It may seem like I’ve lost my calendar when I tell a story in July about snow skiing in New Hampshire (although the thought of winter is pretty refreshing right now.) Hang on; there’s good reason.
Our story begins in the 1930s with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Great Depression. FDR started the Works Progress Administration to build useful public infrastructure around the nation—but mostly to create jobs for the unemployed. A lot of state and national parks were built by that federal money and those crews.
In New Hampshire, the Belknap County (the ‘k’ in Belknap is silent) delegation to the state legislature huddled and put together a proposal to use WPA funding to build a Belknap Mountain Recreation Area. The Big New Thing in the recreation area would be a downhill ski area. It would have a chairlift and four rope tows, and a nice main lodge. There would also be cross-country ski trails, hiking trails, and camping facilities. (Decades later they added zip lines and other summer attractions, too). The way the WPA funding worked, each dollar from the county was matched by six dollars from the WPA. Belknap County was able to put up some $70,000.
In the 1960s and 1970s when I skied in New Hampshire, I had always heard the area called “Gunstock,” but it had started as “Belknap.”
The local history above claims it was “the focal point for skiing in New England during its early years.” I believe it. Within the next ten to fifteen years, the state of New Hampshire got into the game too, creating state-owned ski areas at Cannon Mountain and at Mount Sunapee.
Here’s the thing. Belknap County is now the reddest County in purple-blue New Hampshire. All 18 of its current representatives to the legislature are Republicans; the Chair of the Belknap County legislative delegation is a Free Stater. And yet the county is running a ski area in competition with the private sector. (It’s our own little Green Bay Packers franchise.) In 2018 Vail Resorts had acquired the Mount Sunapee ski area from the state; could Belknap resist privatizing? The Boston Globe has been looking at the issue.
The whole issue bubbled up earlier this year. State representative Norman Silber of Gilford introduced a bill to put the park/ski area directly under the management and control of the Belknap County delegation. (It has been run by a management team hired by a commission that the delegation appointed.) Silber and his allies said they had no objection to its current operations, but needed greater control. Silber doesn’t ski, and he believes the ski area should be privatized. The House committee chair reviewing the bill reported that they had received five comments in support of his bill, and twelve hundred against it. One reason local control is popular is that the ski area offers ski lessons to local school kids and free lift tickets to residents over 70.
The legislature has not yet taken action, but the county delegation has worked to take control of the commission overseeing the area.
Things came to a head Wednesday night. The eight top managers at Gunstock all resigned. Republican Governor Chris Sununu endorses the managers and says the Silber group is hurting Belknap County.
Gunstock is now Closed Until Further Notice, except for special events that were already committed.
A few morals from this tale:
- Although many Republican leaders and activists are ideological purists, their voters are not. Silber and his colleagues were elected by people who like the public ski area
- Once again: do not expect honesty from these activists. They talked about “budgetary visibility,” but off-camera Silber talks about a chance to raise tax revenues by privatizing. He claims many local business owners had complained about that to him; he refuses to provide names
- I don’t find direct support for this in the reporting, so this last one is my own addition. People like good public services. It makes them more open to the notion that government can work. Any time Democrats help create and deliver a public service of general benefit, it improves our standing with most voters. That is why I think Silber hates such programs.
(Two weeks ago I wrote a diary about Grantham, New Hampshire—only 40 miles from me. Gunstock is closer to 100 miles away. But, we have other posters here with greater local knowledge and I hope they will contribute.)