Franklin County is asking Maine’s largest ski resort to repay roughly $150,000 in taxpayer money that officials say was improperly charged for an infrastructure project that fell apart.
At a March meeting, commissioners voted to ask their attorney for paths to recoup more than $150,000 from Sugarloaf after the county administrator suggested commissioners “lawyer up” in a dispute that is straining the county’s relationship with one of its largest private employers and main attractions.
The county agreed in 2020 to subsidize a project by Sugarloaf that would have dammed the south branch of the Carrabassett River at its source, Caribou Pond, which lies in a small, wooded basin about six miles south of the resort’s entrance.
The dam would have created a reservoir for the resort to use as a water source for snowmaking. More artificial snow for warm winters would mean a more consistent tourism trade. Snowmaking is increasingly important for the bottom lines of ski resorts across the northeast as climate change makes weather patterns less stable and predictable.
In 2023, County Administrator Amy Bernard said Sugarloaf officials told her the project, which would have required construction deep in the woods along a dirt road that intersects with the busy Appalachian Trail, was no longer happening as planned.
But they kept charging the county anyway. She also found Sugarloaf had charged for expenses dating back to 2018, well before the agreement was made. Officials from Sugarloaf and from its parent company, Boyne Resorts, did not respond to Monday requests for comment.
In late 2024, the county sent Sugarloaf an invoice for about $222,000, which would recover funds spent before the agreement was made and some money Bernard said was not related to the dam project. The resort has paid back around $69,000 despite repeated requests.
“I’ve asked them too many times [for repayment] for me to feel comfortable saying, ‘we’re just going to sit on this,’” Bernard said in March.
Sugarloaf had already contacted lawyers about the county’s requests, and she said the county should do the same. At her recommendation, Tom Saviello of Wilton, the chairman of the commission, said the county should pursue repayment “aggressively.”
Commissioner Bob Carlton, whose district includes Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley, said on Monday that the resort had been “cooperative” in paying back some of the funds in the past.
“Now we just have to figure out how to move forward,” he said.
Whatever happens with the money from the Caribou Pond project, the county may hesitate to support Sugarloaf’s parent company, which operates 10 ski resorts across the continent.
“I wouldn’t recommend having a future project with Sugarloaf after this experience,” Bernard said. “Two years of asking them to pay money back seems excessive to me.”
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.
