UPDATE: This story has been updated to include comments from Town Manager Audra Caler.

CAMDEN — In the upstairs office at the Camden Snow Bowl lodge, winter is on fast approach. Sales of season passes are picking up, and the talk  is about snowmaking, trail prep, equipment and advertising for new employees. It is almost showtime, when the municipally owned ski hill turns white, and outdoor enthusiasts gravitate toward the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area.

And this month, there has been a leadership change. Not dramatic, but different. 

Jeff Nathan, a resident of Lincolnville, longtime Snow Bowl skier, avid mountain biker, hiker, ski patroller and retired financial officer, was hired in early September by Town Manager Audra Caler to be Snow Bowl General Manager and Camden Parks and Recreation Dept. Director. 

His first day on the job was Sept. 18, when he stepped into the shoes of former interim Snow Bowl General Manager/Parks and Rec Director Holly Anderson, who is now the town's Communications Coordinator. 

She will soon make the shift to the Camden Town Office, but on Sept. 25, the two were working on finances, clarifying budget lines, and moving the mountain closer to the 2024-2025 ski season. 

"We are fortunate that the timing worked out well to be able to recruit Jeff Nathan as the new director and general manager," said Camden Town Manager Audra Caler. "He is an incredibly experienced manager with connections to the Snow Bowl and broader outdoor recreation community in the Midcoast."

Outside the lodge at the end of September, the wide open ski trails of the Snow Bowl were recently mowed, as the green of September edged toward the rusty reds and browns of autumn. It is the quiet grace period before winter lets loose, and the clunk of ski boots on the stairs drums a steady beat, while chatter fills the lodge.

The Snow Bowl ski trails take up much of Ragged Mountain's northeasterly slopes, with viewshed over Penobscot Bay, all the way to Isle au Haut and Mount Desert.

The mountain's west side is in conservation under a partnership of Coastal Mountains Land Trust and Maine Water, the regional water utility. The conservation land abuts the Snow Bowl at various points, and the Round the Mountain Trail, for hikers, runners and mountain bikers, begins near the toboggan chute, representing another partnership, this time between the Town of Camden and Coastal Mountains.

The redevelopment of the Snow Bowl that began in 2014, plus the conservation of land around Ragged Mountain, is an ongoing project on different fronts, but all with the intent to provide, and promote, access to the outdoors.

Nathan looks forward to helping Camden realize the four-season potential of the Snow Bowl, a goal that was articulated more than 13 years ago when the town embarked on its Ragged Mountain Recreation Area redevelopment project.

"I want this to be the hub for all outdoor activities in the Midcoast," said Nathan. "We have great trails. We are in a great location, with so much to offer. I look forward to helping us take better advantage of this gem year-round."

He holds the Snow Bowl in high esteem, as he does the Midcoast.

Nathan moved to Camden in 1995 from Pennsylvania, part of the first wave of MBNA financial officers, with his then fiancee Christine. It was initially a three-year commitment, but they fell in love with the area.

"I did not want to go back to the mid-Atlantic," he said. 

The town where he grew up in New Jersey, "had more cows than people," he said. But that had changed over the years. "This was much more like home."

He grew up skiing at Hidden Valley and Mountain Creek in New Jersey.

He and Christine were high school sweethearts — "went to prom together," said Nathan, and then college together. They got engaged, rented a two-bedroom apartment in Rockport in June 1995, and got married in October of that year. 

They bought a house in Camden on Cobb Road, where they raised two children — Abby, now at UMaine studying nursing, and Jack, an engineer at Fisher Engineering in Rockland. Christine is a nurse at Pen Bay Medical Center, and Jeff just retired in April from his 30-year career in financial management.

But he wasn't ready to ease back on the throttle.

In July, he applied for the job of Snow Bowl manager/parks and rec director, energized for overseeing the 700 acres of public lands owned by the Town of Camden, and which range between the Snow Bowl to the public landing. In between, numerous cemeteries, parks, the former tannery on Washington Street, lake floats, docks, Laite Beach and hiking trailheads that abut Camden Hills State Park.

It is a big job and also entails hosting the YMCA's summer camp at the Snow Bowl and Hosmer Pond, managing playing fields, and organizing the Camden Windjammer Festival. There is staff to help him, and a new assistant manager at the Snow Bowl will be hired. Still, there are myriad details to manage.

That's just part of the job, Nathan accepts. To him, the bigger challenge is moving the Snow Bowl into the future with a positive and resilient presence.

