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Mountain News: Wages too high in Telluride?

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Dave Riley, the chief executive officer for the Telluride Ski and Golf Co., hasn’t exactly made himself a friend of the masses since arriving earlier this year from a ski area in Oregon.

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Dave Riley, the chief executive officer for the Telluride Ski and Golf Co., hasn’t exactly made himself a friend of the masses since arriving earlier this year from a ski area in Oregon.

The Telluride Watch explains that Riley was at a meeting of those involved in operating the gondola that connects Telluride and its sibling slope-side town of Mountain Village. The ski company doesn’t directly operate the gondola but has a voice in operations.

Using that voice, Riley challenged a proposed pay increase for gondola operators. They currently get $12 an hour starting, with an extra $1 if they stay the course of ski season. A pay increase of $1 per hour is proposed.

“The National Ski Areas Association comparable position and the national wage for that job is $8.06,” said Riley. “Only 36 per cent of the ski areas provide an end-of-season bonus.” He added that he questions the existing wage, let alone the increased wage.

Greg Sparks, the town manager of Mountain Village, which operates the gondola, said that even at existing wages, it’s tough to hire gondola operators. Current employees come from homes that are up to two hours away in Shiprock, N.M., he said.

Mapquest, a website, says it’s 118 miles, from Shiprock to Telluride, or a drive of 2 hours and 35 minutes. Other gondola operators commute from Montrose, which is 90 minutes away.

“There is not one job in the newspaper that is $8, $9, $10 an hour,” said a town councilman, Jonathan Greenspan. “The employee turnover rate will be astronomical (at a lower wage).”

Responding to the story in The Telluride Watch, readers saw Riley as “delusional,” according to one comment. “You’re making a horrible first impression and a total fool of yourself,” wrote one reader, “Amy” on the newspaper’s website. Another reader, “Joe,” advised Riley to “wake up… before they run you out of town. Better yet, just leave.”

Mountain Village, notes The Watch, has been ranked as one of the 10 wealthiest municipalities in the United States.

 

Tahoe-Truckee eye Olympic bid

TRUCKEE, Calif. – The conversation continues in Truckee and Lake Tahoe about a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Denver interests are also angling at getting the U.S. bid, and Salt Lake City may aim for a repeat.

Enthusiasts at a recent meeting held in Truckee promoted the Olympics as a way to amp up business — and loosen federal spigots, reports the Sierra Sun.

Ski resort business went up 40 per cent in Utah following the 2002 Olympics, said Jim Vanden Heuvel, chief executive of the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition. He also noted that Salt Lake City became the No. 1 priority for federal road funding after winning the Olympic bid.

But exactly that same prospect of success drives others to oppose an Olympic bid. “Truckee is a small, quiet mountain town, and for some, the only things worse than a four-ring circus called the Olympics are the four-ring circuses of World Cup events that would follow,” said John Eaten of the Mountain Area Preservation Foundation.

In Squamish, located about 30 miles down-valley from Whistler, a co-host of the 2010 Winter Olympics, similar apprehension is reported.

“There is an incredible amount of development coming in with the Olympics, which is worrisome for the community,” said Sylvie Paillard, editor of the Squamish Chief. Businesses have favored the changes, but residents are more reserved. “People are quite divided, but it hasn’t become passionate yet,” she said.

 

The high end for railroad

SILVERTON, Colo. – Ridership was flat this year on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, but revenue was up 7 per cent. How can that be?

“More riders were paying more for luxury on the train,” said Al Harper, owner of the excursion trains since 1998 at a recent Chamber function in Silverton. “The market is telling us there is an insatiable appetite for first-class service.”

Harper, reports the Silverton Standard, also said special events, such as a Polar Express-theme train that is expected to draw 17,000 customers, are a growing portion of the railroad business.

He also encouraged Silverton to develop more first-class hotel rooms, to draw customers willing to stay overnight. Currently, nearly all passengers arrive shortly before noon and depart by mid-afternoon.

“Most rooms now are decent, but not first class. This needs to be a $500-a-night per person package,” he said. First-class overnight rail packages could “revolutionize” businesses in Silverton’s business district, he said.

