SNOWMASS SUMMER PROJECTS APPROVED
Carbondale—A bigger restaurant and improved fiber optics are two of the projects planned for this summer at the Snowmass Ski Area. Today the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District gave final approval to the 2017 projects that also includes a new facility for the ski patrol at the top of Sam’s Knob. The popular Sam’s Smokehouse Restaurant will be expanded to add more lunchtime seating in hopes of easing overcrowding and long lines during peak periods. Officials say two underground fiber optic utility lines will be installed as well this summer to enhance communications and data transfer to and from on-mountain facilities.
BATTLEMENT MESA INJECTION WELL DISCUSSION MOVES FORWARD
Glenwood Springs—With a 2 to 1 vote, the Garfield County Board of Commissioners reluctantly allowed the Battlement Mesa Partners to apply for a permit to build a small injection well near Parachute and just south of the Colorado River. The vote was taken after a handful of residents in the community voiced their opposition. Dave Devanney with the Battlement Mesa Concerned Citizens group says he doesn’t like the idea of creating a new zone district within the (PUD) Planned Unit Development. Commissioner Tom Jankovsky cast the dissenting vote, saying normally, he favors anything that creates jobs and boosts the economy but this time he sympathizes with citizens.
VAIL RESORTS COULD BE AT FAULT FOR TEEN’S AVALANCHE DEATH
Vail—It’s a court case that has the attention of the ski industry. A jury will decide if Vail Resorts properly closed an expert ski run where a teenager was killed in an avalanche five years ago. Eagle County District Judge Fred Gannett sent the case to the jury. In January of 2012, 13 year old Taft Conlin was buried in an avalanche after accessing the Prima Cornice run through an open lower gate that the resort forgot to close. The upper gate was closed. Judge Gannett says the boy went through the lower gate like many skiers before him that day and if Vail Resorts was aware of that, he says jurors could find the resort giant liable.
