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Information highways? Yes! Wider roads? No!

JACKSON, Wyo. - Information highways? Yes! Four-lane highways? No! That would seem to be the common theme in rural parts of the West. Those that are lagging in bandwidth want more, more, more. Not so much highways.

JACKSON, Wyo. - Information highways? Yes! Four-lane highways? No!

That would seem to be the common theme in rural parts of the West. Those that are lagging in bandwidth want more, more, more. Not so much highways.

State highway officials in Wyoming's Teton County want to expand the existing two-lane highway south of Jackson to five lanes. County commissioners instead see a medley of three, four and five lanes. They may sue the state.

They are particularly concerned that the wider highway would be less permeable to wildlife.

Local officials, meanwhile, are also considering a proposal for 120 miles of fibre-optic line across the county and into Idaho.

The new line would increase Internet speeds five-fold to 100-fold, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide. It would also provide redundancy. Earlier this year, cell phone service was lost for 26 hours when a flash flood several hundred miles away severed a cable.

In Colorado, the Silverton community, located high and remote in the San Juan Mountains also seeks redundancy - and, for that matter, a fibre optic line of its own. The existing fibre optic line stops 16 miles short of the town, near Molas Divide. Town officials say microwave, the community's existing link to the outside world, delivers too little bandwidth.

"Nobody is putting in microwave," says Patrick Swonger, a town councilman. "Nobody is doing that. It's all fibre optic. Those are the highways of the future."

Community officials charge that they were promised fibre-optic connection under a Colorado program launched in 2002 to connect all county seats, including Silverton.

Instead of delivering an information highway, says San Juan County Administrator Will Tookery, "They barely widened the existing mule train."

 

Vail & Aspen surpass $1 billion

ASPEN, Colo. - A more vigorous real estate economy has been evident in the Vail and Aspen areas this year.

Eagle County, where Vail is located, surpassed $1.25 billion through October, while Pitkin County and Aspen were a few steps behind at $1.02 billion. Both had dropped below $1 billion last year.

During the boom years of the last decade, both had surpassed $2 billion, with Eagle County almost hitting $3 billion one year.

 

Aspen Skiing Co. to build housing

ASPEN, Colo. - Aspen and Snowmass Village have plenty of spare bedrooms at the moment. So, the Aspen Skiing Co. had no trouble filling out its peak season employment roster of 3,500 for its four ski areas and associated enterprises.

Just the same, the company continues its effort to add employee housing, reports The Aspen Times. The company plans to add 600 "beds" to the existing 550 in Aspen and other locations in the Roaring Fork Valley. Some units are for seasonal employees, but the company also has built single-family and other housing types for year-round workers.

Company officials tell the newspaper that when the national unemployment rate falls below 6 per cent, Aspen has trouble filling all its positions. The national rate currently hovers at slightly less than 10 per cent.

The Times notes that tight housing has been the norm in Aspen for decades, and those periods of easy vacancies are rare and short-lasting.

 

Backcountry gates closed

TELLURIDE, Colo.-Skiers who use the lifts of Telluride to gain the powder stashes of the Bear Creek area are miffed. The Forest Service announced that three backcountry gates from atop the ski area were being closed, and one more was being relocated.

All this has been in response to the purchase earlier this year of three mining parcels in the valley by Tom Chapman. Chapman has made a name for himself in Colorado during the last 15 years by repeatedly purchasing mining claims amid sensitive public lands, such as wilderness areas, then threatening development.

In this case, he warns of encroachment on his property by customers of the Telluride Ski and Golf Co. which is contemplating developed skiing in the basin. The property doesn't seem to be marked, however.

Locals tell The Telluride Watch that they believe the Forest Service has essentially taken the side of Chapman in the dispute. The gates should be left open, to provide public access to public lands, they say.

"Those gates access much more area than the private claims, and the Forest Service has a legal obligation to provide access to public lands," said Tor Anderson, director of the Telluride Mountain Club.

He went on to question whether access to public land elsewhere would be closed - for fear of public intrusion on private lands.

 

New resort vision for Revelstoke

REVELSTOKE, B.C. - Developer Ender Ilkay has previewed what he hopes to build on a 5,200-acre property he obtained from a bankrupt forestry company.

The plans include 722 units - a mixture of cottages and home sites on larger lots, plus various amenities, in a year-round resort community, he told a crowd of several dozen in Revelstoke. The Revelstoke Times Review points out that for the plans to unfold, Ilkay will have to get the land rezoned.

 

The big ski areas get bigger

TRUCKEE, Calif. - Sale of Squaw Valley by Nancy Cushing, widow of the resort's founder, Alex Cushing, has once again put a spotlight on the finances of ski areas.

Earlier this year, Northstar-at-Tahoe was sold to Vail Resorts, giving it two ski areas in the Tahoe Basin. Now, Squaw Valley has been sold to KSL Capital Partners, which is composed of two former executives from Vail Resorts.

Taking measure of the business, Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, points out that increased lift ticket sales have led to higher revenues.

"It's a business with significant cash flows," he tells the Northern Nevada Business Weekly. "By and large the industry does very well from a financial standpoint, and that is why we are seeing interest from groups like Vail and KSL, who have looked around and chosen to be involved in major destination resorts."

