Warm Winter is Bad for Business

A winter filled with a low amount of snow not only impacts skiers and snowboarders, but also puts a tremendous economic burden to our surrounding community.

The Northeast Kingdom provides a wide range of winter activities that can only be taken advantage of if there is snow. On average the Northeast Kingdom gets over 100 inches of snow each year. This year however, as of March 9, 2012, we have received less than 50 inches.

This has hurt local businesses throughout Lyndon and the surrounding towns in all industries including restaurants, convenience stores, clothing stores and almost all walks of life. State Representative Howard Crawford believes that with the recent snowfall, the economy has begun to pick up in the last month.

"Without snow, it's tough for our area to have a boom of economic prosperity, which is something that we need here in the Northeast Kingdom," said Crawford.

The Northeast Kingdom is not only home to Burke Mountain but also the VAST trail system, which provides trails for snowmobilers all throughout the kingdom. East Burke Market is dependent upon the winter sport traffic, and saw low numbers in terms of snowmobilers up until this month.

They now have up to 15 different snowmobile groups a day stop by to refuel and warm up, which is considered a medium size pull in terms of winters in the past.

Another local business, The Pizza Man, has seen the same type of flow but has been able to combat that with new marketing efforts. This past fall they completely redesigned their interior which is now one of the top spots in town. Partner the improvements with a popular wing night on Mondays and the Pizza Man is even seeing waits and lines right out of their door.

On campus, Lyndon has one of the largest ski and snowboard groups in the area. Student Government Association club representative for the Ski and Ride club, Weston Miller sees it a little bit differently.

"In my view, people who participate in winter sports will come no matter what the conditions are because this is a yearly activity that they get to do. They make their reservations in advance and look forward to their weekend in Vermont every year," said Miller.