 

Vail rebuffed in Canyons bid

PARK CITY, Colo. – Vail resorts has lost round one of a court battle to gain possession of Park City’s The Canyons ski resort, but it’s not throwing in the towel.

Lacking a preliminary injunction to stop it, American Skiing will go forward with sale of the ski area to Talisker Canyons Finance.

Vail submitted a low bid on the ski resort last summer, being topped by Talisker’s offer of $100 million. Vail then offered $110 million, but was told that it was too late.

The heart of Vail’s case is a claim that Talisker and another company, Peninsula Advisors, conspired to scuttle an earlier deal between American Skiing and Vail.

Vail reports spending $2 million in its lawsuits, but Rob Katz, the corporation’s chief executive officer, vowed to “pursue our legal rights related to this matter.”

 

Activists defend feeding bears

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – It’s been a bad, bad year for bears in the Lake Tahoe Basin. A record 75 bears have been struck and killed by vehicles, bears have snuck into homes, and in one case a police officer shot a bear as he was being charged.

If only bears stayed in the backcountry. To that end, some 30 local residents have been dropping fruits, berries, nuts, fish and other food in the forests around Lake Tahoe in recent weeks.

The Reno-Gazette-Journal says one woman has spent $10,000 on nuts and fruits, distributing it by foot. Pilots have also dropped food from their planes.

The local grassroots organization, Bear League, has not taken part, but defends the practice.

“It’s a whole lot more natural if bears are foraging in backwoods and finding food than picking through someone’s refrigerator,” said Ann Bryant, the group leader. “We have to get the bears out of our neighborhoods and bring them back to where they belong.”

State wildlife organizations frown on artificial feeding. They say feeding bears could make them more closely associate humans with food and make them more likely to congregate, raising the threat of disease transmission and confrontations. Artificial food sources could also lead to more cubs when the land can’t support the animals.

But Lynn Rogers, a biologist with the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minn., believes those assertions lack empirical support.

“I don’t know of anything the people are doing (at Lake Tahoe) that would create nuisance problems,” he said. “It has to be considered experimental, but there’s a growing body of data that suggests supplemental feeding can act as a buffer against nuisance behavior rather than an introduction to it.”

 

A-frames considered eyesores

PARK CITY, Utah – It seems ’60s architecture was uniformly a dud. The Park Record reports that a survey of local residents found that the modified A-frame, a fixture in some mountain towns from the 1960s, is the most hated of the architectural styles found in the town’s original residential area, called Old Town.

A website called About.com explains that the triangular-shaped homes became popular after an architect named Andrew Geller built one on New York’s Long Island in 1956. It was subsequently featured in the New York Times. Although typically offering cramped living spaces, the buildings do shed snow well, making them ideal as early second homes in mountain towns and beach resorts. As well, they cost little to erect.

Unlike the A-frames, which now seem as dated as bell-bottoms, the Victorian homes of the late 1800s still remain popular almost everywhere, including Park City and other old mining towns.

 

Not in Kansas anymore

TOPEAKA, KAN. – In a case with reverberations in Colorado ski towns that include Winter Park, Crested Butte and Telluride, a permit has been denied by Kansas for a pair of coal-fired power plants in Holcomb, in the state’s southwest corner.

One of the two power plants would have been owned by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which supplies electricity to rural electrical co-ops across much of Colorado, but also in New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nebraska.

The news was sufficiently ground-breaking that it made the front page of last Friday’s Washington Post. The newspaper noted that it was the first time a government agency in the United States had cited carbon dioxide emissions as the reason for rejecting an air permit for a coal-fired plant.

The coal-fired plants in Kansas last winter had provoked protracted discussions in several Colorado ski towns, particularly Gunnison, Crested Butte, and Telluride. Tri-State had asked for, and ultimately received, 10-year contract extensions, from 42 of its 44 member co-operatives. Only Carson Electric, of Taos, N.M., and Delta-Montrose, of Montrose, Colo., rejected the contract extensions.

Opponents said that it’s time to quit building coal-fired power plants and figure out alternative energy sources or, better yet, use existing electricity more efficiently. Coal defenders cited the growth in demand plus the lower cost of coal-fired electricity and its reliability.

Rod Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, cited global warming in announcing the rejected permit. “I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing,” he said.

