Bear Valley news

[~mikey b]

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Lo...ayoff-staffers

Bear Valley to layoff staffers

Written by Sean Janssen, The Union Democrat June 29, 2012 12:22 pm



Bear Valley Mountain ski resort will remain quieter than usual for the remainder of the summer.

The resort laid off 19 employees from its maintenance and office staff who typically work year-round. That’s raised concerns about the operation’s long-term viability.

General Manager Jim Gentling noted in an end-of-ski-season blog post that just 75,000 visitors skied or snowboarded at the Alpine County destination off Highway 4. Fewer people took to the slopes during a winter that disappointed in terms of snowfall but still provided surprisingly good conditions.

Gentling wrote that about 130,000 winter sports enthusiasts visit the slopes most years.

Attempts to contact Gentling and other Bear Valley representatives were unsuccessful.

Speculation about the mountain resort’s future ran rampant Thursday on the Bear Valley Mountain Facebook page with many posters feeling left in the dark by a lack of response from resort staff.

Winter skiing is a huge draw to the entire Ebbetts Pass corridor in Alpine and Calaveras counties, generating visits at Arnold-area hotels and vacation homes. But summer is normally quieter, with visitors and residents alike drawn more to water activities at sites like Lake Alpine and White Pines and Spicer reservoirs.

Greater Arnold Business Association President Bob Doten said he has heard little reason for long-term concern.

“Our understanding is the only thing closed is the mountain and many of those laid off were re-employed elsewhere in the village,” Doten said. “It’s premature to know how this might affect Arnold. If this remains a temporary thing ... while it’s sad to hear that people lost their jobs, we expect the impact on Arnold to be next to nothing.”

Doten said things are perking up overall in Arnold, where the recession hit harder than in most areas of Calaveras County.

He said there have been five consecutive quarters of “positive trends” in the real estate market and new home buyers have noticeably been heavily young families.

“This is an attractive and affordable place to be if you’re coming up from the East Bay,” Doten said.

Colorado-based Dundee Resort Development, which operates the resort, has been planning an expansion of condominium housing in Bear Valley Village and a lift directly from the village to the ski resort, but the effort has been hampered by a weak economy and sewer capacity concerns.

Developers have hoped the project can bring in as much as $200 million once completed.

[~mikey b]

http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/n...9bb2963f4.html

Bear Valley settles in for a summer sleep

Posted: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 9:02 am

The Bear Valley Mountain ski resort went into abrupt hibernation last week, laying off most of its year-round staff and shutting down summer maintenance operations.

Last ski season, Bear Valley lost more than 40 percent of its annual visitors, numbers marketing manager Rosie Sundell said the resort couldn’t overcome. The season before had been one of the resort’s best in years due to heavy and prolonged snowfall.

She said the resort plans to bring back laid-off workers for the upcoming season, though she couldn’t say when.

“There was never any question that there will be a ski season,” Sundell said. “It just got to a point where we shut it down for a few months.”

The move to drop 19 maintenance workers and a handful of office staffers sent shockwaves along the Highway 4 corridor, where businesses depend on resort tourism to stay afloat.

Bear Valley General Store owner Denise Carter said she and other area business owners are hoping for the best, but she suggested it might be time for an ownership shake-up.

“I would like for someone to come in and purchase everything, give us the management and the money we need,” Carter said.

Representatives from Dundee Resort Development, the Colorado development group that manages the ski area, didn’t respond to messages asking about the layoffs. Chuck Toenisketter, one-third of the partnership group that has owned Bear Valley since 2006, could not be reached for comment.

Business owners are having a similarly tough time reading the ski area’s tea leaves, leading many to the ski area’s Facebook page, now overrun with concerns ranging from chairlift maintenance to the possibility that the slopes won’t reopen later this year.

Many point to the fact that less snow and fewer skiers can’t shoulder all the blame for Bear Valley’s recent woes. A multimillion-dollar resort expansion in the works since 2006 has been hamstrung by concerns over sewage treatment facilities and the nation’s economic meltdown, dimming Bear Valley’s hopes for a new ski lift connecting Bear Valley Village with the mountain ski area and forcing developers to reduce a once-sprawling blueprint for hundreds of new condominiums.

Once expected to attract $200 million to the area annually, Bear Valley’s long-delayed development projects left some locals feeling uneasy about their economic future long before the layoffs.

One local business owner declined to give his name but said the resort had suffered from overambitious expansion plans and developer infighting.

“Jesus is coming before that new chairlift,” he said of one of the resort’s keystone additions.

A former subcontractor familiar with the mountain’s maintenance operations, he added that a tight-lipped management style is only hurting business owners’ confidence.

