ARTICLE 78 LAWSUIT FORCES BIG TUPPER TO CLOSE

It was announced Tuesday evening that the Big Tupper Ski Area has been forced to close.  ARISE Chairman Jim LaValley was joined by members of the Board, as well as managers and volunteers of the Big Tupper Ski Area, at P-2′s Pub in Tupper Lake.

LaValley said that the community of Tupper Lake and Big Tupper supporters should hold the Board and members of PROTECT the Adirondacks, the Sierra Club, Phyllis Thompson, and Bob & Leslie Harrison responsible for the closure.  “Following the issuance of the permit for the Adirondack Club by the Adirondack Park Agency, Big Tupper was in a position to receive substantial financial assistance.  With the filing of the Article 78 lawsuit, that opportunity dissolved, and we are forced to close.”  LaValley went on to say that, “the Board and membership of PROTECT and the Sierra Club should be ashamed at the way they have chosen to attack a community by using Artice 78 lawsuits in a frivolous manner, and as a weapon against a project that was approved by the Adirondack Park Agency Commissioners with a 10:1 vote after 8 years of review.

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Big Tupper site

Thanks for posting Fahz.

I'm betting that no matter what side of the issue you are on here... you are not surprised by this development.

Not Surprised, but still disappointed. $200 million dollars in the powerball jackpot tonight - if I win it, I'll buy Big Tupper and pump a bunch of money into it. I have a good feeling this time.

Forget it, I'm winning the Megaball and buying up Hickory.

I hate to see places like this close.  Not every ski area needs to be a mega ultra destination resort.  My compliments to the volunteers who ran Big Tupper the last couple years.  Link from NPR may add some additional insight.

http://blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org/inbox/2012/09/25/breaking-volunteer-group-says-big-tupper-ski-mountain-will-close/

I hate econuts

PRESS RELEASE
September 25, 2012
       
Contact: Jim LaValley 518-359-9440

ARTICLE 78 LAWSUIT FORCES BIG TUPPER TO CLOSE

TUPPER LAKE -   It was announced Tuesday evening that the Big Tupper Ski Area has been forced to close.  ARISE Chairman Jim LaValley was joined by members of the Board, as well as managers and volunteers of the Big Tupper Ski Area, at P-2's Pub in Tupper Lake.

LaValley said that the community of Tupper Lake and Big Tupper supporters should hold the Board and members of PROTECT the Adirondacks, the Sierra Club, Phyllis Thompson, and Bob & Leslie Harrison responsible for the closure.  "Following the issuance of the permit for the Adirondack Club by the Adirondack Park Agency, Big Tupper was in a position to receive substantial financial assistance.  With the filing of the Article 78 lawsuit, that opportunity dissolved, and we are forced to close."  LaValley went on to say that, "the Board and membership of PROTECT and the Sierra Club should be ashamed at the way they have chosen to attack a community by using Artice 78 lawsuits in a frivolous manner, and as a weapon against a project that was approved by the Adirondack Park Agency Commissioners with a 10:1 vote after 8 years of review.

The project was determined to not have an undue adverse impact on the Park's resources.  Peter Bauer, Bob Glennon, and John Caffry, have made their intentions clear by taking a very public position on how they want to kill the Adirondack Club and Resort.  They have stated such in the press, and because of their actions it has forced the closure of the ski area, caused the further degradation of Tupper Lake, and flies in the face of Governor Cuomo's efforts to improve and create a healthier Adirondack economy."  
 
LaValley added, "even if ARISE were financially able to continue the operation this season, given the on-going threat of lawsuits from Bauer, Glennon and Caffry, and the time frames of the legal process, it is my opinion that the volunteers would have to continue operating for another 3 to 6 years.  We cannot expect the volunteers to continue for that long, nor can we afford to."

LaValley showed that over the past three seasons, the expenses have outweighed the income, with the last season being the biggest.  He said, "Donations and gifts have dropped off since the first year, and we will be looking at a difficult pre-season of ticket sales following the poor year we have just come out of.  Even with the volunteer effort, it takes approximately $160,000 to run the entire season."  He told the group, "I hope you see the challenges."  The ARISE Board will be reviewing ways to utilize the money they hold, and money to be raised at the upcoming OkTupperfest.  

LaValley concluded by saying, "The operational effort has been challenging for a number of people, who have given at a great personal cost.  Your efforts will never be forgotten, and I'm sorry that the time has come for this very difficult decision."

# # #

ARISE of Northern New York, Inc. is a New York 501(c)(3) not for profit organization.

The lawsuit is a convenient excuse for not opening the ski hill. The suit is against the APA not the developers, they don't have to spend a penny to defend it(not that they have a penny). As everyone knows the developers have never had the financial ability to pull this off, they thought this scheme up at the height of the real estate bubble and even then it was total fantasy. If they believe what they have been spouting, that it is a frivolous suit and it will be dismissed then they should pony up a hundred grand or so that it would take to run Big Tupper for another yr. I totally gave up on these guys when I found out they sold off all the existing(perfectly usable) snowmaking system that the former owner spent 1 Million on in 1995.

