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Show Snnnnwnmnti; it SmunmrnmSit Ketchum resident fires back at Park City Counci' Member Al Blomquist saying "Elections should not be called to express philosophy." The Pitkin County Planning Commission recommended an Aspen master plan to the county commissionbut commis-sionbut not before a board member stepped down to avoid a possible conflict-of-interest controversy. contro-versy. A private attorney said Commissioner Commis-sioner Ed Zasacky had a conflict because he has a $l,000-to-$2,000-a-year part-time job with the Aspen Skiing Company as a ski instructor. Zasacky disqualified himself, but other board members said there was no question of his honesty and integrity. "I hurt for him," said panel chairperson Suzanne Caskey. The master plan was approved 3-2. Two planners objected to the plan, giving a generic approval for summer and nightime restaurants on Aspen Mountain. WPfiCS KetchumSun Valley It had to happen. A Ketchum resident fired back at Park City after a prominent Parkite was quoted criticizing Ketchum in a Utah Holiday article. As you recall, Chamber Bureau executive director Debby Symonds talked in the article about the importance of preserving Park City's entrance area. Otherwise, she said, the result could be the kind of entrance that Ketchum provides for Sun Valley. Then came John Woeckner, a Ketchumite and former Park City resident, who wrote to the Express editor that his neighbors had nothing to envy in Park City. The town, he said is merely a suburb for Salt Lake. "The white collar workers commute out to the city and the wage earners commute in, via Fullon Freeway." He continued, "Poor old Main Street is now a canyon of wall-to-wall unimpressive four story office buildings on a narrow dead end road. Old town Park City is crammed with high density condos of diverse and mediocre architecture with little or no landscaping." He also mentioned litter, crowds, traffic, increasing crime and decreasing air quality. Woeckner said he couldn't get A Mono County deputy assigned assign-ed to Mammoth has resigned and another police employee is on administrative leave while they are being investigated for allegedly manufacturing automatic weapons. The probe is being undertaken by the U.S. Treasury Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms unit. County Sheriff Lloyd "Digger" Wilson said other people in the county may be involved. The Mono County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 for the concept of using the abandoned Mammoth Lakes Elementary School as a government center. A county building build-ing officer told them renovation costs for the school would be about $250,000, but he doubted it could be ready for occupancy before winter. The county's lease for space in Mammoth Lakes runs out July 1. A dissent came from Supervisor Glenn Thompson, who said the present Mammoth offices have enough space and are a convenient, popular location. TAHOE WORLD Lake Tahoe Ski resorts at Lake Tahoe reported the 1984-85 season has been lucrative. At Alpine Meadows, marketing director Wemer Schuster said the resort is on its way to matching its 1979-80 record for ski attendance. Squaw Valley reported its attendance was running 15 percent above last year's record-breaking record-breaking performance. Schuster said economic prosperity helped the season and the snows came when they were needed. After Thanksgiving, storms came about a week before each big holiday. Fifteen skiers at Alpine Meadows Mea-dows were apprehended for traveling travel-ing in a closed area on Beaver Bowl the largest number of people ever detained by the resort in a single day. Last year, North Tahoe resorts began tough enforcement of state laws against skiing out of bounds or in a closed area. Resorts have been concerned that skiers in closed areas would trigger avalanches. avalan-ches. The Tahoe World noted that just such an incident apparently led to the March 19 death of a visitor to Park City. One of the skiers detained was an Alpine Meadows employee who was fired and had his pass revoked. WestStar Cable TV, broadcasting broadcast-ing in the Tahoe area, was unsuccessful in getting a monthly rate increase. Subscribers complained complain-ed to the board about poor reception and service, and objected to paying "more for less." The firm said they needed the rate increase to improve the service. The county has become entangled entan-gled in a perennial battle between two commercial raft companies in Tahoe City. The issue arose over 200 raft licenses that Placer County issued for river running. The county gave 90 licenses to Mountain Air Sports and 70 to its rival, Tahoe Sierra Recreation. However, one of Tahoe Sierra's partners, Nick Fuller, also has a firm called Fanny Bridge Raft Rentals and that company got the other 40 permits. This decision doesn't sit well with the ow ner of Mountain Air, who says the other two companies are virtually one. Said his lawyer, "The permits for Fanny Bridge should have come out of (Siena's) share." THE ASPEN TIMES Aspen The Aspen City Council approved approv-ed a $2 million capital improvement budget, with $500,000 reserved for open space purchases. The council also sought to use the money to improve and create more parks, renovate city hall and improve city-wide lighting. A dogcatcher complained to the county commission that a local judge is not enforcing dog laws. No, we're not repeating one of last week's Summit County stories. This happened hap-pened in Pitkin County, where Animal Control officer Lisa Russel said Judge Tarn Scott is waiving fines for dog violators. "If this goes on, we're wasting our time. It's like running on a treadmill," she said. Judge Scott, also present, told commissioners in some cases he deemed it fair and prudent to waive the fines. The board seemed to favor the dogcatcher, and Commissioner Tom Blake said, "I want these people cited and fined." The Aspen City Council decided that a special election will not be set to ask voters their opinion on killing animals for their fur. At first, however, the council directed staff to prepare an ordinance restricting or banning sales in Aspen. The move was a response to local Georgie Leighton, who said fur stores were incompatible incompati-ble with Aspen ideals. Mayor Bill Stirling opposed the ballot proposal, saying it might be restraint of trade. And City Attorney Paul Taddune said it was a personal preference issue. Three days later, at the council's "continued regular meeting," three councilmen supported the proposition pro-position that expressed dis-aproval dis-aproval of "the breeding and slaughtering of fur-bearing animals merely for the purposes of obtaining products for human adornment! " This was not approved either, with through on the phone to express his outrage to Symonds. But he ended his letter by listing the Chamber's toll-free number. This only leaves us to ask, "What the heck is the 'Fullon Freeway'?" In nearby Hailey, the town council lifted a two-month building , moratorium and set new water and sewer hook-up fees on a temporary basis." The new fees were needed because Hailey developers won a class-action lawsuit saying the city used faulty methods to compute the old fees. Unfortunately for them, the new fees are higher than- the old tones.'' Mayor Wordell Rainey broke a 2-2 tie in favor of lifting the moratorium. Mammoth Lakes It was called "The Last Mixer," as a meeting of the Mammoth Lakes Chamber of Commerce overwhelmingly over-whelmingly voted to dissolve itself. Chamber Vice President Paul Rudder Rud-der said the group isn't needed, now that Mammoth has a resort association more qualified to sell the town as a world-class resort. Meanwhile, the Mammoth Lakes Resort Association (MRLA) is itself off to a rocky start. It was scheduled to receive a payment from the Town Council, but the money is overdue. Council member Gary Flynn said he wouldn't approve money for (MRLA) unless is promised to perform per-form certain internal marketing jobs that were done by the Chamber. I 1 |