Kan Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said that Kansas “must take advantage of renewable energy and conservation as we progress through this century. These additional coal plants would have moved us in the wrong direction….”

Republicans in Kansas criticized the decision. Kris Kobach, chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, told the Kansas City Star that the Democrats in Kansas had caved into special interest groups in California and Washington D.C. instead of providing low-cost energy and producing jobs for Kansans.

In Colorado, Dan McClendon, manager of Delta-Montrose Electric, told The Denver Post that the decision will likely result in more burning of natural gas to produce electricity. Natural gas burns more cleanly than coal, but is also substantially more expensive. He also said the decision could force people to more quickly embrace renewable energy and efficiency measures.

The Kansas story also has a footnote involving Aspen. Clearing the way for the decision was a lawsuit settled earlier this year. Massachusetts had sued the EPA, claiming that carbon dioxide should be included as a pollutant regulated under the federal government’s Clean Air Act. The Aspen Skiing Co. filed a legal brief siding with Massachusetts, which prevailed — setting up the decision by Kansas.

 

Gore movie a hit in coal town

CRAIG, Colo. – Located 42 miles west of Steamboat Springs, Craig is a coal town. Coal is mined nearby and fed into a giant electrical power plant for distribution across Colorado, including its ski towns.

So, given the reputation of coal towns, you’d think that Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” would get a rude reception in Craig.

Not so, reports the Steamboat Pilot & Today. The film was shown at the First Congregational United Church of Christ. Not all those watching were ready to embrace the theory of global warming, says the newspaper, but the showing sparked a thoughtful discussion.

Among those persuaded is Ted Crooke, an electrician at a local coal mine and chairman of the Moffat County Democratic Party. “The ice core data is really, really solid,” he said.

Bob Woods, pastor of the church, said the issue is of the moral obligation of Christians to be good stewards of the Earth.

The showing was sponsored by Interfaith Power and Light, a San Francisco-based faith organization that encourages people to “respond to serious environmental challenges of energy consumption.”

On the newspaper’s website, anonymous bloggers dismissed Gore and the movie. “The sky is falling, the sky is falling,” wrote one.

Another blogger took issue with the science. Computer models assume interactions between water vapor and carbon dioxide. “Without these unsubstantiated assumptions, the models would be incapable of generating hysteria.”

 

Snocat skiing possible

CARBONDALE, Colo. – The seed has been planted for another ski area in Colorado in a former coal mining area southwest of Carbondale.

Unlike most ski areas, though, no lifts are planned for the area, called Coal Basin, but rather a Snocat-served operation. This is about 40 miles west of Aspen.

The Aspen Times notes the area is also somewhat popular among backcountry skiers, although the three-mile hike into the base area makes for a long day. Debbie Strom, general manager of the Redstone Inn, envisions a yurt at the base. The Redstone Inn would be the ski area operator, using a permit from the U.S. Forest Service.

Jim Stark, from the U.S. Forest Service, said there is no interest in helicopter skiing, even if the area is as big as the Vail ski area. “You say helicopters and people wake up pretty quick. One or two Snocats and it’s probably not as big a deal.”

 

Bicycle co-op planned

DURANGO, Colo. – A bicycle co-operative where people can donate a bike, buy a bike, learn to fix a bike, or use the co-op’s tools to fix their bikes is being planned in Durango.

Russell Zimmerman, owner of the Durango Cyclery, told the Durango Telegraph that Zimmerman and two of his mechanics some time ago issued a call for old bikes and parts. Sometimes two or three bikes a day are donated. They have given away nearly 100 bikes — but still have far more old bicycles than they have time to repair.

But the bicycle co-op will have a different premise, based on lessons learned. Some people came in multiple times for free bikes. Other times, Zimmerman’s group found the bikes they had provided wrecked and discarded in bushes.

“We learned that if you give people stuff, they don’t take care of it. But if they pay $25 for it, they probably will take care of it.”

A mechanic, Bob Gregorio, said keeping bikes from being landfilled is at the heart of the co-op concept. “It feels much better to fix something up in the hopes that someone else will be able to use it,” he said.

The co-op will likely subsist on grants, donations, fees and fundraisers.

