{"id":805881,"date":"2020-03-31T10:47:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T16:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381219"},"modified":"2020-03-31T10:47:04","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T16:47:04","slug":"vail-resorts-snowstake-cam-broadcasts-blowback-from-efforts-asking-employees-to-vacate-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/vail-resorts-snowstake-cam-broadcasts-blowback-from-efforts-asking-employees-to-vacate-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail Resorts\u2019 snowstake cam broadcasts blowback from efforts asking employees to vacate housing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A March screen grab from Beaver Creek’s snowstake camera depicting activity from March 27. On March 17, Vail employees were told they could stay in employee housing until March 27 if needed.<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Blowback from the coordinated effort by Eagle County and Vail Resorts to see workers vacate employee housing, if able, received a public broadcast via one of Vail Resorts\u2019 own snowstake cameras on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

A sign was placed in front of the Beaver Creek camera, reading \u201c10 days to vacate employee housing #ProfitsOverPeople #RobKatzMustGo.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Saturday afternoon, the snowstake camera viewing feature had been removed from Beaver Creek\u2019s website. Vail Resorts offered no comment on the matter on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The sign references a document issued to Vail Resorts employees on March 17, which said workers in employee housing are recommended to leave housing \u201cas our community infrastructure is largely shutting down.\u201d Vail Resorts closed its North American ski areas on March 15.<\/p>\n

One portion of the March 17 document, which is titled \u201cCOVID-19 Employee FAQ: Season Closure,\u201d says \u201cif you have specific circumstances that prevent you from leaving housing, please work with the housing manager or open a case (with the company).\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the document, however, the language is less welcoming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf needed, you can remain in housing until Friday, March 27,\u201d the March 17 document states.<\/p>\n

\u2018Return home if you can\u2019<\/h2>\n

On March 18, Vail Resort CEO Rob Katz issued a follow-up letter to employees, explaining that those who can not leave have the support of the company and the local community.<\/p>\n

By that point, however, the damage had been done. News outlets across the state were sharing stories of employees hitting the road<\/a><\/i> while commenters on those stories said the decision to tell employees to leave was irresponsible.<\/p>\n

County support<\/h2>\n

Vail Resorts explained that the direction to have employees leave was coming from local governments in the counties where Vail Resorts operates. Eagle County Commissioner Kathy Chandler Henry\u2019s first response on March 18 was to say Vail received no such direction from Eagle County, but later that day, Chandler Henry noted that Eagle County had indeed offered full support of Vail Resorts\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the confusion here is where Eagle County may have not said that in those words (our new order had not gone out yet), Summit County and Gunnison County, two counties VR operates in, did essentially say that,\u201d Eagle County Manager Jeff Shroll told the Vail Daily in an email. \u201cWe support the messaging that guests, visitors and non-permanent residents that have a permanent place to reside, it would be wise to return home. If that is not possible (can\u2019t get home for whatever reason), it is not possible and those folks will have to stay. VR and the EC would be aligned in trying to find the best way to accommodate them. One other point of clarification on behalf of VR, they do have some employee housing that is more communal in nature much like a college dorm setting. That is not conducive to social distancing requirements and we support VR\u2019s efforts to encourage those housed in those circumstances to return home or find safer places to live where social distancing can be practiced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shroll also refuted the claim that community infrastructure was shutting down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not true in EC,\u201d Shroll wrote. \u201cAgain, Summit and Gunnison have some different orders out there that may look different than ours, but right now EC transit is still operating, all utilities, water\/wastewater, trash services, etc. are all still operating.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a telephone call, Shroll made it clear that seasonal employees are always welcome members of the Eagle County community.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes you\u2019re part of our community, yes you\u2019re part of the economic engine that makes this valley go,\u201d Shroll said. \u201cYou may be safer and wiser to go back to your place of origin because we have a pretty significant spread issue going on up here, but if you can\u2019t we\u2019re going to treat you just like we treat the county manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A March screen grab from Beaver Creek’s snowstake camera depicting activity from March 27. On March 17, Vail employees were told they could stay in employee housing until March 27 if needed. Blowback from the coordinated effort by Eagle County and Vail Resorts to see workers vacate employee housing, if able, received a public broadcast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-17 19:35:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}