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Jobs to outstrip lower-end housing in Eagle County

Compiled by Allen Best EAGLE VALLEY, Colo. — Highways in and out of Eagle County will creak and groan in coming years with what demographers say will be ever-heavier commuting patterns.

Compiled by Allen Best

EAGLE VALLEY, Colo. — Highways in and out of Eagle County will creak and groan in coming years with what demographers say will be ever-heavier commuting patterns. Some 36,000 people will be commuting into the county by 2025, or about four-fifths as many people as now live in the county.

With Vail and Aspen as the seeds, Eagle County was the 10 th fastest growing county in the nation during the 1990s. Although growing more slowly during the last several years, that slow growth won’t last, says Jim Weskott, Colorado’s state demographer. The communities along Interstate 70 are expected to fill with retiring baby boomers, a trend that has already occurred. The high demand for real estate will make it "very difficult for workers to live here," predicts Weskott.

Leadville, an existing bedroom community, is expected to become even more of a bedroom. Also expected to fill with commuting workers are Silt, New Castle, and Rifle, which are communities west along I-70.

While there has been no backlash to the projections, some public officials are asking about the impacts of commuting – on highways, the environment, and the outlying communities themselves.

"We need to get a clear understanding of our unintended consequences of growth," warns Eagle County Commissioner Arn Menconi.

It’s not just skiing, of course. Statistics show that both commercial development and population during the 1990s grew more rapidly than the ski industry in Summit County, which is adjacent to Eagle County.

Is all of this inevitable? Weskott suggests some growth pressures are inevitable, but local governments have choices in how they respond – whether, for example, they insist on employee housing as a complement to high-end housing. The Eagle County commissioners earlier this year rejected that notion after a seven-year study.

Developer strikes deal with environmentalists

NORTHSTAR, Calif. — East West Partners, the Colorado-based development company planning work at Northstar ski resort, has worked out a deal with a local environmental group, Sierra Watch, to ensure preservation of open space in the Martis Valley. The valley is located between Truckee and Lake Tahoe.

East West will impose a half-per cent transfer fee on all real estate sales in the Northstar Village for the next 20 years, generating a projected $5 million. For its part, Sierra Watch won't contest the redevelopment of Northstar Village, which includes more than 200 residential units, 100,000 square-feet of commercial space, a conference center, spa and ice rink.

Still uncertain is the approval by Placer County authorities for the development of the Martis Valley. Sierra Watch had vowed to sue in an attempt to block the revised community plan that would allow up to 6,000 homes. The group prefers only half as many homes. Roger Lessman, managing partner for East West Partners in Truckee, said development by his company would occur among trees, not on the valley floor.

Volunteers to push rules for the Teton backcountry

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — It’s a story told at innumerable places across the West. A quarter-century ago, there were maybe a half-dozen cars each day parked at Teton Pass, carrying mostly cross-country skiers. Today, it’s not uncommon to see skiers, snowshoers, snowboarders and snowmobilers parking 90 cars. And that means the potential for lots of conflicts in the backcountry.

To that end, Jay Pistono is helping organized a volunteer force for the U.S. Forest Service, to gently help people adopt rules. "In the early ’80s, it just didn’t matter, because there were only five or six cars up there," he told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

The volunteers hope to get skiers and snowboarders to pick up the poop left by their dogs along the trails. They will suggest that users yield to those going downhill, as snowboarders in particular need to maintain their downhill momentum. Boarders, ’shoers, and snowmobilers are asked to avoid walking or riding over ski tracks. And snowmobilers will be steered away from designated wilderness areas.

Park City packed for the Christmas holiday

PARK CITY, Utah — Christmas and New Year’s were among the busiest ever at Park City and many other resorts across the West. The Park Record reported 195,000 visitor nights between Dec. 21 and Jan. 3, which is close to capacity for that area. Christmas storms are expected to produce strong bookings later in the season.

That’s also the theory at Jackson Hole, where about eight feet of snow fell in less than two weeks On the other side of the Tetons, however, Targhee reported significantly reduced holiday crowds. The trouble? Too much snow, as well as wind, which caused difficult driving and many closed roads.

New Year’s storm takes deadly toll in Idaho

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — A children’s ski instructor at Sun Valley died on New Year’s Day during a brutal storm that dumped up to four inches of snow an hour and whipped Bald Mountain with 80 mph winds. The instructor had taught for most of the day, then boarded a mid-afternoon lift. He was found after three days of searching by an avalanche dog, which found him buried six feet deep in a tree well, reports the Idaho Mountain Express.

That same storm left a couple from Seattle dead after a post-midnight avalanche slammed into their cabin near Soldier Mountain. The 26-year-old cabin was located below a slope prime for avalanches, with a 39 degree slope that had been wind-loaded with snow. The bedroom where the couple was found was encased in snow nearly as firm as concrete.

Economist writer predicts big changes in energy use

ASPEN, Colo. — Vijay Vaitheeswaran, the global environment and energy correspondent for The Economist, was in Aspen recently to lecture and to push his new book, Power to the People. As regards energy supplies for the U.S., nobody has it quite right, he says.

First, toppling Sadam Hussein does not make the U.S. oil supply in the Middle East secure. Second, tapping domestic supplies in the West and Alaska will provide only brief relief from the binge on foreign oil. America consumes 25 per cent of the world’s oil yet sits on only 3 per cent of proven reserves, he noted in an interview with The Aspen Times.

But the environmental movement hasn’t got it quite right, says Vaitheeswaran. "We can’t conserve our way out of the problem. It’s too big," he says. A recent marketing campaign that claimed driving an inefficient SUV was providing support to Osama bin Laden is catchy, but not exactly visionary. "My argument is the SUV isn’t the problem. The problem is the internal combustion energy."

