Efforts are on hold to restore an old ski lift as tensions have flared again around Cuchara Mountain Park in southern Colorado.
"Right now, we're wondering what's happening," said Mike Moore, among the project's local leaders with a past career in the ski industry.
That included various roles at the Cuchara ski area, which began in the early 1980s and was abandoned in 2000. Moore has helped steer a revival of sorts since 2017, when Cuchara Foundation raised $150,000 to buy the former base area, along with the chairlift referred to as Lift 4, and transferred it to Huerfano County.
A vision was outlined in a master plan: As a year-round, public park came into shape, the county would seek a concessionaire to carry costly insurance, make money on lift rides and keep the community at the forefront.
An arrangement with a suitor fell apart amid controversy last year. The county then struck a one-year agreement with nonprofit Panadero Ski Corp., closely tied to Cuchara Foundation, to continue its mission to get Lift 4 up to working, certified standards and perhaps prove itself as a potential, long-term operator.
The county let that one-year agreement expire this month. Citing safety concerns, officials have ordered Panadero Ski Corp. to stop work and issued a request for qualifications — stopping short of "proposals" but renewing attempts to find an operator.
That's while Cuchara Foundation has asked county commissioners to transfer the land back.
In a letter "humbly requesting" the transfer, the foundation listed "community engagement, environmental stewardship and cultural programming" as benefits to its ownership. Atop that list was "dedicated focus."
The foundation "can dedicate our full attention and resources to the park, ensuring its upkeep and development align with community needs and values," according to the letter.
Players continue to struggle for alignment.
That was underscored last year, when talks fell apart with an outfit called Moss Adventures. Some saw the concessionaire's plans as meeting the vision laid out by the county, while others criticized commissioners for "privatizing" the park.
Locals continue to express excitement for a return to lift-served skiing, however limited, while others see a fool's errand — another doomed attempt in the ski area's history of failure.
"More than the concern of privatization, I just think there are very different visions with the way the park should go," said county Administrator Carl Young. "There are also, quite honestly, silly politics that really have nothing to do with much of anything."
While some commissioners sounded interested in returning the park to Cuchara Foundation at a recent meeting, Young cautioned against a decision that could breach a grant contract with Great Outdoors Colorado. Commissioners opted to table the discussion and move forward with interviewing potential, new operators.
At the meeting, Jim Littlefield was among advocates who called on commissioners to lift the stop order on Panadero Ski Corp. He called attention to the nonprofit's success in fundraising — $159,000 last year from individuals and events, according to a report — and in paying insurance, snowmaking and hosting skiers for "popular" snowcat rides up the hill last season.
"We're desperately trying to get the place open and have kids skiing this winter," Littlefield said at the meeting.
Commissioner Arica Andreatta said she understood. "But it will be a detriment to the citizens when we're putting safety on the backburner," she said.
For years Panadero Ski Corp. has overseen work on Lift 4 through what it has described as a combination of contracted engineers and volunteer ski industry hands.
The stop order this fall followed an incident that Moore described as "a little break" on the lift. He added: "Nobody got hurt."
There was another break "in how they reacted to it vs. how we (as the county) reacted to it," Young said.
The recent commissioner meeting agenda called for an executive session with the county attorney "for the purpose of receiving legal advice" regarding Lift 4.
Littlefield, who helped form Panadero Ski Corp., called out "rumors" that he said were "unsubstantiated" while praising the nonprofit for safety. Those tending to the lift, he said, worked "in lockstep with the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board" toward certification to carry passengers.
In a statement to The Gazette, a state spokesperson said the board was made aware of the incident "as part of routine communications between the parties." The spokesperson added: "No inspections have occured, as the lift is as yet not registered with the state. The board remains in contact with Huerfano County and Panadero."
Continuing lift work would be in honoring years of donations to the effort, said Moore, a founding member of Cuchara Foundation.
Were the park back in the foundation's hands, Moore granted the possibility of an operating partnership. "We're not out to make money, but we want to control our own destiny," he said.
Commissioners "want to do what's best for the entire county," Young said.
"They all recognize that, if we can figure out how to come to some sort of understanding about where the park is going, it's a massive opportunity," he said. "But there's a lot of back and forth there, and I don't think commissioners have settled one way or another."
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