CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Tuesday marks the fifth anniversary of the state leasing the Mount Sunapee ski area to a private operator, and the head of state parks and recreation calls it the best decision in the history of the parks system.

Under state ownership, Sunapee and Cannon Mountain typically operated at a loss, depending on the amount of snow that fell each winter.

But for the past three years, the state has made money at Cannon.

At the same time, under the 20-year lease, the state has collected $160,000 a year in rent from Sunapee and as much as an additional $140,000 a year from 3 percent of the gross revenue.

The money has been used to help make $6 million in improvements at Cannon.

In addition, Sunapee has been paying property taxes to Newbury and Goshen, which got nothing when the state owned the area.

“Before the lease, the largest capital improvement (for state park’s) was a $9 million bond to expand the state park system” decades ago, parks and recreation Director Richard McLeod said.

“If this lease didn’t go forward, we looked at possibly closing both mountains. It would have impacted all operations of park system.

“Prior to (the lease), there was 20 years of controversy over who would get the money, which ski area and which parks. The lease removed financial gridlock for two ski areas and the rest of the park system.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was the best decision that has been made in regard to resource management in the history of the state park system.”

He credited Robb Thomson, the former commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development, who proposed the lease and putting the proceeds into Cannon.

The only major opposition has come from some residents of the Sunapee area, who are fighting the latest expansion proposal by the Sunapee operators. They cite environmental and traffic concerns.

The state and the Newbury Planning Board already has approved the proposal to put in 10 more acres of skiing terrain and build a children’s center.

The lease idea was to help improve Cannon by leasing Sunapee, McLeod said. It apparently has worked.

For the first time in department records, Cannon has turned in a profit three fiscal years in a row, he said. He pointed to a new detachable quad chair lift and taking a chair lift abandoned by Sunapee’s new owners and using it at Cannon. A new children’s center and children’s ski area also were put in.

At the same time, the new operators of Sunapee put more than $12 million into improvements, which led to increased attendance at the area.

McLeod said the state never could have come up with $18 million to improve the two areas and the park system.

He said currently, with both areas operating at a profit, there are no plans to lease Cannon, though the Legislature will review both operations this fall, as called for by the law that allowed the lease in 1998.

State Rep. Charles Royce of Jaffrey, chairman of the Resources, Recreation and Development Committee that picked the leasee and chair of the Cannon Mountain Advisory Committee, said the lease apparently has “helped Cannon tremendously.”

“It’s done what we thought it would do for Cannon,” he said.

Now the Legislature has approved spending another $6 million from capital budget funds on more Cannon improvements in the coming years, with $540,000 of that to be spent this winter.

AP-ES-06-30-03 1825EDT