TRAVERSE CITY — North Country Alpine Services is being tapped to handle day-to-day operations at Hickory Hills Recreation Area through April 2027.
The one-year agreement, proposed by City Manager Benjamin Marentette, comes with a $512,000 price tag – and is being estimated to save $83,000 for the city, which also will retain 20% of any surplus profits.
Marentette said the park’s operating model “hasn’t worked well,” and that working with NCAS positions Hickory to provide better service at less cost.
“Hickory Hills remains a city-owned public park,” Commissioner Laura Ness said. “The city will continue to own the land and the facilities. It will approve the rates and the policies. It’s going to oversee the contract and we will hold the operator accountable for performance.
“What changes is who is managing the day-to-day ski operations,” Ness said. “We’ve contracted with experienced professionals to provide specialized public services in other areas and really, this is no different.”
Skiers during the 2025-26 season experienced frustrations with late openings, partial openings, and multiple equipment malfunctions.
One anonymous Hickory Hills customer last year expressed frustration with those delays, despite “an incredible early winter with lots of snow.”
“All of the other ski resorts in the area are open,” she said. “Hickory Hills have passed their open date. Right now, only the bunny hill is open. Hundreds of people send their kids there. We just want to know why it’s taking so long to figure all of this out. How did they not know that the tow rope wasn’t working until the very last minute? A lot of people are [upset].”
“Our community deserves better than what we delivered last year, and I believe this proposal gives us the opportunity to deliver that,” Ness said. “Every winter night, we have the equivalent of an entire elementary school scattered throughout that park.
“It is truly one of Traverse City’s largest parks, not just in terms of acreage, but also in terms of use. Operating a ski hill is a highly specialized area, especially with today’s challenging climate issues and the related shortened seasons.”
Hickory Hills is projected to make about $419,000 over the 2026-27 season, and made about $360,000 during the 2025-26 season, according to Parks and Recreation director Michelle Hunt.
“I don’t see a compelling downside,” Marentette said of Hickory Hill’s new business model. “We thought this through critically.”
Marentette said that the park’s projected financial performance may not be as positive if the region experiences poor weather conditions for skiing and snow making, “But the entire model is based on what we built the entire city budget on, using city employees.”
As part of their scope of services, NCAS will provide documentation to assist the city with pre-season and post-season operations, Marentette explained.
At that point, the city will evaluate whether it wants to continue with the new arrangement.
“[From there], we would bid this out, or we could return to the former/current model, or a hybrid of the two,” Marentette said. “But I want to also share that I reviewed this proposal at a high level with the Hickory Hills Advisory Committee, and it was supported.”
“In a lot of ways, I see [this] as this arrangement having more accountability,” the city manager said. “Frankly, if we have an issue, it’s a lot easier to terminate a contractor than a union, for instance, or city employee in some regards. I don’t like going there, but that is the truth.”
Hickory Hills Advisory Committee member Tim Pulliam said he is excited about the new development.
“I know North Country Alpine Services,” he said. “I’ve worked with them on and off for a number of years on all sorts of projects around the Midwest. [They are] good guys, local and, probably most importantly, passionate. They absolutely love skiing and they love winter activities.”
“It’s great that we have a whole team of people (who) love Hickory as much as I do, who definitely plan to hold them accountable,” Pulliam continued. “But at the end of the day, waking up every day and loving what you do is probably the best way to keep yourself accountable.
“I really believe that they will be up every day and they’ll be making sure that the pumps are ready, that the snow maker is working, that the rope tows are safe, and that the children have an awesome place to come and experience skiing the same way my kids did.
“I’m super stoked for it and in a year, if we don’t like it, it’s not that hard to change,” Pulliam said. “Things like the snow making pumps and the [problems] we had last year … I’m confident [NCAS] would have been right out there that night and [gotten] that stuff fixed.”
Paul Wilkens, another Hickory Hills Advisory Committee member, said he also supports the new concept.
“The devil is in the details,” Wilkens said. “I know the city staff will do their best to work out the details. If we need to renegotiate in a year, let’s do that. But I think we don’t want to hesitate in moving forward on this proposal.”
Grand Traverse Ski Club board member Molly Stanifer reported to commissioners on behalf of the club that they “strongly support” Marentette’s proposal.
Rod Kivell, Hickory Hill’s director for Volunteer Ski Patrol, also voiced his support.
“Last year, our patrol put in 541 hours,” he reported, which adds up to more than 5,500 hours over the last decade. “We want this to happen.”
Kivell said he’s been at Hickory Hills “a lot of days since 2011,” when he started working as ski patrol director “and, after the last couple of years, we’ve got to change our way of doing things.”
Ness said that working with NCAS has the potential to “represent a bold, new chapter for Hickory Hills,” describing the proposal as “low-risk, high-return.”
“After last season, we all know we experienced delayed openings and we had equipment failures and ongoing operational challenges,” Ness said. “I think it became very clear to those of us who were up there quite a bit that we needed to start to think differently about how we operate the ski area.”
Ness went on to say that contracting NCAS will allow the city to focus on governance and oversight “while experienced operators focus on delivering improved experience for our residents.”