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Alpine Fax
Billie | 30 January 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
PITCO REAL ESTATE: TORRID
Real estate sales in Pitkin County in 2005 reached $2.24 billion, shattering the previous record set in 2004 of $1.60 billion by 40%. Sales in December totaled $190.58 million, in increase of a whopping 126% over December 2004. The sales trend continued downvalley as well, with Garfield County sales last year hitting $855.97 million, an increase of 43% over the $599.50 million in 2004.
-Aspen Times, 01.29.06
WINTER X = 3X
ESPN and the Aspen Skiing Co. announced Friday that they had reached agreement to stage the Winter X Games at Buttermilk for three years after the current contract expires, or until 2010. ESPN said attendance at the X Games has grown 91% since the games first came to Buttermilk in 2002, and, last year, viewership was up 23%, averaging 677,000 households.
-Aspen Times, 01.28.06
THE STUDENT (WORKER?) VISA
With the limitation of H2B visas, which allows foreign temporary workers into the U.S., resorts have turned to another option…foreign students on summer break from school in South America on a J-1 visa to fill low-wage labor jobs. There is no limit on J-1 student visas, which was intended as a cultural-exchange program.
-Denver Post, 01.30.06
GOING OUTBACK? GET A CARD
Search and rescue teams, usually nonprofit organizations made up of volunteers, are getting a financial boost from increased sales of Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue cards, available for $3 a year or $12 for five years, with two-thirds of the revenue from sales going to the fund which reimburses rescue operations.
-Vail Daily, 01.26.06
END OF AN ERA
Odds are that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates Tuesday, but the bigger story will be departure of Chairman Alan Greenspan, who will leave his post following the meeting after 18 ½ years as chairman. Widely viewed as he most successful chairman in the Fed’s 92-year history, Greenspan presided over the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.
-Denver Post, 01.29.06
I-70: ANOTHER BIG ROCK
A 300-pound boulder rolled down the slope bordering the eastbound lane of Interstate 70 near mile marker 44, just outside the Palisade city limits on Saturday, wrecking three cars and injuring three people. Motorists are warned that rockslides are common this time of year, although it was unusual to have one in this area.
-GJ Daily Sentinel, 01.29.06
SNOWMOBILERS FLYING HIGH
Routt County now has the largest man-made snowmobile terrain park built, according to park owners. The park, named The Compound, is on 120 acres owned by Chris Brown, one of the developers, and over the weekend, one snowmobiler, invited to test the facility, roared to speeds of 80 mph and vaulted some 148 feet.
-Steamboat Pilot, 01.30.06
BRECK SCULPTS A 1ST
Team Breckenridge captured first place among the 13 teams from nine countries in the 2006 Budweiser Select International Snow Sculpture Championships Saturday. It was the first time that the local team has taken a Gold Medal in the event’s 16-year history. Sculptures should be in place until Feb. 5, weather permitting.
-Summit Daily, 01.29.06
DURANGO: NO NURSE SHORTAGE
There is an estimated 12% shortage of nurses in Colorado, with the supply falling short of demand projected to go as high as 31% by 2020. Durango, however, has avoided any problems of the shortage, with issues like the quality of life, a new hospital in the works and the ability to recruit from Pueblo Community College and the San Juan Basin Technical College as factors helping offset the statewide trend.
-Durango Herald, 01.30.06
FLEMING HONORED
Jim Fleming, former president of the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Development Inc., was given the first Economic Development Service award at the annual Chamber awards banquet Friday night. B&B Electric Inc. was honored as Large Business of the Year; Blythe Designs, Small Business of the Year; and, Dan Roberts was Citizen of the Year.
-GJ Daily Sentinel, 01.28.06
NEW SUMMIT HOSPITAL
The St. Anthony Summit Medical Center opened in December and has already reduced the number of patients being transported over Vail Pass to the Vail Valley Medical Center. The Summit hospital’s affiliation with the Centura Health network and its Front Range hospitals has made it likely patients will go to Denver who might otherwise have gone to Vail.
-Vail Daily, 01.29.06
LOAD, UNLOAD, LOAD, UNLOAD
The St. Regis Hotel, the $250 million project now underway in Mountain Village, eliminated much of the parking adjacent to the Village’s core businesses, setting in motion a new, complex delivery system. Delivery drivers now must drive to a designated location near the core, park, and call an MV employee who arrives with a cart, the delivery driver loads the cart and the cart ferries the driver and cargo to its destination.
-Telluride Daily Planet, 01.30.06
S’BOAT REVENUES UP
The Steamboat Springs City Council received sales tax figures for November, the most recent month for which data is available, which showed November collections were up 12.84% over November 2004. The year-to-date figures, through November, had a 7.71% increase over the comparable period a year earlier.
-Steamboat Pilot, 01.28.06
FLYING OUT OF BANKRUPTCY
United Airlines is set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, after more than three years and 50 days. United has made several changes in service during its stint in bankruptcy: Curbside check-in now costs $2 per-bag; Ted, the low-cost carrier was launched; Passengers now have to buy snacks, sandwiches, salads and meals on longer flights; Automated kiosks were installed at airports for passengers to print boarding passes; A new Web site, www.unitedgobusiness.com, aimed at small and medium-size businesses.
-Rocky Mountain News, 01.28.06
RESTAURANT HALL OF FAME
The Colorado Restaurant Association will induct four restaurant-industry veterans into the 2006 Foodservice Hall of Fame tonight:
Pete Contos: owner of the Satire Lounge, Olympic Flame, Pete’s Kitchen, among others;
Neil and Ellie Romano: who opened Romano’s Italian Restaurant, an institution in Littleton in 1967;
Charles F. Smith Jr.: a 40-year industry veteran, who opened Goodberry’s restaurant in Arvada in 1980.
-Rocky Mountain News, 01.26.06
THE DEEP, THE NOT-SO
The snowpack for selected river basins, based on the 30-year average, as of Jan. 27:
Statewide 97%
Upper Colorado 125%
Yampa and White 124%
Gunnison 94%
San Juan, Animas, Dolores, San Miguel 54%
-GJ Daily Sentinel, 01.28.06
