Ops Report 7/13/25: A Letter to the Waterville Valley Community, A Vision of the Future, the Week that Broke My Heart, and a Promise to Keep the Gates Open

Hi Friends,

I think I've lived a year this week - a true roller coaster of ups and downs. We have had some spectacular moments of success... Collaborative Town-Resort On Mountain Emergency Training, winning the Spirit Award in the Town 4th of July parade, multiple project milestone completions. But these moments have been marred, interrupted by bewildering and hurtful comments from our community. I am so proud to be a member of the Resort team and part of this Valley - I am honored to be the Ops Team Manager. But this week, I am disappointed. If you are outside of the Valley and reading this for your interest in Mountain Operations, please feel free to skip it, but if you want the inside scoop on the blood, sweat, and tears it takes, not just to maintain a resort, but to grow a resort, read on....

Watervillians! Our Community Members! This one is for you....

A little background for those people outside of the Valley

Many decades ago, Tom Corcoran flew over this place - a town of 11 residents in the middle of vast swaths of National Forest - and he said "This is the place!" He envisioned a beautiful ski resort nestled in the mountains with a classic, New England town at the end of the road. I can't imagine what he went through to build what we have today, but I do know that he famously said, "The mountain comes first." And Tom was not wrong. To grow a community, to create a thriving town, this place needed an attraction to get people in the door. And Tom also knew that once you build the attraction, a ski resort in this instance, you would then need to build out the town. And he did that.

But he also knew that this place could not remain stagnant, it could not be preserved in amber. As other resorts grew around New England, he knew that we also needed to expand to stay relevant. The attic of the Admin Building at the resort is chock full of plans - multiple iterations of attractions and expansions planned and never built, collecting dust for decades - a blueprint of a Gondola that would connect the Town and the Resort lays faded on the floor. Tom's beautiful dream became a harsh reality - bankruptcy, sale of the resort, multiple turnovers of ownership - the resort and the town, despite his best intentions, did remain a butterfly in amber for decades.

When I arrived here, Waterville Valley Resort was owned by Booth Creek. Run from afar out of Park City, the dated, dark base lodge and antique lifts seemed an odd paradox to the beautiful village I fell in love with. I decided to stay here because of the WOW factor driving into the valley - the quintessential New England town of yesteryear - but once you looked closely, the trim was falling off and the buildings needed paint, the restaurants were never open and the arcade housed games from 1982. And perhaps it was actually THIS that attracted me to stay. This is a place where I could make a difference.

In 2010, the Sununu Family, longtime members of the ski community in Waterville Valley, purchased the resort, including Town Square and the Conference Center. They soon brought on Tim Smith, who rose to General Manager. With immediacy and urgency, they embarked on remedying years of deferred maintenance, then moved to update much of the dated infrastructure: they updated the lifts on High Country and the Pasture, began replacing outdated snowmaking equipment with high efficiency guns, and they successfully completed the Green Peak expansion. I first began working with Tim when he wanted to update the base lodge. This project was near and dear to my heart. From the moment I began working with Tim and our ownership team, I knew these were the people who could help me make a difference. This was what I was waiting for. And I joined the management team.

"The Mountain Comes First"

I say this phase often in my head. It gives me comfort to know that Tom felt the same way. Without the skiers, without the guests, we would dwindle back down to a town of 11. I often think about how much time, energy, effort and money we put into the mountain infrastructure: New lifts, expanded base lodge, new restaurants, more snow guns, more snow, a massive replacement of White Peaks Express. And while we will never be "done" improving the mountain, it is now time to turn our attention to the town.

Over the last eight years, we have tackled massive capital projects at the mountain: Building the Tecumseh Express, adding the Freestyle Lounge addition onto the base lodge, building snowmaking infrastructure on High Country to create our early season training venue, and this year, building a T-bar. But while we are doing these large projects, we have also focused our efforts on the maintenance of our town properties. For those of you who don't know, we own and operate Town Square, the Conference Center, the Silver Fox, the Snow Star Inn (as partial owners), the Welcome Center and Snow's Mountain. And at these properties, we have tackled a lot of maintenance items - new roofing, windows and siding at the Snow Star, rot repair and staircase replacement in Town Square, roofing and interior upgrades at the Conference Center. Other than the snazzy interior design project in the Conference Center, none of these are sexy projects - nobody really oohs and ahhhs about new railings or waxes lyrical about EPDM roofing. Not all that exciting as, let's say.... a six-pack bubble lift.

