High schoolers aloof to military recruiters
PARK CITY, Utah -- Military recruiters are having a harder time getting students to enlist from the three high schools in Summit County.
"I knew a few people who wanted to be pilots a while back, but they aren't talking about it anymore," said Adam Whitworth, a junior at Park City High School, who hopes to join the Coast Guard. "The war has really turned people off. The public view of the military has deeply changed."
Sgt. Terrance Pohl, a recruiter for the Army National Guard, said students aren't a hard sell, but their parents -- who have the right to refuse a recruiter access to their sons and daughters until they turn 18 -- are. "Mom and Dad are watching way too much TV. What they see is, 'You're going to Iraq, and you're going to die,'" he told The Park Record.
Crested Butte hopes to see fewer ursine
CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. -- Town officials in Crested Butte have adopted several measures intended to make the town less attractive to bears. Trash can be placed outside from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. only on days of scheduled pickup, unless in bear-resistant containers. The town council set aside $80,000 in its budget to purchase bear-resistant containers. Bird feeders ware allowed, reports the Crested Butte News, but only when suspended so as to be inaccessible to bears.
Similar measures in Colorado resort towns were first introduced by Snowmass Village, and since then have been adopted in Aspen, Vail, and Steamboat Springs. The town of Mt. Crested Butte, which is located adjacent to the ski slopes, is considering similar measures.
Jackson refuses ban on public smoking
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. -- The Jackson Town Council has refused to enact a ban on smoking in public places. The proposal would have included not only businesses, but also all parks and outdoor facilities such as baseball fields, reports the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
Councillor Meilissa Turley said she "votes with her feet" by not patronizing the three remaining bars in Teton County that still allow smoking. No restaurants allow smoking.
Larry Hartnett told councilors it's also a matter of principles. "I am not a smoker, and I don't like going into places where there is smoke, but one thing I am particularly fond of is freedom," he told the council.
The Teton County Board of Public Health is mulling the idea of classifying tobacco smoke as a toxic substance. The legality of that declaration is being explored.
Grafitti in privies cause work stops
ASPEN, Colo. -- There's been a lot of news in Aspen lately about scribblings on the walls of the portable toilets at construction sites.
What started the round of stories was the message on a privy wall at Snowmass Village. The message seemed to target Latino workers. Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis said interviews with workers there revealed that expert workers imported from elsewhere in the country include some who are members of The Aryan Brotherhood and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Latino workers were given a paid day off, and The Aspen Times later reported tensions within the immigrant community.
A week later, a scribble on a toilet wall at a school construction site seemed to target whites. The contractor, G.E. Johnson, shut down the project for the day.
Real estate taking a breather in Durango
DURANGO, Colo. -- Falling real estate prices in the major metropolitan areas are starting to affect the market for housing in Durango and La Plata County. The Durango Area Association of Realtors reports the median price of homes sold there dropped 1 percent in the year's first quarter.
Don Ricedorff, a real estate broker at The Wells Group in Durango, told the Durango Herald that the local market was being influenced by weakening markets in Phoenix, Southern California and other places. Many homebuyers must sell their houses elsewhere before buying in Durango, he explained.
Real-estate brokers believe that prices will soon begin marching upward again, partly because of more restrictive development policies expected of new city and county officials.
Whole Foods Market plans store in Basalt
BASALT, Colo. -- Whole Foods, the grocery of organic foods, is being planned for Basalt, located 20 miles down-valley from Aspen.
Whole Foods ordinarily wants 200,000 people within a 20-minute drive of its stores. The Roaring Fork Valley falls far short of the population threshold, with 67,000 projected residents within five years. But those people who live there have chart-busting demographic characteristics that Whole Foods covets. Local residents are both better educated but also wealthier than national standards.
The project, called Willits Town Center, ultimately is to have 250,0000 square feet of commercial space and 400 lofts and condominiums, says the Valley Journal. The second and third floor of the Whole Foods store will be residences.
Among ski valleys of the West, Park City has a Wild Oats on its periphery, and Santa Fe also has both Wild Oats and Whole Foods stores.
