Page 2: Soar like an eagle?

In our Mountain Town News section this week, you’ll find skier numbers from other resorts indicating that their ski business is up between 7 to 10%.

This is in line with Mammoth’s 9% year-over-year gain in skier days. And that gain, notes MMSA CEO Rusty Gregory, probably would have been even higher if we hadn’t had so many ultra-snowy days around the Christmas holidays which curtailed operations.

That 9% gain in skier days has also translated into MMSA’s revenue trending a whopping 17.8% above projection as of last week.

If that trend continues, MMSA would realize gross revenues of $145 million for this fiscal year, $20 million above projection. MMSA would likely see a net revenue gain of $5 or 6 million out of that $20 million said Gregory (after all, extra revenue usually requires extra services to meet that demand).

So the logical question, from The Sheet’s perspective, is a simple one. How will that revenue windfall be invested or reinvested? What infrastructure improvements will Mr. Gregory seek?

Gregory then answered the question I should’ve asked first, which was related to the Mountain’s refinancing efforts.

This, said Gregory, is going very well and commitment letters have been signed with the lenders.

The new loan will lower the Mountain’s debt service [related to Starwood’s 2005 purchase] “more than slightly and less than a lot” from $20 million to $19 million per year.

But even after satisfying the debt service and spending approximately $5 million which is budgeted each year for routine maintenance, the Mountain will still have about $15 million left over in discretionary income.

Last year, MMSA used this leftover discretionary income to pay down debt. That could also happen this year.

But it also seems like Gregory and the Mountain are edging closer to making a permanent Eagle Lodge a reality.

Echoing what MMSA’s Vice-President of Development Jim Smith told The Sheet about a month ago, Gregory said a base lodge at Eagle remains the Mountain’s top development priority.

It wishes to replace the two existing tents with a new facility which would triple the available square footage from 13,000 to 40,000 square feet.

The estimated cost: $25 million.

The best-case start date: Summer of 2012 (right before the world’s supposed to end).

Now of course, MMSA’s been promising an Eagle base lodge for over a decade, but … promise may not be the right word. As Gregory pointed out, he does not use the word promise.

… Great turnout for the Johnny Teller welcome home event at the Clocktower Cellar on Tuesday night. And despite the fact that Mammoth Lakes Town Council almost forgot to mention Teller while praising other local athletes at its meeting Wednesday (Steve Searles bailed ‘em out), at least Teller’s accomplishments have not been lost on Mammoth Lakes Tourism (MLT) Executive Director John Urdi.

Teller is one of several local notables who’s booked to appear on Rudy Maxa’s nationally syndicated radio program this weekend. Maxa’s one-hour show about Mammoth will air on KFWB in L.A. this Sunday at 2 p.m.

Urdi’s also scored a few notable promotional coups of late. The San Francisco Examiner has published a special Mammoth section twice over the past month entitled “Mammoth: SF’s New Winter Playground.”

Mammoth also had a feature story in the latest edition of Skywest Magazine.

The December storms and related publicity have also done wonders for MLT’s Facebook page, which saw its number of followers increase from 1,592 to 4,000 over the past month.

Urdi has also been actively running Mammoth ads on other resorts’ fan pages. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. “I’m trying to grow the sport … I’m also trying to eat their lunch,” Urdi said.

Sheet response to Eastman’s statement that a pot dispensary is just another small business: wrong. If you’re selling a controlled substance, whether it be pot or booze, there will be public health consequences and you tax it to mitigate the effect of those consequences.

Unless you consider The Sheet a controlled substance. In which case, never mind.

And finally, a late-breaking press release from the Town of Mammoth Lakes, which sounds an awful lot like Kevin Bacon’s character in “Animal House.”

TOWN COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSURANCE TO THE COMMUNITY

Mammoth Lakes, CA – The Town Council is continuing to take action to manage the impact of the “Hot Creek” decision on the community.  Concern had been raised by some members of the community that the decision could negatively impact critical services or that the Town would assess new taxes or fees to cover the cost.

NO NEW TAXES:  The Town Council has very limited powers to raise taxes and assessments, and can only do so with approval of the voters.  Voters in other communities have generally opposed the concept of raising taxes to pay a judgment, and this option is not being pursued by the Town Council.

CRITICAL SERVICES WILL BE MAINTAINED:  Although it is acknowledged that the judgment could have service impacts similar to those experienced during the recession, the Town Council will maintain critical services such as snow removal and police protection.

It goes on. You get the point.

And from Kirkner’s desk …

Summer air service

On Wednesday, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area’s Chief Marketing Officer, Howard Pickett briefed Mammoth’s Town Council on how summer air service fared in 2010.

Short answer: Better than expected.

From April to December in 2010, the airport saw 7,400 enplanements with a load factor of 43 percent (slightly higher than the expected 42 percent). Based upon each visitor spending an average of $576 once they arrived, Mammoth saw approximately $4.262 million in economic benefit from the summer air service program, according to Pickett.

“The major need now is to establish that you can always fly to Mammoth,” Pickett explained before delving into his request for monetary support from the Town once again in 2011 for the summer air subsidy. “No matter the outcome of the [Hot Creek] litigation, air service needs to be continued for growth and prosperity,” he said.

Currently, Mono County has agreed to pay $45,000 of the air service subsidy while the Town and MMSA split the rest. Pickett explained that the actual subsidy cost for the summer had come in at $598,428, slightly under the lowest projected number of $600,000. The number makes the Town and MMSA each responsible for $276,714.

This year Pickett is hoping the County will get on board for one-third of the cost.

As Pickett had been agendized as a public presentation, Council could not take formal action on his request. It rescheduled the item as an action item for its Feb. 2 meeting.

Summer air service for 2011 is expected to begin on April 25 and run through Dec. 16.

HSEF update

The other public presentation of the evening came from High Sierra Energy Foundation’s Executive Director Rick Phelps. He updated Council on the progress of objectives from HSEF’s Strategic Energy Plan that was presented in 2009. The Plan covers four areas: Energy Efficiency, Renewables, Education and Outreach, and Building.

Energy Efficiency through the Eastern Sierra Energy Initiative continues to be the most significant activity for HSEF. In the past year activities have included auditing Town facilities for energy retrofits and retrofitting the Alpine Garage as a showcase project for the Small Business Direct Install program expected to kick off this spring.

In the field of renewable energy, HSEF helped bring the first heat pump to Mono County through a home in June Lake, and is now working with the developer of the Mammoth View project on the first test well in Mammoth Lakes that will evaluate geothermal for space heating.

During the past year HSEF has also provided education and outreach throughout the County, including an all-day Title 24 class at the Cerro Coso campus in Bishop and an all-day CalGreen Building Code seminar.

HSEF runs on an annual budget of $180,000, with the Town providing $12,500 of total revenues.