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Perry’s side of the conversation

Dear Editor:Last Friday, a column appeared in your paper by Roger Marolt (“Unanswered questions,” Sept. 9), ostensibly regarding questions he had for the Aspen Skiing Company concerning our environmental record, which was written after he and I had a telephone conversation. The column claimed the questions to be “fair,” yet the writer suggested that his questions were met with anger.His column, in my opinion, did not accurately reflect our conversation. The first 20 minutes of our conversation did not involve his questions at all, but centered on his lingering irritation with the Snowmass Base Village referendum of February 2005. I clearly and calmly stated that until there was some acknowledgment or resolution from him regarding his factually incorrect public assertions that Skico “engineered” the vote, it was difficult to believe that he was approaching this environmental matter with objectivity.I did get angry at one point in our discussion regarding Base Village, but not regarding his environment questions. I was angry when he questioned my integrity during our discussion, and for that I sincerely apologize.When our conversation moved on to his environmental questions, I told him that, in my opinion, they were not fair, balanced or objective, to which he responded, “Of course they aren’t, they aren’t intended to be.” At that point I invited him to become more informed (pointing him to some online resources) and to then re-evaluate his questions – to which he agreed. The result was his column, however; he chose not to modify his original questions.I would like to state now that Skico is open to answering any questions on the subject of our environmental position – even the “tough” ones, however we prefer that media questions be presented in a balanced and objective manner.Are we perfect? Absolutely not. In many respects, we try to be our own toughest critics – we continually question and challenge ourselves. I invite anyone to read our company’s annual sustainability reports (which I also invited Roger to do – they are posted on our website) and draw their own conclusions about how we approach these issues. We strive to be better a week, month and year from now than we are today.In closing, I would like to emphasize that environmental issues are of great and global importance and hopefully each of us makes an effort to become informed and yes, even ask tough questions, but please always do so in a spirit of objectivity and fairness.David PerrySenior vice presidentAspen Skiing Company