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Belleayre New Gondola "Catskill Thunder" Construction Photos

slatham

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Sorry but I am just dumbstruck by this. Belleayre, Gondola? NY state doing a wonderful job of allocating my tax dollars.
 

benski

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You got to love the rendering of the gondola that is obviously not at belleayre. Its a dopplemayr
 

JimG.

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Sorry but I am just dumbstruck by this. Belleayre, Gondola? NY state doing a wonderful job of allocating my tax dollars.

Normally I would agree, but looking at the other stupid stuff NYS spends money on this seems like a win to me.

Not to mention the funds stolen by politicians in the state assembly.
 

catskills

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Normally I would agree, but looking at the other stupid stuff NYS spends money on this seems like a win to me.

Not to mention the funds stolen by politicians in the state assembly.

I have to agree with that. If it wasn't for the following we wouldn't even have skiing in NY State.

1932 Winter Olympics Lake Placid
10Th Mountain Division WWII Ski Troops
1946 NY State Amendment voted on by all NY state voters to build Belleayre and Gore ski areas
1950s Benjamin Lane built ski area on Bearpen Mountain that demonstrated Private Ski Areas could be a business

If it wasn't for Belleayre and Benjamin Lane, Orville Slutzky probably would never have built Hunter Mountain. Ben Lane hired Orville to build ski trails at Bearpen. Ben Lane met with Orville in Hunter where Orville asked Ben what he thought about building a ski area in Hunter on Colonels Chair Mountain. Ben's answer its a rough mountain. Slutzky's built roads so no problem.

So yes, our tax dollars could have been wasted elsewhere. Belleayre and Gore was a good thing. Remember Belleayre was built on foreever wild state land. This state land could have never been sold without a NY state amendment passed by all the voters in NY state.
 

Hawkshot99

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Normally I would agree, but looking at the other stupid stuff NYS spends money on this seems like a win to me.

Not to mention the funds stolen by politicians in the state assembly.
Just because they could have done worse with the money, does not make it a good use.
-A mtn as small as Bell does not need a gondola.
-They will be destroying the flow of the mtn. As it is I would call Bell one of the best beginner mtns around since the trails are separated from the rest of the mtn. Now they will have much better skiers racing through the beginner trails scaring the beginners. The will have the beginners wanting to ride the gondi and ending up.lost on top of the mtn.
-Bell claims how good it will be for mtb. but with Platty right down the road, I don't see much room for them there.
-In this day I hate Gondi's in general. I have become a big fan of bubble lifts.

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cdskier

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Just because they could have done worse with the money, does not make it a good use.
-A mtn as small as Bell does not need a gondola.
-They will be destroying the flow of the mtn. As it is I would call Bell one of the best beginner mtns around since the trails are separated from the rest of the mtn. Now they will have much better skiers racing through the beginner trails scaring the beginners. The will have the beginners wanting to ride the gondi and ending up.lost on top of the mtn.
-Bell claims how good it will be for mtb. but with Platty right down the road, I don't see much room for them there.
-In this day I hate Gondi's in general. I have become a big fan of bubble lifts.

No area in the Catskills needs a gondola. I agree with all your points regarding beginners and the flow of the mountain. For MTB, they could have done it with a lift so I don't buy that justification. Although you reference Platty and I believe this year they cut way back on dates they are running the lifts for MTB over the summer as they wanted to focus more on private events.

They could have spent this money in much better ways at Belleayre or the other NYS ski resorts. At Belleayre they should focus on the expansion to highmount that is in the master plan. That would have been a much better use of the money.
 

JimG.

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Just because they could have done worse with the money, does not make it a good use.
-A mtn as small as Bell does not need a gondola.
-They will be destroying the flow of the mtn. As it is I would call Bell one of the best beginner mtns around since the trails are separated from the rest of the mtn. Now they will have much better skiers racing through the beginner trails scaring the beginners. The will have the beginners wanting to ride the gondi and ending up.lost on top of the mtn.
-Bell claims how good it will be for mtb. but with Platty right down the road, I don't see much room for them there.
-In this day I hate Gondi's in general. I have become a big fan of bubble lifts.

Sent from my SM-G930F using AlpineZone mobile app

Never said it was a good use of money.

All I said was that compared to the way NYS usually wastes money that this seems like a win. I prefer the money be used for a gondola than have it wind up in a crook like Sheldon Silver's pocket.
 

slatham

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More like your tax millionth of a cent. Call the Emperor Cuomo II, maybe he will mail you back a penny.

Yes it is these arguments - it is only a fraction of a penny person - that results in government spending getting out of hand. Very easy to spend others peoples money.
 

x10003q

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Yes it is these arguments - it is only a fraction of a penny person - that results in government spending getting out of hand. Very easy to spend others peoples money.

Here is the real problem - there are over 1150 of ORDA type authorities in NYS. They are run by non-elected officials and are responsible for 94% of NYS's borrowing. They are sometimes called a "shadow governmment". These officials never have to answer to the voters. This is a way around official borrowing by NYS. Elected officials in the legislature have to vote on any "official" borrowing by NYS but not the borrowing by the authorities. NYS (the taxpayers) is stuck with the bill if the authority cannot pay up. This is a big problem as there is a huge amount of unchecked borrowing.

Your tax dollars are being spent on way worse things than a gondola (which I think is a waste) at a NYS owned ski area.
 

Domeskier

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You can even see the big walls at Whiteface in this artist's rendering of the summit terminal:

belleface.jpg
 

moresnow

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This money could have been better spent on updating the current lift infrastructure.

Does anyone at ORDA actually use the facilities they control?

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cdskier

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Well it does give them the option to cut a trail over to Highmount from the gondola summit.

Not sure I understand how this differs from the current situation pre-gondola. Isn't the gondola terminating right near the Tomahawk quad upper terminal?
 

JimG.

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Not sure I understand how this differs from the current situation pre-gondola. Isn't the gondola terminating right near the Tomahawk quad upper terminal?

Just responding to the "gondola to nowhere" comment.

If they incorporate Highmount into the plan Belleayre would be a much more interesting place to ski.
 

cdskier

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Just responding to the "gondola to nowhere" comment.

If they incorporate Highmount into the plan Belleayre would be a much more interesting place to ski.

I agree about incorporating Highmount. That should have been where they spent this money instead of the ridiculous gondola.
 

kartski

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I haven't been to Belleayre in years, I liked how the Beginner area was segregated to the lower Mountain. People could learn without having to dodge quicker skiers. Now they're just inviting people to Cruise through for a novelty lift. A lot of hassle taking skis off for a 5 minute ride.
 
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