From the Albany Times Union Newspaper
State ski centers face big chill
Budget crisis poses a threat to Adirondack sites, key job generators in hard-pressed North Country
By RICK KARLIN Capitol Bureau
Published: 06:00 a.m., Monday, January 3, 2011
WILMINGTON -- When George Pataki became governor in 1995, his administration examined privatizing the legendary Whiteface ski center as well as its cousin to the south, Gore Mountain, both of which are state-owned and operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority.
Team Pataki quickly concluded that privatization wasn't workable, given the reality that both hills lie within the heavily regulated Adirondack Park.
"Even to lease it, you'd have to change the state constitution," noted Bruce McCulley, Whiteface's general manager.
Instead, the Pataki administration "investigated the options and said, 'OK, we own them -- let's expand them,'" McCulley said.
The result was $20 million in improvements over the past decade, including new gondolas, added snowmaking and expanded terrain.
This year, Gore will debut a new connector run linking the North Creek Ski Bowl along Route 28, allowing people to ski to within a minute's drive from the Warren County village of North Creek. In 2009, Whiteface opened new trails and a lift in an area called Lookout Mountain.
But like a late-season snowstorm, operators and skiers at Gore and Whiteface may have to make those improvements last for a while due to what's expected to be several years of budget deficits -- starting off with at a gap of at least $9 billion for 2011-2012 -- and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's warnings that almost every sector of state operations will face cuts.
Indeed, one of the trails on Lookout Mountain doesn't yet have snowmaking guns. The center simply ran out of money and will now have to wait for more funds to be available.
Gore, however, was able to complete its new connector chairlift just as the state's economy entered the deep freeze.
Like other state agencies, ORDA has laid off workers and put several desired upgrades on a waiting list. Besides operating Whiteface Mountain and the Gore Mountain ski areas, the agency runs the Olympic Sports Complex, located five miles from Lake Placid at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, and the Olympic ice and jumping complexes.
The ski areas have always faced challenges, due to their isolation -- Whiteface is closer to Montreal than it is to any other major state population center -- as well as often rugged North Country weather.
To survive, ORDA has learned to adapt.
Whiteface, for example, plans to market the hill to Montreal skiers -- a move sure to be aided by recent currency shifts that have brought U.S. and Canadian currency closer to parity, which means our neighbors to the north aren't penalized for crossing the border for recreation.
And McCulley's trail crew made good use of the recent cold weather, using their snow guns to blanket the mountain's lower slopes with powdery snow.
The snow farmers at both resorts have figured out it's better to focus on making snow and grooming a few select trails with good conditions than to try to open more terrain but with less snow.
Snowmaking in recent decades has become critical for survival of almost any ski mountain, experts say. That's one reason that according to the National Ski Areas Association, the number of resorts nationwide has declined from 800 in 1960 to approximately 450 today.
So ORDA's mountain managers can deal with bad weather. The Legislature, however, can present even more of a challenge.
Last year, Senate Democrats -- who controlled the chamber at the time -- put a scare into North Country residents by proposing the wholesale elimination of state aid to ORDA, about $6.6 million that year.
ORDA was ultimately spared the budget ax, but it brought into focus some of the economics of the tourist-dependent Adirondacks.
The authority notes Gore and Whiteface are self-sustaining, with the extra money as well as state subsidies pumped into other operations such as the nearby Olympic ski jump complex, skating and hockey facilities, and bobsled and luge runs in and around Lake Placid.
"The big visual ones are Whiteface and Gore ... they actually fund the cross-country ski trails, the bobsled, luge and skeleton runs," said state Sen. Betty Little, a Queensbury Republican whose district covers Gore and Whiteface.
It's the totality of those sports -- a winter-long flow of hockey tournaments, bobsled competitions and other activities -- that keeps the Lake Placid region humming, and its hotel rooms and restaurants filled. (The facilities also are a draw for two private schools in the area, Northwoods and the National Sports Academy.)
"We don't have industry. Tourism is our number-one moneymaker," added Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward of Essex County, whose district also encompasses both ski centers.
Residents in the region are keenly aware of the role played by tourism, and they grasp the reality of the state budget crisis.
In November, Gov. David Paterson said the Empire State Games, in which junior athletes compete in a variety of sports, would be canceled due to budget shortfalls and layoffs at the state Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation.
But an array of local boosters and business operators joined with ORDA and decided to hold the games on their own.
They're currently raising funds and planning events, including competitive skiing, skating and hockey as well as a new snowshoe competition in nearby Saranac Lake.
Supporters noted that 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid were pulled off despite the fact that the nation was in the midst of the Great Depression.
"The people of the Adirondack North Country," said Sayward, "are resilient."
Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or rkarlin@timesunion.com.
Read more:
http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/State-ski-centers-face-big-chill-932184.php#ixzz1A5wRQjRi
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