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Mountain News: LEED certification gaining ground

GYPSUM, Colo. – The new trophy home, proclaimed the New York Times, is small and ecological. The newspaper tells the story from Venice, Calif.

GYPSUM, Colo. – The new trophy home, proclaimed the New York Times, is small and ecological. The newspaper tells the story from Venice, Calif., home to movie stars, and cites one woman who says that something energy-conscious “doesn’t have to look as if you got it off the bottom shelf of a health-food store.”

But not just any “green” house will do. The Times also explains that certification by LEED — an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — is the new hot designer label, kind of like driving a Prius.

There are four levels of LEED certification: basic, silver, gold and, at the highest level, platinum. So far this year, 10,250 new home projects have registered for one of these levels of LEED certification, more than triple from 2006, the first year of the pilot home-rating system, says the Times.

Bearing testimony to this trend is a report in the Vail Daily of a new “lifestyle” residential complex in Gypsum, between Vail and Glenwood Springs. There, the developer of a project called Sky Legend has homes of up to 4,500 square feet.

But the firm, ASW Realty Partners, is also building smaller homes, most between 1,700 and 2,500 square feet. So far, eight homes are certified to the silver level of LEED. In all, about half of the 247 units planned at Sky Legend may be LEED certified.

Not everyone is a fan of LEED certification. The Aspen Skiing Co. used the LEED certification process for its projects several years ago, but found a “Soviet-style bureaucracy,” to use the phrase of Auden Schendler, the company’s executive director for environmental and community responsibility. Using a more modern metaphor, energy activist Randy Udall of Carbondale, down-valley from Aspen, calls the review process an “Abu Ghraib.”

The U.S. Green Building Council, progenitor of the LEED certification, claims it has made the certification process easier. But it remains expensive for a large structure, which is why the Eagle County School District decided to forego LEED certification for its replacement of Battle Mountain High School.

Instead, the LEED checklist will be used as a guide, to achieve the same results, claims John Fuentes, an architect with H + L Architecture. He says that avoiding certification will save the school districts tens of thousands of dollars.

The Vail Daily reports the new school, to be completed a year from October, will be naturally lit, meaning light from the outdoors will be telescoped into classrooms. It is likely that no lightbulbs will be needed until sunset, said Fuentes.

Air conditioning will be installed in the computer rooms and administration offices. Also to cut down on electrical use, rooms will be fitted with occupancy sensors, meaning that when no one is in the room, any lit lightbulbs will go off.

 

Aspen fights feces with poetry

ASPEN, Colo. – Crested Butte has its spring cleanup called Poo Fest, a time for all the residue of wintertime canine puckering to be cleaned up. Now, in a similar spirit, Aspen is holding a poetry contest about unclaimed dog poop.

A survey last October found that Aspen residents deemed left-behind feces their biggest complaint.

“We are hoping to get good poetry and cast a fresher light on a problem that requires awareness and personal responsibility,” said Brian Long, the city parks and open space ranger.

Everything from Haikus to limericks are accepted, but Long said please, no Homeric epics. Presumably, neither does he want doggerel.

 

Vail again has two dailies

VAIL, Colo. – The Vail area once again has two daily newspapers. The Vail Mountaineer debuted last Friday as an eight-page tabloid and is scheduled to publish five days a week. The initial press run was 8,000. It is, like its competitor, not actually in Vail, but 10 miles down-valley at Edwards.

The new newspaper is owned by Jim Pavelich. In 1981, then an accountant and bartender, he co-founded the Vail Daily as a one-page photocopied newspaper distributed to bars and restaurants. He later created the Summit Daily News. In 1993, by then sole owner, he sold the newspapers for more than $6 million.

After that, he partnered with former Aspen newspaperman Dave Price to found a similar free-distribution daily newspaper in the San Francisco area. Price says that he and Pavelich were treated like Hare Krishnas handing out flowers at an airport. They hadn’t seen free newspapers before.

But although starting out humble, with a staff of three and a circulation of 3,000, The Palo Alto daily News had blossomed after a decade to a circulation of 66,000 and a staff (including part-timers) of more than 100. It also led to the creation of many other free-circulation newspapers in the Bay Area.