“If they stay closed-down for the winter, I’m out of business. They haven’t told us anything, so hopefully we’ll get a statement from (management) soon.” he added.

One glimmer of hope comes from the Stanislaus National Forest, whose permits allow the resort to expand operations and operate the mountain’s ski area.

Copies of the ski area’s current agreement make clear that it would be more cost effective to operate at a loss than to invite forestry department penalties, which could include repossession of Bear Valley’s “structures and improvements.”

Patty Clarey, with Stanislaus’ Calaveras Ranger District, explained that the resort must be up and running for 120 days a year to avoid flirting with sanctions.

“There would be consequences for not opening and those are contained within the permit.” Clarey said.

Contact James DeHaven at james@calaverasenterprise.com.

[~mikey b]

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.d...NEWS/206220307


Bear Valley layoffs send chill across Mother Lode
Struggling resort pivotal to tourism, nearby businesses

By Dana M. Nichols
Record Staff Writer
June 22, 2012 12:00 AM

BEAR VALLEY - After a wretched winter with little snow and too-few customers, Bear Valley Mountain ski resort this week laid off almost all of its year-round employees.

The 19 people who lost their jobs were mostly maintenance workers assigned to care for the resort's lifts, buildings and vehicles, although some office staff also were let go, said Rosie Sundell, the resort's marketing manager.

The lodge, restaurants and other businesses in the Bear Valley Village area remain open and are hosting a variety of summer camps and events, Sundell said.

Sundell said that although the resort's owners still intend to offer skiing this winter, it is not yet clear how or when that will happen.

"We do not have a set date for everyone coming back," Sundell said. She said only a skeleton administrative crew remains for the ski portion of the resort.

The layoffs have sent a chill of fear through Alpine and neighboring Calaveras counties, where the skiers who come up Highway 4 to Bear Valley are crucial to tourism and real estate industries.

"It's a pivotal part of the economy," said Diane Gray, executive director of the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce. "I'm hoping for many reasons it's just a temporary cost-cutting measure. We all recognize they had a pretty light winter last year."

In recent years, Bear Valley had been attracting about 140,000 visitors a year, Sundell said. According to an April blog post by resort General Manager Jim Gentling, the mountain drew only 75,000 visitors this past winter.

Sundell said Bear Valley also faces other challenges. She said ambitious plans in the works since 2006 for hundreds of new condominiums as well as a village-to-mountaintop lift have stalled.

"There aren't any shovels going in the ground right now," Sundell said.

In particular, working out a way to provide adequate sewage-treatment capacity for the proposed new condos has caused long delays to the expansion, which developers once said could bring $200 million in new investment.

Since 2006, Bear Valley has been owned by a partnership that includes builder Chuck Toeniskoetter of San Jose and Colorado-based Dundee Resort Development.

Neither Toeniskoetter nor Dundee Resort Development President Greg Finch responded to messages asking for comment.

Jeff Gouveia, general manager of Bear Valley Water District, said that this year his agency was able to write a letter promising adequate sewer capacity for the resort expansion. That came, however, only after the developers reduced the number of condominiums from the approximately 500 originally proposed.

Gouveia said that the water district can't expand sewage operations as much as it would like because of limited space. Nearby federal land is not for sale and the owners of the limited private land in the area are unwilling to sell, he said.

Without adding storage ponds and spray disposal sites, the district has no way to get rid of additional treated wastewater.

Another wrinkle: Even without expansion, the district might someday have to spend an additional $3 million to $15 million to build a so-called tertiary treatment plant for wastewater.

State water regulators last year said that Bear Valley did not have to upgrade to tertiary treatment. But the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance has sued state water pollution regulators to force them to require such treatment.

Gouveia said that suit might not be resolved until fall 2013.

"We all want this project to proceed as much as anybody," Gouveia said. "The district has done all it can, especially of late, to be benevolent and effective."

In particular, the recent letter from the district promising service should be enough to allow the Bear Valley resort expansion to proceed, Gouveia said.

"It is really in the hands of the development group, and they are not telling us a lot," he said.

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/calaverasblog.

[Lexi-Bell]

Damn that sucks, almost as much as renaming hibernation the polar express.

I grew up skiing at bear in the early 80's, even then there were rumors of a valley to lift chair.

Thanks for posting this mike, my folks are still pass holders there and I'm sure this is something they would like to know about.

[Viva]

It won't be the first time a ski area's crapped out in the Sierras. Funny, just a week ago today, I stopped by Iron Mountain for the first time since 1994.

