the hill in a snow tube at the Lynch Middle School in Holyoke after last week's snowfall.
By NANCY H. GONTER
ngonter@repub.com
Four-year-old Mickey Maroulis can't wait to get his snow clothes on and go sledding.
"He loves to dress up in his puffy coat and go wild. They love it very much and they've been looking forward to snow this year," said Tony A. Maroulis, of his son Mickey and 8-year-old daughter Sofia.
A native of New Jersey, Maroulis, who is the director of the Greater Amherst Chamber of Commerce, didn't get much exposure to sledding growing up in New Jersey with one plastic toboggan at his disposal.
But now that he's in New England, things have changed.
Cold Play: Sledding at Lynch Middle School, Holyoke
"It's been great for me. I've fallen in love with the sport," said Maroulis, who usually brings his family to Wildwood Elementary School where the hills are small but steep and kid-friendly.
In Amherst, a sledding hill will be created for the Chamber's Winterfest on Feb. 7. Hay bales will be used to enhance a natural incline at the town-owned Cherry Hill Golf Course, Maroulis said.
Besides the hills tucked into neighborhoods throughout our area, public sledding areas abound - from the popular "Hospital Hill" on the grounds of the former Northampton State Hospital to hills near schools in Springfield, South Hadley, West Springfield and other communities.
For those who don't want to endure the effort of trudging up a hill after sledding down, there is always Berkshire East Ski Area's one-year-old Beastly Tubing Park where sledders get back up the hill with a conveyor belt-type lift that brings them back up. It costs $18 for three hours
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