By KRISTINA
SHEVORY Published: January 8, 2009 New York Times
Belleayre:
The Last Resort - A documentary in progress.
SAVE
THE CATSKILLS AND NYC WATER SUPPLY Rally
with Sierra Club at Manhattan City Hall Thursday, March 13.
An
open letter to the Kingston Freeman
To
the Editor:
Probably
the best way to jeopardize the future well-being of the Belleayre
Mountain Ski Center is to hitch its wagon to a highly speculative
and controversial mega-development. In addition, the $56+ million
public subsidy for the proposed expansion and private development
agreed to in the AIP is a questionable use of taxpayer dollars
and has sparked justified resentment from the hard-pressed private
ski centers in Greene County. In a time of shrinking budgets and
unreliable snowfall, there is no urgency to Belleayre’s
continued expansion. However, the Coalition for Belleayre is once
again calling itself the Coalition to Save Belleayre to make the
spurious claim that Belleayre’s expansion and partnership
with Crossroads Ventures is do or die. Belleayre is not suffering
from any lack of investment or skiers. Superchief was just upgraded
to a high-speed lift last season and the ski center has been attracting
record numbers of skiers this season. What Belleayre needs is
more natural snow. No amount of money can change that. Pushing
forward with a 40% expansion will make the lack of natural snow
that much more of a problem. Belleayre should continue to do what
it has done so well for 60 years- provide a family friendly, less
commercial and more affordable skiing experience. Embroiling the
historic ski center in controversy and tying its fortunes to a
highly speculative destination resort is detracting from what
Belleayre does best. The main threat to Belleayre is coming from
people who are using it as a straw man in pursuit of their own
agenda.
2/19/2008 Matthew Frisch, coordinator
Highmount Preservation Association
The
Highmount Preservation Association
is
a group of concerned people, both full and part time residents and other
concerned citizens, established in August 2007. Our website is www.SaveHighmount.com
We
have come together
in response to the recently released "Agreement in Principle" which
outlines a vastly overscaled development including a major new section,
high on steep mountain slopes, in the Catskill Park, in the New York
City Watershed and adjacent to the Forver Wild state forest.