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Mountain News: Snow-short story seriously scary

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Apprehension continues to grow in Colorado as snowfall, although improving, remains far below average. Coming on top of severe drought last year, water managers and fire marshals fear a hot, dry summer ahead.
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Apprehension continues to grow in Colorado as snowfall, although improving, remains far below average. Coming on top of severe drought last year, water managers and fire marshals fear a hot, dry summer ahead.

Oh yes, significant storms moved through the Rocky Mountains in recent weeks, allowing ski areas and trade organizations to dispatch flurries of photos showing face shots and other delights.

"The best skiing in two years," said one instructor at Vail over Presidents' Weekend.

But the larger story is of catch-up. Storm sequences have been like Just-in-Time shipping. After an awful December, just enough snow arrived to meet minimum needs of Christmas. Then, following a sunny, dry and cold January, more storms arrived just in time for Presidents' Weekend.

Still, the Aspen Skiing Co. was unable to open all the terrain at its four ski areas until February. Around Vail, south-facing slopes are mostly bare.

Steamboat has fared better than most. By mid-February, according to Steamboat Today, the ski area had received as much snow as it did on closing day in April last year. That's not saying all that much, however.

By the measure of snow-water equivalent of snowpack, conditions are on-the-edge-of-your-seat scary. The Vail-based Eagle River Water and Sanitation District has a chart on its website that compares this winter with conditions in 2012, the terrible drought winter of 2002, and then the 30-year average. If average is Pikes Peak, this year so far looks like one of the foothills on the edge of Colorado Springs.

Dillon Reservoir, located between Breckenridge and Keystone, is one of the major sources of water for metro Denver, and it's only now 66 per cent full, compared to 90 per cent on average this time of year, reports the Summit Daily News. A huge spring storm could yet help refill reservoirs. It's happened before. For now, Denver officials have barred use of parks for soccer play, to prevent damage to fragile grass.

Others are thinking about fires. Colorado had three major wildfires last year, the first in March, and two more in June. Altogether, seven people died of flames or smoke, and hundreds of homes were destroyed.

"It's just so dry here," Tom Grady, the emergency manager in Aspen and surrounding Pitkin County, told the New York Times.

The Aspen area avoided significant fires, owing to the timely arrival of rain during the Fourth of July but also general observance of prohibitions against fireworks and open fires.

The Aspen Daily News explains that a new state law in Colorado puts a great financial onus on local governments to contain wildfires. There's no big purse to pay for those costs in the state government any more.

Marijuana 'tourism' may be coming

DENVER, Colo. — Want to get high on reefer? You could go to Colorado, if Colorado legislators approve the recommendations of a task force.

The state's voters in November approved a constitutional amendment legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. One of the thornier issues of implementing this wish is whether to allow non-residents to indulge, what has been called marijuana tourism.

The task force agreed that the constitutional amendment approved by voters says nothing about restricting use to Colorado residents, reports The Denver Post. If lawmakers agree, says the newspaper, visitors would be free to buy and smoke marijuana.

The reasoning of one task force member, Rep. Dan Pabon, a Democrat from Denver, is that imposing a residency requirement "would almost certainly create a black market for recreational marijuana in the state."

But tourists might not be able to buy much, maybe as little as an eighth of an ounce per transaction.

Individual jurisdictions, including ski towns, have mostly imposed moratoriums on commercial sales until state lawmakers adopt regulations. With that in mind, Steamboat Springs recently banned clubs set up by businesses to allow marijuana ingestion. The constitutional amendment only allows for private use.

Lodge purchase under discussion

ASPEN, Colo. — One of just a handful of small lodges remaining in Aspen goes to a foreclosure auction in March, and Mayor Mick Ireland wants his fellow council members to consider bidding on the 26-room bed and breakfast.

The property was purchased for about $8 million in 2006, reports the Aspen Daily News.

Ireland said he has no burning desire to operate a lodge but he is concerned that the lodge will be razed, to make room for a single-family house or some other high-priced real estate that is inimical to the resort's economy. "I'm concerned about a viable business turning into a residential property," he tells the Daily News.

Federal agents quiz restaurants

ASPEN, Colo. — Agents from the U.S. Department of Labor were in the Aspen area recently to investigate dozens of businesses, mostly restaurants.

The Aspen Daily News reports that most of the questions had to do with potential violations related to overtime pay, record-keeping and hourly wages. Some restaurants were found to be violating federal law and were ordered to pay thousands of dollars, sources told the newspaper.

It's unclear what spurred the investigations, but the agency often acts in response to complaints.

