Curious what they did in 2010 in KY?
mobile homes/RVs in th campground. They were FEMA trailers that had been acquired after Katrina. I stayed in one (not a groom but was on WEG staff), they were good sized, with slideouts and hookups. Ours housed DH and myself plus our then 1yo and his baby sitter. They pumped the tanks every few days, so you could do everything in your trailer or go to the main campground facilities. It was walkable, but there were shuttles running at all times as well.
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How could TIEC not know in advance of WEG how many grooms to expect and plan accordingly?
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Apparently they were too busy with other matters.
The dubious lack of preparation regarding essentials makes me cringe when I think that they may realistically be faced with a very dangerous weather event.
If they have prepared so poorly for housing grooms at the World Equestrian Games, I can only imagine the lack of preparation for the loss of power, flooding rains, and wind that could come with the possibility of a natural disaster, for which the National Hurricane Center is suggesting those in the area consider, and have a plan in place NOW, not later, for when/if worse comes to worst it will be too late.
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Better pray that the hurricane doesn’t hit the NC/SC coast!
No grooms at the FEI level are sleeping in the barns, on cots or otherwise. It is not even allowed, also any expectation that grooms can or should do this is um…feudal nonsense.
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No kidding. Apparently our WEG “organizers” are unaware that grooms are considered by everyone (but them) to be essential to International equestrian competition.
The fact that grooms, who have come here from all over the world, seem to have been an afterthought is, again, embarrassing.
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The latest National Hurricane Center forecast has Hurricane Florence strengthening and keeping to the forecast track.
I hope that someone from the WEG organization is paying attention.
Otherwise and possibly for the better, U.S. participants can keep everyone informed about the situation and the need to plan for the worst case scenario (but not to panic), share the relevant NOAA websites, and not depend on the WEG folks to do it for them.
I’m sure that every person in the region will do their best to assist our international visitors.
Hopefully mother nature will give us a break.
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To all those who have messaged me… We are fine. Thankfully we became very aware of this as soon as we arrived, and my fantastic groom has been fully supported and catered for by my federation to a brilliant standard… We do really appreciate the statement.however, with just two days to go, it time for us to focus on our competition.
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Bellissimo promised the world to get the World.
For those wondering why this happened… VERTICAL INTEGRATION.
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To those who believe this industry will care for their own in the USA… read this lovely piece. https://theplaidhorse.com/2018/07/19…orse-industry/ by the Lovely Dianna Babington. The privileged wife of a GP rider complaining about her first world problems while deriding her staff. I could not believe some of the people defending her.
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How is it NOT a huge conflict of interest for Mark Bellissimo to contract with himself to build the housing??? :eek:
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When I saw the $650 a week, I understood why she had trouble keeping help.
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It’s only a problem if someone else is paying for it.
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It will RAIN. And that’s really all it will do that far inland.
Rain. Honestly, the fear mongering is a bit over the top. Buy some Dubarrys and put on a poncho.
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Why would it be a conflict of interest? It is isn’t a governmental agency, so he should be able to contract with whomever he wants. Besides, he and his partners own the facility and are the sponsoring organizers of WEG. They are shouldering a great deal of the financial burden and WEG will no doubt take a pretty good toll on the TEP bank account.
Also - the manufacturing company was struggling financially when he bought it. There was talk of it going out of business and laying off the workers. These are small, rural communities, and companies of that sort are often the major employer in the area. A shutdown would have heavily impacted the families and communities. Bellissimo bought the company, modernized and upgraded it, and saved a lot of jobs in the community and created more jobs. It was a win-win - since it is local, it made it quick and easy and very cost-effective to get stuff built and transported to the site. And again - he saved/created jobs.
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And I agree that the groom housing issue was something they should have been paying more attention to. Initially, there was talk of putting grooms in the cabins on the property. That is when they were thinking the luxury hotel would be completely finished and they could house officials and key staff in the hotel. And when they thought there would be an additional 3-4 additional new hotels in the immediate area, AND when they thought they would be expanding/upgrading Stable House Inn to house the riders. I don’t know if the hotel on site got finished - the last time I was up there (a few months ago), only the frame was up - no units had been installed although my understanding was that they were running pretty much 24x7 at the manufacturing facility to turn out modular rooms and try to get them installed in time to get occupancy permits for WEG. And I didn’t see any signs of other new hotels in the immediate area, so I guess all that got delayed also as the hotel chains realized there wouldn’t be enough traffic after WEG to justify the costs.
Another issue was that the area got a LOT of rain earlier in the year, which slowed down construction significantly. At one point, there were bad problems with mudslides in the area from all the rain, resulting in at least one fatality (not at TIEC itself, but a neighboring community). My understanding is that most construction everywhere in the area had to be put on hold for several weeks due to weather conditions. Add to it the fact that the economy is booming, and construction is really picking up. That made it harder to get materials and equipment and workers. They were having to recruit construction workers from out of state, some of whom were staying at Stable House Inn for a while, which put plans for expansion of that facility on hold. And again, last time I was in the area, there wasn’t any construction going on at Stable House at all.
Add to it that Bellissimo apparently was changing his mind on a frequent basis, as one thing after another cropped up and moved higher up the priority list. And there were issues with building/zoning ordinances and they kept having to get variances, a process that usually doesn’t happen overnight. (For instance, they had to get a variance for the media center because the design exceeded the height limit specified in the county building code. Not sure if they also ran into this issue with the hotel.)
The whole thing was/is a logistical nightmare and I admire Bellissimo and partners for stepping up and offering TIEC after Montreal dropped out, but it would have been really nice if they had had an extra six months of lead time.
And now they are facing a hurricane. I am guessing Bellissimo et al will be ready for a stiff drink once WEG is finished.
Edited to add that I may have been mistaken about the hotel frame being up. Looking back on it, I think it may have been the frame for the media center, with only a graded out area at the hotel site. We couldn’t find anyone to ask - all TIEC employees were busy doing “stuff” and we needed to get on the road.
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It is hardly “fear mongering” to take the advice of the NOAA and the National Hurricane Center.
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READ for comprehension. https://www.tryondailybulletin.com/2018/06/08/57-homes-damaged-from-recent-storms-slides/
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We often get tropical storm force winds here (Tryon) with hurricanes depending on what part of the coast they make landfall.
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