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Reprinted from the Union Leader, May 26, 2007
Sunapee boat storage
considered
KRISTEN SENZ Union Leader
Correspondent
NEWBURY -- Plans to store boats and open a real
estate office at the state-owned Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury received mixed
reviews at meeting of the Mount Sunapee Advisory Committee yesterday.
Ski
area general manager Jay Gamble presented the two proposals as part of the
resort's annual operating plan, which is subject to approval by the State
Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED).
Gamble said
Mount Sunapee Resort has been approached by boat retailers who want to store
overflow boat inventory at the resort and provide customers with local boat
storage.
The resort wants to enter into a lease agreement with a local
business to store between 40 and 50 boats on trailers in one of the ski area's
parking lots, he said.
State Rep. Patricia McMahon, D-Sutton, said she
worries that boat storage at the resort would encourage more boaters to launch
from the state beach, which is located directly across Route 103 from the ski
area. That boat launch is in need of repairs, she said, so if the proposal is
approved, the money should go to the state.
"(The proposal is) very
nebulous," McMahon said, "and I think if they're going to sell space for boats,
then DRED should get the money. DRED desperately needs that money (to keep the
state park system afloat financially)."
Tom Elliott, a board member of
the Friends of Mount Sunapee - a group that has long opposed additional private
commercial ventures within the state park boundaries -- said that, if the
proposal is approved, the money should go to improving the boat
launch.
Also included in the resort's annual operating plan was a
proposed contract with a real estate agency that would run a sales office inside
one of the lodges at Mount Sunapee. "We would enter into a contract,
and that could even be with Okemo, to provide accommodations and real estate
services," Gamble said.
Owned by Tim and Diane Mueller, Okemo is the
parent company of Mount Sunapee Resort, Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow, Vt., and Crested
Butte Resort in Colorado.
Gamble said the ski business
relies heavily on having a "bed base" to increase skier visits. "We're watching
our competitors pass us in terms of bed base and business base," he
said.
After the meeting, Gamble said he couldn't add any detail to the
real estate plan.
"It's all to be determined," he said. "We have not had
a proposal, but we do have strong interest, so we're looking further into
that."
Three years ago, Gamble proposed entering into a contract with
Mountain Edge Resort, a nearby timeshare hotel, to sell accommodations and ski
packages at Mount
Sunapee. At the time, DRED
Commissioner George Bald postponed making a decision on the issue.
Bald
said at yesterday's meeting that he would allow about two weeks for committee
members to comment on the resort's operating plan before deciding whether to
approve all or part of it.
Years ago, the Lake Sunapee Business
Association had an office at the resort and distributed lodging information to
visitors. Yesterday, some members of the advisory committee likened that
arrangement to the current real estate proposal, but Elliott
disagreed.
"Right now, I don't see public interest in either of these
proposals," he said. "I see a struggling ski area that's trying to squeeze
profits out of this lease."
Gamble said this year at Mount Sunapee was "a slightly below average
season, but a successful season." Next year, the ski area may add trails for
tubing in the afternoon during the ski season, Gamble said, and plans are in the
works to develop a free public nature trail around the perimeter of the mountain
near its base.
"We'd like to create that within the next two years," he
said.
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