Senior-care facility moves ahead

EAGLE, Colo. — Rules have been amended in Eagle, located 48km west of Vail, so that a 150,000 square-foot senior-care facility can be built. Local officials note that such a facility has been talked about since the 1970s. "We won't be a true community until we are multi-generational," said Yuri Kostick, mayor of Eagle and a local planner.

Eagle County government has committed $6 million toward construction, and the county is applying for a $12 million grant. A Minnesota-based non-profit called Augustana Care, which has contracted to operate the facility, has pledged $1 million. That leaves a shortfall of $3 million.

The first phase of the project is to employ a staff of 60 with 22 skilled nursing beds, 20 assisted living beds, 12 memory-care beds and 10 other beds.

Aspen-area retirement community gets an OK

BASALT, Colo. — A proposal to create a 148-unit retirement community in Basalt, located 29 kilometres down-valley from Aspen, continues to move forward, but with a potentially show-stopping question yet unresolved.

The plans by the Aspen Valley Foundation include 78 independent-living units and 18 cottages for seniors who need little or no special medical care, explains the Aspen Times. Another 28 units will have assisted living provisions, and 24 will have skilled nursing.

So far, so good. But what about the affordable-housing requirements of such enterprises, as is required of other residential developments? After all, even if you don't include the units that include some level of medical care, the others are "skewed toward the wealthy," in the words of one planning commissioner in Basalt. But increasing costs will be passed onto customers, potentially precluding those of lesser means, a developer representative said.

The Aspen Times says the planning commission approved the plans, but left this affordable housing question for the town council to decide.

walk-up lift ticket price reaches $129

ASPEN, Colo. — Which one is at the top of the heap, Vail or Aspen? Based strictly on single-day lift ticket prices for Presidents' Day Weekend, Vail has that distinction with its $129 walk-up price, while Aspen jumped up to $117.

Deer Valley came in at $107.

Few people pay these prices. All ski companies push multiday lift ticket purchases through discounts. Vail Resorts sells a four-day ticket for $384 if purchased at least a week in advance, while Aspen Skiing charges $396 for its four-day package.

Of course, for not much more, $679, Vail Resorts sold a season pass this year good at 10 ski areas, and with benefits at other resorts in the United States and Switzerland. But the catch was that you had to commit early.

Big boo-boo in the restaurant backroom

ASPEN, Colo. — If true, it must have been the mother of all restaurant boo-boos. A woman has filed a lawsuit against one of the more upscale restaurants in the Aspen-Snowmass Village areas, alleging that the restaurant served her a glass of bleach.

She immediately jumped up and ran to the bathroom to vomit as her throat began to burn and swell.

The Aspen Daily News, reviewing the lawsuit, says a restaurant employee told the husband the waiter likely had picked up a water jug soaking in bleach solution, believing it to be drinking water. The woman was treated by paramedics, but the lawsuit says she continues to suffer medical problems.

It will remain Gay Ski Week in T'ride

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Telluride this week is hosting Gay Ski Week, which draws 1,000 to 1,500 people to what both local newspapers describe as a spirited, fun and sometimes flamboyant affair.

Did anybody say risqué? Consider a new event this year: "Dick's Night-out."

"We always try to be edgy," said event organizer John McGill, co-founder of Gay Ski Week.

Both The Watch and the Daily Planet mused about the changing context for Gay Ski Week. Since the event started in the early 1990s, gays have become much more broadly accepted in general society. Younger people, in particular, are less inclined to use "gay" and "straight" as singularly defining. Sexual orientation is just one attribute among many.

"It would be great if someday we can live without labels," said McGill, but added: "We'll still call it Gay Ski Week."

Telluride moves bar on carbon footprint

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Give Telluride this much. In 2006, town officials pledged to reduce carbon emissions seven per cent below 2005 levels by 2012. They've achieved that within the realm of municipal operations.

Karen Guglielmone, the town's public works director, tells the Telluride Daily Planet that the first efforts were the lowest-hanging fruit: turning off computers, using more efficient lighting, and so forth.

But the town has also invested in solar energy production, at a farm west of Telluride, and then purchase of electricity produced at one of the waterfalls in the box canyon.

Of course, it's one thing for the municipal government to reduce its carbon footprint, but the government accounts for only three per cent of total energy used within the town limits. Guglielmone says encouragement and perhaps incentives are needed to get businesses, organizations and families to follow suit.

Meanwhile, the town has its own stepped-up goal to meet. By 2020, it has pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 per cent. The easiest way to do that is to install a hydroelectric component in the town's new water treatment plant.