IMO You get into a behind the scenes political issue. The state prevented the lower base station road from being plowed for years. Yes there was use at the base station but far less prior to plowing. NH DOT's contention was the road and the subbase was not built for winter operations and would need a major upgrade for winter use. The new at the time, Cog part owner Presby and his partners petitioned the state to allow the road to be plowed, it was denied several times over several years. There was a shift in the political tides and one year it was approved with zero upgrades except modifying it to get the snowmobile traffic off the road. NH DOT rarely if ever voluntarily adds a road to their schedule especially a maintenance prone road, no doubt resources had to shifted and stretched to support this effort. My contention is DOT was told to suck it up by someone high up in government that supported the Cog. They sure didnt do it for hikers and BC skiers, who are regarded as deadbeats, but we sure did benefit. No doubt F&G and to a far lesser extent the State Police may allow low level dissention about potential rescue issues on the west side but if the powers that be decide that Cog deserves support, the leadership of the departments will follow their orders. Take a look at how often the F&G director is replaced, generally it is down to funding and resources, the new director is happy to move into the position (great for bumping up the very important last few years of pre-retirement income) but fairly quicky they realize that the funding and budget does not cover what is expected of them. There are a few battles for more funding with the legislature and then the director heads off to greener pastures. There are parallels with the ATV situation, F&G at a low level is allowed to be unhappy at the added workload, but ultimately their leadership accepts the task no matter what the impact, as its good for the state and the all-important room and meals tax. This added work load leads to retirements and burn out of the remaining front-line officers. They hang around because of their love for the job and the occasional rewards of being TV stars plus the all-important state retirement. The national guard drew a line a few years back and started charging the state for rescues, previously they were charged off to training. The winds have shifted and now there is a plan to station a National Guard helicopter at the Berlin airport in Milan with a support facility at the former national guard armory in Berlin. They report to the state so if the state administration decides winter operations at the Cog are important they will support it.
The FS is not directly constrained by state political forces but generally they try not to mess with state politics, the chief ranger's position is regarded as a prime preretirement position and a FS employee does not get to that level in the organization by rocking the boat. I think as long as the snow cats stop below treeline at the warming huts the FS will not make noise at least initially.
Note there have been a few cases over the years where regionally high-profile state employees have been muzzled after speaking out against the management policy with respect to rescues, some took their punishment and eventually were rewarded and others retired. Politics is not pretty; we have gotten occasional glimpses of the north country politics on occasion from a former employee but my guess is he would rather put it behind him. Sadly we rarely hear about it in the local press as the majority of the local papers are no longer news organizations as much as tourist dependent shoppers.
F&G officers hired prior to 2012 are eligible to retire at age 45 after 20 years of service with pension and long term medical benefits. To many that is pretty powerful incentive to stick it out. That turnover is going to be hitting F&G and other departments for another 8 or 9 years.