But now it's time for our town properties to shine! In 2019, the Sununu Family formed Tyrell Development Company to acquire the undeveloped commercial land in the center of town, the same land that was the object of so many unrealized development plans by Tom Corcoran’s Waterville Company. They developed a conceptual Master Plan for finally achieving that vision, and have been open and transparent about sharing that plan with the community. In June, Tyrell proposed a site plan to the Planning Board for a new Adventure Center on some of this undeveloped land in the heart of town. I am really proud of this site plan. This site plan was the first step in realizing that Master Development Plan and a significant step forward after 15 years of ownership's work - 15 years of delving through those dusting plans on the admin floor, meeting with project specialists, defining and redefining master development plans for the resort and the town center. 15 years of collecting feedback from community leaders, guest research, and studies by industry experts. 15 years of drawing and redrawing the future buildings and infrastructure that will define our town. This type of creativity and innovation would not be possible if we had been purchased by a large conglomerate. The types of community considerations and respect for community are not in alignment with corporate values. The respectful development of this Valley hinges on independent ownership - we are truly blessed.

As this first step started to come to fruition, our management team spent a lot of time with James Sununu discussing the look, the function, and the design of the buildings and features. We spent considerable time within our management group discussing what types of amenities our guests would enjoy in addition to the beautiful hiking, biking, and skiing we already have in the Valley. We spent a great deal of time discussing how the buildings and features would fit into the current look of the town as well as flow into the spaces proposed by Tyrell's Master Development Plan. We know not everyone is going to agree on the direction we take with these projects, but we always consider the impact on the community and try to balance that with the benefits that come with more activity and visitation for the resort and all the businesses in town. My heart was full to bursting - proud of our ownership who continue to invest in this resort, proud to be an integral member of the management team tasked with executing the plan, proud of Waterville.

The Week My Heart Broke

Over the last several days, multiple town meetings have taken place regarding this site plan. We had the first public hearing on the proposed Adventure Center on Tuesday. In the FIRST public hearing, on the FIRST step to realizing the master development plan for this town, this is how our community responds? This is not a town supporting each other – these were hateful, hurtful comments meant to shut down the start of something beautiful. It was not constructive, it was not respectful. It offended every one of our employees in that room and their families. It was a blatant attack on our ownership, who are proud to contribute to this valley. Shame. Shame on each and every individual that chose the easy route of denigrating our past and our future. Shame on every person who did not choose the moral path of respectful deliberation. Can you hear that? That is the sound of Tom banging his head against his grave. Shame.

And while I consider myself a member of this community by default, the government doesn't see it that way. I am actually a resident of Campton and cannot participate in Waterville Valley town meetings or submit comments. I couldn't be a part of this process, so I sat on the sidelines and watched. And listening to the division within our community, listening to the vitriolic comments being made about us and about our ownership, my heart broke. Where is my community? Where is the Waterville I love? This dark negativity, these malicious comments - this is not the town I know and love.

There were many operational questions raised online, on Facebook, in the town meetings, which could not be addressed in that forum. In watching the town meetings online, I knew I cannot participate in meetings, address the planning board, or submit comments... But I have a blog 🙂

Operational decisions may seem odd from the outside looking in. Why do we leave the bubble chairs on the line when we have a nice big barn to store them? We have had chairs on the line the last two weeks because our electrical team is upgrading the lighting to commercial LED work lighting for our lift maintenance and lift operations teams. In my budget, I asked for funding to do some work in the barn this summer to improve the workspace for chair maintenance and improve the lighting for the employees that need to use this space on a daily basis, both winter and summer. I was so happy that our management team and ownership were in agreement that this was a worthy endeavor to undertake. We've had the chairs on the line to start this work because - well, it’s not easy to hang lights with chairs in the way. Lucky us, we have a haul rope to store them on. We also put chairs on the line for weddings, rehearsals, group bookings, events, and for maintenance purposes. If you see the chairs out, it is because my team is working on something or the lift is being used, not because we are negligent.

Why do we use humans to scan tickets instead of machines? Here at Waterville, where we are proudly independent and not corporately owned, we like the human touch. I think there is nothing better than skiing up to the corral and seeing Butch and his team smiling at me, saying good morning, and yes - scanning my season pass - even though they probably know my face better than my own children at this point. AI and gates won't ask me my how my daughter is doing, won't tell me to enjoy the snow, won't ask me how my last run was - I like that, we like that here - its part of being a community.

