Belleayre and NYS Budget Cuts

[dmc]

Bandit is right, the letters and the phone calls are most important. Especially for your folks that live in NY.

But the lobbyists sure didn't help the situation..... And that A vs. B = DMC stuff is really fun. What else would he do all day without us?...

I encourage everyone in NJ to express their opinions to my State Government.. Why not... It may go to the "Jersey" bin.. But who knows..

Patterson might ski, ironically, if the new state funded adaptive ski center at Belleayre manages to be open this winter.... He is an athletic guy despite being legally blind. For example, he ran the Boilermaker 15K - the first governor to ever do so.

I was reading my local paper this morning... Read something about that... Thought it was ironic as well..

 

[RichT]

Keep Hunter's secret a secret!:smash: It's way way to crowded on any day.

 

[millerm277]

Keep Hunter's secret a secret!:smash: It's way way to crowded on any day.

Yeah, but I'd like to see that expansion happen at some point before 2020.

 

[legalskier]

Without inciting a heated exchange regarding the merits of the resort or encouraging any more conspiracy theories, does anyone think it's curious that nothing has been heard from Mr. Gitter since news started leaking about possible budget cuts? He obviously has a crucial interest in all of this, yet the silence has been deafening. Has anyone heard anything reliable about how he has responded, if at all? Please friends, "only the facts..."

 

[dmc]

Without inciting a heated exchange regarding the merits of the resort or encouraging any more conspiracy theories, does anyone think it's curious that nothing has been heard from Mr. Gitter since news started leaking about possible budget cuts? He obviously has a crucial interest in all of this, yet the silence has been deafening. Has anyone heard anything reliable about how he has responded, if at all? Please friends, "only the facts..."

I would ask the same about Tony Lanza

 

[ed-drum]

"He's (Tony Lanza) on his way out, but that's another story." Orville Slutsky. Woodstock Times article when Hunter built the learning center.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I would ask the same about Tony Lanza

Please... you know better than anyone that because of the whole state/DEC stewardship deal with Belleayre, he (understandably) can't have his personal opinion about anything remotely controversial going into print. It's always been like that.

 

[skidbump]

From the Phoenicia Times

Support For Belleayre?

This is the latest ripple effect from news two weeks ago that Belleayre faces State Department of Environmental Conservation cuts. While no specific figures have been released, staffers and local officials have heard of 181 job cuts, less trails and less chair lifts. Amenities such as the ski school and the nursery, which is a form of day care for infants while moms and dads hit the slopes of the family based facility, are also slated for closure and/or severely scaled back operation.
At a meeting of the Belleayre Region Lodging and Tourism Association at Belleayre’s main lodge last week, Republican Senator John Bonacic, who represents the region, told the Association’s anxious ranks that he is working with DEC to ensure that Belleayre remains the “economic engine” of the Route 28 corridor.
Toward that end, Bonacic said that he has asked DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis to come see for himself what would happen if Belleayre is allowed to fail.
Never mind that Grannis was already set to come for the annual Open Government Day put on by the Catskill Watershed Corporation… or that all matters raised as fears at the Association meeting, as well as a pro-Belleayre rally organized by the Coalition for Belleayre on September 13, have simply been matters either raised in ongoing budget decisions, or raised as things that MIGHT have been discussed.
At present, the timeline for any decisions about the ski center’s budget remain unclear, especially given the news that Gov. David Paterson is warning he may need to call the state Legislature back into session before Election Day to make further cuts to the state budget amid growing troubles on Wall Street. The Governor is expected to make that decision by the end of this week.
Meanwhile Belleayre’s plight has caught the attention of United States Senator Charles Schumer. In a prepared statement released last week, Schumer said the ski center is bursting with economic benefits for Ulster County and cannot be allowed to fall to the wayside.
“I hope that the DEC will heed the community’s call and commit to a full ski season at Belleayre so that we can keep the jobs and revenue generated by the ski mountain,” Schumer wrote. “It would be a severe blow to the region should the ski center not operate for a complete season….the benefits that would be achieved by cutting operating costs at Belleayre Mountain would pale in comparison to the economic turmoil it would create in the region. I cannot overstate the significance that Belleayre Mountain Ski Center has on the local economy.”
And even though the possibility of Belleayre cuts have brought together supporters of the proposed Belleayre Resort with the Catskill Heritage Association and Save The Mountain, members of the Belleayre Region Lodging Tourism Association are now talking about the need to swell their own ranks in order to have a stronger voice in Albany whenever their livelihood is in peril.
Stay tuned for some real news in the coming month… we hope. And then the 2009 budget talks, set to kick off in January… and make those of the past year look like largesse.



