EC: Game on!

[Dexter Rutecki]

Just wanted to do a PSA for ECers. Snow conditions, based on my Mt. Slow journey yesterday, are not bad. Surprisingly good, in fact. I think Mt. Snow/Stratton/Magic etc. got about 6" over the past two days, and it wasn't excessively windy. Combined with the massive snowmaking that Mt. Snow does, it made for a groomerific day. So don't be too worried about bad conditions--and the cold should keep crowds away (maybe).
Note: I ain't guaranteeing anything, just letting you know what I experienced. So don't blame me.

[shamrockpow]

Yeah, with current temp listed for Jay at -15F/ -26C and -5F (feels like -20F) at Killington, I think the mountains should be pretty empty

[gincognito]

I'll be at Jay tomorrow regardless. Time to really test them gloves.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and no chance you'll find me on the Freezer),
d.

[CantDog]

Yeah conditions really havent been as bad as people have made them out to be the last week. I hiked up the skiway the last two nights to get some moonlight turns and it was actually pretty good. Some powder and windblown to be found on closed trails, and the rest was groomed quite well. I'm up at Sugarbush tomorrow, I think there is still fresh stuff to be found in the woods. Also, outlook looks good for next week, I've heard preliminary estimates of 10-15 inches(knock on wood) from the next system.

[Odin]

KILLINGTON, Vt. - Officials in the popular ski resort area of Killington want the town to secede from Vermont and join neighboring New Hampshire in a dispute over taxes.

They say the town's restaurants, inns and other businesses send $10 million a year to the state capital in sales, room and meal taxes, but the state returns just $1 million in state aid to Killington.


Even more galling to the town is a statewide property tax imposed in 1997 to fund schools. The town of 1,092 won a Superior Court order that called the state's method of assessing local properties "arbitrary and capricious," but the state Supreme Court reversed that decision.


"It kind of reminds us of Colonial days," Town Manager David Lewis said Thursday. "The Colonies were being faced with the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, the Sugar Act. England wasn't giving them any rights. They were treating the Colonies as just a revenue source."


New Hampshire, just 25 miles east, has no income tax or sales tax.


Killington's Select Board wants to put the secession idea before voters on Town Meeting Day in March.


Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said Killington has little chance of secession "absent an armed insurrection type of thing. ... A town is a construction of the state and exists at the pleasure of the Legislature."


New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said he would be flattered if Vermont wanted to join New Hampshire — but he's not making any promises.


In Killington, not everyone likes the idea.


"I love having a Vermont address. I'm proud of it. It's a cool place to live," said resident Steven Kelly.




Be warry the "recruitment" drives!