<\/p>\n
VAIL \u2013 When Vail Resorts early Tuesday announced it was closing its North American ski resorts for the season because of the new coronavirus, hundreds of workers in Eagle and Summit counties also learned they had 10 days to vacate their employee housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of sucks how they are kicking us out with all this uncertainty floating around, but what can you do?\u201d said Mike Brodzik as he loaded up his car on Tuesday for a trip back home to Buffalo, New York.<\/p>\n
Brodzik has spent the past 18 months in an apartment in Vail\u2019s Timber Ridge complex, where the ski area houses some of its seasonal workers. He\u2019s a team leader for a gondola crew and expected to leave his apartment in late April, after the mountain was scheduled to close.<\/p>\n
Most seasonal employees in company housing were going to leave after the resorts\u2019 scheduled closing.<\/p>\n
Brodzik said he was going to wait for the forecasted snow to clear before driving home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to wait for this storm, I guess, and hopefully, they\u2019ll have plows out on the roads. Who knows what will be in operation next week, you know?\u201d he said. \u201cIt kind of blows. I was looking forward to the rest of the season. But I\u2019m sure this is all new to (Vail Resorts), too. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve never shut down for a contagious virus before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The closure unfolded over a matter of days.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Vail Resorts said it was shutting down its 34 North American ski areas for a week \u2013 including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte Mountain Resort \u2013 in an effort to stem the surge of COVID-19 sweeping across the country. Dozens of other ski areas followed the lead and closed operations. Hours later, Gov. Jared Polis ordered every ski area in Colorado to close immediately. And on Sunday, Colorado health officials urged residents of Eagle, Summit, Gunnison and Pitkin counties \u2013 all ski communities where the rate of infection is spiking \u2013 to \u201cminimize their contact with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two days after the warning that mountain residents should stay home and one day after Polis ordered all of Colorado\u2019s restaurants, bars, gyms and other gathering places closed for at least 30 days, Vail Resorts said Tuesday the closures would extend through the 2019-20 season and told its tens of thousands of seasonal workers they were out of jobs.<\/p>\n
The company employs 55,000 workers and houses thousands of them near resorts in Colorado, Utah, California, British Columbia, New England and across the Midwest.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the parking lot at Timber Ridge was full of employees loading their cars, carrying bags down the flights of stairs and squeezing trash into overflowing dumpsters. Letters taped to Vail Resorts employees\u2019 doors by the complex manager asked them to clear items and bikes stored beneath the complex\u2019s staircases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith employee housing, it comes and it goes. It\u2019s just how it is. Everyone I know is heading back to their home base,\u201d one woman, who declined to give her full name, said as she packed her SUV.<\/p>\n
A note on Tuesday told all seasonal employees they had until March 27 to leave worker housing, even if they were scheduled to work for resorts for the summer season. Year-round and seasonal part-time employees will receive pay for hours they were scheduled through March 22. Full-time, year-round employees will continue to be paid.<\/p>\n
In a letter that urged workers to leave before collecting their final paycheck, Vail Resorts said: \u201cWe strongly recommend that you leave housing given the shutdown of much of the infrastructure within our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Huff, a spokesman for Vail Resorts, said any employee who lives in company housing and cannot leave is free to stay and \u201cwill be supported\u201d as they plan to move. Huff said the decision to ask seasonal workers to leave comes from \u201cthe advice of our counties.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cConsistent with the direction given by many of our local counties, we are asking all employees who do not permanently live in the resort, and who can return home, to do so,\u201d Huff said. \u201cWe considered a lot of different options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late Monday, Summit County issued a public health order that limited the size of gatherings and closed down eating and drinking inside restaurants and bars. The order also \u201cstrongly encouraged\u201d visitors and \u201cnon-full-time residents\u201d to return to their primary residence as soon as possible and self-quarantine.<\/p>\n
Ethan Kavanagh took a year off from college in Ohio to come to Vail. He spent the past two months as a lift operator at the ski area. On Tuesday, he was packing his car. He wanted to leave before dark. He was going to visit family in Buena Vista and hopefully find some work. If not, he would head back to Ohio.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t upset, but he wanted one more month to work on his snowboarding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys, Vail, they really do give us a lot,\u201d said Kavanagh, who lived with two other roommates, including a student from China who returned home last week. \u201cI\u2019m definitely disappointed, but with the circumstances, it\u2019s pretty understandable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kavanagh hopes to get a job at a ski resort near his school in Ohio, where Vail Resorts owns four ski areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what I\u2019m bummed about? I\u2019m going to miss Gaper Day on April 1st,\u201d Kavanagh said of the annual \u2013 and very unofficial \u2013 on-mountain party at dozens of resorts that pokes fun at ill-prepared visitors. \u201cI hear that is so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel, a mountain restaurant worker who wouldn\u2019t give his last name, was less certain of his plans. Talking with neighbors in the Timber Ridge parking lot, he was still pondering where to go. He had just stockpiled a bunch of food for the coming weeks. \u201cI should probably get out of here sooner than later, but what am I going to do with all this food?\u201d<\/p>\n
He might stay with friends in the valley or down in Fort Collins. He\u2019s been in touch with a buddy in Utah where he could stay if things devolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m talking with a bunch of friends who are preppers,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are actually really excited. They are calling it a prepper\u2019s dream. They are like, \u2018We have been planning for this for years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Timothy Gardinier was packing to leave for upstate New York. He had spent the season cooking at Two Elk, the restaurant atop Vail\u2019s China Bowl, where he also worked during the 2016-17 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am disappointed, it\u2019s that the higher-ups didn\u2019t do anything earlier. We should have shut down weeks earlier,\u201d Gardinier said. \u201cMe and my co-workers have been talking about it for weeks now. Like, \u2018Why are we still open?\u2019 It\u2019s definitely here and we knew it was here weeks ago. So I guess I saw this coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Sen. Kerry Donovan, a Democrat and Vail native, hopes Vail Resorts considered the recommendation of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment that anyone who lives in or visited the state\u2019s ski communities needs to limit social contact with others when it decided to send its seasonal workers home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would encourage Vail Resorts to thoroughly think through this advice they have given their employees and make sure it aligns with the state and federal recommendations that are keeping us all safe,\u201d said Donovan, who was waiting for a return phone call from Vail Resorts officials Tuesday afternoon. \u201cAnd I hope Vail Resorts is passing along advice to everyone they are asking to travel back home and making sure everyone is aware of the CDPHE recommendation to minimize social contact with people in their home communities so COVID-19 doesn\u2019t spread further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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