5 p.m. deadline come and gone: with no action from delegation, Wood and Lambert consider resignation

Lambert folded and unfolded an unsigned resignation letter in his hands. 

“I had made up my mind to do this tonight,” Lambert said, referring to his letter, if no action or action plan had come from the delegation. “But I owe this one last opportunity to the wonderful staff to make this work.” 

In an interview, County Delegation Chair Rep. Mike Sylvia said that Wood and Lambert had written to him saying they would resign at 5 p.m. today if Strang remained on the commission. 

Lambert said, if nothing had changed, he intended to sign that resignation, effective immediately, on Monday. 

Wood was less specific. Though she said she had written a resignation letter, she “didn’t even print it out.” 

“We are not prepared to throw in the towel yet,” Wood said, “I am a person of faith, and I’m trying to hold out hope that there’s something salvageable in Strang and that he will do the right thing.”

“We have zero regrets about the heavy lifting we’ve done and the time we’ve spent with staff,” Wood continued. “But we’re tired of being the firewall here.” 

“Our battle to save this mountain is not over.” Wood said. “But it is for this weekend.” Wood said that she and Lambert would be spending the weekend with their families. 

Lambert alluded to incoming “serious issues that might affect us as commissioners,” before Wood made her own comment. “There is a serious urgency at hand that we have tried to convey since the resignations.” 

This vague language echoed Lambert’s comments in the meeting earlier Friday about the mountain being down to hours not days. 

Wood said that in her mind, Strang had vacated his oath of office by walking out of the GAC’s two most recent meetings and by not engaging with Gunstock’s staff since the resignation of the senior leadership. “The ball is in his court,” she said. 

Strang could not be reached for comment. 

Sylvia, who is running for re-election to his seat representing Belmont this September, said that he was still awaiting their resignations, “so that Dr. Strang can get to the business of trying to reopen the mountain.” Sylvia said his primary objective was to open the mountain as soon as possible, and criticized Wood and Lambert for taking public comment before attending to the business on the commission’s agenda at its meeting on Tuesday. 

Sylvia said he told Strang not to resign, and asked the GAC’s counsel, former Attorney General Joseph Foster, to be prepared to assist Strang. 

Sylvia said that the closing of the mountain, in the short and, potentially, long-term, was the fault of the former management for resigning and “no one else.”

He said he was “disappointed that former Commissioner Peter Ness was badgered out of office,” and accused Wood and Lambert of raising their voices to Ness during the non-public session. 

In the meantime, Sylvia felt Lambert and Wood were stalling, and in so doing harming the mountain. “This business doesn’t age well in a hot sun,” Sylvia said. 

Sylvia also said he had letters of interest for Gunstock management positions from four people, including at least one former general manager of a “high level east coast ski area,” and several retired chief executive officers from the local area.