Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Peeves revealed in skateboard proposal

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - In September, a young man was skateboarding in Mammoth Lakes when he hit a pothole and tumbled. He died as a result of his injuries.

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - In September, a young man was skateboarding in Mammoth Lakes when he hit a pothole and tumbled. He died as a result of his injuries.

Should Mammoth Lakes regulate skateboarders? The village council ultimately decided to leave well enough alone, but the conversation reported by The Sheet suggests plenty of pent-up peeves.

"Just be aware that cars don't know what to do with you," said Mayor Jo Bacon.

Skip Harvey, a council member, surprised the young skateboarders in the audience when he told them that back in the day he had been a skater, too. In fact, he had run a skate shop.

"I can relate to the fun and sense of freedom you feel," he told a delegation of skaters who had testified in opposition to new rules. "Plus, it's a great physical workout, which is what we're all about up here. But you need to police yourselves and set examples for other riders. Don't just go blowing through stop signs."

 

A decline as great as the silver bust

KETCHUM, Idaho - Taking stock of the arched disagreement about air access to the Sun Valley and Ketchum area, the Idaho Mountain Express draws a stark comparison.

"The prospect of not having an adequate airport is the greatest threat to the area's economic viability since silver markets went bust... and put local mining operations out of business," says the newspaper in an editorial.

That silver bust occurred in the 1890s. Although mining continued for gold, lead and other minerals, for places like Aspen, whose mines produced almost exclusively silver, the bust was the start of a long, quiet period that lasted until the recreation economy picked up after World War II.

Ketchum was the seminal inspiration for most other resort towns of the West. Its initial access was by railroad. However, rails long ago were ripped up and the airport that serves the resort area falls far short in its ability to accommodate the sort of planes than serve Aspen, Vail and Steamboat, not to mention Park City, just 45 minutes from a major international airport.

The existing airport, located at Hailey, down-valley from Ketchum, needs to expand if it is to accommodate larger planes. The alternative was to build an entirely new airport, outside the mountains , which was the plan until the Federal Aviation Administration suspended environmental review, citing both ballooning costs and impacts to sage grouse.

The Express discerns three groups, each with simple answers - including the idea of expanding bus or van transportation to more distant airports at Twin Falls or Boise. But none, it says, are necessarily coming to grips with the grim situation.

"Seen clearly, the reality should lead us to put pettiness and parochial rivalries aside. No solutions will be perfect, but not finding a solution simply is not an option."

 

Plastic bag ban vote

HAILEY, Idaho - On Nov. 8, voters in Hailey - the largest town in the Sun Valley-Ketchum area - will decide whether to adopt a town-wide ban on plastic bags.

In Colorado, Aspen has already done so, but only as applied to the community's two grocery stores. The ban takes effect in May. Down-valley, Carbondale last week voted to follow in Aspen's path. Basalt seems to be headed toward a fee on both plastic and paper bags.

In Aspen, always a place of contention, there is dissent in the pages of The Aspen Daily News . Columnist Jeremy Madden, obviously infatuated with alliteration, says the ban shows "the depth of the degradation and depravity that has come to define the disintegration and demise of Aspen."

He argues that if the town were more honest, it would ban all bags, not just from grocery stories, and not just plastic. "Ban plastic bags full of medical marijuana, ban plastic bags for vegetables, ban plastic bags of coke, ban plastic bags of Botox, ban plastic bags of sushi, ban plastic bags of poop..."

Well, you get the drift.

 

Gondola a key to longer summer season

TELLURIDE, Colo. - A movement is underway to expand operations of the gondola that connects Telluride with its sibling town of Mountain Village. Adding two or three weeks in autumn, and perhaps a week in spring, would cost the two towns $50,000, reports The Telluride Watch.

However, just keeping the gondola operating is not the only key, said speakers said at a recent meeting. There must also be events and other programming, such as an Oktoberfest. And, not least, stores and restaurants would have to stay open longer in the shoulder seasons.

 

Momentum gains traction

PARK CITY, Utah - Momentum seems to be building for a lift or gondola connection across the crest of Utah's Wasatch Range, linking two ski areas, Solitude and Canyons.

At a recent forum, Nathan Rafferty, president of Ski Utah, declared that 90 per cent of people support the interconnect, maybe even 99 per cent. The potential, says Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Area Association, is huge. "What we're seeing at Canyons now is a game-changer." Another tantalizing prospect is the interconnection of Park City Mountain Resort and the Alta and Snowbird ski areas, also located close in proximity. "Six miles as the crow flies, Alta and Snowbird are winning accolades for terrain. What if you could connect them? You'd create a pretty compelling product," said Rafferty.

