Maine’s biggest ski resort is in a dispute over $150K of taxpayer money

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Franklin County is asking Maine’s largest ski resort to repay roughly $150,000 in taxpayer money that officials say was improperly charged for an infrastructure project that fell apart. The county agreed in 2020 to subsidize a project by Sugarloaf that would have dammed the south branch of the Carrabassett River at its source, Caribou Pond, which lies in a small, wooded basin about six miles south of the resort’s entrance. The dam would have created a reservoir for the resort to use as a water source for snowmaking. In 2023, Sugarloaf officials said the project would have required construction along a road that intersects with the Appalachian Trail, and it was no longer happening as planned. But Sugarloaf kept charging the county anyway.