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Mountain News:

Telluride debates whether it needs to boost tourism

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Most of the so-called tourist towns of the West about a decade ago began to understand that they were as dependent upon real estate flipping as bull wheels turning. This realization hasn’t always gone over easy.

For town governments, while being called upon to provide for proliferating services and amenities, the tax base has become smaller. Taxes on retail sales have struggled to keep pace with inflation in most cases, even if these declines have in some cases been offset by increased sales of real estate.

In turn, there have been calls to minimize the real estate presence. Aspen, Park City, and Crested Butte all talked about following Vail’s lead and banning real estate offices from the ground-floor locations in retail areas. Only Aspen did.

On the other hand, some towns have even questioned whether tourists are necessary. Or they have wondered if there’s another strategy for economic development that steers clear of both the seasonality and fickleness of tourism and the elitism of second homes.

In fact, as Jonathan Schechter points out often in the Jackson Hole News, the largest source of income there – and probably most ski valleys – is neither tourism nor second homes per se, but instead dividends and investments. In other words, lots of rich people have moved into the ski towns, and whether they’re part-time or full-time residents is really irrelevant.

Meanwhile, in Telluride, there’s discussion anew about whether the community needs to work harder at tourism. Seth Cagin, who publishes The Telluride Watch, argues that it should. In effect, he thinks the economy is too small, despite everything from ski area expansions to subsidized direct lights in recent years.

Neither the ski area nor the main street merchants can subsist on either the full-time or part-time residents, he argues. Both need tourists, and a lot more of them.

"We don’t have nearly enough locals in nearly enough second homes, or nearly a big enough drive market to support Telski (the ski area operator) without the contribution from significant numbers of destination tourists," he writes. "Not only does the ski area enhance the quality of life for locals, it provides the foundation for the second-home market. And it provides jobs. We all benefit from a prosperous ski company, and we all suffer from a failing ski company."

Among other things, Cagin advocates extending subsidies to the retail sector, similar to the way affordable housing and open space are subsidized. "Without protection and support, the retail sector too will all go away or will develop in ways that do not sustain the community," he says. He suggests applying deed-restrictions to ensure retail in certain spaces, and also a building trust to manage key properties in the best interests of the community, just as land trusts manage open space.

He also thinks Telluride should try to host World Cup races, allow more building density in certain areas, and revamp its visitor and convention bureau.

Men show tools & skis

DURANGO, Colo. — Durango is the latest of the ski and resort towns to get a take-it-all-off calendar of locals. Called "Mature Men of La Plata County," the calendar features men with both a little and a lot of gray hair with discretely placed skis, aprons, and power tools.

Models of age 50 and older were chosen based on their civic involvement and notoriety. Included are a couple of former mayors, some county commissioners, the college president, and others. Any profits from the calendar sales will go to a non-profit group called Operation Healthy Communities, which works on affordable housing, living-wage, and youth issues.

Vail seems to have been first among ski towns with a calendar featuring both buffed and unbuffed locals in the buff. This year the women of Granby doffed all in the presumed interests of charity, namely the town’s reconstruction fund that was created after the bulldozer rampage last June.

Vail to emulate Aspen Institute

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. — From its beginnings in the late 1950s, Vail has been basically a second-generation Aspen. Several of Vail’s founders and key investors had been in Aspen during its early years as a resort, and in thousands of ways since then, Vail is a somewhat younger, more conservative, more corporate-influenced version of Aspen.

The latest example is the Vail Valley Leadership Institute, a non-profit group dedicated to cultivating ethical and effective leaders who serve society for the common good. Among its efforts has been a program for corporate executives that explores how to instil ethical behaviour in corporate culture. To that end, a program that explored corporate malfeasance was held last summer at Beaver Creek.

