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Will Winter Park have enough water?
ALLEN BEST
October 23, 2004
WINTER PARK - Two years ago, during the worst drought in several centuries, there were some doubts whether toilets at the Winter Park Ski Area would have enough water for flushing.
That proved not to be the case, but Winter Park continues to be in a water pickle. Denver and other Front Range municipalities, which already take 65 percent of the water in the Fraser River Valley, want to take 83 percent. Meanwhile, the second-home boom is just starting to hit. Will there be enough for all?
Probably not, which is why the Winter Park Town Council is now looking at whether it needs to prioritize the development it allows. One of the decisions, Mayor Nick Teverbaugh told the Winter Park Manifest, is to either let everyone who wants to develop come in on a first-come, first-serve basis, or to "set value judgments that are in the best public interests."
While one council member says the town may need to learn to say no, another approach is that developers will want to buy water taps as soon as they get development authorized.
Tahoe area has highest gas prices in California
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Tahoe Daily Tribune reports that South Lake Tahoe has the dubious distinction of having the highest average gas prices in California. When the national average was $1.97 per gallon, California was at $2.34 a gallon, but South Lake Tahoe was all the way up to $2.55. Truckee was close behind.
School board cans its super, promotes its own
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - After a fair amount of controversy, the school board in Jackson Hole has fired the school superintendent.
In analyzing the decision, the Jackson Hole News & Guide says this latest action "seems in keeping with a district that brings in and pushes out administrators as if they were seasonal employees."
But the newspaper sees a positive this time. At least for a few months, the district will be run by a former teacher and principal who has been in Jackson Hole for 30 years.
For whoever is in charge, adds the News & Guide, the challenge is great. Not only are living costs tremendously high, discouraging teacher retention and hence quality, but Latino immigrants with limited skills in English are steadily making up a larger percentage of the valley's workforce and hence the schools.
Jumbo Glacier Resort clears first big hurdle
INVERMERE, B.C. - A major new mountain resort called Jumbo Glacier proposed in the Purcell Mountains has been given approval by the provincial government in British Columbia. It now must receive approval from local authorities in the Columbia River Valley.
Plans call for 6,300 beds, about a 10th the size of Whistler, but with skiable terrain about one-third the size of Whistler. Vertical would be 5,570 feet (nearly 1,700 meters), surpassing the 5,000 feet (1,530 meters) of Whistler.
Durango squabbling about limiting growth
DURANGO - Proponents of a growth-control initiative claim that officials in Durango, where the population is now 15,000, have a goal of hitting 40,000.
City officials say there is no such goal, but they concede that the city has drawn up a plan that assumes the city's water, sewer and other infrastructure will someday serve 40,000 people. However, they say that will not happen for a long time.
The dispute is part of a broader argument about how growth should be managed in Durango. While it inched along at 1 percent a year during the 1990s, population growth has been running at 4 percent in the last several years. Furthermore, plans for new developments are unfolding at a brisk pace.
Ex-pro ski racer gets on most-wanted list
BASALT - A former ski racer, Josef Odermatt, has shown up on the most-wanted list issued by police in Eagle County after failing to make required court appearances.
Friends in Aspen described Odermatt as a charismatic, personal guy with incredible skiing talent who began getting into trouble in 1995. Keith Ikeda, police chief of Basalt, said Odermatt's record is typical of someone who tried to control a relationship to the point of becoming violent, and let substance abuse get the best of him.
What it all adds up to, says The Aspen Times, is a former ski racing champion whose life swerved radically off course.
Odermatt, 52, had broken his back when he was 16, and when he recovered he joined the pro circuit in the United States. That was in the 1970s. Although he was known to party as hard as he skied, his troubles did not begin until the mid-1990s, when he was accused of driving under the influence and possession of marijuana. A few years later there was an indecent exposure charge, and then a domestic disturbance, and then more and more arrests. There is some speculation he returned to Switzerland.
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SUNNY 48°
