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Big Burke announcement

J

jmorrison518

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VTKilarney said:
From News 7:
At around 5:30 Burke Fire and Rescue responded to a flood on the ground floor at the Burke Mountain Hotel. News 7 was on the scene and the building appeared to be evacuated and no one was allowed to enter the premises. We will have more updates as they come.

UPDATE: The hotel has been shut down for the night and there are crews inside cleaning. It is expected to be operational by morning.
Click to expand...

This was not actually what happened. There was an issue, but we were allowed back in our rooms by 10:00. We ran into town and had dinner and by the time we got back everybody was just waiting for the "all clear" from the fire chief. Once that came we were allowed back upstairs. in the end they comped us our room, so for about 3 hours of inconvenience we ended up getting a free night. Was worth it in the end.
 
thetrailboss

thetrailboss

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jmorrison518 said:
This was not actually what happened. There was an issue, but we were allowed back in our rooms by 10:00. We ran into town and had dinner and by the time we got back everybody was just waiting for the "all clear" from the fire chief. Once that came we were allowed back upstairs. in the end they comped us our room, so for about 3 hours of inconvenience we ended up getting a free night. Was worth it in the end.
Click to expand...

News 7 is great, but they are student journalists and sometimes they get things wrong. At least we know that something happened.....
 
O

oldtimer

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Skiing Sunday was good to excellent after the woods have been cut up by some hearty souls. It improved as the snow came in in the afternoon. Skiing yesterday was flat out FABULOUS. What a difference a year makes. Snow making has been incredible. The staff has been fantastic & the vibe has been as good as ever. A small, but telling thing:: Monday morning on a powder day, they open the lower lift EARLY so those who live down below can get in the upper lift line before 0900. Simple thing, yes. But it made a huge difference in terms of customer service yesterday. WHAT A TREAT. We all hope the team is successful and can generate enough cash to carry on until a buyer is found.
 
thetrailboss

thetrailboss

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oldtimer said:
Skiing Sunday was good to excellent after the woods have been cut up by some hearty souls. It improved as the snow came in in the afternoon. Skiing yesterday was flat out FABULOUS. What a difference a year makes. Snow making has been incredible. The staff has been fantastic & the vibe has been as good as ever. A small, but telling thing:: Monday morning on a powder day, they open the lower lift EARLY so those who live down below can get in the upper lift line before 0900. Simple thing, yes. But it made a huge difference in terms of customer service yesterday. WHAT A TREAT. We all hope the team is successful and can generate enough cash to carry on until a buyer is found.
Click to expand...

It is good to see that the staff is given the ability to THINK and do things like this.
 
C

crank

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That's twice the line we had on the December 30 Powder day!
 
thetrailboss

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Bump.

I returned to the NEK to see an ill family member and it gave me an excuse to go to Burke for a great day of skiing and apres with the Dawn Patrol.

Rented skis from Village Sport Shop and talked with a longtime Burkie who observed that the mountain has had a good season with good spirits. The receiver is getting very good reviews and he gets a lot of points for genuinely working with the locals and being responsive. The mountain manager struggled...I don't know who it is but he did not have much experience. They also had some hiccups with snowmaking and trying to get things going with new folks, but they blew snow when they had to, turned the attitude around, and the ski area has had a much needed GOOD season. For the first time in a long time VSS had very little inventory from a good winter. The shop looks great, but the gun shop has been sold and is moving to another location.

East Burke is looking good...a couple new businesses have sprung up. East Burke Sports was switching over to biking and trying to get ahead of what promises to be a very busy bike season. The guys were all excited about the past ski season and a good summer.

The mountain: wow. Every interaction with employees was VERY positive....like it always was. Crowds were relatively small on a beautiful Sunday. The mountain skied VERY well...midwinter conditions to start giving way to spring sorbet. I did not venture off the snowmaking runs because of my crew and rentals. Every single Q has been eliminated. Grooming was great. Snowmaking runs are SOLID edge to edge. Bear Den was packed in the afternoon. Nice to see Kristen smile. I heard that the management spent a little money to be sure that they at least had one decent band a week at the Bear Den and that the response was positive. Folks in my crew said they came up (even if they did not ski), listened to the music, bought some drinks, and hung out. That was new.

