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Mountain News: Banff to discuss a closed-door policy

BANFF, Alberta — Can a town government tell its merchants to close their front doors when it's cold outside? Banff may try to find out.
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BANFF, Alberta — Can a town government tell its merchants to close their front doors when it's cold outside? Banff may try to find out.

Merchants there, as well as elsewhere, have taken to leaving front doors open in recent decades as a way of inviting shoppers to enter the business. A few have taken to posting signs that say they close the doors to save energy, but the practice is far from universal.

Some people are annoyed, however. They say that a town located within a national park celebrated for its natural resources should not be trifling with natural resources by burning fossil fuels, just so people don't have to open the door of a business.

They also note that this practice hardly squares with the town's stated goal of being an environmental role model.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook reports that municipal councilors have instructed staff to lay the groundwork for a debate in September. Only one councilor, Stavros Karlos, opposed the further consideration of regulations. He said he hoped that energy costs would be enough to motivate people to close their doors.

Municipal staff said they have tried working with the Small Business Association of Banff to encourage people to close their doors, but without success.

Ski towns skittish about bag ban

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. — Telluride did it. So did Aspen. Shouldn't Mountain Village ban plastic bags, too?

Connected with Telluride by a gondola, the slope-side municipality often acts in concert with its older sibling down in the box canyon. But in this case, council members report deep reservations.

"We're not all in agreement that what Telluride has done is the answer," said Bob Delves, the mayor of Mountain Village, after fielding a call for action similar to Telluride's.

But Dave Schillaci, a council member, also argued that if dampening greenhouse gas emissions is the goal, paper bags should be banned, because they require more energy to manufacture.

The irony, observes The Telluride Watch, is that a film called "Bag It," which was largely responsible for Telluride's action, was created at Mountain Village. The film broadly critiqued plastic bags because of their effect on waterways and landscapes, and also directly on people.

In Wyoming, a town councillor in Jackson has also decided to can his proposal to ban plastic bags. Greg Miles, who had proposed the prohibition in November, counted the votes and found himself on the short end. He said he would explore expanded outreach and an educational campaign or a five to 10 cent tax on bags.

"It's unfortunate that the council seems to be a bit fearful of the potential ramifications of a plastic bag ban in grocery stores," Miles told the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

Doggone new rule has town grousing

JACKSON, Wyo. — All dogs have been banned from paths through school properties, including athletic fields, in Jackson and the nearby hamlet of Wilson.

School officials tell the Jackson Hole News that they have added signs, provided plastic doggie mitts to pick up poop, and talked with users, but to no avail. Instead, there are more unleashed dogs and more dog waste on the school grounds, said Kevin Thibeault, school district facilities director.

County officials are pushing back, agreeing that the school has the right to close athletic fields, but not community pathways. The newspaper, in an editorial, accuses the school district of an ill-conceived heavy hand. "Policing a leash law instead of a ban should have been the intermediate step," the newspaper said.

Not everybody was in hog heaven

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. — Things went well enough through the smoked-bacon trout chowder at Beaver Creek's Food & Wine Weekend. "The chowder had everyone's spoons clanking against their bowls," reports the Vail Daily.

More difficult was when a pair of sous chefs separated the face of a pig from its skull.

"There were some freaked-out guests in the crowd who made themselves even more known once the pig's face was served as an open-faced sandwich topped with thinly sliced raw butternut squash," the newspaper's correspondent related.

To those unruffled by the image of pig eyes and snout, their plates were picked clean, adds the newspaper.

The festival this year for the first time was sponsored by the Food and Wine magazine, which also sponsors the annual classic of the same name in Aspen.

School heartburn as layoffs soon to begin

VAIL, Colo. — The sharp falloff in the real-estate economy is taking its toll on schools in Vail and the Eagle Valley. The public school system has shed 100 jobs in the last two years as teachers have retired and not been replaced. Now, layoffs will begin and benefits cut as officials try to shave $5.5 million from next year's budget.

Some fingerpointing has been going on. One point of contention is that even as teaching staff has been reduced, the administrative staff has grown. So have salaries. The school district superintendent, who already had a salary of $184,000, accepted a $15,000 bonus last year, reports the Vail Daily.

Homebuilding spurts at Montana resort

WHITEFISH, Mont. — Strong evidence of a strengthening real-estate market is reported in Whitefish.

Citing a study by local real-estate appraiser Jim Kelley, the Whitefish Pilot reports 43 building permits for single-family homes in Whitefish last year, more than double the number from the year before. That figure hasn't been surpassed since 2006.

Median home price sales have also increased, 7.3 per cent within the town and 9.1 per cent in rural areas.

Insurance available for pink flamingoes

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. — Pink flamingoes have been braving the deepening snow and always-frigid temperatures in West Yellowstone, at the entrance to the park of the same name.

The Yellowstone News reports that insurance is available at a cost of $15 that will protect against an invasion of pink flamingoes. For another $5, buyers can choose where the birds should roost. Proceeds from this malarkey go to buy uniforms for the spirit team at the local school.

Chinese resort modelled on Jackson Hole décor

JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson Hole News&Guide reports that wayfaring sorts in China may feel strangely at home. A resort located two hours north of Beijing by bus hired a firm from Oregon, which laid out several options of popular resort communities in the United States: Vail, Martha's Vineyard and so on.

Developers fell in love with the cowboys and Indian themes that were presented as representative of Jackson Hole. Now, there are stock plans for the 850 homes, each with an identity: Billy the Kid, Geronimo, and so forth.

The interior designer who helped the Chinese developers told the newspaper that the Chinese seem to equate the American West with freedom. And Jackson Wayne, with his John Wayne bravado, seems to epitomize freedom from the work-a-day life that many Chinese live.

"They're very serious people," said Allison Smith, the designer. "They spend so much time processing how to be successful. This is whimsy, fun. They've seen it in movies. You should see them when they get a toy gun to play with."

Pipes and meteors mix freely at lunch

SILVERTON, Colo. — Half the year, Scot Jackson works for a U.S. government land-management agency in Silverton, in Colorado's San Juan Mountains. For the last 10 of 11 years, he's spent the other half of his year at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Science Station.

Jackson explains to the Durango Telegraph that while his skill is in heavy equipment, that scientists and blue-collar types mix freely at the station.

"I was sitting in the galley having lunch a few years ago, and on one side I had two men discussing the plumbing in the new station. On the other side were two astrophysicists discussing — theoretically — how much mass is added to the Earth each day based on meteorites that have fallen to the planet. I thought, 'Where else are you going to hear those types of discussions at the same table?'"

After having lived in rough-and-tumble Alaska and Africa, Jackson found Antarctica a far more bracing experience. "It was totally alien," he told the newspaper, although he now can't imagine not being there.