CONTENTS DELETED

70s Gore Kid wrote

Personally, I am always saddened to hear of any area going NELSAP, or whatever it is called in New York State.
(...)
But blaming this all on environmental groups is a cheap shot.  Most skiiers are environmentalists who love the unspoiled Adirondacks.  If they weren't, they would be spending their vacation time on the Jersey Shore or in Las Vegas.

Claiming that environmental groups are responsible for the demise of Big Tupper is like blaming Christopher Columbus for the sinking of the Titanic.

+1

Funny story about Dutchess, my parents and their friends went to look at it when it was in foreclosure. It must have been pretty cheap that a group of NYC teachers could possibly consider picking it off the scrap heap in the 1970s, but I guess it wasn't cheap enough.

It would have been awesome to have grown up there, though. Skiing down to the Hudson like a mini Le Massif, or something out of Tahoe. That must be the most viable failed ski area in NYS, but there must be some other contenders too. Freaking W/NW exposure sucks though.

Anyway, this is sad news for Tupper. Hopefully someone can see some potential there and wants to run it properly. The writing has certainly been on the wall for a bit now.

Even if someone could see the potential the Big developer has borrowed money from several different entities and used the ski area as collateral, so there are several mortgages against the property for way more than the value of it. Not to mention the hundred grand or so in overdue unpaid property and school taxes for several yrs. One of the big developers has also just listed his home for sale in Tupper Lake, go to realtor dot com and punch in Tupper Lake, the one with the $3.5 Million price tag. Just shows how out of touch this guy is, his small overdone adirondacky tacky place is way overpriced. Look at several others on the site, way newer, bigger, better waterfront for hundeds of thousands
less or even Millions less. Now that he has canibalized the ski area looks like he is trying to get out of Dodge.

I support Big Tupper as a ski area on its own but I believe the ACR plan is entirely flawed. I think PROTECT's environmental concerns are legitimate because the fact is, this isn't just about Tupper Lake. It's not a matter of leaving a town to decide its own fate because it affects no one else. If you honestly believe that any town should be able to do whatever it wants as long as all its citizens agree, I suppose it would be fine with everyone in Tupper Lake if the people of Long Lake decided to build a manufacturing plant that would dump tons of harmful waste into the Raquette River. I suppose it would be fine for Newcomb to establish a military and aim some missiles at Tupper Lake. By their logic, if the state of New York tried to make sure that Newcomb was responsible with its military, that would be awful because no one should try to interfere with what a town wants to do. If you don't live there, it CLEARLY doesn't affect you.

ASIDE FROM ALL THAT,

Let's say the plan really was 100% environmentally benign. What economist has said that ACR is going to make the current residents of Tupper Lake wealthier? Does anyone really think Big Tupper as a mountain can compete with Whiteface? It's less than half the size and doesn't even have snowmaking. They weren't planning on putting snowmaking in for another 5 years. What rich person from New York City or New Jersey is going to buy an expensive ski-related vacation home at the base of a tiny mountain that might only be open 10 days in a bad snow year? Not to mention Tupper Lake is a pain the ass to drive to from any big city. Lake Placid is more accessible and it's already established as a resort town. How is Tupper Lake going to compete with that?

They say they don't like how people outside the Adirondack Park see its residents as lower class uneducated servants. How, pray tell, is a massive ski resort going to make these people rich? Does anyone here know ANYONE who works at a ski area outside of high level management who is even very well off, let alone wealthy? You don't want to cater to rich people from outside the Adirondacks, but you want to build a giant resort complex just outside your town and hope some of their wealth trickles down to you when they come to eat at your restaurant or shop at your store?

Again, as a skier I would love to see the mountain function. There are plenty of other small mountains out there, including Titus, West Mountain in Queensbury, Willard further south in Greenwich, etc that operate on a very small budget but make things work simply because people love skiing. ACR was never about skiing, it was about people grasping at what they thought would be easy money.

Every press release from the ACR people blaming PROTECT for this failing has come off as idiotic. They sound like toddlers: "But Mom, you can't take the matches away! I WANT to burn the house down!!" The whole thing could have been scaled down and made legitimate as a compromise. Instead, the people of Tupper Lake decided that this was going to be an all-or-nothing battle, and if they lost, they were totally okay with Big Tupper closing out of spite. PROTECT is fulfilling its mission, holding the APA accountable and forcing it to do its job. PROTECT isn't trying to kill Tupper Lake. It's making sure that what Tupper Lake does in the end is actually within the realm of the law.

you nailed it.

