Mayor seeks to demote Eaglecrest’s board to ‘advisory’ role in wake of resignations of top leaders
- Mark Sabbatini
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
General manager, board chair stepped down last Thursday; Weldon says ‘I just think the city needs to have more oversight’ as major decisions on gondola, budget loom
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Demoting Eaglecrest Ski Area’s board of directors from an empowered board authorized to enact policy to an advisory board under the authority of the Juneau Assembly is being sought by Mayor Beth Weldon.
"This action has nothing to do against the board…and it's nothing against the staff," she said during an Assembly meeting Monday night. "I just think the city needs to have more oversight of what’s happening to Eaglecrest."
The city attorney has been asked to draft language enacting the change, which would need to be approved by the Assembly.
"We can't do much with it unless we get our hands on it," Weldon said in an interview after the meeting. "Some of us are trying to save Eaglecrest and this is about the only way to save it."
The resignations of Eaglecrest General Manager Craig Cimmons and board chairperson Hannah Shively were announced at the ski area’s board meeting on Thursday evening. Shively said she is departing for health reasons. A reason has not been publicly stated for Cimmons departure.
Weldon said the resignations are what motivated the request to change the ski area’s board to advisory status.
The announcement comes as Eaglecrest is preparing to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of its original opening date on Saturday.
Eaglecrest is going through a multitude of short- and long-term struggles, including water not being available at the resort since Dec. 19 due to a broken water main pipe and the Ptarmigan chairlift to the top of the mountain being closed for repairs. The ski area’s website states it hopes to open the chairlift as of Wednesday and testing of the water system is scheduled early this week.
The ski area is also projecting a deficit of $6 million during a three-year period before the hoped-for opening of a gondola in May of 2028. However, the gondola isn’t a certainty since Assembly is scheduled to decide in March whether to proceed with the installation of the used lift after getting a cost estimate from the general contractor.
Assembly member Neil Steininger, the liaison to Eaglecrest’s board, said after Monday’s meeting there was shared agreement among some city leaders a change in the ski area’s management authority was needed in the wake of the resignations. He said an advisory board designation for the Eaglecrest board would still allow it to "be the voice of the skiers."
"This would preserve the board as a tool for community input," he said, adding it also "would allow the general manager of Eaglecrest to work more directly with the city manager" on key issues.
The city has already stepped in to an extent on the gondola project by hiring Craig Dahl, a former longtime executive director of the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce, to be a special projects manager with an emphasis on overseeing the ski area’s efforts to transition to large-scale year-round tourism.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
