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Show Stmmmiimmtt to Smmimmmnit Big bucks for the Vail iail Vail Last week, Eagle County Coun-ty Commissioners attended groundbreaking ceremonies for a $4.5-million justice center. The new center will include a jail, the sheriff's department and the county and district courtrooms. Construction will begin this week and the project is due to be completed by December, Decem-ber, 1984. The new jail will replace the current 50-year-old facility. The 37,000 . sqi!r foot structure is the most expensive project the county has ever undertaken. Vail's Finance Director Bill Pyka is approaching the coming fiscal year with caution. As a result, there will be little increase in town-sponsored programs and services. Reports from the first informal budget discussions with the Town Council indicate that Vail residents may see slight increases in property taxes, but whether they will also see the street improvements they have been hoping for is still a question. Vail's 155 town employees will probably probab-ly receive a 3.75 to 5 percent cost-of-living raise. The con troversy over road repairs stems from the fact that funds for road repairs come from construction activity which declined last year. The resulting loss of revenues reve-nues has adversely affected the projected $3.44 million road improvement plan slated to take place over the next five years. Jackson Teton County Planners are trying to decide how to" resolve the conflict between meeting the expanded highway high-way needs of the community and the unwillingness of various groups to allow the roads to be built through their neighborhoods. The proposed Snow King bypass met with opposition from a coalition of Jackson neighbors, neigh-bors, and the planners' Flat Creek bypass alternative met with similar complaints from Teton Village representatives repre-sentatives and local ranchers. The Teton Wilderness administrators continue to debate the question of whether whe-ther it is the humans or the bears who need to be controlled. One option cur rently being discussed by the U.S. Forest Service would be to limit the amount of human activity near bear country. The Forest Service is considering con-sidering a permit system to regulate traffic through territories ter-ritories inhabited by grizzlies. griz-zlies. One of the requirements require-ments for obtaining a permit would be demonstrated knowledge of proper camping camp-ing procedures in bear country. Despite the grizzlies' griz-zlies' threat to campers and hikers, the Forest Service believes that it has a responsibility to protect this endangered species. Jackson Hole resident Robbie Fuller fairly croaked with delight as he watched his invention bobbing in space in the evening news. Fuller invented "croakies," a stretchie eyeglass retainer which was used on the latest flight of the space shuttle Challenger. His product was clearly visible in video transmissions of Astronaut William Thorton. Fuller hopes that NASA's recognition recogni-tion of his invention will win him a free trip in space. Aspen The Snowmass Town Council has approved a land use plan for the Base Village development, the largest development ever proposed for the area. The proposal, which sparked two hours of protest at the meeting, has now passed two of the four steps required for final approval. Several of the town councilmen, however, have reserved the right to reverse their decision when the design phase of the project comes up for approval ap-proval in step 3. The project includes 210 residential units, 24,000 square feet of commercial space and an 8,400 square foot conference facility. The Aspen Board of Education decided to turn down the city's offer to sell a home for the board's superintendent super-intendent for $165,000. The home was appraised at $295,000. The five-member board was split on the issue with two members in favor and three opposed to the purchase. According to the current school superintendent, superinten-dent, Jim Burks, finding housing detracted from his ability to perform his duties. It was also suggested, by the board's secretary, that the district would lose potentially potential-ly qualified candidates for positions within the district because of the difficulty of finding housing. The dissenting dissent-ing board members suggested sug-gested that offering the housing to just the superintendent superin-tendent and not other staff members was "elitist." Harry Teague, Aspen's four-time Air Cart Derby champion, won the race again this year. The event annually attracts a motley assortment of homemade non-motorized gocarts. The course, which stretches from South Aspen Street downhill to Cooper Avenue is known locally as Harry's Hill after the man who is so far unbeaten. Sun Valley Since 1958, the town of Ketchum has set Labor Day weekend aside as "Wagon Days," a tribute to the town's pioneering past. The weekend features a parade of historic horse-drawn ' wagons. The most spectacu- i lar of the entries is always the Horace Lewis Fast ; Freight Line big hitch, a block-long train of five ore ! wagons pulled by a team of Belgian draft horses. ; Idaho's state highway patrol staged its first DUI roadblock three miles south of Ketchum last week. The roadblock did not net any DUI arrests, perhaps because be-cause of the publicity which preceded it. Blaine County was selected as the location for the first DUI checkpoint because of its unusually high nighttime fatal and injury accident rate. It was the first of several roadblocks to be held throughout the state. Detained De-tained drivers were given brochures explaining the roadblock in addition to questionnaires asking their opinions of the procedure. Responses to a similar roadblock in Washington, D.C. indicated that 85 percent per-cent of those -stopped approved ap-proved sobriety checkpoints. |