Why isn't every building brand new and perfect? The Sununu's purchased a resort with 20 years of deferred maintenance. Even if we had all the money in the world, we couldn't fix it all right now. As a planning team, we spend a significant amount of time making lists of capital projects and purchases, major repairs, and infrastructure upgrades. Our board has a process to determine how much capital funding we are allotted and we are held to account for spending it all on capital repairs and maintenance to make sure we never default to a state of disrepair again. This isn't a small sum of money and it isn't a small amount of time it takes to complete the projects and repairs this funding is allocated for. We prioritize, we strategize, we execute.

Off the top of my head and in no particular order, here is a partial list of the capital maintenance building projects we have completed in the last four years (not even including lifts or snowmaking infrastructure): Installation of a LULA elevator in the base loge, upgraded furniture and server station in Freestyle, renovated Freestyle Basement into a meeting room for the Silver Streaks and Children's programs, replacement of the T-bars roof, replacement of the Kids Kamp Roof, replacement of the Snow Factory Roof, replacement of the Conference Center roof, replacement of the windows, siding and roofing at the Snow Star Inn, remodel of the Silver Fox apartment, build out of a new competition center in the Tecumseh barn (in conjunction with BBTS), new coffee shop in the base lodge, new PHQ building at the top of the mountain, three new exterior stairwells in Town Square, all new railings in Town Square, full interior remodel of the Conference Center, replacement of the fire alarm system at the Conference Center, new kitchen equipment and lodging furniture purchased for all lodging properties and the Conference Center and base lodge kitchen, installation of new fire alarm system at the Snow Factory, renovation of Child Care, renovation of Butch's Bungalow (new lift ops building), light interior renovation of T-bars restaurant, and new flooring installation in Kids Kamp.

Our ownership provided the funding for these projects. Our GM, Tim Smith, and the planning team approved these projects. And my team executed them. When the community questions our ability to maintain our current infrastructure, when they question our commitment to our properties in town and on the mountain, my heart breaks - for my team, for my GM, for our owners, for all of us who have put our life's work into this place.

Community Participation and Ops

Last Friday, my team and I were too busy having fun at the Town 4th of July parade to get you an update. Every year, we participate in the parade with our Resort Family. My team is proud to help gather the equipment, trailers and trucks, get it all decorated with our co-workers and then wave to the crowd from our floats. This year, I rode on the front of the snowmaking float with my youngest daughter and the daughters of my employees. We all had a great time waving to guests and locals alike. Next year, my Ops team thinks they want to do a competition between Ops departments to see who can make the best float and be the most festive - we are all going to create department slogans and yell them loud and proud. Did you see Bruce the Moose in the work chair? That's Caleb from lift maintenance ! I think the 4th is his favorite day of the year because he gets to be Bruce for the day. Next year, I hope to see all of the local businesses out their participating - it’s a fun, competitive community event that the guests love!

Yesterday, the Town of Waterville Life Safety Department hosted an On Mountain Emergency Medical training with all of our resort staff. This was the first time we have done an extensive training with the town in this fashion and it was hugely beneficial to our staff. Often times when we are not in ski season, our staff is out on the mountain and not in easy reach. If a medical emergency does occur, we want our people to have training to handle the situation until help can arrive. We talked a lot about how our resort staff can interface and assist the responding town professionals when there is an emergency. We had good discussions about how to handle guest and/or resident medical emergencies if they occur at our town properties. No one wants to have tragedy strike; but if it does, we want our employees to be ready to help, calm and collected, active participants in whatever capacity they can serve. A huge thank you to Chief Noyes and his staff - they were engaging and positive and taught even some of our seasoned professionals a thing or two 🙂

Keep the Gates of Waterville Open

Now is the time to pull together as a community - ownership, management, resort teams, town employees and residents. Now is the time to continue the life-long vision of connecting the town and the resort - literally and figuratively. Creating sustainable development, attractive amenities, and expanding our available activities will help this town prosper and thrive. Giving children appropriate amenities to play and explore will build the base of young families who love this Valley as much as you do. Building a better Nordic Center with easier access to trails will grow the nordic community and expose more people to the wonderous nature that surrounds the Valley.

And for those of you who have questions and concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out and ask us directly. We are open and willing to have these conversations with our community members. That is part of the reason why we started this blog - to be transparent, to give our season pass holders and community members insight into what we do. If the communication is honest and respectful, we will hear you out - let's drop the doomsday dialogue and have a constructive conversation. And for those of you who would like to engage in this conversation, please email tsmith@waterville.com to be sent the link for our bi-weekly community meeting. This is a great forum to hear what is going on and ask questions.

Please, my beloved community members, do not close the drawbridge yet - keep innovating and developing - open your hearts and minds to exposing the next generation to this great Valley. I know Tom would have.

M

- Marissa P., Operations Manager