BELMONT — Rep. Michael Sylvia, R-Belmont, called the fact that SoulFest, the Christian music festival taking place this week at Gunstock Mountain Resort, will go on as planned to be “great news.”
With the resignation of Gunstock’s senior management team on July 20, there were questions as to whether some of the amenities at the county-owned recreational area would be available to the youths attending the festival. New Sound Concerts, the promoter of SoulFest, had threatened a lawsuit if Gunstock did not allow festival-goers to use the zip line, chairlift, aerial treetops, and mountain coaster. Not having those available could directly affect ticket sales, the promoter’s attorney said.
Gunstock would not be able to retain its insurance for those operations without a senior management team in place, but those who resigned agreed to return if Gunstock Area Commission Chair Peter Ness and Vice-Chair David Strang resigned. The commission and management had been at odds for months, leading to the walkout last month.
Ness resigned on July 29, and Strang said on July 31 that he would tender his resignation once a new commissioner was in place. With Commissioner Gary Kiedaisch having resigned in solidarity with the management staff, Strang said the commission would be unable to conduct any business if he, too, resigned, leaving only two commissioners in place. It would require a quorum of three commissioners to hold a meeting.
During an emergency meeting on August 1, a majority of the Belknap County Delegation accepted the resignations of Kiedaisch and Ness, then appointed Denise Conroy to serve out Kiedaisch’s term, which expires in November 2023. That allowed them to then accept Strang’s conditional resignation, even though he had never put it in writing.
That, in turn, satisfied the conditions for Gunstock’s management team to return to work.
There had been some concern that Sylvia and other Belknap representatives who did not attend the meeting might fight the August 1 decisions, since Sylvia had raised questions as to whether the meeting, scheduled on a 24-hour notice, was legal.
On Tuesday, however, Sylvia said in an email, “At this point I’ll focus on the great news that SoulFest looks to be on track and might just restore some faith in the community.”
Prior to Monday night’s meeting, Belknap County Attorney Andrew Livernois rendered a legal opinion on whether the special session would be legal. Livernois acknowledged that it falls into a legal gray area, but said he believed the meeting would be legal under the provisions of both RSA 91-A, the so-called Right-To-Know law, and RSA 24:9, which addresses the meetings of county conventions.
Even if the meeting were improper, Livernois noted that the New Hampshire Supreme Court “has made it clear that in situations where the County Convention mistakenly holds a meeting that was improperly noticed, the defect can later be cured by simply posting another meeting within the statutory deadlines, and then having the members ratify their prior decision.”
Sylvia, as chair of the county delegation, had previously scheduled a meeting for Monday, August 8, and ratification of the previous meeting could take place at that time, if necessary. With a majority of the delegation members having supported the action, it is unlikely that a ratification motion would fail.
Meanwhile, SoulFest, taking place on August 4-6, is set to go with all of the amenities outlined in the contract in place, and with the former management team back on the job.