Chair resigns from Gunstock Area Commission; Wood and Lambert demand delegation take action

GILFORD — Gunstock Area Commission Chair Peter Ness tendered his resignation at 12:08 p.m. Friday, just over an hour into what would be nearly a two-and-a-half-hour-long, non-public session during the commission's emergency meeting at Gunstock Mountain Resort. Two minutes after Ness resigned, Commissioner David Strang departed the meeting. Ness and Strang attended the meeting remotely via Zoom.

In a statement during the public session that followed, Commissioner Jade Wood said that, by departing the meeting part way through for the second time this week — Strang and Ness both exited Tuesday’s meeting before adjournment — Strang was “once again neglecting his obligation to his office despite our attempts to impress upon him the gravity of his recruitment in his own role as a commissioner.” Strang failed to identify his location during the meeting. 

Lambert and Wood commended Ness for his decision to resign and urged Belknap County residents to both contact their state representatives to share their thoughts and also to reach out to Strang directly and push him to resign, “until the ink dries on his resignation letter.”

Lambert said that he had signed documentation from each of Gunstock’s departed senior management affirming they would return to their posts with the removal of Ness and Strang and with no other requests or demands. Lambert said that if Strang would “do the right thing and resign,” the management could return “within days,” and it could be possible for Gunstock to operate its chairlift, zip lines, and other adventure park services in time for Soulfest, scheduled for Aug. 4-6 at the mountain.

Lambert went on to pin the increasing threat to Gunstock’s ability to have a winter season on Strang.

“I know it sounds harsh and intense. It pains me to say that,” Lambert said. “The gravity of the situation is such that that man needs to resign.”

“If not, one could say forevermore that David Strang was responsible for the fall of Gunstock Mountain,” Lambert continued. 

Lambert compared Strang to President Richard Nixon. Nixon, Lambert said, “had lost any and all public trust. Barry Goldwater, a well-respected and fellow Republican, was instrumental in getting Nixon to resign.”

Lambert then said that he was asking members of the Belknap County Delegation, responsible for the hiring and removal of all GAC members, to “all become Barry Goldwaters.”

Wood also issued a call to action for the delegation. The delegation’s next meeting is set for Monday, Aug. 8, and a consideration of the calls for Strang’s resignation is not currently on the agenda.

Wood and Lambert issued a demand that members of the delegation speak out on where they stand on Gunstock before 5 p.m. Friday.

“This is the 11th hour for Gunstock,” Wood said. “I can no longer physically, emotionally or spiritually remain complicit while these people [delegation members] remain complacent.”

A member of the audience asked whether, when Wood asked county leadership to step up, if she “was referring to Norm and Mike,” referencing Reps. Norm Silber and Mike Sylvia, who respectively chair the Belknap County Republicans and Belknap County Delegation, and have been vocally critical of Gunstock’s management. Reportedly, Wood and the other remaining members of the GAC, as well as Ness, were recruited to join the GAC by Silber.

“Yes,” Wood said. “I am referring to the people who are under obligation for responsibility to maintain and promote this mountain, which is us and the people who put us in this position.” She emphasized the delegation’s responsibility to ensure that commissioners are in compliance with their duties to the mountain.

“The time [for the delegation] to schedule a meeting for removal, that train has left the station,” Lambert said. Lambert specifically asked Sylvia and Silber to “find it within themselves to understand the severity of the situation and make that call to David Strang,” that it might be effective in a Goldwater-like way.

When asked about the significance of the 5 p.m. deadline, Wood said, “They should be thinking about who we would hand the keys to at 5 p.m. today if we’re not standing in the way of their inaction anymore, and no longer answering for them to you.”

“It’s a deadline for us,” Lambert said. 

He continued cryptically: “Quite frankly there are other very impending things out there. I can’t express enough the enormity of what we have to do. If this doesn’t happen, there isn't going to be a Gunstock, there isn’t going to be a ski season this winter.”

Lambert had referenced a potential need to pull together a new insurance policy but emphasized the deadline was not related to Gunstock’s insurance. 

The 5 p.m. deadline came and went, without incident. 

In an interview Friday afternoon, Lambert said he had been in contact with several delegation members since the meeting to impress upon them the severity of Gunstock’s circumstances and urgency of the need for action.

The meeting concluded with public comment, which was relatively brief after Lambert opened the comment period by noting the pressing nature of his and Wood’s ability to resume working with Gunstock’s staff. 

Among the commenters was McKenna Howard, a 13-year-old member of the Gunstock Ski Club, who was brought to tears by her pleas for Gunstock to be able to open and for Strang to resign.

“Two days ago, my mom explained to me what was happening at Gunstock and that we needed a plan B on where to ski this winter,” Howard said. “I don’t want a plan B.”

Skip Murphy, a Gilford resident and conservative blogger who co-founded the GraniteGrok, spoke out against Lambert.

“You were the subject of a cancel movement,” Murphy said. “And you retreated. I was the one who had to stand and watch your back as you disappeared into the mist because I was associated with you. I find it highly incredible now you leading the same kind of cancel movement against Dr. Strang given that you were the subject of a cancel movement.” 

Lambert said that if he and Wood were to support Strang, it would have perilous consequences for Gunstock, which he felt betrayed his oath as a Gunstock Area Commissioner. 

“I took an oath to work for the best interests of the mountain the staff, the people of Belknap County and the businesses,” Lambert said. Lambert said that it wasn’t just the stakes for Gunstock’s future that urged him to demand Strang’s resignation.

Lambert said the way Strang conducted himself as he performed his duties as commissioner made him uncomfortable. “If I was uncomfortable, I can only imagine about how the people that he was tasked to oversee felt,” Lambert continued. “It’s time, Skip.”

Lambert then became impassioned. He told a story of his grandson, as Lambert was leaving to come to the GAC meeting, saying how excited he was for the ski season. 

“I am not going to look that kid in the eye and tell him that that I didn’t do everything in my power to stop this mountain from closing. And I am not going to sit here and watch people who act and speak based on their egos and their need to have some kind of say. Do you not understand what’s going on?”

“I don’t care because I’m not a skier,” Murphy shot back. He suggested that most people in Belknap County don’t ski, but was shouted over and booed by the crowd. 

“My one motivation is to keep the mountain open, I have no other interest, special or otherwise,” Lambert said. He apologized for raising his voice.

Lambert turned to Murphy again, arguing that the impact of Gunstock on the county went beyond the skiing community, and that the business community would be particularly harmed by Gunstock’s closing, should that happen. 

“You say you’re not a skier. What about Patrick’s? What about Piche’s? What about the hotels?” Lambert said. “What do you think happens if this mountain is not functioning this winter?”

Wood said she respected that people of the public have a right to be heard, and referenced the fervent crowd at Tuesday’s meeting. 

“These people are not a mob,” Wood added. Earlier in the meeting Wood said one of the non-present commissioners had referred to the public as a "mob of rabble."

“Look in their eyes: these are employees, these are members of clubs here, these are people who are taxpayers too. You know as well as I do that they have a right to be heard.” 

Lambert and Wood closed the meeting reiterating their call to action. 

“We are going to find out the truth about what our state and local leadership, county partners and advocates are really made of,” Wood said.