Around the Mountains: Vail hospital could hit 300,000 sq. feet

VAIL - Administrators of the hospital in Vail are planning a giant expansion that will nearly double the size of the facility. It is now at 175,000 square feet, and if approved by town officials, would reach 305,000 square feet.

In the last 35 years the hospital, formerly called Vail Valley Medical Center, has grown steadily. The number of doctors has increased from 3 to 172.

This new proposal reflects the expectation of continued population growth, but also an increased number of older people in the Vail Valley, the resort-oriented portion of the Eagle Valley. In addition to the expanding hospital in Vail, a cancer clinic is now located 10 miles west in Edwards, and a new hospital is to be built 30 miles west in Eagle.

Total cost of this hospital expansion is estimated at $70 million to $90 million. The proposal includes the hospital expansion on the west side, and the razing of the older, labyrinth of hospital on the existing east side. In the process, parking spaces will be doubled by mostly putting them underground.



Haddock charged in electrocution death

GRANBY - Early in the summer a 16-year-old boy ran into a pond at a golf course near Granby to rescue his dog, which had become entangled in electrical wires. A live electrical wire electrocuted the boy. A 77-year-old man, Charles Haddock, has now been charged with reckless manslaughter, but the specific accusation was not reported.



Developers face rejection in Eagle

EAGLE - Developers down-valley from Vail and Aspen are hearing "no" with some frequency.

At Eagle, between Vail and Glenwood Springs, a major commercial project has been rejected by the town's planning commission. The project calls for nearly 500,000 square feet of commercial space created in an outdoor mall, plus a major hotel and a water park.

Planning commissioners gave no reason for their unanimous vote. The town planner, Bill Gray, said that the project will generate 1,850 jobs, but would not provide affordable housing. There are also concerns about the impact to the town's old downtown area, reports the Eagle Valley Enterprise.

The newspaper speculates that the rejection may have been a way of delegating the decision to town voters, overturned an earlier town decision by rejecting a major commercial development at the site.

At Basalt, between Aspen and Glenwood Springs, the town council rejected the expansion of the highly successful Roaring Fork Club, a golf- and river-based real estate development that caters to the extreme high end. The developers proposed to add 32 luxury cabins, 18 single-family homes, and 36 affordable housing units. The project, however, is not entirely within the town's growth limit areas.



Retiring ski CEO bemoans industry's capital shootout

ASPEN - Pat O'Donnell retired last week as chief executive officer of the Aspen Skiing Co. and, at age 68, from a career that has arced across the North American West. He started out during the 1960s in California, first at a ski area in Yosemite National Park and then launching Lake Tahoe's Kirkwood. Then, in the 1970s, he was in Colorado's Summit County, where he was responsible at Keystone for mountain operations and also creation of the first base-area hotel.

Then, he directed Patagonia, the outdoor clothing manufacturer, and after that the Whistler ski area, before finally joining Aspen in 1993, becoming CEO in 1996.

As the head of the Aspen Skiing Co., O'Donnell is widely credited with making Aspen a trendsetter once more. The company has become known for its various environmental initiatives, but particularly its efforts to take climate-changing greenhouse gases seriously. The company's ski area and associated hotels and other operations have become a showcase for more efficient use of electricity and other fossil fuels. In addition, the company has lobbied legislatively for concerted federal action to address global warming.

But the company has also developed real estate. It redeveloped the base of the Aspen Highlands ski area and refurbished its on-mountain restaurant at Ajax, as Aspen Mountain is known by locals. And most significantly, it is redeveloping and expanding the base village at Snowmass, one of the company's four ski areas, while also spending $50 million in on-mountain improvements.

In an exit interview with The Aspen Times, O'Donnell seemed to rue some of these and other changes that has Aspen fending off challenges from Deer Valley, Beaver Creek and other high-end resorts.

"We got into a capital shootout," he said. Once the industry started adding faster lifts, customers' expectations grew. Now a competitive resort must have the whole mountain covered with high-speed chairs or risk getting shunned, he explained.

O'Donnell also said that when Aspen Skiing Co. unveiled its new advertising campaign about climate change, it was criticized within the ski industry. O'Donnell likened this criticism to getting hit between the eyes with a marshmallow. "It didn't hurt, but it was still offensive," he said. He declined to identify the source or sources of the criticism.

Other ski areas will soon follow in Aspen's path in making global warming central to their advertising messages. "I've said to people within the industry, 'I will bet you a dollar to a doughnut that within 12 months and no longer than 18 months you will see other ski areas within the United State messaging along these lines," O'Donnell told The Times. "Exactly what medium they will use, I don't know, but you're going to see part of their campaign say, 'Climate change, come on folks, climb on board.'"



Airport security temps cost plenty at Aspen

ASPEN - Even with a 12.5 percent adjustment because of the cost of living, airport security checkers at Aspen's Sardy Field are paid only $102 for an eight-hour shift by the federal government. That's about minimum wage in Aspen's hyperinflated economy.

As you might guess, the help-wanted sign is out constantly. But in the meantime, reports The Aspen Times, the federal government has a pool of security workers that shuttle around to understaffed airports. The cost is by no means minimal. The per diem for room and board at Aspen is $289 per day during peak seasons. That compares with the standard per diem of $99.

If security workers spend the winter in Aspen scanning baggage and shoes for bombs, utility knives and explosive toothpaste, the cost to the federal government - excluding wages and benefits - will be $43,639.



Aspen, Vail and Telluride real estate ahead of '05

GLENWOOD SPRINGS - The golden triangle of Aspen, Glenwood Springs and Vail continues to post real estate totals that just a few years ago would have been staggering. While volume of transactions has declined this year, higher prices have all three markets ahead of last year's record-setting pace.

Eagle County, where Vail is located, continues to lead the pack. For the third straight year it has surpassed $2 billion in real estate sales, even if the growth in volume is only 1 percent ahead of last year. The strongest growth is in the upper middle-class, downvalley areas, particularly in the town of Eagle.

Close behind is Pitkin County, where Aspen is located, which appears certain to surpass $2 billion for the second straight year. Growth in dollar volume is 12 percent ahead of last year, reports The Aspen Times.

Garfield County, which is downvalley from both Aspen and Vail, was well below $1 billion as of the end of September. However, the growth in volume was up 21.5 percent compared to last year, faster than either of the resort valleys. Garfield County also is strongly influenced by the oil-and-gas boom.

The Telluride-area market is also rising, but relatively slowly, with sales ahead of last year by 3 percent as of September. While real-estate agents agreed that the market was healthy, with semi-rural real estate strongest of all, one agent, Erik Fallenius, warned against too much optimism. "In general, as has always been the case, the Telluride real estate market is fragile," he told The Telluride Watch.