Gondola claims make some nervous
KELLOGG – A Spokane woman experienced a few jitters as she walked toward the Silverwood Mountain gondolas Saturday afternoon to head up for the music and suds of BrewFest.
Margie Green had read the story Thursday in The Spokesman-Review about a former maintenance worker who alleged that the three-mile aerial tramway is not safe because of neglect, a claim the operating company denies.
“I’m nervous,” said Green, 62. “There’ll be a lot of people going up there today.”
She still wanted to attend the music festival. She just wanted to drive her car up to the 5,700-foot elevation outdoor amphitheater instead of the gondola, which in places can be 200 feet above ground. She knew there were access roads to the top, but her husband said there would be no parking. She wanted to ask anyway, just in case. But no patrons were allowed to drive up the winding roads.
In the parking lot down below, hundreds of people gathered up their lawn chairs, blankets, coolers and sunhats for the daylong music and beer fest. Most people seemed to have heard something about the gondola issue, but they came anyway. By 3 p.m., no one had asked for a refund.
Not everyone took the maintenance worker’s warning to heart.
“You never know what to believe,” said Josh Hall, a Spokane machinist. He casually mentioned the safety concerns of the gondolas to his two friends as they pulled up in the car. They had some zero-hour concerns but decided to go anyway.
“I guess I put my faith in the operators,” said Hall, who wore a shirt that read, “Wayne’s Beer Delivery.”
Peter Abney of Silverton, Idaho, stopped briefly to enjoy some carefree coolness from the spritzing misters that blew out cool, damp clouds. Abney hadn’t heard of the safety questions. When he read the article while standing in line for the concert, he looked up and said he didn’t believe the allegations.
At the end of the gondola run, the lines of people stretched back from the outdoor amphitheater, where parents with children and strollers waited their turn in the Bouncy Castle. As far as veteran patrons in the crowd could tell, the crowds were as large and diverse as ever.
Silver Mountain’s manager, Brian Rhodes, said the crowds were comparable to past years. The BrewFest was the first of four major events on the mountain, Rhodes said.
Rhodes calls the tramway system of gondolas the lifeline of his business, something he would not allow to become unsafe.
The news story did jolt the operation, Rhodes said. Silver Mountain is owned by Eagle Crest, a subsidiary of Jeld-Wen, a large manufacturer of doors and windows.
Rhodes said the staff, made up of 55 year-round employees, has taken the allegations of running an unsafe operation very personally.
There have been many calls from people wanting more information.
“I’ve talked to every person who phoned in,” Rhodes said. “We will continue to make this a viable, safe operation for the public.”
On Saturday, it was business as usual. Crowds flooded into the concert. Daredevil bikers rolled, pedaled and jumped down the winding trails. A documentary film crew was shooting footage of bikers on the mountain.
A man who didn’t give his name but had just read the article on the gondola ride said, “If you worry about everything, then you’ll never do anything.”