The TRUTH usually lies somewhere between the TWO extremes ! Tupper has not found an answer in years and obviously lacks the leadership and will to emerge from its backward condition. too bad for the citizenry that reasonable and realistic projectct goals were not offered as a PREFERRED alternative . Too bad that greed , overly zealous IMHO opposition materialized to overcome an obviously weakly lead and overstated scope of this meganormous lunacy of a project .

The key question is WHAT , WHEN and HOW will TUPPER Lake leverage a BETTER future for its citizens and future ??

The community is now so factionalized and bitter that cooperation seems like an academic notion rather than a strategy to move forward . sad , just sad .

frk wrote

you nailed it.

yup.

Warp, Your post leads me to beleive you have been following this project in the local media, which has never dug deep into the details of it and tend to only report on the developers side of the story.  as far as "realistic project goals" you can only look to the developer for that situation, his position from the start has always been inflexible. The whole Kahuna or I will have to quit the project. There was no "overzealous" opposition to the project although it was repeatedly reported that way, especially by the Tupper Lake Free Press(aka ACR press release). You are absolutely right about the lack of leadership to get Tupper out of its current downturn. The current Town supervisor ran on a platform of looking out for the townspeople against the big developer, he was worried about the then current supervisor giving to much to the ACR. Within 30 days of his taking office he had been totally flipped afrer meeting with the Con Men(developers). As it stands now, no one with half a brain will run for Town or Village boards, unless you are 100% pro project you will be vilified in the TL Free Press to the point of exasperation, just look at our last Village mayor, he took a personal beating and gave up, and he was probably more informed about the details of the project than anyone on either board. Every time he brought up even the most benign question he would get trashed in the local paper. Unless the editor of the TL Free Press goes away you'll be hard pressed to see anyone intelligent run for public office. Just watch as he will repeatedly trash Protect and the local people who signed on to the suit, I guarantee it will go on for months.

endoftheline wrote

Warp, Your post leads me to beleive you have been following this project in the local media, which has never dug deep into the details of it and tend to only report on the developers side of the story.  as far as "realistic project goals" you can only look to the developer for that situation, his position from the start has always been inflexible. The whole Kahuna or I will have to quit the project. There was no "overzealous" opposition to the project although it was repeatedly reported that way, especially by the Tupper Lake Free Press(aka ACR press release). You are absolutely right about the lack of leadership to get Tupper out of its current downturn. The current Town supervisor ran on a platform of looking out for the townspeople against the big developer, he was worried about the then current supervisor giving to much to the ACR. Within 30 days of his taking office he had been totally flipped afrer meeting with the Con Men(developers). As it stands now, no one with half a brain will run for Town or Village boards, unless you are 100% pro project you will be vilified in the TL Free Press to the point of exasperation, just look at our last Village mayor, he took a personal beating and gave up, and he was probably more informed about the details of the project than anyone on either board. Every time he brought up even the most benign question he would get trashed in the local paper. Unless the editor of the TL Free Press goes away you'll be hard pressed to see anyone intelligent run for public office. Just watch as he will repeatedly trash Protect and the local people who signed on to the suit, I guarantee it will go on for months.

Well said, sir.

NO I have never bothered to pick up an article from the TLFP but do have a strong opinion that the village is in a pickle economically . There seems to be a malaise in TL and no one seems either capable or willing to move in any positive direction . The situation is overwhelmingly negative and BOTH sides have errered due to intransigence again  my OPINION .


Sorry  but I do not agree  that things are one sided there is always room for negotiation  IF there is a will to better the situation for the local economy at least muster up the courage TO TRY

this bitterness and narrow minded vested interest needs to change and a CAN DO attitude needs to prevail IF TL is ever to have a better future . The environmental lobby has kept OTHER institutions out of TL before and again IMHO has not always  just been a force for greater good and as altruistic as they sometimes want to project .  Call me as I see. Em !

moreover BOTH sides are culpable on THIS issue but darn it TUPPER get going for your KIDS sakes . Lead , Follow or get the hell out of the way but damn it quit cry assin  and get busy

I really don't understand when skiers use the word "econuts" and similar terms to rag on environmental groups. Environmental preservation is, without a doubt, the single most important factor in the survival of skiing. Mountains everywhere are at least trying to act environmentally friendly or, at the very least, make marketing decisions that make it seem so. It's going to be a greater and greater selling point in the future. Look at Whistler with their hydroelectric plant. Jiminy with the windmill. MRG with the carbon credit program. It baffles me that ACR made no effort to appeal to the "econuts" instead of fighting them tooth-and-nail. There's a reason why these groups are winning lawsuits. The collective majority of Americans is starting to care about the environment.

There's a great book out there called Downhill Slide: Why the Corporate Ski Industry is Bad For Skiing, Ski Towns, and the Environment I would highly recommend that anyone interested in this issue check out this book.