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[skidbump]

"He's (Tony Lanza) on his way out, but that's another story." Orville Slutsky. Woodstock Times article when Hunter built the learning center.

Do Tell

 

[skidbump]

EDITORIAL from Phoenicia Times
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear DEC:
Be Clear About Belleayre
In 1947, New York’s legislature amended our constitution to permit the construction of the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. It was a project that embodied extraordinary vision and by any objective measure has been quite a success story. Amongst those successes was the creation of a Catskill Mountain ski industry. Together with the private investment that followed at Hunter and Windham Mountains, as well as other mountains around the region, that industry has served as a critically important component of our regional economy since its inception.
To all those whose vision, hard work, and investment built that industry, we give thanks. You created wonderful recreational facilities public and private, provided hugely significant employment opportunities for our region, and contributed enormously to the second-home and other development which has long supported our modest rural tax base.
And like most people in our region, we believe Belleayre’s continued survival is a critically important part of our future. We applaud the efforts of the many individuals and all the local groups, from the Coalition to Save Belleayre to the Catskill Heritage Alliance, who are currently seeking to protect our local treasure and ensure its future well-being. That future is, without question, closely tied to the well being of many of us here.
We don’t know what the future holds for Belleayre. Key decisions, by and large, will be made elsewhere and by those whose direct personal impact from their decisions will be limited by distance. So we share deep concerns when we see - as we all have lately – potential major impacts to the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center’s operating budget as an apparent result of our State’s deepening fiscal problems. Whether such across-the-board statewide cuts are temporary or not remains to be seen. And it’s very difficult to criticize such moves when comparing them to comparable cuts in other areas of state funding in, say, public health or safety or education.
All we know is that, as with all cuts, it is essential that advocate for our interests. Although we are troubled by some recent developments involving intra-county and municipality feuding that arises when times get tough.
Back when Ulster County majority leader David Donaldson called for a boycott of Hunter and Windham ski areas based on Greene County’s support for a commission to review competitive issues between public and privately owned ski areas, we thought his actions to be among the more irresponsible things any local public official had done in a while… although, in the end, the issue was rendered moot via gubernatorial veto.
We believe that unilateral calls for economic warfare between neighbors is beyond the pale of appropriate conduct, inherently hurtful, and something to be avoided at all costs.
Along those lines, we question the recent actions of Shandaken councilman Rob Stanley when he threatened to hold directly competitive events if Belleayre’s annual Octoberfest was relocated off the mountain to Arkville, which indeed it has been. Given the nature of drawing audiences to these hills, such action could prove disastrous for all parties… and send the wrong message to would-be tourists.
Imagine making plans to visit someplace for a vacation, or even a day trip, only to find that you’re entering some sort of Hatfield and McCoy battleground.
We do appreciate the need to advocate for our own interests, but cool heads are need to sort out how.
The uncertainty of what lies ahead for Belleayre remains subject to plans, evolving and still under review, for a major private-public partnership involving both the Ski Center and the proposed Belleayre Resort project. We applaud DEC’s decision of last year to move forward on that review as the single integrated project which it is, in compliance with state law.
But we also worry that continuing confusion about what those cuts really are, and what’s being touted as possible as a means of rallying the local community, may end up muddying already muddy waters as to the ski center’s future.
We understand that the rocky shoals we’ve entered with our entire national economy makes sorting this stuff out more difficult, especially given our state’s reliance on Wall Street and the financial industry as such a key player in all our economic lives. But the sooner we can start getting a sense of what’s being talked about, be it capital, operating, or advertising dollars, the better we can all plan for our own futures.
The same goes for various city programs in the region… are deep cuts to DEP programs planned? Will they include capital projects?
We’ve entered our budgeting season with loads of trepidation and in addition to hoping that all those programs that benefit us stay healthy, especially at Belleayre, we ask for as much openness about what’s being discussed… so we can make plans to.
After all, you know where we stand about transparency of process and laying your budget cards on the table. Which is half the deal.
BP/PS

 

[k2 four]

Gov. Patterson is Blind in more ways than one! We would be better off with Spitzer, too bad he lied.

