Chris Karr, president of the Killington Chamber of Commerce, address chamber members at the 2007 annual meeting.

Chris Karr, president of the Killington Chamber of Commerce, address chamber members at the 2007 annual meeting.

Last night, at a sell out event at the Inn of the Six Mountains, the members of the Killington Chamber of Commerce held their 2007 annual meeting. Featured speakers at the event were Dave Rathburn, Director of Marketing, and Chris Nyberg, President of the Killington Pico Ski Resort.

The presentations made by the Killington Management Team were very up front and straight forward to the assembled chamber members of the Killington business community. Chris Nyberg put it succinctly when he outlined the mission of the Killingon team "... to exceed customer expectations, be innovative, profitable, and environmentally responsible...". Mr. Nyberg went on to tell the crowd that in preparation for the upcoming season, that the resort is spending $3.3M on a variety of capital improvement projects designed to begin the rehabilitation of the resort. "...and that money does not include the expense of painting the lift towers..." Mr Nyberg joked. That, of course, was a veiled reference to the practices of the past resort owner, the American Skiing Company, who promoted basic maintenance expenses as "capital improvements" to the community for the last several years. Mr. Nyberg finished his presentation to the chamber members with a semi scientific presentation on what he feels is Killington key product "Snow". While some of the community members glazed over at this point, as it was a long evening, I though it provided more insight into the attention to detail that the new management team is bringing to operational planning at Killigton. It should be an interesting winter.

In addition to the presentations by the Killington team, several members were honored for their service to the Killington Chamber. Mike Blow, of Farrell Distributing and local Attorney Dan Ewald are departing board members who were honored for their service. Mike has been instrumental in launching the Killington Wine Festival over the last 6 years. Dan has been a board member of the chamber for 15 years, donating countless hours of his time to a variety of chamber projects. Charlie Brunnel, formerly the innkeeper of the Fox and Pheasant Inn, was honored for his volunteer efforts in the chamber office. And finally, Kim Harris, executive director of the chamber, received a standing ovation from the assembled members for her efforts at moving the chamber forward.

Several members were newly elected to join the Chambers Board of Directors. New board members Phil Black of the Lookout Tavern, Robert "Sal" Salmeri of Moguls Sports Pub and Howard Smith of Killington Snowmobile Tours join current board members President Chris Karr of Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Vice President Andy Reid of Deli at Killington Corners, Immediate Past President Ray Rice of Surefoot, Secretary Christine Young of Basin Sports and other current board members Sue Burgess of the Spa at The Woods, Haley Destafino from the Mountain Times, Brian Halligan from Inn of the Six Mountains, John King of Gramps Shuttle, Kara Kacmarcik from Wise Vacation Rentals, Bill Miller from the Summit Lodge, Dave Rathbun from the Killington Resort and myself, Bill Vines, from the Birch Ridge Inn.