In this noblesse oblige, the seven-year-old Vail Valley group is modelled upon the Aspen Institute, which was founded in 1950 with similarly noble goals. There is one big difference, however. The Aspen Institute, which is currently led by former Time Inc. chief and "Benjamin Franklin" author Walter Isaacson, is not based in Aspen, but rather in suburban Washington D.C. The Vail Valley Institute is based at Beaver Creek and expects to remain there, reports the Vail Daily.

It has a new leader Clyde Hanks, a former health-care administrator, while founding president John Horan-Kates will move into the ancillary position of trying to broaden the funding and programming base to give it more national and international prominence, similar to what the Aspen Institute enjoys.

Healthy Forest law not helping

LAKE TAHOE, Colo. — After considerable wrangling, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush a year ago. What difference has it made so far?

In Lake Tahoe Basin, described as one of the most at-risk areas for wildlife in the West, it has made absolutely no difference. The problem? The federal government allocated only $760 million to the program, which is designed to reduce the flammability of forests on the interface between homes and businesses.

"To date, no fire districts in the Tahoe Basin have seen any sign of increased federal funding as a result of the act," reports the Tahoe World. "They’re waiting and hoping that money will come before it’s too late."

None of this would surprise a panel of experts assembled in Colorado’s Summit County last March. There, ecologists representing environmental groups conceded the law has some good points, but predicted the law had no effect absent significant federal funding. So far, that funding has fallen between the cracks of war costs and tax cuts.

Second ice surface for Canmore

CANMORE, Alberta — A second surface is to be added to the Canmore Rec Centre at a cost of $3 million, part of the town’s bid to regain prominence as an international sports-training centre. This will pay for an Olympic-sized ice surface and pool, running track, and new dressing rooms. However, reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook, there are doubts whether the town has enough money to do the job right.

Biodiesel may die

FRICO, Colo. — Biodiesel has been a trendy fuel in mountain resorts for the last several years. From Telluride to Jackson Hole to Breckenridge, the diesel fuel used for buses, snow groomers, and other vehicles has included a 20 per cent component made from vegetable matter, mostly soybeans.

The vegetable matter burns much more cleanly than conventional diesel, reducing emissions by 20 per cent. The idea of being able to recycle waste from the kitchen into fuel for the car was also a fanciful notion captured in a film made in Telluride called "French Fries to Go."

But biodiesel has had its problems. Diesel jells at cold temperatures more than conventional gasoline, and biodiesel jells even more readily, which is why the 20 per cent mixture is used in colder-weather locations.

As well, several snow groomers at Snowmass broke down recently because of an improperly mixed batch of biodiesel. At Breckenridge, buses this fall had to shift back to a full petrochemicals because of problems of gelling.

Now, there are some who believe new federal regulations in the United States may have doomed the biodiesel campaign. Beginning in 2007, engineers must reduce sulfur to 15 parts per million, oxides of nitrogen and non-methane hydrocarbons by 50 per cent, and particulate matter by 100 per cent. The regulations tighten to zero by the year 2010.

John Johnson, who directs the Summit Stage, the public bus system in Colorado’s Summit County, believes it may not be worthwhile to sink much money into the biodiesel program. "I think we need to explore the option of going to hybrid vehicles," he told the Summit Daily News.

But hybrid engines, which use both electricity and gasoline, could also have problems at higher than 7,000 feet. Jim Benkleman, transit director in Breckenridge, points out that only 1,000 buses in the world operate at higher than 7,000 feet, and the Summit Daily says manufacturers do not warranty them to elevations that high.

Slowing down

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — The Sun Valley Mayor Jon Thorson is calling for a 120-day moratorium on all land-use permits and subdivision applications while the town rethinks its requirements for affordable housing.

That move has drawn applause from the Idaho Mountain Express, which observers that "galloping growth too often is far ahead of thinking and planning in city halls." The newspaper wants to see a more calculated effort to ensure housing for the Sun Valley/Ketchum area’s work force.

Although the first destination ski resort in the West, Sun Valley and Ketchum have actually been growing much more slowly than many resort areas in recent years. In most respects, it seems to be about 10 to 15 years behind the big resorts of Colorado.