 

Revelstoke buzzing

REVELSTOKE, B.C. – Real estate continues to be the lead story in Revelstoke. The new ski area, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, started selling base-area single-family lots recently, managing to sell 80 per cent in the first day. The lots, ranging in size from .5 to 1.5 acres, were valued at $700,000 to $1.35 million.

The ski area is to open this winter with a $22 million eight-person gondola to help service what is projected to ultimately have the most lift-serviced vertical, 7,000 feet, of any ski area in North America.

It’s not the only change in Revelstoke. Even before Denver-based developer Don Simpson arrived with the deep pockets to develop the ski area, housing prices had been rapidly rising. In 2003, the average home cost was $116,000. Today, it stands at $348,000.

Very few of the purchasers, according to real-estate agent Cynthia Kidd, are local buyers, and very few have families. Most buyers range in age from 28 to 54, and few are planning to move right away.

With rents rapidly rising, there are many and varied discussions about how to house the lower-income people. An Affordable Housing Corporation, and city leaders hope to see Crown land pressed into service for affordable housing.

 

Another big winter?

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Sunday was monochromatic in most mountain towns of Colorado. As the biggest storm yet of the season dumped heavy clumps of wet snow, the scenery was like an old black-and-white photograph from a century ago, but hand-painted here and there to show the aspen leaves still fluttering in the wind.

Contemplating the winter ahead, National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Ramey tells the Steamboat Pilot & Today that it’s another La Niña winter, which could result in a winter similar to the one two years ago.

“Our studies indicate that the area should get hit with lots of snow in December and early January, like it did two years ago,” he said.

That winter started rambunctiously. Snowfall records were routinely broken from Steamboat to Vail from November into early January. After that, it was merely a so-so winter or worse. Still, the jackrabbit beginning was enough to produce 400 inches of snow at the Steamboat Ski Area, fourth best of all time.

 

What’s sexy in the mountains

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – To shave, or not to shave. That seems to be one of the questions facing women moving to mountain towns.

But Sara Flitner tells the Jackson Hole News & Guide Jackson Hole is in the mountains, not a cave in the mountains.

Still, although some women do stubbornly cling to their high-heels, style is also tempered by practicality. Asked her thoughts on mountain town fashions, be it Prada or Patagonia, she said it’s best to consider down, wool, tread and polypropylene as sexy.

 

Steamboat girds for water diversion

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado’s Routt County is girding for a raid of water by Front Range interests. The most active proposal is for a 200-mile pipeline that would take water from the Yampa River to a reservoir east of Denver.

In 1974 the Colorado Legislature adopted legislation that gives local governments power to review water and sewer district expansions. Other headwater counties — including Grand, Summit, Eagle and Pitkin — quickly adopted the regulations, called 1041, after the enabling legislation.

Eagle County, in particular, used the regulations to great effect, denying a water diversion called Homestake II from the Holy Cross Wilderness Area in 1988. That denial was based, in part, upon impact to wetlands.

Despite the precedent from the Vail area, the Steamboat Pilot & Today suggests that the regulations won’t be powerful enough to quash the Yampa River diversion, but would instead result in influence over the design and layout of the pipeline and allow the county to stipulate mitigation measures.

 

No changes likely for 10 th

VAIL, Colo. – A Denver newspaper last week reported that Camp Hale, located between Vail and Leadville, was going to be reopened for training by a Colorado national guard unit. The newspaper noted that the camp had been unused since 1943, when abandoned by the 10 th Mountain Division.

In fact, it was 1944, just one of a number of inaccuracies in the story, and it appears the story may have been wrong altogether. In fact, Camp Hale has been used frequently since World War II for cold-weather training. Dave Van Norman, with the Holy Cross Ranger District in Minturn, said he was unaware of any expansion of activities. Camp Hale is administered by the U.S. Forest Service.

 

Bear-killer required to pay PETA

ASPEN, Colo. – A Minnesota man who illegally baited and then killed a bear has been ordered by a judge to give $500 to PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. On its website, the group calls for “ending fur and leather use, meat and dairy consumption, fishing, hunting, trapping, factory farming, circuses and bull fighting,” notes the Aspen times.

The requirement raised eyebrows in Aspen and beyond. Randy Hampton, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said that had his agency been consulted, “We might have recommended the purchase of bear-proof containers to solve issues on a more localized basis; however, we weren’t asked.”