Seemingly less successful, but still surviving, is a daily newspaper in Denver.

While Pavelich vows good journalism in his new paper, he’s better known for his deal-making in advertising. Out of the chutes, he’s offering quarter-page rates of $90 for advertisers who run five days a week. That compares with the Vail Daily’s rates of more than $200 for similar space.

In an commentary in the inaugural issue of the Vail Mountaineer, Price makes the argument that newspapers have been prematurely pronounced dead, because of competition from the Internet.

“But think about the Internet for a moment,” writes Price. “A newspaper ad can reach tends of thousands of people within a specific geographic area. To reach those same people online, you’d have to buy ads on hundreds if not thousands of different Web sites. How much would that cost? Yet one newspaper ad could reach all of those people at a very affordable cost. Newspapers have an incredible advantage over the Internet that isn’t going away. Given this flaw in Internet advertising, newspapers — well-distributed free daily newspapers — will be around forever.”

This is be the fourth newspaper in the Eagle Valley. A decade ago, there were four newspapers and two daily newspapers in the valley, nearly all individually owned. Since then, Swift Communications, the parent company of the Vail Daily, has purchased all competitors to achieve a de facto monopoly on newspapers.

Swift, doing business as Colorado Mountain News Media, now has six daily and four weeklies on or close to I-70 between the Eisenhower Tunnel and Grand Junction.

 

For the record

A story in last week’s Mountain News reported that two challengers to existing board members of Holy Cross Energy, both endorsed by Aspen Skiing Co., were defeated in elections. In fact, one of the incumbents, who resisted renewable energy, was defeated by one of the challengers who wants a more rapid embrace of renewable energy, despite its current higher cost.

 

Cougars prowling Banff

BANFF, Alberta – Residents and visitors at Banff have been warned to be on the lookout for cougars in the wake of several recent sightings.

Recently, a man was on his stomach taking photos of wildflowers when a cougar approached to within 20 feet. The cougar was believed to be merely curious, and not hungry, and soon fled, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

“This guy acted aggressively, throwing some sticks at the cougar, and that’s the proper approach,” said Ron LeBlanc, Banff Park warden. “If you encounter a cougar at short range, pick up small children and pets. Whatever you do, don’t play dead, crouch down, or run.”

 

Tahoe expecting marriage boom

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The California Supreme Court ruling that allows same-sex marriages may revive the faltering wedding industry at Lake Tahoe. The Sierra Sun says that 10 same-sex couples have secured marriage licenses in Nevada County, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

PlumpJack Inn, located at Squaw Valley, hosted a same-sex wedding ceremony several years ago, and sales director Rob McCormick said the inn welcomes gay and lesbian nuptials “with open arms.” The inn is partly owned by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

“Things have been slowing down in the Tahoe wedding industry over the last two years,” said Alice Ross, a North Lake Tahoe wedding minister who agreed to officiate same-sex marriages in Nevada County. “The wedding industry is not what it used to be, and I imagine this would help.”

 

Green as competition

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. – It works in sports. So why not introduce competition into the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s the idea from Dan Richardson, a private-sector energy consultant who was the first director of the Canary Initiative, Aspen’s greenhouse-gas reduction program. “I think as Americans what we thrive on most is competition,” he said.

Richardson made the comment at a meeting in Glenwood Springs where a new group called Clean Energy Economy for the Region shared its ambitions. The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports that 60 to 100 people attended the meeting, suggesting just how much interest there is now in shrinking community carbon footprints.

The group estimates that the valley from Aspen to Parachute, a length of about 80 highway miles, spends $250 million a year for electricity, natural gas and transportation fuels. A guest speaker from California suggested that energy use could be cut by 30 per cent.

Ironically, part of that region — especially the Rifle and Parachute area — is among the nation’s major energy producing regions, and increasingly a poster child for natural gas drilling. The Roan Plateau is adjacent to the valley.

If such competition does occur, however, it would not be the first. Two Utah towns, Park City and Moab, several years ago faced off to see who would buy the most wind-powered energy. Park City won the bet.

