Industry News
The man responsible for placing a protest sign in front of the Beaver Creek, CO snowstake webcam has been fired by his employers, Vail Resorts reports the Vail Daily.
The sign was placed there by Tim McMahon on Friday 27th March in protest to a letter from Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz giving employees ten days to vacate their housing. In the letter to employees, Katz advised that in the best interests of the community, those who can return home should do as soon as possible. This also included any who had summer jobs with the company lined up. The direction came from Eagle County officials, and the company gave employees 10-days to relocate themselves.
“I didn’t want to write anything vulgar, I didn’t want to do anything destructive, I just wanted to get a message out of Eagle County,” McMahon told the Vail Daily. “So I thought this camera in the national forest was one way to do that.”
Already furloughed from his job at high-end restaurant Beano’s Cabin, Vail Resorts contacted him last week informing him he was terminated and won’t be returning to the restaurant or any other Vail Resorts business. McMahon admitted he was responsible and had no regrets.
“My boss called me, he said I’m no longer coming back at Beano’s or any Vail Resorts property,” McMahon told the Vail Daily. “He said it was from the sign, straight up. It came down from the top.”
The 10-day deadline was not well received at the time, and a follow-up letter by Katz the next day claiming employees ‘who can not leave have the support of the company and the local community’ was too little too late. The sign was removed within hours.
Beaver Creek Resort is a major ski resort in the western United States, near Avon, Colorado. The resort comprises three villages, the main Beaver Creek Village, Bachelor Gulch, and Arrowhead to the west. The resort is owned and operated by Vail Resorts which operates multiple additional resorts. Beaver Creek is a regular host of World Cup events, usually in early December. Beano’s Cabin is an on-mountain dining experience only accessible by a 20-minute sleigh ride.