The highlight? A VIP tour of the Hotel thanks to a family member who works there. She showed me each of the three levels of guest rooms--even the "entry" level studio has a full kitchen and deck. Nicely appointed. Nice woodwork. No expense spared. Very comfortable. Lots of local merch in the rooms. Great art. Amazing bathrooms. The one bedrooms were spacious and also very nice. The suite units were well appointed. Surprisingly, the one bedrooms and suites only had a "standard" hotel tub (that looked pretty cheap) as opposed to jetted tubs that I expected. Staff were very upbeat despite a lot of empty rooms.

Main floor (second floor) had a now empty high-end restaurant that I was told "just did not work". Prices, at $40 a plate, did not attract any local business (as can be expected) and was not sustainable. They will mothball it for now and use it as a function room. Lots of good conference rooms--I'd ditch the "Governor's Room" and "Chittenden" rooms after the recent EB-5 fiasco and rename them something else...perhaps something more local. Nice touch naming a room for Warren Witherell. The pub looked VERY classy and had a great view. My tour guides lamented that it obviously is not as authentic as the Bear Den nor as comfortable as the Tamarack Lounge. The Tamarack, by the way, really struggled because it had no real chef I understand. As to the new pub it reminded me of how us Sugarbushers felt when the new Castlerock Pub opened...."it feels sterile." That said, the current management did a great job digging out old Burke posters and items to display and it looked great. New art was also great.

Continuing on the main floor--the "day lodge" was very nice and had a small snack bar. Foodservice has not worked out the scheduling and bugs. It was spacious and had nice post and beam framing. Downside: no real character. Works great as a staging area for hotel guests. Not so good for day trippers who have to walk far from the parking lots. The arcade was closed. The Vertical Drop, another nod to the past, was impressive--great variety of MANY things including tons of logo gear. A real improvement from the days when it was hard for a Burkie fan to find logo gear, especially late in the season. Full sports gear selection as well. Nice art for sale. A homerun in my mind. The sales guy was an LSC student in the rec program and said that he really liked working for the new team. I will confess that my luggage is packed with Burke stuff to bring home. The small coffee shop was a nice touch and looked great. The pool is small and nice. Only open "when it was above 20 degrees" or so apparently. The rental shop, stocked with NEW skis, never opened. The Montana I think is gone. I had more than one person comment to me about "how stupid" that purchase was.

All furnishings were amazing. They have had some minor issues including sprinkler systems that have burst in the attic causing flooding on the second floor and some paint coming off here and there outside. To be expected unfortunately. This was not a pre-fab building thrown together--they did a solid job overall.

The lobby was amazing. It felt like Park City. Very impressive.

On my way down the access road I saw a Zoning Permit notice and got out to read that indeed the T-Bar project is moving ahead with a meeting set for either tomorrow night or Wednesday night for the Planning Board to consider. Voice your support.

I was very disappointed to hear that despite the overall positive season, and a good but slow start for the Hotel, that at least one or two local hotel owners had complained that they felt that the Hotel was "undercutting" their business and that the Mountain was unfairly stealing business. One year ago we were set to have NO ski season. Considering how far things have come hearing this was sad. In my mind someone who stays at the Hotel is NOT a customer that would want an intimate B&B experience and vice-a-versa. One couple stopped me at the top when they heard me talking about the Hotel and said "it was amazing" and "impressive" offering a great value. Their biggest compliment? Kitchens in the room. I hope that this issue gets resolved. We will see how the summer goes--word has it that they have done some great deals for key mountain bike weekends including the NEMBA Fest where they were selling a KILLER deal ($99 rate IIRC). 16 weddings also booked for this year.

Heard a story on the news where the receiver admitted that his timeline for sale was 1, but probably 2 years, for both resorts. Locals are very happy with the current crew. I heard about some "meetings" taking place recently at the Hotel with mountain ops and consultants to discuss snowmaking expansion and terrain expansion. My source was there and saw and heard it. That surprised me.

Also surprising to me and others were multiple reports that Bill Stenger STILL routinely comes to the mountain, shows people around, has "high level meetings" in his "consultant role", drives a company vehicle, and has a presence. My Dad saw him in the Lyndonville McDonalds last week. Folks generally are very skeptical of him and his plea of ignorance.

So all in all much better than I expected. Great to see my mountain holding its own.
 
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