Aspen limits hours of construction activity
ASPEN, Colo. -- Responding to calls for more peace and quiet, the Aspen City Council is more sharply limiting construction activities, and is allocating $150,000 to hire two new code-enforcement officers to back up the law. Previously there was just one such officer.
The new law, reports The Aspen Times, limits construction to 10 hours a day, compared to 12 previously. However, the council refused to ban construction on Saturdays, though work sites remain shut down on federal holidays and during the so-called Aspen holidays of large special events.
Teva Games hitting a sweet marketing sport
VAIL, Colo. -- The Teva Games, Vail's answer to the X Games held in Aspen, was held for five days last week. The event attracted some 1,600 athletes, an expected attendance of 30,000, and prize money of $100,000.
It began as a Memorial Day kayak festival in Minturn, around the corner from Vail, but was transformed into an early-June event called Teva Mountain Games. Teva wanted to peddle sandals, and Vail wanted a big spring event, broader than just kayaking.
Organizers, explains the Vail Daily, target 21- to 45-year-old "weekend warriors" with household incomes of $90,000 or more. Joel Heath, whose company, Untraditional Marketing, organizes and promotes the event, says that's a coveted demographic for advertisers. "We're definitely in a sweet spot now for a lot of brands."
Targhee base plan just too much, commissioners say
DRIGGS, Idaho -- It appears that a proposal by the Gillett family to expand the real-estate holdings at the base of Grand Targhee is likely to be rejected, at least as proposed. The ski area currently has 96 units, but the family proposes to expand to 725 units.
But at a meeting covered by the Jackson Hole News&Guide, four of the five Teton County commissioners said they believe the proposal calls for too much, particularly given the location. The resort base area is at 8,500 feet elevation, and is surrounded by national forest. By comparison, the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is 6,300 feet.
One commissioner, Ben Ellis, said a recommendation of planning commissioners last year—450 free-market, employee and affordable units—was on target.
George Gillett, the one-time owner of Vail and Beaver Creek, purchased the ski area in 1996. His son Geordie Gillett has taken the lead on the project.
The ski area is located on the west side of the Teton Range, barely within Wyoming. Most directly affected are the Idaho communities of Driggs and Alta.
Rex Christiansen, 65, who helped build the ski area in the 1960s, lives nearby and will be heavily impacted by a bigger, busier resort. Yet he favors the proposal.
He noted that the ski area was always intended to grow, with a master plan 36 years ago that called for a capacity of 6,000 skiers and accommodations for 3,000 overnights.
Swift expands market domination in Colorado
GRANBY, Colo. -- Swift Communications has extended its penetration in the mountains of Colorado, buying the newspapers published in Grand County. The newspapers include the Winter Park Manifest and Sky-Hi News.
Based in Reno, Nev., Swift arrived in the Colorado mountains in 1993, buying first the Vail Daily, then the Summit Daily News and the Aspen Times. It also owns weekly and daily newspapers in Eagle, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, Rifle and Grand Junction. The chain faces only two newspaper competitors in those two areas--the Aspen Daily News and Grand Junction Sentinel.
Selling the Grand County newspapers is Bill Johnson, who enjoyed a monopoly there beginning in 1984.
Reno-New York direct flights could be in works
RENO, Nev. -- The Reno-Tahoe International airport is working with Delta Airlines on a non-stop flight to New York City. Airport authorities are also hoping to add links to Washington D.C., Detroit and Minneapolis, as well as southern California.
These flights, if they occur, may help boost the Truckee-Tahoe area's transition to more of a destination for tourism, similar to Colorado mountain resorts, Jackson Hole and Park City.
Camel shows nasty side to new owner
RIFLE, Colo. -- A Rifle man who operates camel tours was bitten and kicked by a 2,000-pound camel that also lay on him. He was hospitalized but expected to fully recover, reports the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. He had purchased the one-humped camel recently from a tour operator in Moab, Utah.
The newspaper spoke with another camel owner, Maggie Repp, who has raised and trained camels at her ranch in the western Colorado town of Fruita for nine years.
"Camels by nature are not mean at all," she said.
However, she said, male camels, like elk and deer, will go into rut.
"When they're in rut, you don't want to bother them," she said.
