Summertime brought new boilers and repairs to Breckenridge Terrace, where a January cold snap left dozens of ski resort employees without heat or hot water for nearly a week.
Jon Copeland, the COO at Breckenridge Ski Area, says an employee housing team has been fixing the Terrace all summer.
“That team down there, at employee housing itself, has put time and money into upgrades,” Copeland tells Krystal 93. “Again, those are old buildings, old facilities, and while it would be great to erect some brand-new facilities, right now we’re finding our best time is to address the nuts and bolts to keep these things together.”
The work is almost done, just in time for ski season. But it has not been moving as fast as Copeland would like.
“At the end of last season, we ran into some hiccups, but we’ve put more time and energy into it this summer,” Copeland says. “Those are our employees, and they are super important to me. They weren’t having the experience they were hoping for.”
The January deep-freeze fiasco made headlines nationwide. Temperatures fell below zero for nearly a week straight, flooding ground-level units and leaving some employees with only a space heater for warmth. Dozens walked out in protest.
Within hours of the walkout, Copeland stood up a housing task to “support our employees and their needs, the challenges they are facing.”
His perspective is unique – before he was head honcho, he was hourly.
“I’m passionate because I was there. I lived in employee housing at one time,” Copeland says. “These older buildings are challenged. They were built for the time and place, and not for the future. I’m confident in our team this year and our plans.”