Belleayre reports excellent conditions
HIGHMOUNT – The $8 million Catskill Thunder gondola has opened at Belleayre Mountain. Assemblyman Kevin Cahill (D, Kingston) celebrated its completion and start up on Wednesday.
The state-owned Belleayre is operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority. Cahill noted Belleayre was omitted from Governor Cuomo’s initial 2017 budget proposal, which did include additional funding for Gore and Whiteface Mountain, sister ski centers.
At the time, Cahill joined forces with State Senator James Seward, Shandaken Town Supervisor Robert Stanley and local advocates to have the funding placed in the governor’s 30-day amendment to his executive budget.
Several years ago, the state transferred Belleayre from the Department of Environmental Conservation to ORDA, and Cahill wants the facility in the Catskills treated equally.
“I appreciate the fact that ORDA has more skill in this area, but if we have to scrap and fight every time to get recognition, then that is not acceptable to me,” Cahill said. “So, when the governor came out with this, I found it ironic that the governor wanted to talk about a budget item that he himself left out.”
Cahill said the governor, a fellow Democrat, chooses “to ignore colleagues in the New York State Assembly on what seems to be a routine basis.”
