By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
GILFORD – The Gunstock Area Commission approved a contract to hire an attorney Wednesday night in the event that a judge includes the commission in a suit filed by former Commissioner David Strang against the current chair Douglas Lambert.
Lambert said Strang claims in court he was illegally removed from the commission and wants his seat back.
Strang, Lambert asserts, also claims Lambert staged a “coup d’etat” to get him off the board.
While the suit exists, Lambert said, Strang has requested that the commission be included and if that becomes accepted, he said, the commission should be represented.
The vote was unanimous to hire the Tapley law firm, which already represents Lambert, in the event that the commission is included as a defendant.
A separate suit, filed by a Belknap County resident, has called into question the legality of the emergency meeting on Aug. 1 in which Strang’s resignation was accepted.
A hearing is expected in the third week of September in Belknap County Superior Court.
Other than that, it was back to business for the commission with a forward look toward the upcoming ski season, an update on infrastructure needs, and approval of a pile of meeting minutes after a chaotic summer at Gunstock.
The meeting was held before about 50 residents listening to what was more of a routine sort of meeting than they have witnessed the past two months.
At a public input session at the end of the meeting, residents said they were pleased that the meeting had returned again to being “boring.”
The Belknap County-owned recreation facility was closed for about two weeks this summer when staff quit en masse, claiming the Libertarian and Free Stater politicians in the county’s legislative delegation were making it impossible for them to work with and were disrespectful and micromanaging of their work.
That toxic atmosphere had to change for them to return, they told the remaining members of the commission and the 18-member legislative delegation which controls the commission and the operations of the area.
About seven of the top-level staff forced the resignations of two of the five members of the commission who were placed on the commission by leaders of the all-Republican Belknap County Delegation who control the purse strings at the recreation area and as some claim were working to lease or privatize the profitable ski area.
The uproar precipitated the creation of a political action committee, Citizens For Belknap, which is now bent on removing a number of those legislators at the ballot box this fall.
It has created a voters guide for every community in the county who are up for re-election this fall.
Most of those targeted identify themselves as Libertarian and Free State leaning Republicans.
The meeting included the approval of meeting minutes from the previous meeting, an update on legal billing, and capital expenditure projects underway including the tubing hill, magic carpet relocation, snowmaking on the Cannonball trail, summit septic work, and an expansion of the Pan Pub.
An audit update from the firm Vachon Clukay & Company of Manchester, which was retained by the former commissioners, indicated an independent audit through April should be available by the end of September.
“Our audit fieldwork commenced on June 20, 2022, However, due to unanticipated events and circumstances beyond our control, audit fieldwork has been disrupted or delayed on multiple occasions. In addition, as part of our audit, we have been requested to review additional information which was outside the planned scope of procedures and/or year of audit. It has required additional time and resources to address such information,” the Aug. 11 letter reads.
Lambert, who is now chair of the commission, said there is a need to address and update the bylaws. Denise Conroy, who was named to the commission by the delegation at the emergency meeting Aug. 1, said she was never presented with such a document and now would be a good time to address an update.
Lambert said it would make the commission stronger and better and help avoid a repeat of the issues that led to the closure of the mountain for 12 days during the summer.
Conroy is serving out the term of Strang which ends in November.
There is currently one other member of the commission now besides Lambert and Conroy. It is Jade Wood who attended the meeting as well.
Two vacancies exist for the commission, currently, and will be filled by the county’s legislative delegation.