"This is a place that attracts visitors," he said. "We are a vacation town, and a vacation state. I want this to be a place for people to go do their outdoor activities, and come back, a place to connect."

A similar goal has been expressed after a Snow Bowl revisoning effort led by consultant Andy Shepard, who was hired by Town Manager Caler to help position the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area for the next five years.

Shepard was formerly CEO of Saddleback Mountain, and he was retained by Camden to develop a four-season master plan for the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area, implement standard operating procedures for the Snow Bowl, develop a marketing plan, assist in recruiting and training a general manager, and develop a governance structure and advisory group. Shepard's contract is for $10,000 a month to accomplish those goals.

"I thought it was  important to have someone like Andy with a lot of experience turning around small community ski mountains, and looking at strategic opportunities (particularly year round recreation) for the Snow Bowl, as well as operational improvements, and most importantly the organizational culture," said Caler. "Andy has been asked to consult for many small independent ski mountains that are struggling to stay open and he's been up front with those that aren't viable when he believes he can't help them turn things around. He was  incredibly positive about the future viability of the Snow Bowl that it was both energizing and inspiring. His involvement is  important to help set up the new leadership team up for success."

A recent Snow Bowl newsletter reinforced that perspective: "The Snow Bowl has long been famous for its one-of-a-kind location along the coast. But, we're not simply where the mountains and coastline come together. We want to be where everyone comes together. That's why our goal is to build a facility that will serve as a year-roun epicenter of a healthy, active, outdoor lifestyle for Midcoast and south/central Maine."

And, the newsletter continues: "Paramount to that goal is continuing to make progress toward being able to build the new lodge everyone is so excited about."

Nathan sees where his career skills in finance and management will augment the Snow Bowl.

"We both agree that Camden has an significant opportunity to provide our residents, and neighbors in the Midcoast, with the hub for outdoor recreation activities," said Caler. "There is a mental health crisis, particularly amongst youth, and connection to the outdoors and nature through healthy activities and socializing in person, can be a major outlet and improve overall health outcomes .  However, we need to make the Snow Bowl a place that can offer everyone in the community something, which is our major goal.  It will take a lot of work but this is very achievable.  The community wants the Snow Bowl to succeed as a year round outdoor recreational hub and has been overwhelmingly supportive of any and all efforts to move in this direction.  We have the community support and we have the team in place to continue the project of making the Snow Bowl a public asset that can improve the health and quality of life of our community members."

Nathan has been immersed for years with Snow Bowl operations, particulary in relation to ski patrol, which is responsible for safety on the trails and ensuring rescue capacity. 

He oversees the regular rescue training for patrol, running regular chairlift evacuation drills that involve not just ski patrollers, but the Camden Fire Department and Coastal Mountains Search and Rescue team, as well. And, he is teaching the next class of ski patrollers in outdoor emergency care.

Nathan has practical goals for the Snow Bowl: Implementing improvements to produce more snow earlier and faster, keeping the mountain open later in the season, and hiring a ticketing and rental shop manager, as well as a lift mechanic.

As for a new lodge, "There is a lot of very positive sentiment about reestablishing a plan to get a new lodge here," said Nathan.

Anderson looks forward to Nathan assuming the helm.

"I am really excited about Jeff being here because of his experience, his knowledge of the mountain, his personality, and his background," she said. "He is the perfect fit for where the mountain is going to go."

For Caler: "Holly's position will also be key to this.  The community wants to know what is going on at the Snow Bowl and have an opportunity to be involved.  This will required good communication from the Snow Bowl and Town, which Holly is excellent at."

For 24 years, Anderson has been involved with the U.S. National Toboggan Championships, serving as a volunteer on the committee for all the last seven years as she helped run the event while working for the town. She will remain co-chair of the Toboggan Committee along with co-chair Stuart Young, while in her new role at the town office. 

In general, as local government, particularly Town Meeting forms of government, are required to take on more and increasingly complex issues, voters need accurate informational that is distilled in a simple digestible format," said Caler. "We need our voters to be informed and educated with factual information.  Local news sources are an important partner in providing this information, but they can't be expected to cover everything in the detail most residents need to make informed decisions.  For this reason, municipalities need to be more proactive in communicating information to the public, which will be the focus of the Communications Coordinator.  I'm looking forward to Holly officially starting in the role in October."

"While I am moving on, I will still have foot at the new Snow Bowl," Anderson said. "I'll do whatever I can to help Jeff this winter while he gets set up for the busy time."

She added: "Most of all, I want to be a part of seeing a new lodge here for the community."

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657