Belleayre Region Advisory Group

The Belleayre Region Advisory Group (BRAG) is an ad hoc committee of local organizations which recognize Belleayre Mountain Ski Center as the economic lynchpin of the region. Preservation of Belleayre as the major economic engine of the Rt. 28 corridor and the threat to its continued effectiveness due to major budget cuts, is what brought the committee members together.

The group was formed in December, 2010, after a major rally in Highmount to protest massive staff layoffs at the ski center just as the facility was gearing up for its peak operating season. It became obvious after attending an assembly hearing in Albany that under budgetary pressure the DEC could not deal with our major economic asset in a businesslike manner and that neglect was hurting the economic health of our region. The group, which was convened at the Catskill Watershed Corporation, agreed to study Belleayre’s history, its operation, and research other models of operation used for ski centers on public lands throughout the country.

Participants in the meetings included The Town Supervisors of the Town of Middletown and the Town of Shandaken, the Coalition to Save Belleayre, the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, Ulster County, and the MARK Project.

While the Group is diverse in its interests and audiences, all members share the view that there must be a better way to operate the ski center and that the local community must research in a deliberate manner and suggest guiding principles to the new Cuomo Administration before the decision was made on how to proceed with our economic future.

The goal of these meetings was to insure the continued operation of Belleayre Mt. Ski Center in a way that ensures economic stability for the region. Group members agreed it was important to put our communities’ ideas in front of decision makers in Albany rather than waiting for a new administration to impose a solution.

Assisted in its research efforts by the Catskill Watershed Corporation, the Group ultimately agreed on a set of parameters that would be the most effective and viable option to move forward. We purposely did not propose a specific structure, only stated how a new structure could effectively deal with what is best for our region while at the same time recognizing the needs of state government to consolidate and make its operations more efficient. We prepared a report outlining our research, our recommendations and our reasoning for those recommendations. The privatization option was eliminated early on as a non-starter for obvious reasons.

No member of the BRAG group was conducting official business in their deliberations and no member has any actual decision making authority on the ski center’s future. But recent news that Governor Cuomo’s SAGE Commission might make the Belleayre/ORDA recommendation to the Governor is in line with the information developed in the BRAG report. If this report is indeed true we will support the Governor’s recommendation with the specific requirements of meaningful regional representation and fair treatment to the Belleayre employees who worked so diligently under the most difficult conditions to bring about a very successful year at Belleayre.