Jun. 15--American Skiing Co. is considering whether to move its top management from Maine to Utah, a company official said Friday. 

Published reports said the company has already moved its executives to Park City, Utah, but Erik Preusse, American Skiing's spokesman, said no final decision has been made. 

Workers at ASC offices in Newry said that B.J. Fair, American Skiing's chief executive officer, no longer maintained an office in Maine. 

Fair was at his office in The Canyons, American Skiing's resort in Utah, but calls there weren't returned Friday. Preusse said the workers who said Fair no longer had an office in Maine "spoke out of turn." 

The extent of the impending move isn't clear, but Robin Zinchuk, the executive director of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, said her understanding is that most of the company's top executives have gone to Utah. 

Zinchuk said the move from Maine has apparently been under way for a few months. Calls and e-mails she has made to company officials have been returned from offices in Utah recently, she said. 

"We know that they are there," she said, "but nobody from ASC came to me and had a business meeting and said, 'These are what our plans are.' " Zinchuk said she has a friend who works in purchasing and was told that the department would continue to operate from Maine. "There are some people who are staying, and that's great news," she said. 

Preusse said that if a move is made, it would involve fewer than 10 people. 

He said the only senior executive currently based in Utah is the head of the real estate division, which is in Park City. 

Zinchuk said resort officials, as distinct from company officials, have said there are no changes planned for Sunday River, regardless of where the headquarters ends up. 

"The right people are reassuring the chamber and the business community," Zinchuk said, adding that the move "is sort of an evolution and it is sort of sad." 

Bradley McCurtain, the president of Maine Securities, said the move may not necessarily be bad news, but it certainly isn't good. 

"There's a signal that the company is sending out and I don't think it's a good signal for New England and Maine," he said. 

American Skiing owns seven ski resorts -- five in New England, one in Utah and one in Colorado. Moving the company executives to Utah would take them far away from the region where most of the company's assets are located, McCurtain said. 

"They own some of the top resorts in the East and if suddenly they're seen as an afterthought, I'm not sure that's a good thing," he said. "My understanding is that The Canyons is considered (by ASC executives to be) the resort of the future." 

Preusse confirmed that, saying The Canyons represents "the most opportunity for growth." 

He said that would be one factor in deciding whether to move the headquarters. He declined to say what the other factors would be. 

Newry became American Skiing's home base more than 20 years ago, when Leslie B. Otten bought the Sunday River resort and turned it into one of the top ski destinations in New England. He kept the company there as it grew into a coast-to-coast operation, with nine resorts from Maine to California. 

But the huge debt that piled up from the expansion, plus a few years of poor skiing weather, have kept American Skiing from making an annual profit since it first sold stock to the public in late 1997. 

The company has since sold Heavenly, its resort in California, and Sugarbush in Vermont to try to reduce the debt. 

Otten resigned as CEO more than a year ago after a planned merger with Meristar Hotels and Resorts, a hotel management company, fell apart at the last minute. The merger would have resulted in the company headquarters being moved to Washington, D.C. 

Fair worked in California and Spain before joining American Skiing and McCurtain said he doesn't believe any of the senior managers have ties to Maine, so the move from the state is not completely unexpected. 

They may be trying to start anew," he said. 

In addition to Sunday River and The Canyons, American Skiing owns Sugarloaf in Maine; Attitash Bear Peak in New Hampshire; Killington and Mount Snow in Vermont; and Steamboat in Colorado. 

-----To see more of the Portland Press Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.portland.com 

(c) 2002, Portland Press Herald, Maine. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. AESK, MHX, MMH,