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Vail getting too pompous?

By Allen Best VAIL, Colo. – Maybe third time will be charmed at Vail’s Bridge Street, where town officials have struggled for nearly a decade with what to put into the middle of Seibert Circle, the plaza named after resort founder Pete Seibert.

By Allen Best

VAIL, Colo. – Maybe third time will be charmed at Vail’s Bridge Street, where town officials have struggled for nearly a decade with what to put into the middle of Seibert Circle, the plaza named after resort founder Pete Seibert.

The debate goes back to 1997, when Seibert was still alive. Some thought he needed to be acknowledged with a statue. Others demurred, and so the town enlisted Jesus Morales, a well-known sculptor, to create stoneworks that metaphorically represented the landscape of the Gore Creek Valley.

Nobody was particularly enamored of the result, least of all pedestrians. So, despite the $700,000 spent on the sculpture, the town several years ago stored the rocks and installed innocuous landscaping. This too, pedestrians have ignored. And then yet another idea, an obelisk with some water fountains, was also shot down.

Now, if business owners along Bridge Street succeed in raising $122,000, the town will spend altogether $672,000 for yet another vision: water in a fountain that jumps and cascades, intermixed by cloud-bursts of fire. The idea was conceived by the same company that created the fountain at the Ballagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

In an interview with the Vail Daily, one of Vail’s best-known figures, hotelier Sheika Gramshammer, herself once a dancer in Las Vegas, poo-pooed the idea. “We are not an Olympic village,” said Gramshammer, a native of Austria but 40-plus year resident of Vail. “We are getting too pompous. Everything has to be big and expensive. Why not keep it simple.”

The “this-is-the-place” Seibert sculpture, meanwhile, has moved a short distance, to the base of the ski mountain.

 

Another big box in I-70 corridor

GYPSUM, Colo. – A Costco is now open in Gypsum, located between Vail and Glenwood Springs. With that new store, seven big boxes of at least 100,000 square feet can be found along the rapidly urbanizing I-70 corridor.

Drawing customers from Aspen to Breckenridge to Steamboat Springs, the 155,000-square-foot store is a tax bonanza for Gypsum, a one-time blue-collar precinct that is also about to get its first gated community. Gypsum expects $3 million to $4 million annually from Costco, allowing the town to pay for its new recreation center twice as fast as was originally projected.

In the neighboring town of Eagle, there’s less to like. Because of a revenue-sharing agreement, the town will get about 10 per cent of revenues, but at least half the traffic impacts. With that in mind, some locals found poetic justice in the fact that independently scheduled work on a new traffic roundabout delayed some travelers intent on getting to the store’s grand-opening.

The I-70 corridor has been adding big boxes rapidly in recent years. From Silverthorne to Rifle, a distance of 110 miles that was largely rural two decades ago, two Wal-Mart Supercenters, two Targets, and one Lowe’s have opened within the last three years, as well as a multitude of smaller but still large national retailers like Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Yet more are expected. In Carbondale, located between Glenwood Springs and Aspen, residents rebuffed proposals for big-box development, instead indicating a desire for scaled-down national retailers. Nothing of the sort has emerged, however, and The Aspen Times reports some town trustees are worried about a growing imbalance between residential development and commercial development. In Colorado, owners of residential property tax pay almost nothing to support municipal services.

 

Carbon cost of food computed

TELLURIDE, Colo. – While there is a great deal of vague talk in mountain resorts of “sustainability,” in fact virtually none are remotely sustainable. From the tourists who arrive by jet planes to the big logs hauled hundreds of miles to create the “natural” look in homes, life depends on using vast amounts of fossil fuels.

Somewhat overlooked in this energy equation is the amount of fossil fuels used to deliver food, something noted by the Telluride Ecology Commission. The blame cannot be simply assigned to the coal-fired power plants or gas-guzzling vehicles, points out Colin Hubbard, who sits on the Ecology Commission.

“We’re a really long way from our food,” said Kris Holstrom, a local organic grower, who noted that the average meal travels more than 1,500 miles.

