Last year, the board of directors for ORDA, New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority, authorized Ted Blazer to negotiate a new contract with Centerplate, the concessionaire for the authority.
Part of the deal requires Centerplate to invest in the ORDA venues. Gore Mountain is targeting the public lodges for this capital improvement.
This past week, reports surfaced that the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) was exploring taking over the management of the Catskills’ troubled state-owned and -operated ski area, Belleayre. Thursday, in a press release, Coalition to Save Belleayre Chairman Joe Kelly cautiously endorsed this possibility. He called this moment “a turning point,” and went on to add that the DEC is “too busy and too distracted to properly operate a ski facility.”
In an interview on NYSkiBlog last year, Kelly’s frustration with DEC management of Belleayre was quite clear. While not directly suggesting that ORDA run Belleyare, he touched upon how a closer working relationship with the authority could benefit all three state-owned mountains.
Bruce McCulley is the General Manager of the king of New York State ski mountains: Whiteface. We had a chance to catch up with him this past week, just before the opening of the 2010-2011 season.
NYSkiBlog: When and where did you start to ski?
Bruce McCulley: I started skiing here at Whiteface when I was 19. I was hired in July 1981, one year after I graduated from high school.
NYSB: What were your positions at Whiteface before you became GM?
Bruce: I started as a lift attendant. I’ve been a snowmaker, on the trail crew, the night snowmaking foreman, lift supervisor and the assistant General Manager.
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