September 10, 2003
Saving slope uphill battle
Volunteers work to reopen 34-acre Mt. Holiday ski hill
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Members of the Mount Holiday Ski and Recreation Area continue to invite community members to 'become a somebody.'
This informal slogan reflects many comments that people trying to save Mount Holiday received when they asked for money to purchase the property two years ago. When someone would sadly talk about its possible closing and the development of the hill, declaring 'Somebody should do something,' they would counter with, 'Become a somebody.'
This summer, many volunteer 'somebodies' have been making a difference at the 34-acre, two-lift ski hill nestled in Holiday Hills. Thursday nights and Sunday mornings, volunteers have gathered for months to help the non-profit organization get ready to open this season. This is on top of years of fundraising, administrative, accounting and legal efforts that have gone into making this fall's final push to open possible.
"This has been absolutely a community effort. There's no way this would have been achievable, without not just the monetary contributions, which certainly are critical, but the skills and volunteer hours," said Jim Kalajian, president of the Mount Holiday, Inc. board.
Kalajian estimates the number of volunteer hours invested in the project at nearing 10,000 and noted that the skilled trades are well represented among them.
"It's not just been people who have been helping with what I would call the more basic things like painting and raking, but very skilled labor like electricians and carpenters," he said. "The kind of folks you have to go out and pay good money to get things done."
Mike Shea is a 'somebody' who has completed a variety of carpentry work at the lodge and on the grounds this summer. A self-termed builder and ski bum, Shea has fond memories of skiing Mount Holiday in the late 1960s and wants future generations to be able to enjoy it.
"I'm here because I got so much out of it when I was here as a kid," said Shea, who was a member of the ski patrol at Mount Holiday. "I think it is such a great asset and it just has a lot of great sentimental value."
The organization is still approximately $30,000 short of the money needed to open. A Saturday car wash and oil change fund-raiser netted the organization another $3,500 but more 'somebodies' are still needed.
"Our main concern is the exterior equipment and the lifts, the tube lifts and the safety of the facility," said Kalajian, who noted 'scope control' was key to keeping the project moving. "We've not done a thing to the interior simply because it is not mission critical."
Mount Holiday began in 1954 when a group of local businessman in the East Bay Business Association decided to create a local ski facility.
Tom Hall, whose father, James, was one of the founders, recalled that Holiday Hills was totally undeveloped at the time. Between the grocery store at Five Mile and Holiday Road and the hill, there was just one subterranean house, nothing else but hills and trees.
"We used to tramp up there on our skis and go way up the road before any runs were cut in the hill," said Hall of his youth in the late 40s and early 50s. "They - my dad and some other people, such as Ken Ferguson, Bob Yeiter and Arnie Bohn - saw the potential of the ski hill and they got together and leased the land from the state."
After acquiring the land, the ski area soon developed into a local institution. Thousands of young skiers learned moves and skills on a hill located - for many in the fast-developing area - right in their own backyard. Hall recalled that the floor from the one-room Elmwood School was used in building the lodge while a massive beam over the lodge's fireplace still holds generations of youthful carvings.
Despite its popularity, the changing array of Mount Holiday owners struggled to make a profit. When Warren Brosch purchased the property in 1986, he threw his passion and vision into the endeavor, gaining a reputation for valuing kids over the bottom line. He worked 20-hour days if necessary to keep it going during the season, struggling to stay afloat.
Brosch's accidental death in November of 1999 threw the facility's future in doubt; the Brosch family ran it for the season then decided to sell it.
When word got around that the property was for sale, Hall said he and some others began meeting a few years ago to try and save it. They wound up purchasing 34 acres plus some equipment and renovations began.
"When I found out it was on the block for sale and developers were salivating over it, as you can understand, I got on the phone and put together a nucleus of these young Turks," recalled Hall. "We met for lunch and decided we had to do something about it. If you let it go, it will never come back so we had to step up to the plate and do what we did."
A few years later, with an opening date looming, the Mount Holiday board is determined to keep the spirit of an accessible ski hill alive in town.
"We were bound and determined to succeed and to keep it hereafter in community sponsorship," said Hall. "We made it non-profit to make it long term viable and also to keep the rates as low as possible."