County ponders ski area deal

Every seat was filled and people lined the walls and stood in the doorway to participate in a public hearing at the Courthouse on Wednesday about the prospect of Baker County accepting as a gift the Ski Anthony Lakes resort and running the ski area to prevent its closure.

“On behalf of the Sumpter Junction and Barley Brown’s, I can tell you it is hugely important to us,” said Luke Brown, whose family owns those two restaurants in Baker City.

“It’s a huge asset to the tourism industry,” said Carl Town, an owner of the Best Western Sunridge Inn in Baker City.

Members of ski clubs from Pendleton and La Grande, Ski Patrol representatives and employees of the resort joined Brown, Town and other Baker City business owners in urging the commission to come up with a plan that saves Baker County’s lone ski area from closing.

Connie Kearney represented the three families that have owned Ski Anthony Lakes for 12  years.

The owners are Kearney and her husband, Lee, of Vancouver, Wash., Parke and Gail Ball, also of Vancouver; and Kim and Dana Kutsch of the Salem area.

If they bestow the resort to the county or a non-profit group, such as a 501(c)3 group that could be formed to operate it, Kearney said the owners would reap some tax advantages, but those would be far short of the value of the resort’s assets.

“For operations, we have collectively spent $40,000 to $50,000 per year, and we don’t feel we can continue that” in their retirement years, Connie Kearney said.

She said the annual loss is largely due to the owners decision to operate the resort with year-round staff.

Commission Chairman Fred Warner Jr., said that after touring the resort and examining its equipment, he believes the county could operate the area at a profit or at least a break even point by having county employees incorporate into their schedules tasks such as snowplowing, rather than hiring outside staff.

“The owners set a deadline of August 1 for the county to make a decision, so we need to put a plan together and bring it back for a decision at the July 21 meeting,” Warner said.

The public is invited to attend and comment at that meeting, which is set for 10:30 a.m.

Warner said the county would be getting several million dollars’ worth of assets that appear to be in good shape, based on what he saw during his tour Tuesday.

“They were absentee owners who relied on staff to take care of things on the mountain year-around,” Warner said. “To my way of thinking, that model did not work very well.”

“In two weeks we need to have the outline for something that will at least break even,” Warner said. “I think initially, if the county took the gift, we would need to figure out how to run it for the first year.”

After that transition period, he said a “501(c)3 is probably the best option.”

Commissioner Tim Kerns said that with peak skier numbers of around 39,000 a year, he believes the resort could be a successful business if it was marketed more effectively.

He suggested Tim Bishop, the county’s new contract marketing director, help put together a marketing plan to draw local and regional tourists to the ski resort.

“My kids have grown up skiing there and are still skiing there. I think it is a great asset and would like it to continue to be a great asset going forward,” said David Campbell, owner of the Hobby Habit in La Grande.

Campbell said he supports the county accepting the gift and taking on the operation of the resort pending the formation of a non-profit entity.

Kerns pointed out that the county has a fair board that operates the Baker County Fair, and he doesn’t see why a similar board couldn’t oversee the ski resort.

 He noted that the county faced a similar dilemma years ago when the local livestock sale yard was sold and later closed because the new owners chose not to operate it.

Based on that experience, Kerns said a sale of the ski resort to a private entity “doesn’t necessarily mean the ski area will stay open.”

Based on what he heard at Wednesday’s meeting, Kerns said he was impressed that many of those attending expressed a willingness to volunteer their time to help keep the ski area open.

Connie Kearney said the resort hasn’t been listed for sale, but the owners have spoken with four or five individuals or businesses about buying it, with no success.

Kina White, owner of Paizano’s Pizza in Baker City, said more effective marketing and community support could go a long way toward making the ski resort more successful.

“Have you seen the powder up there? It is beautiful, but we’ve got to market it,” White said. “You can have the best party in the world, but nobody is going to come if they don’t know about it.”

With effective marketing, White said “there would be no loss. There would be a profit.”

Don and Ethel Malone of Baker City said they moved here and bought a house largely because Don loves to ski. If the resort closes, the said they, and others they know, might move.

The Malones suggested the county could make the resort more profitable by adding some adaptive recreational programs for people with disabilities.

Bill Peal, a ski instructor with the Star Bottle Ski Club out of Pendleton, said the resort lost a lot of business from Pendleton-area skiers when it ended half-priced skiing on Thursdays.

Others suggested that lowering the ticket prices, especially for local skiers, is a strategy that drew flocks of skiers to other ski resorts and might also boost usage at Ski Anthony Lakes.

Warner read submitted letters during the meeting, including one from Howard Zwanziger, who opposes the county taking over a business that has been losing money.

“For the County to lose my tax dollars to invest in a private enterprise, and a failing one at best, is a misuse of funds, where the private sector has failed,” Zwanziger wrote. “Let’s keep the government and our citizens’ money where it belongs. Ski Anthony Lakes needs to pay for itself. It is not a ‘jewel’ to the county. It is a millstone.”

Pat Sullivan of Hereford also submitted a letter opposing the county accepting the resort as a gift.

“I believe there is a do not cross line with regard to relationships between government and private business. In my opinion you are standing on that line with the Mason Dam Hydro Project, and if you go forward with the ski resort venture you have in effect jumped way across that line,” Sullivan wrote.