Times finally at full schedule

ASPEN, Colo. — The Aspen Times began as a daily newspaper during the silver-boom years of the 1880s. At some point, it dropped back to a weekly and remained as such for decades, even after facing competition beginning in the 1970s from the Aspen Daily News.

In 1988, it started up as a daily once again – but just five days a week. The weekly edition continued to be published on Thursdays, leaving no fresh papers on weekends. Over time, nearly all the advertising drifted into the daily editions, leaving the weekly product seasonally thin, despite having some of the best journalism in the Roaring Fork Valley. Too, newcomers couldn’t quite figure it out.

Now, a Saturday edition has been added, and the weekly has been transformed into the Sunday edition. It'll actually be packaged with a new Sunday daily, as sort of a Sunday "magazine" on a finer bleached, recycled paper.

In another innovation, the newspaper issued a calendar composed of photos of bears taken by staff members. The stock of 1,000 calendars was gone by early December, the newspaper announced.

Colorado drought over?

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Is the drought that has afflicted Colorado and much of the Southwest finally over? Some water officials were saying so several weeks ago.

But the snowpack in the Colorado Rockies on the fortnight of Christmas was little better than average, and even an average snow year wouldn’t compensate for five mostly sub-par snow years, says Nolan Doesken, Colorado’s assistant state climatologist.

"In reality, we are only in mid-December, and we have the whole winter to go," said Doesken. "Before we get excited, the snowpack should be about 140 per cent of average. Otherwise, all we’re doing is treading water."

Ryan & Trista replace Fords

VAIL, Colo. — For the first time since the 1970s, former President Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty, did not light the Christmas tree in Vail Village. Ford, 91, also missed a recent gathering that included all other living ex-presidents.

Ford, who lives in Rancho Mirage, Calif,, also has a home in Vail’s sibling resort of Beaver Creek. In his absence, the ceremonial tree was to be lit by Vail firefighter Ryan Sutter and his wife, Trista, of the television dating show called "Bachelorette."

Dozer operator had no aid

GRANBY, Colo. — While there may still be some doubts whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone or in concert with others in the assassination of President John F. Kenney, police in Grand County say they are sure that Marvin Heemeyer had no accomplice in his bulldozer rampage of Granby.

Sheriff Rod Johnson told the Sky-Hi News that investigators spent months interviewing Heemeyer’s friends and associates and also had computer experts search the hard drive of his computer. Nowhere have they found evidence that Heemeyer had assistance when he destroyed or damaged 11 buildings in Granby on June 4.

In a rambling tape-recorded message he had sent to his brother in South Dakota before his rampage, Heemeyer said his planned destruction was payback for how he believed he was treated by town authorities and businesses in a zoning dispute.

No one was hurt, although several people fled just moments in front of his concrete-and-steel-fortified bulldozer. Heemeyer had shot in the general direction of several people and he had also tried to shoot at a power transformer and propane tanks that are located near a senior citizens centre.

As for the tank and the five weapons that he had in it or on it, a district court judge has ordered them destroyed.

Pay parking in Truckee

TRUCKEE, Calif. — Add Truckee to the list of ski towns with paid parking. It hasn’t happened yet, but businesses in the downtown district see it benefiting them in two ways. First it will free up some spaces for customers, and it will also provide revenue for lighting and other improvements. So far, reports the Sierra Sun, protests have been almost non-existent. However, town officials fret the quiet could be the calm before a storm. In other mountain towns, paid parking has never gone over easy.

Starry, starry nights

GUNNISON, Colo. — There’s a value to being out in the boonies – lack of light pollution. Because of those clear skies, two amateur astronomers several years ago set out to create an observatory in the sagebrush near Gunnison, 27 miles from Crested Butte.

Their ambition is turning into realty as construction has begun on a small building that will house a classroom as well as the telescope, Colorado’s largest. The building, reports the Crested Butte News, is being shielded from light pollution by a 16-foot berm.