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Mountain News: Aspen targets special events

ASPEN, Colo. - Aspen's city government has invested $50,000 this year in special events intended to draw competitive athletes.

ASPEN, Colo. - Aspen's city government has invested $50,000 this year in special events intended to draw competitive athletes. The strategy has worked, reports The Aspen Times, as the events have attracted record numbers of people this year, despite the recession.

The events target residents along Colorado's urbanized Front Range corridor and Utah's parallel Wasatch Front. The events include a cross-country ski race in January, a cycling criterium in May, a triathalon in August, and a half-marathon in September.

The events have attracted anywhere from 100 to 850 participants, and city officials believe the participants - or their companions - spend well while in Aspen. The half-marathon, for example, is expected to draw nearly 700 people, bringing in nearly $216,000 in taxable revenue.

Hoteliers like the shoulder-season events, economic development officials tell the Times , because it produces vitality. The May bicycle competition included races in the downtown area but also a ride that climbed 4,000 feet up to Independence Pass. Hoteliers eager for any business during the sluggish days of May were willing to give participants what was described as phenomenal deals.

"This is a market that previously was traveling farther for their athletic events and it's more open to traveling closer to home in this economic climate," said Nancy Lesley, director of the city's special events and marketing department.

The Times notes that Aspen has been putting on special events designed to draw tourists for 58 years and even longer if you count the summer events that arrived after World War II. Mick Ireland, the mayor, says special events remain important, because they expose new people to Aspen. "They help overcome the notion that Aspen is inaccessible or stodgy or exclusive."

Hotelier Dale Paas, whose family has operated a lodge in Aspen for more than 50 years, said the recession has reminded Aspen "that we need an economic driver, and that is special events."

Vail pushing ski school, restaurants

VAIL, Colo. - This coming winter, Vail Resorts intends to do a better job of parting money from its customers.

With its new low-cost Epic season pass, the company's attendance at its five resorts held up reasonably well, sagging just five per cent. But business at ski school - a major revenue centre for the company - plunged 20 per cent, reports Rob Katz, the company's chief executive, in a recent meeting in Vail.

With this in mind, Katz told an audience, company officials have been working on plans to more aggressively market both ski schools and mountain restaurants.

Like Aspen Skiing, Vail Resorts will make a point of holding onto staff, the better to deliver service. Katz, however, has declared mandates for reduced energy and paper use.

"The last year taught us that standing still is not an option," he said. "Absolutely everything has to be thrown on the table."

Crime rate down in Jackson

JACKSON, Wyo. - The crime rate in Jackson and surrounding Teton County remains well below what it was a year ago. The jail that serves both jurisdictions shows an average daily inmate population during June and July that was 30 per cent less than the previous year.

Teton County Sheriff Jim Whalen, when quizzed by the Jackson Hole News & Guide, offered a simple theory: "I think it's the economy. Some of the jobs have dried up and people have moved on. That's the long and short of it."

He suspects that the people most prone to crime have left. Historically, white men between 24 and 35 have been responsible for the largest amount of crime.

The News & Guide notes that the rentals section of its classified advertising section has six times as many rentals available as last year. The tourism business, meanwhile, has been only a little slower this summer than last year, with 82 per cent of lodging units spoken for on the first weekend of August, compared to 95 per cent on the corresponding weekend last year, reports the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce.

Lance 'the dude in the West End'

ASPEN, Colo.-For a guy who prefers to be "fairly anonymous" when he's in Aspen, Lance Armstrong is doing all the wrong things. The Aspen Times says he plopped himself on a mountain bike only three weeks after placing third in the Tour de France and then proceeded to cruise to first place in a major mountain bike race at Snowmass Village.

Armstrong covered the 23 miles and 4,700 vertical feet in one hour and 51 minutes. His closest competitor, Brad Henry of Avon, was more than three minutes behind.

Armstrong had been the centre of controversy this summer in Aspen when a city official proposed that a day be designated in his honour. Some thought he deserved special recognition, but to others, he's just another second-home owner.

Armstrong, speaking with the Aspen Times , defused the controversy, saying that he loves being in Aspen and being "fairly anonymous."

"That's the reason I didn't go to New York and do morning shows... and late-night shows," he said. "I like to be the dude who lives in the West End (an Aspen neighbourhood) that nobody knows about."

Mountain sustainability the focus

JACKSON, Wyo.-A new magazine has arrived on both the east and western flanks of the Teton Range. Titled Teton Family Magazine, the publication takes aim at residents, not just visitors, said publisher Nancy McCullough-McCoy. She told the Jackson Hole News & Guide that the magazine aims to connect both Jackson Hole and its Idaho counterpart, the Teton Valley, and instruct in how to "live sustainably in magnificent natural settings."

Library gets solar panels

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - The roof of the Bud Werner Memorial Library in downtown Steamboat Springs has gotten shiny, thanks to photovoltaic solar panels installed.

The panels and installation cost $82,000, all but $4,000 of that covered by grants from the Colorado state government, reports the Steamboat Pilot & Today. But there's still good reason for the three coal plants just to the west of Steamboat in the communities of Hayden and Craig. The panels offset about 4 per cent of the electricity used at the library.

Target aims for Eagle

EAGLE, Colo. - As it has done for most of this century, Eagle continues to talk about the devilish details of major commercial development, this time including a Target.

The booming town of 7,000 people located a half-hour down-valley from Vail, previously rebuffed plans that might have included a Costco. Town residents, in a special election, said they wanted to retain the small-town atmosphere.

The adjacent town, Gypsum, wasn't so fussy. It took the Costco, which is located adjacent to the Eagle town limits.

The current proposal calls for a 552,000 square feet of commercial space, including Target, plus 581 residential units and a 150-room hotel, reports the Eagle Valley Enterprise.

If the Target should get built, it will be the third one in the mountain corridor along Interstate 70. Others have been built in recent years at Silverthorne and Glenwood Springs.

Greenhouses boost gardening

SILVERTHORNE, Colo. - Community gardening is getting a boost in Summit County, where $25,000 has been appropriated to build three greenhouses. With the greenhouses, the gardening season could be extended into October. Elevation there is about 8,700 feet.

In reporting the item, the Summit Daily News makes no mention of the expected crops, but presumably even something as exotic as tomatoes might be possible. The average annual frost-free growing season in nearby Dillon was, at least until the climate began changing, 21 days.

LEED-certified hotel adds units

JACKSON, Wyo. - Hotel Terra, the first hotel in Wyoming to be certified under the LEED green-building standards, has completed another 60 units on top of the 72 rooms and suites introduced last year. The eco-hotel is the brain-child of mountain climber Rob DesLauries, whose Terra Resort Group had previously announced plans to build up to 15 eco-boutique hotels. A company spokeswoman told the Jackson Hole News & Guide that the organization has feelers out in other communities to either build a new hotel or renovate an existing property.

Dark-sky ordinance considered

HAILEY, Idaho - Blaine County may follow in the footsteps of its towns - Sun Valley, Ketchum, and Hailey - in adopting a dark-sky ordinance, limiting the so-called light trespass from unshielded lights. The Idaho Mountain Express noted that farmers and ranchers objected previously when the idea of such a law was proposed.