 

Aspen wants more wind electricity

ASPEN, Colo. – Aspen’s city government continues its efforts to reduce the amount of electricity consumed by city residents by burning coal and natural gas.

Already, 75 per cent of the energy distributed by the city’s municipal electric system comes from non-carbon sources. A hydroplant coming on line next year will increase that to 80 per cent. The city now wants to buy seven megawatts of electricity generated in Nebraska.

The city utility provides about 35 per cent of the electricity consumed by city residents, with the balance provided by Holy Cross Energy, an electrical co-op.

 

Heating costs soaring

WHISTLER, B.C. – The home fires are getting more expensive from Colorado to British Columbia.

In Colorado, the story is a newly completed pipeline that starts in the natural gas fields about 90 miles southwest of Steamboat Springs. The Rockies Express Pipeline has reached Missouri, and may yet be extended to Pennsylvania.

This will lower prices for natural gas in the Midwest and increase it in the Rockies. The Steamboat Pilot & Today gives a report from its neighbourhood. The cost was $5.50 per million British thermal units of heat last September. Now, it’s at $13 per million Btus. Further increases are expected this winter.

Prices are rising in British Columbia too. There, the propane for the typical Whistler home is expected to rise $323 per year, reports Pique newsmagazine. A similar increase of 17 percent has also been approved for customers in Revelstoke.

A carbon tax set to take effect July 1 in British Columbia will further increase heating and transportation costs. That carbon tax is being applied to all fossil fuels, including gasoline, diesel and natural gas. The tax begins at a rate of $10 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions and will rise $5 per year for the next four years. What this means for a typical home in the Vancouver area is $50 more this year to the heating bill, and $140 per year by the year 2012, reports the Revelstoke Times-Review.

The tax is being levied with the goal of encouraging conservation and efficiency, with the ultimate goal being reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Moose becoming more common

FRISCO, Colo. – Moose are becoming more common in Summit County. The Summit Daily News says increased number of sightings has caused state wildlife biologists to warn that the moose, if curious looking, can also be dangerous.

Moose are not aggressive, but will charge humans to defend their turf and offspring, Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton told the newspaper.

Moose were not unknown in Colorado during Euro settlement in the mid-19 th century, as they wandered in occasionally from Utah and Wyoming, but there was not a breeding population. Moose were transplanted beginning in 1978 to North Park, about 50 miles from Frisco and later near Creede, in the San Juan Mountains. Populations have continued to expand, despite hunting and occasional deaths on highways.

 

Construction steady, but prices fall

OURAY, Colo. – Although carpenters in many places have hung up their hammer guns for the time being, not so in Ouray. The town, located on the northern flanks of the San Juans, near Telluride, is holding steady with years past in new construction, reports the Ouray Watch.

Still, asking prices for real estate are dropping discernibly. The town’s famous Beaumont Hotel, gussied up to its original Victorian splendor in recent years, is on the sales block. The price has dropped from $8 million to $3.2 million in recent months.

Down-valley at Ridgway, the developer of a hotel that will create artificial hot springs vows to break ground this summer, but nonetheless found financing of his venture to be “very challenging.”

 

Rivers running big

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Runoff this year from the big snowpack in Colorado had the potential for mayhem. Sand-bags were readied, and homeowners advised to get their flood insurance.

Instead, heat and cooling alternated, resulting in rivers that consistently roared — and roar even now — but seem rarely to have overflown their banks. It has been one of the more remarkably sustained runoffs in memory, a full month now of mountain springtime music.

Still, runoff has had its horrors. The Arkansas River, center of Colorado’s commercial whitewater activity, has had six deaths this year. Two people have died after being spilled from horses while crossing creeks. The most recent case was at Beaver Creek, on a crossing used thousands and thousands of times.

At Telluride, high water problems mounted to no more than a nuisance, if that. The Telluride Watch says that one of Telluride’s water-treatment plants had to be shut down because of high flows in the San Miguel River. Add to that the fact that the town was full because of Bluegrass Festival, and the situation, was one of “water, water everyone, but not enough to take a long, luxurious shower, wash the car, or water the lawn.”