At least Spitzer's call girl was hot.
Spitzer rocked.

 

[dmc]

At least Spitzer's call girl was hot.
Spitzer rocked.

Yeah... Our ex-Governor got way hotter "tail" then your ex-Governor...

 

[k2 four]

Yeah... Our ex-Governor got way hotter "tail" then your ex-Governor...

Ah, come-on, Golan was such a catch.

 

[Warp Daddy]

This am's news NYS structural deficit in NEXT yrs budget is now estimated at SEVEN BILLION dollars. Patterson will be calling in the elected bozos( legislators) to CUT the BUDGET again THIS week or next -- it's getting MUCH worse as we speaK

 

[Mapnut]

What would it take for Belleayre to operate at a profit? So that even with budget deficit, the State is better off with Belleayre than without it? I guess we have to assume that we don't know Belleayre's actual numbers, i.e. how big a deficit it operates under. But let's assume that a lot of ski areas do make a profit, if only a small one. Could Belleayre be profitable if they did a little more marketing, a little less snowmaking, and eliminated most of the giveaways?

 

[Warp Daddy]

What would it take for Belleayre to operate at a profit? So that even with budget deficit, the State is better off with Belleayre than without it? I guess we have to assume that we don't know Belleayre's actual numbers, i.e. how big a deficit it operates under. But let's assume that a lot of ski areas do make a profit, if only a small one. Could Belleayre be profitable if they did a little more marketing, a little less snowmaking, and eliminated most of the giveaways?

I'm probably wrong, but there is a larger issue at hand . NYS's $$$ problem is so deep that MANY VITAL service sectors like Healthcare and education and even the "AID to Localities" portion of the STATE budget ( Which i never saw take a whack) in my 35 yrs of state service ARE ALL going to get HIT and hit HARD .

It may come down to WHICH sectors have THE NUMBERS in terms of CONSTITUENT impact and whose PAIN is proportionately MORE important, thus politically more important .

I love skiing, BUT it is a discretionary activity, not a Vital activity as far as PUBLIC support -- just sayin

 

[dmc]

What would it take for Belleayre to operate at a profit? So that even with budget deficit, the State is better off with Belleayre than without it? I guess we have to assume that we don't know Belleayre's actual numbers, i.e. how big a deficit it operates under. But let's assume that a lot of ski areas do make a profit, if only a small one. Could Belleayre be profitable if they did a little more marketing, a little less snowmaking, and eliminated most of the giveaways?

Ding ding ding.... Operate at a profit(or enough to pay the bills in bad times) - just like every other ski area has to do... Thats balance... Between the facility, local areas and my tax $$...

MARKETING?... they put signs up on 32 - the way to Hunter and Windham..

 

[catskills]

I predict 10,000 views on this thread on Oct 8 at 8:34pm. Give or take .......

This thread could be the best advertisement media blitz ever planned for Belleayre, Hunter, Plattekill, and Windham. Its not hurting AZ hit rate either.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I predict 10,000 views on this thread on Oct 8 at 8:34pm. Give or take .......

This thread could be the best advertisement media blitz ever planned for Belleayre, Hunter, Plattekill, and Windham. Its not hurting AZ hit rate either.

Like 100 of those views are me..lol..I'm at the point where I don't care so much..whatever happens..happens..it's out of my control and with or without Belleayre..my ski season will be mad steezy..

 

[dmc]

I predict 10,000 views on this thread on Oct 8 at 8:34pm. Give or take .......

This thread could be the best advertisement media blitz ever planned for Belleayre, Hunter, Plattekill, and Windham. Its not hurting AZ hit rate either.

Debate is a good thing...