WOODFORD – Nearly seven years have passed since the big news was announced that Prospect Mountain Ski Area would transition from a privately owned area to a nonprofit organization.
Dave Newell, chairman of the board of the Prospect Mountain Association, spoke to members of the Bennington County Regional Commission on Thursday at the region’s base camp, where the BCRC held its July meeting.
He detailed the history of skiing on the mountain, which began in the late 1930s. Originally a downhill ski area, cross-country ski trails were added over time. In 1980, local attorney and historian Joe Parks purchased the area.
Parks sold it to a Connecticut man and Merchant’s Bank took over in 1992. However, the area’s general manager, Steve Whitham, and his partner Andrea Amodeo managed to buy it from the bank and they successfully operated it as a Nordic-only area until 2018. Reasons for this included insurance costs, outdated lifts and a lack of snow. In 2017, the couple notified prospective buyers that they wanted to exit ownership.
“We set up a 501c3 plan and found a way to buy Prospect Mountain,” Newell said. “We built a working relationship with Williams College, whose alumni have been very helpful.”
“The purchase price for Prospect was $900,000. And the alumni paid half of that, so $450,000, a good start. We did a capital campaign where we raised about $325,000,” Newell said.
Donald Campbell, currently project manager at the Vermont Land Trust, helped secure a grant from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board for another $265,000 in exchange for a conservation easement on the mountain. “That means we can’t build on anything, it’s just for recreational use,” Newell said. “And that’s what we did. We actually ended up with more than we needed to buy that, and we used a lot of it for improvements.”
Williams College has four members on the board. “We have a good working relationship with them. So next season, believe it or not, will be our seventh since 2018,” Newall said. “And they’ve all gone pretty well. Weather is a big factor, sometimes great, sometimes not. Last winter wasn’t great, but we managed to get through it and still be a little bit in the black at the end of the season.”
“We invested, believe it or not, about $1.1 million in equipment and building improvements up here. The wastewater plant alone cost $160,000. But that was important,” he said with a laugh.
Newell is a local businessman and father of four-time Winter Olympian Andy Newell, who skied in the area as a child.
There are two full-time employees. They are Steve Whitham, who has been with the resort for 44 years and is the mountain manager, and Steve White, the assistant general manager. In the winter, five part-time employees join in to help run the restaurant, ski rentals and provide instruction.
“For those of us who have been involved for many years, Prospect is a labor of love,” Newell said. “We have a spiritual connection to this place and want to preserve it forever for our children and grandchildren.”
Past and future events in the area include the Massachusetts High School Championships, the Vermont High School Championships, the Williams College Winter Carnival, and a regional competition for under 16s. The Bill Koch Youth Ski League, which has approximately 75 young people participating, also uses the area. In addition, the area is frequently used by Mount Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts for training and racing.
The lodge can also be booked for wedding celebrations and in summer hikers are welcome in the area.
“We believe we provide an economic benefit to the Bennington area during the winter,” Newell said. “All of that brings people to Bennington to stay, use our restaurants and enjoy our retail stores.”
Last year, Prospect added snowmaking to about 1.1 kilometers of trails. “We’re going to expand that to a 2-kilometer snowmaking loop,” Newell said. “That seems like something you don’t need in the winter, but you need it because the snow isn’t as good as it used to be. And that allows us to open earlier and have something when we might not have anything else. And then we can have more events here.”
He added: “We have found that artificial snow is denser and holds better than natural snow.” However, this is hard and labour-intensive work that has to be done at night, he said.
“We are still working on getting by with volunteers and some part-time staff,” he said.
BCRC Executive Director Bill Colvin praised Newell. “I think a consistent theme for Dave is community spirit,” Colvin said. “He contributed to the Putnam Block project, led this effort to keep Prospect open and vibrant and local, and the community was always his first priority.”
