Around the Mountains: Winter Park, Fraser consider merging

FRASER VALLEY - Sitting side by side, the towns of Winter Park and Fraser have thought about consolidation for a good many years. Fraser is the older of the two, but Winter Park nowadays has the better-known name, owing to the ski area within its boundaries.

A recent study finds that if Winter Park annexes Fraser, they'll gain $786,000 in additional tax revenues, owing to Winter Park's greater ability to levy sales and real estate taxes.

The greater question, reports the Winter Park Manifest, is what the combined town would be called. No names have been formally proposed, although the newspaper flippantly suggests Fraser Park. Joyce Burford, a trustee in Fraser, says that her constituents are most interested in the name, suggesting that the consolidation could sink or swim on that basis.



Shunned by towns, bears seek refuge in the 'burbs

CRESTED BUTTE - Both Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte have adopted regulations mandating bear-resistant trash cans. Is it any coincidence that the latest report of bears scaling second-story balconies and spying through screen doors comes not from one of the two towns, but instead from a nearby subdivision in unincorporated Gunnison County. The homeowners' association, reports the Crested Butte News, is talking about mandating bear-proof containers there, too.



Real estate ever more the Jackson Hole story

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - Real estate continues to become an ever bigger part of the story in Jackson Hole, even if the real estate being sold isn't in Jackson Hole proper. The action, reports columnist Jonathan Schechter, has moved out to the exurbs in adjoining Lincoln County but even more so on the west side of the Teton Range, in Idaho.

The Multiple Listing Service of residential properties during the last two years has expanded by a third, from 1,800 to 2,700 properties, reports Schechter. But while the number of listings in Jackson Hole itself has dropped, the number of listings in Teton County, Idaho, has increased 64 percent.

Schechter also notes that this shift has become glaringly apparent in the advertising found in the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Not only is real estate advertising becoming more dominant, but particularly so for real estate outside Jackson Hole.

It is to the point that in Jackson, real estate is dominating the valley's economy. "Today," he says, "real estate and development are to the greater Teton area what entertainment is to Hollywood or finance is to New York."

He sees the real estate market continuing to thrive, even as wildlife habitat, economic diversity and small-town atmosphere suffer.