Jerry Brown
reporting

The winter sports season is already
going strong but low snowfall amounts in the Spring Mountains have
forced the forest service to cancel sledding on Mt.
Charleston.

Lack of snow is not a problem in
southern Utah, however, where a new winter sports resort is opening
for business this week.

It’s not every day that a new ski
resort opens. Eagle Point’s investors are gambling that in a tough
economy, Las Vegans will make the three and a half hour drive up
I-15.

“The game plan is just to have a
fabulous experience when people do visit the ski area and they’ll
want to come back,” said operations manager Craig
Baldwin.

“We have over 40 runs at the ski
area right now; we’re going to focus on this season and see where
we go. There is potential for expansion here.”

Baldwin was the face of Vegas
skiing for years, running the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort.
This season, he’s managing the nation’s newest ski
area.

“Growing up in southern Nevada, I
would ski all the local places and I discovered a ski area called
Mt. Holly back in the early ‘80s and we would come here because it
has the deepest snow in our region.”

Mt. Holly eventually merged with an
adjacent ski area to become the Elk Meadows Resort.

“When Elk Meadows came along the
ski area expanded and offered more entry-level and intermediate
terrain,” Baldwin explains.

Elk Meadows’ lifts ceased operating
eight winters ago, but under new ownership, Eagle Point took flight
this week. You might think it has the other southern Utah ski area
concerned about a new competitor, but management with Brian Head
Ski Resort says that is not the case.

“Absolutely not looking at it as
competition at all,” insists Brian Head sales and marketing manager
Jon Christoffersen. “It’s a big day for southern Utah; anytime you
can get multiple resorts in one area it helps
everybody.”

“I think it’s very healthy for the
community and for the sport in general; people have options,”
Baldwin added.

“We get about 50 percent of our
business from Clark County, from the southern Nevada area,”
Christoffersen explains. “It’s a huge market for us; our biggest
market.”

Jeff Taylor and Jared Borneman are
exactly what the doctor ordered for Eagle Point. They’re hardcore
Las Vegas snowboarders willing to take a midweek break to make
first tracks at a brand new resort.

“I’ve never been to a resort [on
the] first day,” Taylor said. “It’s the experience of a lifetime.
So far it’s nice. It’s snowing; got fresh powder; everybody’s
friendly up here.”

A unique aspect of Eagle Point is
that it’s an upside-down resort. You drive up to the main lodge to
get your lift ticket, and then ski down the mountain to catch the
lift back up.

You’ll be skiing on Utah’s
self-proclaimed “Greatest Snow on Earth,” and there is some science
behind that claim.

“We get very low water content snow
here, 4 percent, and it’s just blower powder so often,” said
Baldwin. “People that ski and snowboard and come here are going to
find that out.”

“It’s just the snow; it seems like
some of the best snow in the U.S.,” Borneman observed.

Eagle Point has over 1,200 skiable
acres and a base elevation of over 9,000 feet.

Article source: Source

Published: Saturday, December 18, 2010, 9:00 AM

By

Roy L. Williams — The Birmingham News

Follow

Share
Email

Print

Nearly a quarter of the students participating in a Job Corps center in Gadsden have been ruled ineligible for the program because they didn’t meet its low-income requirements, the U.S. Department of Labor said.

Many of the students in the program there are from Birmingham, the agency said.

Job Corps is a federal program that funds centers across the country to provide free job training, room and board, and college courses at affiliated institutions for students from low-income families. It is geared towards at-risk women and men, ages 16 to 24, and is designed to prepare them for careers.

The problems at the Gadsden Job Corps center were discovered during a routine site monitoring visit that found two students who appeared to be ineligible based on family income.

That prompted a full program assessment, which determined that 73 of the approximately 300 students enrolled over the past year are ineligible, said U.S. Department of Labor spokesman Mike Wald. He said the mistakes were made by Adams Associates, the contractor that runs the center for the federal agency.

“Job Corps is designed to serve low-income students,” said Michael Wald, a Labor Department spokesman. “Recently, we learned that the contractor that runs the Gadsden Job Corps Center had admitted students who did not meet income eligibility requirements.

“Regrettably, Job Corps has no legal authority to waive the low-income eligibility requirements. But we are working hard to look for options to help the students.”

To qualify for Job Corps, a student’s individual or family income must fall below federal poverty income guidelines, which are based on family size.

Wald said the Labor Department has sent letters to the students — and to parents if the student is under age 18 — informing them that they are ineligible according to evidence uncovered during the investigation.

In the letter, Job Corps officials are asking to meet with students or parents over the next two weeks to review the information they submitted to determine if it is correct.

If the student remains ineligible after that review, by statute, Job Corps is not allowed to pay for their tuition or other expenses associated with Gadsden State.

“We have no authority to waive our low-income eligibility requirements, and we have a responsibility to the taxpayer to ensure that Job Corps funds are spent as required by law,” Wald said.

Wald said Gadsden State Community College has no responsibility for the activity that led to the students being declared ineligible. Ineligible students currently enrolled at Gadsden State will be allowed to finish this semester, but Job Corps will not pay for their next semester.

Efforts were unsuccessful to reach Adams and Associates, the Reno, Nev.-based contractor responsible for admissions under the program to the Gadsden Job Corps Center.

According to its website, Adams and Associates was founded in 1990 and operates 14 Job Corps center locations across the country for the U.S. Department of Labor.

Job Corps has 124 centers nationwide, each run by a contractor with the U.S. Department of Labor providing funding and oversight of the program.

Job Corps programs vary by center. On some campuses, including Gadsden, Job Corps has a co-enrollment policy with a local educational institution allowing students to take classes and pursue degrees with tuition being paid by Job Corps.

About a third of the Gadsden Job Corps students are either in that co-enrollment program or are planning to participate in it in the future.

Join the conversation by clicking to comment or e-mail Williams at rwilliams@bhamnews.com.

Article source: Source