Agribusiness consumes 10 calories of fossil fuels to create one calorie of food energy, Holstrom said. Industrially produced meat, which depends upon growing corn and other grains to feed cattle, has a ratio of 16 to 1.

 

‘Frozen music’ on ski run

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Bill Close was making musical instrumentals in the early 1990s when he came across a quotation attributed to famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Architecture, he said, is “frozen music.”

Something clicked in the mind of Close, who expanded the concept beyond traditional architecture. The result is an ongoing effort to take music to the landforms, which in June will include the small ski area on the outskirts of Jackson called Snow King Mountain.

There, Close intends to lay strings from the mountain base up a ski trail, anchoring the giant strings and then tightening them. In this manner he intends to create something of a giant outdoor harpsichord. This is being sponsored by a Jackson-based non-profit called Vista 360, whose goal is to connect mountain communities. Two years ago, notes the Jackson Hole News & Guide, the group sponsored a trip to the Asian country of Kyrgyzstan.

 

War brings prosperity

ASPEN, Colo. – Several years ago U.S. President George W. Bush said American citizens should not have to sacrifice because the country is at war. Indeed, the economy has roared in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In Steamboat Springs, for example, sales tax collections declined in 2002 and rose by less than 1 per cent in 2003. Since then, reports The Steamboat Pilot, it’s been all gravy, with increases of 7 and 8 per cent and, during the first half of this year, 12.5 per cent.

In Aspen, even as the national real estate market cooled, the surge in prices has been breathtaking. The average price of a single-family home has risen from roughly $3 million to $4.5 million in the past two years alone.

This has produced a vast amount of real-estate transfer tax receipts, some $11 million probably this year alone, reports The Aspen Times. Altogether, the real estate tax collections have doubled in the past three years.

But Paul Menter, the finance director in Aspen, says the town expects the market will cool. “We don’t expect it to continue at its current level over the long term,” he said. The local real estate market tends to move in spurts, and the most recent spurt has lasted longer than any of the previous ones, he noted.

Menter also explained that while the national real estate market generally reflects the national economy, Aspen’s market is more closely tied to the investment market.

 

LEED takes the cake

DURANGO, Colo. – The issue of dependency on foreign oil continues to overlap that of climate change. That became apparent in Durango, where the city council has joined the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement.

While the vote was unanimous, Councilman Doug Lyon insisted on language in the city’s resolution that states that continued dependence on foreign fossil fuels poses a threat to national security.

The commitment to rolling back greenhouse gas emissions in Durango to 1990 levels, as specified by the mayors’ agreement, may be relatively painless. Bob Ledger, the city manager, said he believes no substantial costs will be incurred. For example, the city had already set aside money for next year to tap the methane captured from wastewater.

At the prodding of town residents, the city is also planning to seek green-building certification, under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, for the new municipal library. The LEED certification quantifies energy savings, but the certification also helps projects obtain grants. The certification is “not frosting on the cake,” said Mayor Sidny Zink. “It’s the cake.”

 

Population projections staggering

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. – Growth projections for Garfield County continue to provide a stunning view of population growth along the I-70 corridor during the next quarter century.

Garfield County includes Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, and Rifle, all considered “down-valley” bedroom communities for Aspen, but also for Vail. Now at 50,000, the county’s population is projected to reach 139,000 by the year 2030, according to a study by BBC Research and Consulting. That projection assumes no expansion of oil shale production. If that does occur, numbers are likely to rocket even more.

Because of geographic constraints, the Glenwood Springs area is projected to no more than double in population, to 22,000. Far larger growth is projected for the Rifle area. The town itself had about 8,000 people last year. With adjoining areas, the population is expected to hit 44,000.

Growth patterns are reflected in schools. Enrolment in the Basalt-Carbondale-Glenwood schools is projected to increase from 5,100 students to 8,100. Schools serving the Rifle-Silt-New Castle area are projected to jump from 4,100 students to 17,000 students.

