Colorado mining town returns to its roots
LEADVILLE, Colo. -- Hosannas are in the air in Leadville, a one-time mining town soon to resume its mining ways. This time, however, townspeople are less innocent.
Production at the Climax Mine, once the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is to resume in 2010, announced the owner, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Golde Inc. The company intends to invest $500 million into a modern ore-processing mill and other infrastructure.
Employment, after construction ends, will be 350 people. In contrast, the mine employed more than 3,000 people in the late 1970s, some of them commuting from the Frisco, Salida, and Vail areas.
"This gives us our identity back as a mining community," said Ken Chlouber, who worked at Climax before becoming a state senator.
Carl Miller, a Climax worker of 27 years and also a retired state legislator, said renewed mining will give Leadville jobs, a tax base, and some stability.
Annual production of 30 million pounds is expected, but with the potential doubling of production.
Commissioners talk about Bush message
TELLURIDE, Colo. -- The San Miguel County commissioners are talking about a resolution that would call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush. Faced with a petition from residents of Telluride to that same effect, the Telluride Town Council adopted a similar resolution earlier this year.
The county's talk was initiated by County Commissioner Art Goodtimes. He said he wants to adopt the impeachment resolution because of the apparent lack of effective "protest to blunt this administration's push toward war" with Iran, reports The Telluride Watch.
"I know it's not our purview, but I would like us to take a solid look at what's being claimed or alleged," Goodtimes said.
The commissioners are talking about public hearings, in both the ultra-liberal Telluride area and conservative-leaning Norwood.
Copper Mountain puts trail maps, and ads, on chair lifts
COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. -- Copper Mountain is among the ski areas that are now putting maps of ski trails onto chair lifts, so that riders can study the maps on their way up the mountain. At Copper, those maps also contain advertising.
The advertisements were controversial when the Aspen Skiing Co. asked to experiment with the advertisements on chair lifts five years ago. Two years ago, the Forest Service issued a rule that said that the ads were within an "interior" space on the maps, similar to the interior of a mid-mountain restaurant, and hence would be permitted.
The Summit Daily News says that the chair lift maps results in less trash on the mountain at Copper Mountain, although ski area officials also acknowledge recycling bins at upper lift terminals helps.
Vail Resorts has no policy about chair-lift advertisements, but "prefers" not to do so because of the type of experience we want to provide" on its ski mountains, says Kelly Ladyga, corporate spokeswoman.
Houses and more houses in Roaring Fork Valley
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. -- The urban-, suburban-, and exurbanization of the Roaring Fork Valley is, for all practical intents and purposes, a done deal. Yet another of the dominoes between Aspen and Glenwood Springs has now fallen with approval of a new 577-unit project in the Spring Valley area southeast of Glenwood springs.
The project will go on 6,000 acres, giving it a density of about 10 acres per lot. The project will include two golf courses, one of them a 9-hole, par-3 affair, plus 75 deed-restricted affordable housing units, reports the Glenwood springs Post Independent.
The project has been before Garfield County since the mid-1980s, but it's no better now than before, says the dissenting commissioner, Jim Martin. "We are not preserving agriculture and our heritage. What we have done is create a new gated community," he said.
Ripples but no waves yet from the subprime mess
DURANGO, Colo. -- The Durango Telegraph went looking for waves from the nation's subprime mortgage fiasco, but could barely find ripples. The number of real estate sales in the area has dropped, but that's been happening at resort areas across the West for a couple of years. Also similar to other resort areas, median home prices have increased, by about 5.5 percent.
Samantha Gallant, president of the Durango Area Association of Realtors, said problems could yet develop as the result of harder-hit areas, such as Arizona, California, and Texas.
"We're vulnerable, of course. If our feeder markets are suffering, we'll feel the effects."
The most immediate impact has been a curb to speculative homebuilding. Russ Turpin, president of the Southwest Colorado Homebuilders Association, said some spec homes are still sitting empty. "Everyone decided it was a good idea to become a spec builder, but now they're learning it's not as easy as it looks."
Still, there seemed to be no alarm. "After 29 years at this, I've learned there are always going to be adjustments," said John Wells, a real estate broker.
Grand Targhee not amused with 'C' grade
DRIGGS, Idaho (MTN)—Grand Targhee is none too amused with the grade given to the ski area by the Ski Area Citizens Coalition. Targhee got a C.
It's not that the coalition didn't find a lot to like about Grand Targhee. Based on its on-mountain programs, the resort would be close to an A, Ben Doon, the coalition's research director, told the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
But the annual coalition ratings are heavily weighted -- 45 percent -- by whether a ski area hopes to expand its trails outside the existing "footprint" of the ski area or build slope-side real estate. Those things, according to the coalition, are unacceptable. Targhee wants both terrain expansion and base-area real estate.
Under the rating system, a ski areas can flunk one year but, with advancing years, become an A student, its past transgressions forgiven. Such is nearly the case at Telluride, which got a flunking grade in 2000 when it debuted an expansion area called Prospect Basin.
Ryan Demmy Bidwell, executive director of Colorado Wild, said ski areas need to move beyond green marketing, which they are now doing very well, and actually doing things that are more environmentally friendly.
"The story here is pretty clear to me," he told the Durango Telegraph. "Cleaning up your act, and improving your score, is very possible. But it does require more than lip service and marketing rhetoric. Being a green ski area requires a shift in ideology and an honest commitment of resources."