However, Vaitheeswaran is optimistic that the standard automobile engine as well as the 1950s-era U.S. energy grid will soon be obsolete. He predicts hydrogen fuel cells will soon catch on, first with big fleets as employed by FedEx and UPS. Also, he expects decentralized power supply, with small, micropower sources closer to users instead of large sources far away.

The cat without a map

DURANGO, Colo. — It’s another one of those can-you-believe-this stories about a domestic cat.

A guy from a community north of Durango set out in June to build a house in Washington state. He took his cat of two years, Jell-O, with him, but the cat was frantic to avoid the drive. So at Monticello, Utah, two mountain ranges and 95 rugged miles from Durango, the guy leaves the cat to fend for itself.

The guy builds the house in Washington, goes to Los Angeles, then returns to Durango in January to finds a note on his door from a neighbour. His cat, they say, is back. He finds that hard to believe, and when a cat does show up it’s so mangy he isn’t quite sure. But after a while, Greg White finally recognized it as his own.

"All he wants to do is sit on my lap and be petted," he told the Durango Herald.

"They’re guided somehow by means we don’t understand," said Karleen Stange, a veterinarian. "How many people could do that without a map? And yet we call them dumb animals."

40-below nights just like the good old days

BANFF, Alberta — The good old – and cold – days returned to the Bow River Valley. At Banff, the temperature on Jan. 4 plunged to minus 41 degrees Celsius.

While Banff’s reading cracked a 25-year-old record, a trio of 40-below nights at Lake Louise were no more than a reminder of the old days. "I don’t think we set any records," said Gord Irwin, Parks Canada’s public safety manager. "When I used to live here there were lots of nights in the mid-40s. But we haven’t seen consecutive nights like that in 10 years easily."

Record-setting or not, the cold was intense enough to discourage skiing, reported the Rocky Mountain Outlook. At Sunshine, where crowds of 6,000 per day had been recorded at Christmas, only 200 skiers were recorded.

Nearby Norquay shut down its high-speed detachable quad lifts because of the cold. "When it does get that cold, the detachables get quite finicky. They can fail quite easily, and you don’t want people hanging in the air at minus 30 degrees for 20 minutes at a time," said marketing director Rob Coté.

Tahoe home prices rise 18 per cent in last year

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Median sales prices of homes in the South Lake Tahoe area increased by 18 per cent last year. Most of the homes selling were in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, with fewer homes in the below-$200,000 range as compared to last year.

Realtors contacted by the Tahoe Daily Tribune said they believe that the prices will continue to rise, because the supply in the South Lake Tahoe area is limited, but prices still remain far below those in destination resort areas in Colorado.

Two pony-attacking dogs shot and killed

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — A man shot and killed two dogs after seeing them corner and attack a Shetland pony near Steamboat Spring. Trevor Guide tried to call the dogs away from the pony, but when they would not leave he shot and killed them. Both dogs, reports The Steamboat Pilot, were thought to be huskies.

Snowmobiler survives plunge on steep slope

REVELSTOKE, B.C. — A 16-year-old boy was reported to be lucky to be alive after missing a corner on a trail along a 450-metre bluff in the Selkirk Mountains. While the boy’s father descended the slope to reach the boy, a friend went for help, explains the Revelstoke Times Review. A helicopter arrived within four hours. After the boy’s broken leg was set the next morning, the family set out for their home in Minnesota.

West Nile Virus spurs spraying of mosquitoes

GRANBY, Colo. — Despite the spread of West Nile Virus to other, somewhat warmer resort areas of Colorado, no victims have been reported near Granby.

But the mosquitoes that convey the disease abound, and so a collection of town and special district governments are coalescing to use larvacide, which kills mosquitoes in the larval form. Officials say the chemical will kill only mosquitoes, not other insects. The Sky-Hi News reports an appropriation of $25,000 for the spraying program this summer at Granby and its resorts, Grand Elk and SolVista.

Trains may end blasts of horns in Winter Park

WINTER PARK, Colo. — Winter Park came into existence basically because of trains. Still, that doesn’t make the shrieks that routinely pierce the neighbourhoods there any more pleasant, so town officials there several years ago outlawed such blasts.

Not that it mattered. Union Pacific, which owns the tracks through Winter Park, said the blasts were a matter of safety, and refused to follow the local laws. It was, said the railroad, a federal issue. But now the Federal Transportation Administration has announced that horns can be stilled "if important safety requirements are met." What those requirements are doesn’t seem to be evident, but various town officials assure the Winter Park Manifest that finding them out is a high priority.

Crested Butte has happy problem of snowbanks

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — After several years of drought, Crested Butte is back to the pleasant problem of what to do with the snow. In the past, the snow has been pushed into banks along the town’s main drag, Main Street, and the snow piles have been removed three or four times a winter.

But after the Christmas storms, various town council members were talking about the magical appeal of snow piled high, even if it does preclude parking for businesses. "The people who love them are the tourists," said Skip Berkshire. "They go home with these tales of magic." Others noted of the advertising value of such snowbanks.

For now, unless the businesses complain or unless the snow starts getting grungy, the banks will remain.

Up the hill, at the base of the ski hill, snowbanks of another sort, called avalanches, were reported. A window in one condominium complex was broken, causing the town manager to warn residents of other condominium complexes to be aware of the danger.

Miami couple claims heater caused poisoning

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. — A couple from Miami have filed suit, claiming permanent brain damage caused by leaking carbon monoxide from an improperly repaired water heater.

The lawsuit, reports The Telluride Watch, says that when police arrived the carbon monoxide levels were at 262 parts per million – and this after the doors and windows had been open for several hours. The EPA standard for human exposure to carbon monoxide exposure is 9 parts per million for an eight-hour period once a year.