[~mikey b]

doubt they'll crap out, but it's interesting, considering that they've been trying to do more summer activities on the mtn the last couple of summers (Tough Mudder, race camps, mtn biking) - I'm sure they aren't the only ski area doing a bit less this summer

[GiBo]

That's a big drop off in skiers. Almost 1/2 of their income. I hope you're right and they make it.

[~mikey b]

I'd bet more than 1/2 of income. Many of those #'s are pass-holders. Ticket sales, rentals and lessons are where they make the $.

[Viva]

Someone needs to buy that lodge across Hwy4 from the Village that's been for sale for a few years and turn it into a whore house.

Shit, I go "skiing" every weekend were that to occur.

[Parvo]

I bet Frank and Sally Helm at Dodge Ridge are having orgasmic schadenfreude right about now.

[~mikey b]

say what you will, but...

http://www.mymotherlode.com/news/loc...dge-Ridge.html

June 13, 2012 03:57 pm
Sabrina Ambler, MML News Reporter

Sacramento, CA -- Senator Tom Berryhill honored Dodge Ridge Ski Resort as the "Small Business of the Year" for the 14th Senate District.

Senator Berryhill says, "Dodge Ridge is an important part of the community. The Helms family continues to make Dodge Ridge a family friendly place, and year-round destination for the outdoors. Small businesses are the backbone of our communities and Dodge Ridge demonstrates the best of that."

Dodge Ridge has been owned and operated by the Helms family for 36 years. Dodge Ridge opened to skiers in 1950.

Owner Sally Helm says she and Frank Helm were recognized for being leaders in recreation and "for the continual growth and expansion of the ski area and for the family values we bring to the area" Dodge Ridge has hosted events benefiting the Society for Handicapped Children and Adults and supported Habitat for Humanity, ReHorse Rescue and other local organizations. Sally says they were so honored and wanted to thank their management and winter staff because with out them this award would not be possible."

[Sinecure]

This thread now needs a Blurred contribution on Helm family values.

[~mikey b]

update with hearsay and gossip - generally reliable

I've talked to a couple of the managers who were laid off this summer and learned a few things. Martine Wegenstein is gone. Jim Gentling resigned/retired/quit. Nobody that I have talked to has heard anything since the day they were sent home with layoff paperwork and last paycheck.

[~mikey b]

local web news story - about as reliable as my hearsay and gossip

http://thepinetree.net/

Bear Valley Update....Nothing Yet
Posted by: thepinetree on 09/06/2012 02:33 PM
Bear Valley, CA...The tea leaves are still being read and divinations made but there is still not a firm answer from Bear Valley on the upcoming season. Most people in positions to know still think they will be under operation when it matters. This we do know is that the partners are talking and an agreeable solution is being worked on. Without going down the rumor path too far it should be realistic to expect a decision close to September 15th....

[~mikey b]

http://thepinetree.net/index.php?mod...w&ANN_id=32178

Bear Valley Operation Plans Due to USFS By October 15th.

Avery, CA...We just spoke with Patty Cleary of the USFS to hopefully get a few more details on the Bear Valley situation. Bear Valley Mountain needs to submit their operation plan to the USFS for review by October 15th. Their agreement stipulates that they need to operate for 120 days per year which they did last season. So the ownership group has over a month before they need to have plans to the USFS. More to follow...


worth reading the comments

[ecobrad]

It'd be a shame if Bear didn't open. Nice little mountain, especially when Grizzly Bowl is open.

[powdrhound]

Yes, interesting comments section.
Hoping they are able to get it together.

[PowTrees]

I've always wanted to ski Bear Valley since having such a great time at high Sierra music festival in 1999. Hope you get new management, can't imagine there's not plenty fun the terrain.

I saw in the comments that a Dundee something was involved. If its the same company that manages A-basin, I'd definitely root for them to take over. They've made a lot of upgrades at A-basin, mostly for better.

[~mikey b]

Dundee has been an owner of BV for years

[LongShortLong]

Good comments. The 'raghead' link spammer is a nice touch, too.

Hopefully BV can get their act together. I put in a couple days there each season and there's been some nice sleeper pow days. I mean uh... nothing to see here.

[MrSmith]

I have neighbors with cabins up there that would be super bummed if the resort didn't make it. Never been there myself but always wanted to check it out. Hope it pulls through.

[~mikey b]

unofficial gossip, rumor and innuendo alert!
from a reliable source
Bear Valley will operate winter 2012-2013

[whyturn]

Curious having never been there. Is it a good alternate to put a happy face on my June mtn sad face due to winter closure 2012/2013?

[~mikey b]

better than having it closed that's for damn sure - especially for local folks - worth a visit when the goods are good and Griz is open - they have fantastic side-country

[whyturn]

I like sidecountry, sounds good. Glad they are surviving...........