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