Camden tightens fiscal oversight of Camden Snow Bowl
As the winter season gets underway at the Camden Snow Bowl, town officials are taking steps to avoid previous financial missteps that took place during the $6.5 million Ragged Mountain Recreation Redevelopment Project that began more than three years ago.
Camden Town Manager Audra Caler-Bell told the Bangor Daily News that the town is paying closer attention to transparency and costs in its management of the Camden Snow Bowl, which opened Dec. 22 for the season.
“So everybody is still being incredibly diligent about making sure that even though it’s been a good season, we’re keeping costs down,” Caler-Bell told the newspaper.
In 2017, an auditor hired by the Camden Select Board found that town leaders improperly transferred more than $700,000 from Camden’s general fund to the Ragged Mountain Recreation Redevelopment Project as part of the ski area’s $6.5 million redevelopment project. The town also settled last summer a Maine Department of Environmental Protection fine for destroying a section of forest on the mountain during the project.
Caler-Bell told the BDN that spending on the Snow Bowl should be more strategic and transparent this year, with proposed major expenses going to the Select Board where they can be publicly discussed.
In April 2017, the PenBay Pilot reported that the audit of the Ragged Mountain area, which includes the Snow Bowl, showed the town exceeded its voter-authorized $2 million bond expenditure by $743,134. Snow Bowl improvements included a new chairlift, new snow guns, erosion control and trail work.
The goal of the redevelopment, which began in 2014, was to improve the ski area, transform the overall recreation area into a four-season enterprise, and help stimulate the region's outdoor economy, the newspaper reported.
The Camden Snow Bowl is a small, community-owned ski area located about 4.5 miles from Penobscot Bay on 1,300-foot Ragged Mountain.
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