RANGELEY — Nicole Lund worked the lunch shift at The Blue Orchid alone on Wednesday, cooking egg rolls and Happy Noodles for five diners, an easy smile on her face. Lund, from Massachusetts, bought the former Thai Blossom this summer with her husband, Bob, when its longtime owners retired.

She’s not nervous about whether the state’s third-largest ski resort — Saddleback Mountain, just up the road — is going to open or not.

People keep telling her she should be.

“Their nervousness rubs off,” Lund said. But just a little, she added.

“We have so many snowmobilers up here, they spend so much money,” she said. “I think we’ll be OK.”

Two doors down on Main Street, Greg Andrews owns SnowSource, a small winter-themed shop. He’s also the former chief financial officer at Saddleback and a current season pass holder.

He attended the annual Parade of Trees event hosted at the resort last weekend.

“At one point, the auctioneer said, ‘Don’t leave, folks — there’s going to be a big announcement and they’re going to roll out the Saddleback tree,'” Andrews said.

That big announcement?

“There wasn’t (one) — that was the thing,” he said. “Everyone was on edge.”

Their neighbor across the street, Margie Jamison, an agent at Morton & Furbish Real Estate Agency, said sales for land, homes and condos in town were great this summer after five slow years. Good sales could still be great this winter.

“Every buyer is asking questions, ‘What’s going on at Saddleback?'” Jamison said. “It’s all everyone talks about. We were probably talking about it before you came in.”

Saddleback management announced in July that the resort, which has been for sale for years, needed $3 million to finance a new, faster ski lift in order to open for the next season.

Shortly after saying in October it was in “serious negotiations with a buyer,” the resort’s gone quiet. No word to season pass holders. No word to the town. No word to the businesses that rely on the skiers. No word to the many people who bought condos near the mountain.

In the absence of facts, Rangeley has become thick with rumor and hand-wringing.

Maybe a sale has fallen through. Maybe there was a new new buyer. Maybe that fell through, too.

Maybe there’s a major player in the ski industry still interested.

“If you see any kind of equipment moving on Main Street, ‘It’s Saddleback, they’re getting rid of it!'” Lund said. “Or, ‘No, they’re bringing it back up there!'” 

Even as the calendar creeps deeper into December, Jamison is optimistic.

“But there’s many discouraged people, too,” she said. “Even a sale (soon) but opening next year, would still be really good. If it fell through, tell us.”

State watching, waiting

While Main Street wondered about happenings behind closed doors, minutes away, clouds covered the top of Saddleback Mountain, occasionally breaking to let sun bathe the white treetops. Several inches of natural snow covered the ground. The scene was gorgeous — and empty. Green chairs on the closest lift were still. Four flag poles were stripped.

On the homepage of Saddleback Mountain’s website, where ticket sales have been frozen, a message reads, “We will update as we have more information.” The message, near the now-ironic tag line, “Take the trail less skied,” has been there for months.

Since buying the resort in 2003, the Berry family has poured $40 million into upgrades like new lifts, the base lodge, condominiums and trails. In 2012, the family put most of Saddleback’s 121 condos and 400 acres of land on the market for $14 million. This summer, that price had dropped to $9.5 million, with more acreage added.

This week, the resort was no longer for sale in the Maine Real Estate Information System listings.

Under Gov. Paul LePage, the state has frequently gotten involved in high-profile corporate challenges and sales. The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development has worked with Saddleback over the past year, according to DECD spokesman Doug Ray. 

“Ultimately a decision on whether to seek new financing or sell the asset will be made by the company,” Ray said this week. “DECD is committed to working with Saddleback going forward once a path is chosen as the best option.”

The resort employs up to 300 people in the winter, making it the third-largest employer in Franklin County, according to Saddleback.

For that reason, the Department of Labor is also watching with interest.

“As the third largest resort and a significant part of the economy of the Rangeley area, closure obviously would be a significant blow to the area,” said Glenn Mills, chief economist at the DOL’s Center for Workforce Research. 

If that does occur, the Rapid Response team will offer help and resources to displaced workers.

