Friday, November 07, 2008
Mountain Lake Hotel will trim winter staff
Financial strains were cited for the need to reduce the staff to five, down from the normal 15.
Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times
Giles County has seen a steady decline in taxes collected on guests who stay at Mountain Lake Hotel.
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Cash flow to Mountain Lake Hotel is slowly drying up, forcing managers to cut back on its off-season employees.
The hotel will lay off about 10 people from its usual winter staff of about 15, effective Dec. 1, said innkeeper Buzz Scanland.
Mountain Lake Hotel normally closes most of its operations during the winter months, only keeping nine cottages open and hosting a Christmas program, Scanland said. That will continue as usual.
"Nothing will really change as far as the guests go," Scanland said.
In previous years, staff has been kept on to make improvements to the hotel, but because of the summer's high gas prices, the bad economy and the recent drying up of Mountain Lake, the money simply isn't there this year to keep everyone, Scanland said.
The level of the 50-acre natural lake showcased in the 1987 hit movie "Dirty Dancing" has been dropping since 2006. Today is it mostly dry.
"Naturally, it does hurt the business, and you have to take certain steps to make sure you can remain open," said Eugene Lucas, president of Gal-Tex Hotel Corp., which manages Mountain Lake Hotel.
Giles County officials have noticed a decline in taxes collected on guests who stay at the resort. Though it did rise in June, the transient occupancy tax brought in less in each of July, August and September compared with the same period in 2007. September's collection was down 61 percent to $1,699.
During the height of the season, from May to October, Mountain Lake employs about 160 part-time workers and about 15 full-time workers, Scanland said. Those who usually stay on through the winter are the full-time staff, and those are the workers being laid off, Scanland said.
Those workers have been offered the opportunity to apply for open positions at other Gal-Tex hotels, including those in Fredericksburg, Williamsburg and Louisville, Ky., Scanland said.
Mountain Lake Hotel plans to reopen as usual in the spring, and managers would like to see those laid off return if they want to, Lucas said.
Rumors that money was being taken from Mountain Lake Hotel for repairs from a recent hurricane in Galveston, Texas, where Gal-Tex is headquartered, are also untrue, Lucas said.
The Mary Moody Northen Foundation, the endowment that owns Mountain Lake and other Gal-Tex hotels, has given money to the Texas coastal community for repairs, but it did not come from the Mountain Lake Hotel budget, Lucas said.
Scanland said the hotel is not being sold or closed permanently.
"About five years ago they spent $2 [million] to $3 million to build cottages," he said. "There's no way they would ever sell, because it doesn't make sense because of all the improvements they've put into the property."
He also noted that Northen's will mandates that the 2,600-acre property cannot be sold.
When the hotel reopens, management would like to have more land-based programs available for guests to make up for the dry lake, Scanland said.
"We're going to try to do more things because we have to compensate for the lake," Scanland said. "We want to have more activities for families and maybe more guided hikes and some other things."
Staff writer Jeff Sturgeon contributed to this report.