 

 

Drunk driver gets jail

EAGLE, Colo. - A 29-year-old Vail man has been sentenced to spend up to four years in prison for striking and killing a pedestrian with his Jeep Cherokee. The tragedy occurred in March when the victim was walking on the town's frontage road. The driver, David Perzanowski, had been working, then went drinking in Vail. His blood alcohol level was .189.

Perzanowski had a prior alcohol conviction in 2006, reports the Vail Daily . When the judge asked about the "Vail lifestyle," Perzanowski described it as "ski hard, party harder." He said he regrets not finding an AA community after his first conviction.

The victim was an All-American swimmer and an honors graduate from an Ivy League college who was working in his family's oil and gas business.

 

Fewer jobs available

JACKSON, Wyo. - Just 166 jobs are up for grabs at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, compared to 200 last year. Human-resource personnel at the ski area tell the Jackson Hole News&Guide that the economy, combined with the wonderful snow, has a lot of employees returning for another year. The resort has 1,300 peak-season employees, down from 1,500 at the start of the recession. Seasonal jobs pay between $8.40 and $9.94 an hour, the latter for shuttle drivers.

 

Energy efficiency a challenge

JACKSON, Wyo. - Oh what a challenge it is to make good on the Mayors' Agreement on Climate Change vow, which many ski towns were signatory to. The agreement commits the towns to reducing their carbon footprint in line with the Kyoto Treaty goals.

Jackson was among those towns, and a delegation from the staff went to Aspen in 2006, returning home enthused to change its energy use, and then the broader community, uses carbon-based energy.

But it's been a greater challenge than most anybody had expected. The town and Teton County governments shrank their combined energy use by 10 per cent in a program called 10 X (20)10. But in achieving that goal the local governments got huge help from Mother Nature. The winter of 2009 and 2010 was a marginal year for snow, and so the amount of plowing was minimal.

Still, the local governments keep plugging away. The Jackson Hole News&Guide reports that they have appropriated $10,000 for three energy retrofits at local wastewater treatment plants, which consume large amounts of electricity. The money is leveraging other sources of funds from Bonneville Power, the electrical provider, for a total project cost of $57,000.

 

Conservationists prickly

CANMORE, Alberta - The conservation community in Canmore and Banff is plenty annoyed by the decision from Parks Canada to allow the Norquay ski area to begin summer use. The permission comes in exchange for giving up some terrain that had been allocated for winter use. The ski area is in the national park, near the Banff townsite.

"There is absolutely no foundation in the Canada National Parks Act for the 'overarching commitment' to commercial tourism alleged in recently approved Norquay guidelines," they insist in a letter published in the Rocky Mountain Outlook . "And this contrived 'overarching commitment' is contrary to the legislated priority mandate to maintain or restore ecological integrity in our national parks."

Better - much better - they say is for a Yellowstone National Park-type management. "Visitors are attracted - not by contrived gimmicks, golf tournaments, triathlons, dragon-boat races and via ferrata - but by unadorned geysers, grizzlies, wolves, scenery and Yellowstone-only opportunities."

 

 

Private ski area goes broke

BIG SKY, Mont. - One private ski area in Montana's Big Sky complex is emerging from bankruptcy, but another one has entered bankruptcy.

Moonlight Basin, which has 1,900 acres adjacent to Big Sky's 3,600 acres, has reached an agreement with Lehman Brothers to transfer ownership to the investment bank and move the resort from bankruptcy. Officials with both told the Bozeman Chronicle that the plan would provide stability for Moonlight.

The Chronicle explains that the court order settles years of court battles between Lehman and Moonlight over two loans totalling $170 million. The loans became due in 2008, and Moonlight filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. Two steps remain before the bankruptcy is formally concluded, the newspaper says.

Spanish Peaks, another private ski, golf and real estate complex, has closed and entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It reports $50 million in assets and $500 million in debt. It also boasts of vast ski acreage, bigger than Vail, North America's largest, and more vertical than Jackson Hole. Both claims assume terrain at the Big Sky ski area, to which the private ski areas are connected.

The Yellowstone Club, the third private ski area adjacent to Big Sky, also went bankrupt.

Allen Best can be reached through http://mounttaintownnews.net .