Friday, March 14, 2008

Mountain Town News


By ALLEN BEST - MTN TOWN NEWS SERVICE

Occupancy down, but room rates up at resorts

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. -- Ralf Garrison delivered a report in the Summit Daily News of silver-lined dark clouds in the U.S. ski-based tourism.

Garrison's Mountain Travel Research Program, which tracks the destination ski sector, found that from November through January occupancy rates were down 1.5 percent. Bookings for the rest of ski season similarly suggest declines. However, the average daily room rate for early winter was up nearly 10 percent.

Consumer confidence is lagging, oil prices are now hovering above $100 per barrel, and the dollar is at a record low, he noted. But the silver lining is that the weak dollar should attract more international visitors, and keep more U.S. residents at home.

News from Vail Resorts confirms some of these trends. Rob Katz, the chief executive officer, reported a 23 percent increase in well-heeled international guests at the company's five ski areas through January, which Katz said helps make up for a decline in domestic skiers. Skier visits at Vail dropped 6.2 percent, and at Beaver Creek they were down 1.5 percent.

Vail expects to invest up to $110 million at its five ski areas and ancillary base area hotels and other operations, Katz told reporters.

Aspen council again says no to redevelopment plan

ASPEN, Colo. -- Aspen's city council has sent developers packing once again. Last summer, the council rejected a proposed hotel next to the ski lifts, calling it just too much. Now, a proposal to replace the city's venerated Wienerstube restaurant with a much larger and taller building has similarly been nixed.

The new building would have been 38 feet tall in a district with buildings less than 30 feet. A neighbor, architect Charles Cunniffee, called it "10 pounds in a 5-pound bag."

Also testifying against the bulk was a long-time resident, Steve Stevenson. "It's not our responsibility as citizens of Aspen to make sure they make money," he said of the developer's plea for greater density, to make the numbers work. "If they spent too much for the building, that's their problem and a bad business decision."

The Aspen Times applauded the rejection. Three of the current council members were elected last summer amid an outcry from Aspenites about noise, dust, traffic, disturbance and a loss of community character—all associated with demolition and redevelopment of aging buildings.

While redevelopment is needed, the newspaper added, such redevelopment "can and should reflect not just the wishes of the developers, but also Aspen's vision of itself."

The rejection was a show of backbone, concluded the newspaper, and not motivated by an extremist, no-growth kind of thinking. "Rather, we think the council is pushing developers to do better and to consider their long-term impact on this town and its residents when they bring proposals forward."

Eagle Valley teachers start at nearly $39,000

EAGLE VALLEY, Colo. --Teachers in public schools in the Eagle Valley are getting pay raises. The new base pay will be $38,650, second only to Aspen, which starts teachers at $40,000.

However, teachers can earn bonuses by agreeing to teach at schools with higher poverty, reports the Vail Daily, or because of having advanced degrees and experience. A teacher with 15 years experience, for example, could earn an additional $9,663 per year, for a total of more than $48,000.

Still, despite the higher wages and a handsome benefit package, school officials think it more inducement will be needed. They're also looking at helping teachers buy homes and at district-sponsored employee housing.

How about another road across the Front Range?

TABERNASH, Colo. -- The debate continues about how to best defy Colorado's mountainous geography between Denver and the mountain resorts. This winter has brought a spate of new ideas -- including some old ideas filched from the discard bin.

One of those ideas is to build a new highway directly west from Boulder across 11,775-foot Devil's Thumb Pass and down to Tabernash, located between Winter Park and Granby. "I would be glad to pay for a small toll for an alternative to waiting on I-70," writes Glenn Glass in a letter published in a Denver newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News.

This and other ideas for traversing Colorado's Front Range have been around since at least the middle of the 20th century. Instead, highway engineers bored the range with the Eisenhower and Johnson tunnels -- which is probably why Summit County now is a virtual city, while Middle Park, where Granby and Winter Park is sometimes called "Colorado as it used to be."

Police wary of gangs in the Park City area

PARK CITY, Utah -- If not a major problem, police in Park City and surrounding Summit County are keeping a close eye on 30 gang members living there as well as the 5,000 documented gang members in the nearby Salt Lake Valley, located about 30 miles away.

"We do not have a major problem here yet," said Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds. "We are trying to prevent any type of foothold they are attempting to establish here."

Gang members have been fingered in several robberies, but also cases of vandalism. About four-fifths of the gang members are Latinos, some of whom have been members of gangs or been influenced by gangs in California.

"The entertainment venues attract gang members," Andrew Burton, a gang expert, told The Park Record.




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