Steamboat sees construction slowdown
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Construction was down 80 percent in the Steamboat Springs area for the first half of 2009 as measured by dollar volume of permitted projects. But Carl Dunham, an official in the Routt County Regional Building Department, told the Steamboat Pilot & Today that last year was the busiest year ever.
"So you're taking the worst year in a long time and comparing it to a record," he said.
Hikers vs. bikers in Breckenridge
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. -- The lug-soled crowd and the knobby-tired group are at odds about how tightly Forest Service land near Breckenridge should be restricted. Currie Craven, representing a local coalition of wilderness advocates, tells the Summit Daily News that congressionally designated wilderness would be better, because the protections against other uses cannot be easily reversed. The Fat Tire Society, however, wants a somewhat looser restriction, one that allows them to take their mountain bikes into the areas and also gives the Forest Service greater latitude to deal with dying trees, using mechanized and motorized devices.
Elizabeth Edwards to speak to Avon crowd
AVON, Colo. -- Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, was scheduled to speak this week to the Vail Breast Cancer Awareness Group. A crowd of nearly 500 people were expected at the event, reports the Vail Daily.
Edwards, who has terminal cancer, recently wrote a book, "Resilience," about her cancer and looming death and also about the revelation that her husband had an adulterous affair in the midst of his campaign.
She has been criticized for being so public about her family's troubles. But she told the Vail Daily that the couple's youngest children, aged 9 and 11, aren't blind and deaf.
"My hope is that I will have successfully written a letter they can have long after I've died about what this family means to me," she said.
Lake Tahoe loves Charles Barkley
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- After the Angora fire destroyed several hundred homes near South Lake Tahoe in 2006, former professional basketball player and cultural icon Charles Barkley donated $100,000 to victims and hosted a dinner for all firefighters.
In response, South Lake Tahoe proclaimed Charles Barkley Day.
This year, reports the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Barkley has donated another $90,000. He was scheduled to be at Lake Tahoe for a golf tournament.
The proclamation noted that Barkley, though not the best golfer, still had won the "hearts of many on Lake Tahoe's south shore."
Aspen's bookings still off from '08
ASPEN, Colo. -- Aspen's tourism economy appears poised to continue to struggle through the summer. June was saved by last-minute bookings, but lodges in Aspen and Snowmass Village were still at only 48 percent occupancy, compared to 58 percent last year.
Advance bookings were down 14 to 20 percent for July and August, reports The Aspen Times. Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass, a reservations service, says that Aspen still has higher occupancy rates than most other mountain resorts.
Jackson mayor's son lost in climbing fall
JACKSON, Wyo. -- It was a sad week for Jackson. The first young man to die was Willie Neal, who was 19 and had won eight state Nordic skiing championships while in high school and served as a delegate last August to the Democratic National Convention. He died after being struck by a car. Hundreds of people turned out for his two-hour funeral.
Then Wesley Baron, 27, the son of Jackson Mayor Mark Baron, died in a rock-climbing accident. He had been solo climbing without protection.
Even as a child, he had been one for the flying trapeze on ropes from trees. Growing up, he flew down the ski slopes as a racer. As an adult, he soloed the Grand Teton without rope. Elsewhere, he broke his arms and pelvis in a motorcycle crash, and then was in a coma. But after coming out of the coma, he never complained.
"He was unencumbered by life's tripwires," his father told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.
Steamboat to add hybrid buses
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Steamboat Springs plans to add two hybrid diesel-electric buses to augment its one existing hybrid by early next year. That existing hybrid is on track to save the city $5,400 to $5,700 in fuel costs annually.
Still, the cost savings are overshadowed by the higher cost of the hybrid buses. The two buses cost $600,000 each, most of it paid for by grants from the U.S. government, reports the Steamboat Pilot & Today. The cost of a conventional bus was not given.
Some bloggers on the newspaper's Web site believe the hybrids are less than a swell deal. One blogger wondered why, given the presence of all the natural gas fields nearby, the city doesn't get buses that burn natural gas.