 

Dogs kill miniature horse

BELLEVUE, Idaho – The issue of roaming dogs came up at a recent city council meeting in this town near Sun Valley and Ketchum. The owner of several miniature horses reported that one of them had been killed by roaming dogs. One, a pit bull, was killed at the scene, and a second, a Labrador mixed-breed, was later caught and killed.

The owner of the horse, Tom Riuney, said it’s time Bellevue quit worrying so much about population growth and land-use issues and instead addressed the dogs before a child is killed. Town officials, reports the Idaho Mountain Express, were sympathetic, and promised to see what could be done.

 

Home will tap ground heat

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. – Although woefully behind what it should be, alternative energy is gaining some currency in Summit County. First, ground-source heat pumps were installed in a combination Conoco gas station and Wendy’s restaurant in Frisco. Now, the first residential home in Summit County, a house in Breckenridge, is using the same technology.

That technology is based on the idea that in Colorado, the ground stays at about 48 to 52 degrees. That heat can be tapped during winter and, through high-tech exchangers, used to heat homes or even water. Conversely, that same differential can be used to cool houses in summer.

The geothermal technology at the Breckenridge house is expected to reduce energy costs by 50 to 60 per cent a year, reports the Summit Daily News. Given current cost of energy, the upfront capital costs of the system should be repaid in eight or nine years — less, if the cost of natural gas and other fossil fuels continue to rise. Tax credits can reduce the costs even more.

Colorado has 250 such geothermal heating systems, including at high-end homes in Aspen and Beaver Creek.

Encouraging use of such alternative-energy technologies in Pitkin County, where Aspen is located, is a program called REMP, or Renewable Energy Mitigation Program. That program takes aim at homes larger than 5,000 square feet or with energy-sapping features such as outdoor swimming pools or heated driveways. Owners can either install solar panels or other such devices, or pay in-lieu fees that are then used for energy-saving technologies elsewhere, such as in the community recreation center.

Using the Aspen program as a model, a group in Summit County called the High Country Conservation Center is working up a proposal for consideration by elected officials in several local towns.

 

Teton lakes dips chilling

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – When Avery Resor was in eighth grade, she set a goal of swimming in all 44 named lakes located within Grand Teton National Park that were open to the public. (A handful were closed for restoration and other reasons.) To qualify as a swim, she figured she needed to get immersed and perform at least several strokes.

Now 21 and studying at Duke University, Resor this summer achieved her goal. Nearly all were cold, but some more so than others, she tells the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Arriving at Timberline Lake, elevation 10,000 feet, she found it frozen over except for a six-foot hole in the ice. While she donned her bikini, her father tethered her to a rope — just in case.

Another time, she swam in a lake while several black bears lurked nearby. Proving it wasn’t all just about the swim, she reported the most difficult lake was one requiring an eight-hour bushwhack up a canyon that had no trail and was filled with downed timber and dense willow thickets.

 

Geology no bar to expansion

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – Crested Butte Mountain Resort continues to want to expand its resort to a new mountain, called Snodgrass, in order to get more intermediate-level ski terrain. A report on the geology of the expansion area has now been issued, and it finds nothing that sinks expansion hopes.

The report does say that the natural instability of the slopes could be stressed by the addition of more snow, such as is created by snowmaking, triggering more landslides. But John Norton, the project consultant for the resort, believes the problem is something less than an Achilles’ heel.

“With the exception of Purgatory, at Durango, there is not a ski resort in Colorado that is not built on slide terrain,” he told the Crested Butte News.

 

Light regulations rejected

TAOS, N.M. – Many towns have adopted lighting ordinances in an effort to reduce light trespass, such as a glaring warehouse-type light mounted on a neighbor’s garage shining into your bedroom window, or pollution that blots out the sight of stars.

But although the greatest growth pressures are in rural areas, county governments mostly are reluctant to tell people what they can and cannot do. Such is the case in New Mexico’s Taos County. There, commissioners rejected proposed restrictions on new light fixtures, in part because of fears that safety presumed by unrestricted lights would be impaired, reports The Taos News.

A proponent of regulation, Luis Reyes, of Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, argued that the misdirected lighting could be eliminated without jeopardizing safety.