After a long period of stagnation, the U.S. ski industry has spurted in recent years from about 52 million annual skier days to 60 million skier days.

Larger corporations can do well because of the benefits of buying power.

"Vail Resorts has an outstanding centralized marketing machine," says Andy Wirth, the chief executive at Squaw Valley. Until August, he was also a competitor of Vail's in Colorado while working as marketing boss for Steamboat.

Eric Resnick, managing director for KSL Capital Partners, tells the newspaper that he believes there will always be a place for smaller, family owned entrepreneurial businesses.

"If you have a loyal following and put out a good product, you will be successful," he said. "It's simply a matter of scale."

He said the dynamic changes as resorts become larger: they are more capital intensive and that can be challenging for a resort that is family-owned.

 

Can itty-bitty ski area grow?

LEADVILLE, Colo. - Ski Cooper is the essence of a small, family-owned ski area - except that the family is Lake County, in which it is primarily located.

Now, as has happened periodically through the years, the community is debating whether to try to expand the ski area to draw more business.

The ski area straddles the Continental Divide, about 10 miles from Leadville and 25 miles from Vail. The gentle slopes are forgiving to beginners. Plenty of soldiers during World War II learned to ski there, as it was requisitioned for use by the 10 th Mountain Division.

It's the sort of ski area that, not that many years ago, had unheated privies at the top of the hill. The cafeteria at the base serves nothing fancier than burritos, and parking to the first arrivals can be had just a few dozen steps from the lift.

The ski area is owned by Lake County, which hasn't boomed in nearly 30 years, since the Climax Molybdenum Mine closed down. Leadville instead became a bedroom community for Vail/Beaver Creek and Summit County.

Now, reports The Denver Post, there is a new push from some factions in the community to expand the ski area. The most obvious expansion would be onto the slopes of nearby Chicago Ridge, where Snocat skiing has been offered for about 20 years.

"We want to see them do things that get people to come to town," said Mike Collins, founder of the Friends for Change at Cooper Hill. "It's happening at ski areas like Monarch and Wolf Creek. It should happen at Ski Cooper."

The quasi-independent governing board that has operated Ski Cooper since 1984 has been cautious. Ski Cooper punctually closes on Easter, even in those years when snow remains superb for weeks after. Since 1992, the board has paid $5.5 million in cash for upgrades.

About a decade ago, there was a push to build housing adjacent to the ski area, similar to destination ski areas. That idea fell apart.

The Leadville Herald-Democrat says 200 people showed up last week at a meeting about whether to give the governing board an eight-year contract extension. The newspaper suggests more transparency should be a provision of any such contract.

 

Durango keeping sky dark

DURANGO, Colo. - For those in Durango distressed by the encroachment of city lights into the night sky, there's a margin of good news. All 765 of the city's overhead street lights have been changed to fixtures that are compliant with dark-sky regulations adopted by the city in 2003.

Dark-sky fixtures contain the light and focus it downward toward the streets and pathways, instead of allowing the light to pollute surrounding hillsides and the sky.

"On the ground it hasn't changed. You can see and you're still safe. The lights just aren't streaming into the sky," explained Steve Gregg, the manager of operations for the La Plata Electric Association.

The electrical co-op has similarly gone to only dark-sky fixtures at ranches, parking lots and other locations throughout its two-county service area.

 

Manes to fly on Main Street

PARK CITY, Utah - The question seems to be whether steeds and steel can coexist.

A proposal to allow horse-drawn carriages on Park City's Main Street is being reviewed by city officials. The local newspaper calls it "Manes on Main." The street is steep, but horses seem to handle the grade just fine. They certainly did so during the Olympics in 2002, when the Budweiser Clydesdales were brought in. But the street was closed to automobiles then.

 

Eagle pursues assisted-care

EAGLE, Colo. - Negotiations have begun between town officials in Eagle, Eagle County, and a private company called Augustana Care Corp., which operates senior care facilities.

The Eagle Valley, including Vail, currently has only limited senior housing, and no formal assisted care or nursing home facilities, despite a population that is rapidly aging.

"I was able to visit eight different facilities run by Augustana and was thoroughly impressed by the calibre of their operation," said Commissioner Jon Stavney.

 

Navratilova suffers pulmonary edema

NAIROBI, Kenya - Former tennis star Martina Navratilova was released from a hospital Sunday after suffering from the effects of thin air on Kilimanjaro.

An Associated Press story published by The Aspen Times, where she once owned a home, said she was forced to turn back after reaching nearly 14,800 feet on the 19,341-foot mountain.

"I didn't feel badly, I just couldn't breathe. I couldn't get a full breath of air," Navratilova said shortly after her release from the Nairobi hospital. "Nothing hurt, and for an athlete that's weird. Nothing hurt but I (couldn't) go on."

The lungs of people with pulmonary edema fill with fluid in some cases when there is low oxygen. Victims usually recover with no long-term effects if promptly removed to lower elevations. It sometimes affects people at elevations as low as 8,000 and 9,000 feet.

Navratilova was climbing Kilimanjaro as the most famous of 27 climbers in a bid to raise money and awareness for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.