Month: July 2026

Eaglecrest Ski Area’s new general manager is returning to a familiar place, but far from a familiar situation.

Julie Jackson Piper, a former ski instructor and supervisor at the ski area between 2009 and 2015, was unanimously appointed to its top position Tuesday by Eaglecrest’s board of directors. She was also the aquatics manager at Juneau’s two public pools from 2015 to 2018, and has been recreation manager for the City of Richland, Washington, since 2018.

“I would say really the love of the mountain and the challenge that it poses” are the reasons for seeking the job, she told the board of directors during an interview last Thursday at City Hall. “I feel like I’m uniquely prepared for this challenge, having ski industry experience, a degree in business, which is related to ski area business management…so I have that mindset, even inside of a bureaucracy that is a public entity.”

Piper is scheduled to start her new job Aug. 31 at an annual salary of $134,014.40, with her contract also calling for a $5,000 sign-on bonus and up to $10,000 in relocation expenses. Her predecessor, Craig Cimmons, hired two years ago at an initial salary of $121,222, announced his resignation in January.

Erin Lupro, Eaglecrest’s director of snowsports school, rental, retail and repair, has served as the interim general manager for the past few months. She declined to seek the permanent position.

Piper was the only finalist interviewed by the full board. Fourteen applicants went through a human resources screening interview and five were interviewed by Eaglecrest’s Human Resources Committee before Piper was recommended as the finalist.

The board’s interview of Piper occurred at the same meeting where members also talked about the possibility of Goldbelt Inc. taking over operations of the city-owned ski area that is facing major questions about its financial sustainability. The resort has lost money for many years, is facing many millions in costs to upgrade aging infrastructure, and some city leaders are suggesting a private operator would have the resources to develop year-round mass tourism facilities.

However, board member Jim Calvin said at the meeting that “it’s a conversation and nothing more, and any kind of formal arrangement is frankly probably years away.”

Piper, who’s been assessing the ski area during her visit and was on the mountain when her hiring was announced Tuesday, stated in a text message to the Juneau Independent she will approach her new job with that mindset.

“From what was shared at last week’s board meeting it seems early informal conversations are being scheduled and in very early stages,” she wrote. “Partnerships of that magnitude can take years to dial in. As for how it will impact my short and long-term decision-making, I’ll know more as I jump into the work later this summer.”

When asked during the board interview how Eaglecrest can achieve greater financial stability and community support, Piper said talking with Goldbelt and other partners is a worthwhile endeavor, as is seeking grants and other significant funding sources.

“As far as increased community support, it’s really tapping into those relationships that may or may not have been utilized, possibly ignored, maybe overlooked and unappreciated,” she said, “and just ensuring that we’re not doing any of those things, and having a more global view as a board, as a staff, not just in what our singular operations are, but kind of pulling our heads up and looking around, and having that at every level of the organization.”

Piper said she remembers getting in spirited discussions about Eaglecrest with residents in town who recognized her when she was a ski instructor. A key thing she remembers from such encounters is “when someone’s even yelling at you and so upset about something there’s something in that that we can both relate to, is we both love Eaglecrest, we love the ski area.”

Among the short-term challenges Piper said she expects to confront are the poor snow seasons that have affected the ski area in recent years and are predicted to be a problem in the future. One specific possibility she discussed with the board is “making a plan and surveying the community to see if they’re ready to rally behind the Black Bear (chairlift)” that has been closed the past two seasons due to major maintenance needs.

“It can give you access to the upper mountain on a low snow year, like the year (of) the winter that wasn’t where there was a ribbon of snow and it was a bit of a gauntlet to get from even the top of Hooter down,” she said. “I mean, that saved our bacon in quite a few years and it’s just a priority.”

Cimmons and Eaglecrest’s board decided a year ago to permanently shut down Black Bear because repairs were deemed too expensive. A number of major decisions affecting the ski area have been made by city and Eaglecrest leaders since — most significantly abandoning plans to install a gondola that was seen as the foundation of an expansion into year-round operations when its installation cost turned out to be far higher than initially predicted.

Piper was one of two finalists interviewed for Eaglecrest’s general manager job two years ago when Cimmons was selected. She told the Juneau Independent it doesn’t make much sense to think about what might have been different now had she gotten the job then.

“It’s hard to say specifically what I would’ve done differently two years ago and not sure if it’s worth much to spend time thinking about that,” she wrote. “Instead the staff, the board and I are looking forward to a positive path into improved sustainability.”

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The federal government has agreed to permanently loosen rules for oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to a draft settlement agreement filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

Adam Gustafson, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a statement that the agreement “means more oil leasing, more domestic energy, and more independence from foreign sources of energy.”

The document filed this week would settle lawsuits filed by the state of Alaska and its investment bank over the 2025 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil lease sale that drew no bids. 

That sale, mandated by a 2017 law, took place after the Biden administration restricted the available acreage. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and the state of Alaska sued over the Biden-era limits.

This week’s agreement states in part that the federal government will not limit oil and gas leasing in ANWR until oil and gas equipment covers at least 2,000 acres in the refuge’s coastal plain. 

“The 2017 Tax Act does not authorize (the Bureau of Land Management) to deny or unreasonably limit development of production and support facilities to the Coastal Plain until 2,000 surface acres are covered by production and support facilities,” it states in part.

That’s a small fraction of the size of the leases being put up for sale but could represent a significant length of pipeline and a large number of drilling pads.

AIDEA and the state remain in court against the federal government over the result of a 2021 ANWR lease sale. AIDEA won leases during that sale, but the Biden administration canceled those leases, then attempted to re-sell the affected land during the 2025 sale. 

The ANWR leasing program overall has been challenged by a coalition of environmental groups, and that case also remains in court.

By email on Tuesday, an AIDEA spokesperson said it would be accurate to call the new agreement a victory for AIDEA and Alaska because it “includes a clear admission that the … Lease Sale ‘violated the 2017 Tax Act by preventing meaningful leasing, exploration, and development of oil and gas on the Coastal Plain, as Congress mandated.’”

Through a spokesman, acting Alaska attorney general Cori Mills noted that while Alaska’s attention has recently focused on a successful lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to the west of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, the state continues to be interested in ANWR, which is to the east.

The new settlement agreement increases the odds that ANWR will stay open to drilling even when a new president comes after Trump.

“While the State is ecstatic about the progress in the NPR-A, we cannot lose sight of the potential in ANWR. The problem is not a lack of potential or even lack of infrastructure; it is the lack of a stable investment climate without burdensome and unnecessary strings attached,” Mills said by email.

“The last administration did everything they could to shut down development in ANWR that our congressional delegation and numerous state administrations had fought long and hard for. But that doesn’t have to be the future. We are grateful that the federal government recognizes the unlawful actions taken previously and was willing to enter into the settlement and essentially admit the error,” she said. “There is still hope that ANWR can provide economic prosperity and crucial resources for local communities, the state, and the nation.”

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