Marc Rousset: Gunstock requires professional management in charge

To The Daily Sun,

Thank you for your continued reporting on Gunstock. We are longtime residents, active in our community and season pass holders at Gunstock. Like many, we are concerned with events at Gunstock. We are guilty of having been asleep at the wheel in local politics, and were suddenly jolted into joining meetings, reaching out to elected officials, and getting involved.

While the recent turmoil appears past, the root of the problem demands attention.

First, the remaining commissioners, Jade Wood and Doug Lambert, need to resign ahead of the end of their term. The GAC is beyond saving as an effective and credible oversight board, and a complete reset is needed despite their best intentions.

Second, the Gunstock Enabling Statute needs to be scrapped and re-written for Gunstock is today, not the mountain it once was. It sows confusion as to who technically runs Gunstock, as disgraced commissioners Mr. Peter Ness and Dr. David Strang rightly pointed out. Perhaps in 1959, when Gunstock was a different mountain, commissioners could reasonably be empowered to “operate and manage” (399:10,d) the mountain, but today that simply is not the case. Resorts of Gunstock’s caliber require professional management, not $25/day elected officials.

The GAC should be re-fashioned into a more typical corporate board. The board would be empowered to oversee and approve audited finances, employment of senior management, approving strategy, along with a long list of typical duties corporate boards have today. This, combined with directly elected, non-partisan board members, would ensure that political irresponsibility and the risk to Gunstock’s operations are minimized. Meanwhile, the citizens of Belknap would retain control over critical decisions like financial liabilities and legal risk.

We look forward to working with our representatives on this issue, toward a solution that assures the viability of our county jewel, Gunstock, for many years to come.

Marc Rousset & The Rousset Family

Laconia