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Mountain News: Sun Valley needs a brand

SUN VALLEY, Idaho - Tim Silva, with his first season under his belt as general manager of the Sun Valley Resort, has been trying to nudge some life into the perhaps stodgy resort.

SUN VALLEY, Idaho - Tim Silva, with his first season under his belt as general manager of the Sun Valley Resort, has been trying to nudge some life into the perhaps stodgy resort.

The ski mountain infrastructure needs no upgrades for the time being, he told several hundred people at a luncheon. "They've been on quite a binge here," said Silva, who arrived at Sun Valley last year after stints at California resorts.

But he suggested Sun Valley does need easier access, broader demographic appeal, and a firmer brand identity.

In a sense, none of what Silva said was new. Others in Sun Valley and Ketchum have been saying the same thing for years. For example, the resort community at Ketchum and Sun Valley has been stewing over a new airport that would be farther from the resort than the existing airport, but with improved reliability.

Demographics also remain problematic. On Bald Mountain, the prime venue for Sun Valley resort, the average skier's age is 53. Snowboarders make up just 9 per cent of the resort's visitors.

As for branding, he said Sun Valley needs a precise brand that clearly and immediately tells people what defines Sun Valley. The personality of Sun Valley isn't clear, he said, and neither is the brand.

 

Sheriff calling it quits

ASPEN, Colo. - Bob Braudis, sheriff of Pitkin County since 1986 and a pal of the late writer Hunter S. Thompson, has decided to call it quits. He will, reports the Aspen Times , "hang up his badge to write, travel and nurture his inner activist."

Braudis arrived in Aspen in 1969 and became known for his approach to law-enforcement in which he saw police work as integrating with the community, not just chasing crooks.

"He has caught sporadic flack over the years," observes the Aspen Times , "for his decision not to conduct undercover drug investigations and the limited assistance to federal drug officers. But Braudis's ability to come across as just another guy, rather than a heavy-duty cop, endears him to lots of people."

He said he didn't understand why, but he knew that his law enforcement philosophy appeals to everyone from wealthy conservatives to ski bums working three jobs.

Braudis told the newspaper he wants to spent time in Mediterranean climates and also Florida during winter months. He also wants to write, speak and provide guidance to younger people working on social justice issues.

With another author, he wrote a book reminiscing about Thompson and said he enjoyed the discipline the writing assignment forced.

 

More building, even in recession

EAGLE, Colo.-Real estate prices continue to slide, unemployment mounts, but developers have been looking forward to better times. Newspapers in the Aspen and Vail areas have been reporting proposals for new housing projects. Largest of them all would be a major project of 2,000 homes at Wolcott, located between Avon and Eagle.

The idea has been talked about since the 1990s, but the application has now been filed to build the houses, stores, restaurants - even a school, church and fire station - along I-70. The vision of developer Rick Hermes is for a community of 4,000 to 5,000 people on what now constitutes some of the last ranch land along the I-70 corridor in the Eagle Valley.

 

Fewer crimes defies expectations

KETCHUM, Idaho - When the Great Recession started, cops in Ketchum and the Wood River Valley expected a jump in crime. Instead, the number of criminal court filings dropped 29 per cent last year and it looks like the lower crime rate has continued this year, reports the Idaho Mountain Express.

"We have fewer seasonal workers, a smaller transient construction workforce and fewer people who have no vested interest in the community," said Jim Thomas, a prosecuting attorney.

Jeff Gunter, police chief in Hailey, a down-valley town, said he has observed fewer vehicles on the highway and increased vacancies in some apartment complexes.

"You'd think that there would be an increase in theft crime because of high unemployment, but we haven't see that," Gunter said.

Last year, a similar phenomenon was observed in Jackson, Wyo.

 

Cougar co-existed with humans

BANFF, Alberta - A cougar that researchers with some affection called Doug died recently, its decomposing body discovered by a canoeist in the Bow River. Unlike so many carnivores in the Banff-Canmore area, it had died more or less naturally, of old age or perhaps breaking through ice while chasing an elk.

That the cougar had occasionally lived and hunted on the periphery of human settlement in the Banff area for a number of years without incident was testament, said researchers, to the idea that carnivores and people can coexist.

Ironically, the killing of a cross-country skier by a cougar near Banff in 2001 caused wildlife researchers to become familiar with Doug. They decided they needed to better understand the behavior of cougars. To do this, they attached radio monitors to 12 cougars. One particular cougar was chased by tracking dogs up a series of Douglas fir trees, and hence the name: Doug.

Researchers discovered that Doug hunted in the most unlikely places close to developed areas. That worried Banff officials, but cougar experts said it was ideal to have a large, dominant male living in an area without showing any aggression toward people or domestic animals.

