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Mountain News: Breckenridge may boost marketing tax

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - Town voters in Breckenridge likely will get a hatful of proposals in November that would collectively serve to pump up the lodging tax 1 per cent in order to fatten marketing efforts.

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - Town voters in Breckenridge likely will get a hatful of proposals in November that would collectively serve to pump up the lodging tax 1 per cent in order to fatten marketing efforts.

The Summit Daily News reports that if the current lodging tax brings in $1.7 million this year, as expected, the new tax could harvest $2.5 million. That's still short of the $3 million spent by Steamboat and the $4 million or more spent by Aspen, Park City and South Lake Tahoe.

Councilman Mike Dudick said he wants the expanded marketing to focus more on groups and well-heeled visitors from outside of Colorado.

In a compromise to get the lodging community's support, the town council agreed to increase money from town coffers spent on marketing.

 

March ain't what it used to be

ASPEN, Colo. - March isn't what it used to be in Aspen, says the Aspen Skiing Co., which wants permission from town authorities to host outdoor concerts that might attract 3,000 to 5,000 people. The goal of the concerts, explained Jeff Hanle, spokesman for the company, would be to draw "people who would not have come here otherwise." March, once the busiest single month at most ski resorts, "is not what it used to be," Hanle told the Aspen Times .

 

Real estate starting to stabilize

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Echoing reports from mountain resort communities elsewhere in the West, real-estate sales from communities along the shore of Lake Tahoe have increased and sales prices stabilized.

Total sales volume for the first half of 2010 was $306 million, a 47 per cent increase. While those numbers look strong, said Sue Lowe, vice president of Chase International, she cautioned that compared to 2009, a bleak time for real estate agents, any numbers could look positive.

"We're optimistic that the market is starting to stabilize." She also noted "some significant activity in the ultra high-end sales" of over $10 million.

 

Pfeared pfiasco pfails

TELLURIDE, Colo. - Pfish came, gave two shows in Telluride, each of them drawing 9,000 "phans," and a good time was had by all.

Or mostly that was the case, reports the Telluride Watch . Certainly, there was no Armageddon - although law enforcement and medical officials had prepared for the worst.

The Watch notes that preparedness began last winter, and not entirely without cause. Pfish shows have a history of attracting people tripping, much as Grateful Dead shows used to.

As such, Telluride created its first ever "trip tent" to provide a soothing, calm sanctuary where the "phans" could ride out bad trips. In fact, while LSD, mushrooms and other drugs were certainly in evidence at the show, the trip tent was just as helpful to nursing mothers wanting privacy or parents trying to entertain small children.

"It was very, very mellow the entire festival," said Emil Snate, chief paramedic.

At the medical tent, insect bites and coughs were the big problems.

"Maybe the hype got the better of us, but we really planned for a lot worse event than it turned out to be," said Bill Masters, the San Miguel County sheriff.

 

Second-home owners may get vote

VAIL, Colo. - Colorado voters in November will be voting on a provision called Amendment 60. Just what the proposal would accomplish, however, has been disputed.

Proponents say that it would allow second-home owners - actually, any property owner - to vote on property tax issues where they own property.

The Vail Daily reports that some opponents say the language of the proposed amendment is vague and sure to trigger litigation.

Don Cohen, who heads a local economic development council, said property owners should have a say, even if they do not live in a place. But the proposal now before voters isn't necessarily the way to go about it. He fears that out-of-town property owners might be inclined to vote against things they don't need, such as schools, but which the local community needs.

 

Truckee invests in wind power

TRUCKEE, Calif. - The Truckee community several years ago had an anguished discussion about whether to invest in a new coal-fired power plant in Utah. Despite the lower cost, it chose not to. Instead, it has bumped up investment in renewable energy. From eight per cent in 2006, the Truckee Donner Public Utility District achieved 31 per cent last year.

Now, it's preparing to own more renewable generating capability, reports the Sierra Sun . District board members are buying nine megawatts of generating capacity in a wind farm in Idaho called Horse Butte. Studies have shown that the Idaho turbines will spin about 30 per cent of the time. The district also owns a portion of a plant in Utah that harvests methane from a landfill.

 

Coal plants coming and going

FARMINGTON, N.M. - Coal plants have been popping up and getting knocked down across the West. The news from the Four Corners region is that Desert Rock, a 1,500-megawatt plant proposed for Navajo Nation lands within New Mexico, has suffered a setback - a fatal one, say opponents, although proponents bravely promised more tomorrows.

Although somewhat distant from the plant, residents of Durango, Colo., have remained concerned because emissions from coal plants travel regionally, even globally. Mercury that may have originated in existing coal plants in the Four Corners area has tainted lakes and reservoirs in the San Juan Mountains, causing authorities to advise women and children against eating too many local fish.

Along Colorado's Front Range, the 750-megawatt Comanche 3 coal plant began production in Pueblo in July. It will, in part, provide electricity to power the lifts of Vail and Aspen next winter.

And in the northern Front Range, Xcel Energy now proposes to shut down two coal plants in Denver and Boulder and replace them with plants that burn natural gas, which emits far fewer emissions. One expected beneficiary of this switchout, if it goes forward, would be the air clarity at Rocky Mountain National Park, about 60 miles away.

 

Chickens sent along to council

TRUCKEE, Calif. - There wasn't much clucking about a proposed code revision in Truckee that would allow backyard chicken coops in larger-lot homes. The Sierra Sun says the proposed code now going before the town council would allow up to six hens on lots larger than 10,000 square feet.

 

Lawsuit fly in carbon monoxide deaths

ASPEN, Colo. - The morning after Thanksgiving in 2008, a family of four died of carbon monoxide in a vacation house near Aspen. It was a snowy night, and an outdoor sensor detected the snow, activating a gas-fired boiler to melt the snow on the outside walkways and patio. The malfunctioning boiler was located in the home's mechanical room, underneath the guest suite occupied by the parents.

In recent weeks, charges were filed by the district attorney against the plumber who installed the boiler and two building inspectors. In addition, relatives of the dead family have now filed a lawsuit, reports the Aspen Times .

The family members were "innocent victims of so many problems and failings by so many people," said Dr. Frederick Feuerbach, the father of the Caroline Lofgren, 42, one of the victims.

The suit names the plumber and also building inspectors for the city of Aspen and Pitkin County.

The suit claims five missteps by contractors, inspectors and the homeowner led to the deaths.