A Dump of Snow Can’t fix EverythingJust days after the end of an embattled season that saw near record snowfall but a dip in visitors at Mt. Bachelor, the brass at POWDR Corp. is apparently clearing house in Bend.
A tipster told Upfront that several front office folks at Mt. Bachelor got their walking papers on Tuesday, including President Matt Janney.
Mt. B’s former marketing director, Carly Carmichael, confirmed that she had been let go by her employer on Tuesday, just one day after the season ended on the mountain.
Carmichael said she couldn’t comment on anything related to her departure.
“They told me they were restructuring,” she said.
Upfront had a subsequent conversation with Justin Yax of DVA, Mt. Bachelor’s local PR firm. Yax confirmed that both Carmichael and Janney had been let go by POWDR, along with two other employees, the ski area’s food and beverage manager and the top “back of the house” manager at the mountain.
Janney’s ouster could represent a huge shift in strategy by POWDR Corp., which brought Janney in to oversee the day-to-day operations and touted his experience at other POWDR Corp. mountains and his personal connection to Mt. Bachelor where he had been a ski patrol member more than a decade earlier.
Janney had met with the Source just a few weeks before the end of the season. During that meeting he described the difficulty of taking over management of a mountain that was beset by complaints from the local public amidst prolonged maintenance issues and pass price increases. Janney described a season in which he spent most of his time identifying issues that were festering since before his arrival.
What’s surprising is how little time he was given to remedy them.
Yax said the decision to let Janney go was based on the POWDR’s desire to not just identify, but implement wholesale changes.
“What I can tell you is that Matt has done an incredible job of identifying issues and challenges that the mountain faces and prioritizing them,” Yax said.
“Matt’s background is on the operations side. With the changes being made, they’re looking to bring in someone who can effectively implement those changes across all aspects of the mountain, from food service to parking lot attendants to ticket managers to grooming,” said Yax, who told Upfront that he had just come out of a meeting with POWDR’s chief operating officer.
“There’s a culture shift that (POWDR) sees needs to take place,” said Yax, with the end result being better customer service.
He pointed out that at least two of the employees let go had been with the mountain for more than two decades. Yax also confirmed that some streamlining of jobs could result from the restructuring.
For our part, Upfront thinks Bachelor haters might want to hold off on the cheers, or at least consider that some of those let go on Bloody Tuesday likely represent some of the deepest connections to the local community.
In other words, be careful what you wish for.
You Call that Graffiti?Vote and Vandalize
The build up to this week’s primary election may have brought out the worst in Bendites whose political fever boiled over into a rash of campaign sign vandalism in the days leading up to Tuesday. On the morning of the actual election day, one Southwest Bend resident awoke to find his Barack Obama sign had been spray painted with the universal “no” sign (red circle with a line though it, duh). The resident said the sign had previously been pulled from the ground and tossed aside.
A local television station also reported that another Central Oregonian had his Hillary Clinton sign stolen from his yard, adding that he’d had the signs from his yard stolen or destroyed once before.
Upfront is left wondering who these sign vandals might be and what exactly they’re out to accomplish. Take the vandalized Obama sign pictured above. Notice the poor paint distribution and the asymmetrical circular pattern: clearly this individual is neither a member of the Bloods nor the Crypts, nor the Bond Street Bad Boys (they’re new). Has this dimwit ever even painted graffiti before this? If you’re going to get involved in political vandalizing, at least do it right, for Dukakis’ sake.
And what do these yahoos really think is going to happen as a result of their cantankerous efforts?
“Well, I was going to vote for this Obama fellow, but I’ll be darned if somebody didn’t cross out his name in red paint. We simply can’t have a president with a big red “X” across his name – what kind of message would that send to our boys overseas?”
Or perhaps…
“Jeez, Clinton had my vote in the bag, but all of the sudden all her signs are gone from our neighborhood. Clearly her popularity has eroded, seeing as how everyone took down their signs – I don’t want to come across as some weirdo at the next neighborhood association meeting, so I’m taking down my Hillary sign too and changing my vote to Ron Paul.”
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.
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Bond Street Bad Boys where do I sign up.
If the Blood Bath at Bachelor is any indication, it is likely that we may see as many Mountain Managers over the next few years as we have seen Hillary Comebacks (Howz dat for coverin’ all da bases!?) The skiing public this year voted with their attendence and demonstrated that talk is no substitute for action. The next person at the helm will get the same reception and review by a pissed off, hyper critical, skiing public and Powdr will probably react the same way.
Turning the area around needs years and dollars–something neither the public nor Powdr will grant.
This moutain needs to take care of safety first. That will rebuild loyalty – imagine lifts working, parts younger than 10 yrs old, terrain parks more professionally built like Whistler etc, friendly staff, just a safer place all around. PR will come after you have something to share – positively. If they try to give Bachelor PR before its time is due, this complaining by the skiing public will continue. They need to be careful on how they sell this little Central Oregon place to the public. Let’s see how all of this is addressed. 4-6 weeks for a new GM – didn’t see any ads in this paper or the Bulletin did you? No one around here can do it right, no one. The local good ole boys can’t help Powdr , have no influence on Powdr and will just have to wait and see what shakes out like everyone else. I say GOOD MOVE!!! This is the 1st step in the PR battle for Powdr – they WANT people happy with the firings. Carly was so unprofessional she hurt the image more than she helped. “like…” Great use of English. HA!
I agree Local Boarder. This community has had it with their lack of genuine care and concern for safety. My neighbor’s daughter was 1 of the many who got covered in oil. She is 13 and trust me it was not a good day for her. Heaven knows what that did to the equipment and the earth. They act like it is no big deal. What will it take – lifts running in reverse throwing hundreds of people to their deaths? They do have a debacle and they deserve it. These issues take years and millions of dollars to resolve and they can not expect people to pay over a thousand dollars for a pass under such mediocre conditions. Lower the pass price immensely while working on the PR in town, rebuild trust with locals and increase ski numbers. All the while pour millions into a strong, steady and purposeful fix of maintenance issues, terrain park safety, train staff properly, hire professionals and then see what happens. They are going to kill someone – problem is LOTS of accidents happen up there – the stupid Bulletin doesn’t report them. If someone gets hurt on a mountain OUT of town, the Bulletin will cover the hell out of it. Lousy every way you look at it.
Are they going to put any money, focus and hire a a professional for their terrain parks? Since they market the hell out of them, like they are something special, I would think they would want to improve them. Boarder #’s overtook skiier numbers yeras ago…. never a mention of it why?