Ski centers are usually associated with winter fun, but after drastic cuts in full-time personnel at the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in Highmount, area officials say the regional economy will suffer if skiers decide to take their business elsewhere. Belleayre officials say the mountain will operate this season at full capacity.
Under orders by Gov. David Paterson to reduce staff, the state Department of Environmental Conservation cut 80 percent of the facility”™s full-time work force, potentially crippling an asset that advocates call a key economic engine for that section of the Catskills.
More than 200 people gathered Nov. 29 in Arkville to protest a plan by DEC officials to end 48 permanent jobs at the ski and recreation facility that operates year round by hosting concerts and other events during the summer season. But the protests had no effect as the cuts went through last week, leaving only 13 permanent employees at the facility, and instead setting up a work force of seasonal employees, who receive no benefits.
Joe Kelly, the longtime chairman of the citizens advocate group, Committee to Save Belleayre, said the cuts are both unfair and unwise.
Of the 145 cuts the DEC was ordered to make under the governor”™s directive, 33 percent of them are being made at just one facility, Belleayre, Kelly said. He said the state”™s two other state-owned ski centers are not suffering any major cuts to staff. Those two centers are in the Adirondacks, the by state-owned Gore and Whiteface Mountains, which are operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority. Kelly said their success shows that the DEC should not be running ski centers, and that the task should be turned over to a new entity created for that mission. And, he said, the growth of Belleayre over the years proves such an entity could be successful.
“They had about 13 permanent employees when I started as an advocate for Belleayre in 1977,” Kelly said. “It has taken us over 30 years to build Belleayre up to where it is now. I never thought we could regress that far with a single swipe of the pen.”
Belleayre superintendent Tony Lanza referred all questions on the matter to officials in Albany. But he said the facility is open and operating and added, “We expect to have a successful season.”
The facility has an annual operating budget of roughly $7 million and essentially breaks even through revenue generated by ticket sales, Kelly said. There is no rationale for making cuts, he said, since the facility is not costing the state money. Additionally, he said, the National Ski Association estimates every dollar spent operating Belleayre generates $7 in economic impact in the state Route 28 corridor from Kingston to Belleayre, meaning the ski center is responsible for about $50 million of annual economic activity in that area. “So what they are doing to Belleayre doesn”™t make any sense, its going to cost the state money,” Kelly said.
Local state officials support Kelly”™s campaign.
“The Belleayre Ski Center represents the bulk of economic opportunity in the area,” said state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, who represents the Belleayre area. “Any reduction in funding to the center creates a devastating effect to both the local economy and to the county and municipal governments that rely on tourist tax revenues to pay for essential services.”
State Sen. John Bonacic agreed. “Belleayre is a job creator; it”™s an economic catalyst for that Route 28 corridor.”
Kelly said that while there is no immediate threat of closing Belleayre, the termination of 48 permanent employees is nevertheless devastating. “This is an erosion of economic vitality that can not be tolerated. This team is the team that has made Belleayre a self-sustaining entity.”
