Wednesday, December 28, 2005
CHURCH: NONPROFIT CENTER
Catholic Charities purchased the old St. Stephen’s Church on Grand Avenue for $650,000 and is converting the church into a nonprofit center that will house offices for LIFT-UP, Salvation Army, Feed My Sheep, Catholic Charities and others. LIFT-UP will set up its county food bank there, and Feed My Sheep will set up in the basement and will have a kitchen, bathrooms and shower for the homeless.
-GS Post-Independent, 12.28.05

HOUSING CRUNCH EASES
The seasonal-worker housing crunch that peaked earlier this month has eased a bit, according to Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Authority Director Tom McCabe. The group of foreign workers from Argentina and Brazil that appeared at the City Council’s Dec. 12 meeting have managed to find housing downvalley or returned to their countries.
-Aspen Daily News, 12.28.05

HOME SALE RECORD
Home sales of previously owned homes in the Denver area totaled a record $14.9 billion, up 4% from 2004 although about 1,000 fewer homes were sold this year. The average price for a home in the Denver metro area rose 5.8% to $281,188.
-Rocky Mountain News, 12.28.05

DTC BUILDINGS SELL FOR $53M
LBA Realty Group, a California real estate company, paid $53 million for Oracle’s two buildings at the Denver Tech Center and 21 acres of undeveloped land. The buildings, which total 372,803 square feet, are about 17% leased.
-Denver Post, 12.28.05

NEW DIA GATES
Denver International Airport is adding two temporary gates on the west side of Concourse C to provide room for newcomer Southwest Airlines or other carriers to grow. The project will cost about $10 million and should be completed late next year.
-Rocky Mountain News, 12.28.05

NEW LAWS IN EFFECT SUNDAY
Eighteen new laws go into effect in the state Sunday, including the requirement that all users of Colorado State Wildlife Areas must purchase a $10 wildlife stamp. The program is expected to raise $2.3 million a year to buy more areas and improve existing areas.
-Associated Press, 12.28.05

POSTAGE STAMPS GO UP 2 CENTS
The U.S. Postal Service will increase postage for a first-class letter from 37 cents to 39 cents on Jan. 8. Sending a postcard will go from 23 cents to 24 cents.
-Associated Press, 12.27.05

STEAMBOAT: INTERIM MANAGER
The Steamboat Springs City Council Tuesday appointed veteran deputy city manager Wendy DuBord the city’s interim city manager. The council has selected executive search firm Peckham & McKenney to search for the new city manager and DuBord will serve until a city manager is selected.
-Steamboat Pilot, 12.28.05

THE WARM = LESS DANGER
The northern and central mountains have some of the deepest late-December snow levels in decades, but the recent warm weather has helped strengthen the bond between layers of snow. The southern area of the state does have higher avalanche danger, even with a shallow snowpack, as strong winds have stripped some areas to bare ground and what snow is left is stacked in unstable configurations.
-Associated Press, 12.28.05

WILDFIRE PLAN DONE
A draft of the Summit County community wildfire protection plan has been completed, which highlights strategies for mapping and educating the community about risk areas and ways to reduce wildfire risk. Estimates from the survey of the mountain pine epidemic in 2004 indicates that there are potentially 110,000 dead trees on public and private land in the county that could benefit from some sort of treatment.
-Summit Daily, 12.27.05

BLUE MESA LOOKING GOOD
Blue Mesa Reservoir increased 10.7 feet from Oct. 1, 2004 to Sept. 30, 2005, raising it to 75% of capacity. During the 2005 season, runoff into the reservoir averaged 82% of normal, and as of Monday, snowpack in the Upper Gunnison Basin was at 101% of the 30-year average. Even with the good start, the Bureau of Reclamation does not anticipate the reservoir reaching capacity next year.
-Montrose Daily Press, 12.27.05

SNOWMOBILES: ON THE ROADS
The Routt County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday not to revoke the 1988 ordinance and its 1991 amendment that allows snowmobiles on County Roads 62 and 129. Commissioners reviewed the ordinances at the request of area residents. Revocation of the ordinances would have required snowmobiles along the sides of the roads.
-Steamboat Pilot, 12.28.05

COLLEGE COURSES AVAILABLE
Only one semester into operation, the University Centers of San Miguel has established a board of directors, recruited faculty and is offering courses in Mountain Village, Telluride, Placerville, Norwood and Nucla. The Spring Term of UCSM opens Jan. 3 and information is available at the UCSM Web site, www.ucsamiguel.org.
-Telluride Daily Planet, 12.28.05

FRAUD ALERT! PHISHING E-MAIL SCAM
You may receive an e-mail that appears to be from Alpine Bank requesting information, please DO NOT respond to this e-mail. This is a "phishing" e-mail, a scam from someone trying to obtain your personal information. Please forward this e-mail to securityinfo@alpinebank.com, and delete it from your inbox. Find examples of the phishing e-mails at www.alpinebank.com. The e-mails appear to be coming from ‘service@alpinebank.com.’ If you receive any one of these or any other suspicious e-mail, please DO NOT respond to them, as Alpine Bank will never send you an e-mail asking for your passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information. If we request information from you, it is because you have initiated the contact and we are replying to you with a request for information that is necessary to assist you.

YOUR FAVORITE MASCOTS
1. M&Ms figures/Mars
2. Doughboy/General Mills, Smucker’s
3. Duck/Aflac
4. Tony the Tiger/Kellogg
5. Gecko/Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico
6. Chester the Cheetah/Pepsi’s Frito-Lay
7. Energizer Bunny/Energizer Holdings

-FORTUNE, January 9, 2006
 
   

Posted in Activities, Alpine Fax | Trackback | del.icio.us | Top Of Page