Mills expects some would-be skiers to head to Sugarloaf, 37 miles away, and to other smaller resorts, which could give a bump in bottom lines elsewhere, “though it is not clear how much other resorts/eateries/lodging may benefit,” he said. 

Saddleback has averaged 80,000 to 100,000 skier visits a year, according to its press release this summer. It could be a scramble to get enough employees with a late start, and Andrews, the former CFO, also wonders whether skier visits would take a hit with a late start.

“The problem for a new owner at this point, people who’ve left Saddleback to go to Sugarloaf already, some of them are going to think, ‘Hey, it’s pretty nice over here,’ and they may not come back,” Andrews said. “So the longer someone delays buying Saddleback, the more it’s going to hurt them. Obviously somebody could really make a good business out of Saddleback. The real question is who.”

‘Good news’ to come?

On Dec. 1, Sugarloaf began offering discounted season passes to any Saddleback skier who’d already bought a season pass and gotten caught in the uncertain waiting game. Sugarloaf has sold a handful so far, a spokesman said Friday.

“My guess is, most folks are waiting to see if Saddleback makes an announcement in the near future before committing to a different season pass,” said Ethan Austin, director of marketing at Sugarloaf.

Stay tuned, Chris Farmer, Saddleback’s general manager, said on Friday when asked by the Sun Journal for this story.

“We’re optimistic we’ll have some good news in a few days and that’s all I can really say,” Farmer said.

Asked about a rumor that season pass holders would receive a refund if the resort doesn’t open by Dec. 15, he said it’s just that — a rumor.

“Typically we open mid-December, so that’s why people extrapolated that,” Farmer said. “Look at our original release on July 20. That said, ‘If the mountain does not open for the season, season passes will be refunded.'”

Rumors are exceedingly easy to come by right now. Conor Callahan, in the parts department at BOSS Power Equipment, a major snowmobile retailer, said the rumor on Monday was that people had looked up and saw Saddleback making snow up on the mountain.

“But that was a cloud,” Callahan said.

As for news coming directly from the resort, “seven weeks ago, it went quiet,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything except condo owners saying, ‘What do we do?'”

The economic impact is going to start to add up, Andrews said. He was CFO at the mountain between 2009-2011. If only 2o percent of the people behind those 80,000 to 100,000 skier visits stop by Main Street and they spend $50 each on meals, gas and supplies, that’s $800,000 to local shops.

At Loony Bin Variety, clerk Michael LaGory said most of its business relies on snowmobilers and hunters, but the loss of skiers has meant scaling back hours. Loony Bin’s deli, where LaGory makes Italians, steak bombs and meatball parm subs, used to close at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. It’s now 3 p.m.

Traditionally, skiers heading up to camps and condos “would come to me and get their dinner for the night, hit the mountain the next day,” LaGory said.

No skiers, fewer steak bombs.

“Skiing is a much larger part of the economy than people would care to admit in this town,” Andrews said. “I think you’ll have a lot of people tell you that snowmobiling is big, anyway. Skiing is a major part of this town, so it would be an extreme impact.”

If an announcement is forthcoming, an opening wouldn’t be immediate. Besides gearing up with staff and typical preseason prep, the chairlifts haven’t been licensed by the state yet for the coming season, according to Doug Dunbar, spokesman for the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. The current certificates of operation expire Dec. 31.

Inspectors visited Saddleback two weeks ago and it’s the state’s understanding that “the ski area doesn’t plan to operate those lifts until they receive an inspection for this ski season, presuming the area opens,” Dunbar said.

With no issues flagged during an inspection, new certificates can be issued in as soon as a few days.

“However, it’s not uncommon for annual operational inspections to identify at least minor needed changes or adjustments, which might require additional communication between the state’s inspectors and the ski area, and time to make those changes and adjustments,” Dunbar said.

Lund, at The Blue Orchid, said her family went all of last winter having fun outdoors without downhill skiing once. They went skating, cross country skiing and to one of the many community events.

“I feel sad that it’s a make-it-or-break-it (reason to visit) for so many people,” she said. “I’m hoping that people will still come up to Rangeley with or without Saddleback. We just bought a home up here, so we can’t fail. We can’t afford to fail.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com 

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