Steve Michel, human-wildlife conflict specialist in Banff, explained that it's often younger males, both bears and cougars, who cause trouble with people, because they haven't honed hunting skills or don't have the maturity of an adult. The dominant male kept them out.

Banff officials believe the cougar's existence has proven the effectiveness of their management strategies involving wolves, cougars and people, all of which compete with one another for turf.

"There is no question that in the very rare circumstance, cougars can post a threat to people and domestic animals," said Banff's Michel. "But this is also a good example of how rare those situations are, and just because a cougar is around and using an area close to people doesn't mean he is going to get into a conflict with people."

 

Solar panels to be regulated

ASPEN, Colo. - The Pitkin County commissioners have decided they need to regulate placement of freestanding solar collectors.

The Aspen Times reports glare from solar panels and aesthetics of clusters of solar panels - including height - will be the major considerations in regulation.

"We can't have a laissez-faire (approach) just because it's good for the environment," said Commissioner George Newman.

The county gets 50 applications per year, mostly for roof-top solar, but planning officials expect a surge once the economy turns around. "I would hypothesize that when the economy turns around, every new house will have a solar (system) of some kind," said Lance Clarke, assistant community development director.

But another idea is for homeowners to leave their yards and roofs as is, but invest in a solar farm, where panels can be tended much more efficiently. A company called the Clean Energy Collective proposes to build such farms down-valley from Aspen in the Basalt and Carbondale area.

 

Telluride to get backup

TELLURIDE, Colo. - After a decade of wrangling and some scary power outages, Telluride will get a new electrical transmission line from the outside world later this year.

Just last Christmas, the lights went off, putting the high-end holiday crowd into candlelight and cold cuts. But the gnawing fear of some in telluride was that everything might get shut down for days.

Two transmission lines reach Telluride. One is vulnerable to avalanches and wildfires, and the second is 60 years old, near the end of its productive life.

Tri-State Generation and transmission, the wholesale co-operative provider, wanted to replace the old line, but the proposed routing involved lines across the rolling, calendar-perfect mesas near Telluride. Homeowners there wanted the line put underground, and ultimately that is what will happen.

Undergrounding costs considerably more, however, and that's where compromises were finally struck, report the Telluride Daily Planet.

 

Raw milk ordered off shelves

JACKSON, Wyo. - The locovore movement has been rebuffed in Jackson Hole, where a purveyor of organic foods called Jackson Whole Grocery has been ordered by local health authorities to quit selling milk from a nearby organic farm.

Health inspectors from Teton County said Wyoming state law bans the sale of unpastuerized milk that was not refrigerated.

Grocery owner Bob Arndt told the Jackson Hole News & Guide that the decision to carry raw milk was made in response to an overwhelming number of customer requests during recent years. "It's going back to what our roots are in food," Arndt said. "We're getting back to what food really is. Our food supply is getting more sanitized and corporate. People need to taste a real tomato or a real peach or real milk."

The milk came from a 200-acre organic and biodynamic dairy farm at Victor, Idaho, just west of Jackson Hole. The milk producers cited their efforts to prevent the milk from being contaminated.

But Dr. Tracy Murphy, the Wyoming state epidemiologist, said drinking unpasteurized milk is a gamble. Raw milk can cause food-borne illnesses such as salmonellosis, E. coli, and brucellosis, he said.

 

Railroad fans plan museum

GRANBY, Colo. - For a railroad museum, Granby makes considerable sense. The town was incorporated in 1905, shortly after railroad tracks came through. The railroad was also instrumental in advancing tourism, at both Winter Park and indirectly at Steamboat Springs.

The railroad was an effort by Denver boosters to get a more direct link to Salt Lake City. Instead of the detour through Wyoming, they wanted to blast directly northwestward, deriving revenues from transport of coal, wheat and other commodities. But the challenge of hoisting rails at nearly 12,000 feet across the Continental Divide at a wind-lashed crossing called Rollins Pass was formidable.

That effort cost the considerable fortune of Denver banker David Moffat, whose wealth had been acquired in Colorado's silver mines, and also his health. And, in the bigger scheme of things, his vision fell short. The rails have never reached more than a few miles southwest of Craig, Colo., well short of the Utah border.

But, in a sense, Winter Park - located 17 miles from Granby - can trace its skiing roots to the railroad. And the skiing culture of Steamboat Springs can be linked to the railroad. So can the summer tourism of Grand Lake, at the west entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park and 16 miles from the Granby stop. Grand Lake was a Vail of the railroad era.

The Sky-Hi Daily News reports that an 8,000-square-foot Moffat Road Railroad Museum have begun fundraising and proponents have secured a seven-acre site.