Resort wealth draws immigrants

PARK CITY, Utah - There seems to be a direct relationship between wealth and immigration of Spanish-speaking workers, most of them from Mexico, to resorts of the West. Aspen and Vail, with their hyper real estate economies, seemed to be first. In parts of their outlying communities immigrant children now are in the majority in schools.

Immigration was slower to other resorts, and in some places, such as Colorado's Winter Park, has yet to fully get under way. The time of most rapid change for Park City was about 1999, as the town geared up for the Olympics. Hispanics, many of them immigrants, now comprise 11 percent of children in local schools and about as much of the local population, although immigrants may be undercounted in census efforts and estimations.

The Park Record notes that with the first trickle of immigrants, there were some community fears and resentments, including protests about the congregations of Hispanics who were gathering at a community park. But the community is now gearing up to meet immigrants at more than just the paycheck.

Of crucial question in Park City, as well as across the United States, is how much government agencies, particularly police departments, should deliberately staff up with Latinos. In Park City and broader Summit County, there are relatively few bilingual police and even fewer bilingual Latinos.

The county sheriff, Dave Edmunds, does not oppose hiring more Latinos and in fact welcomes diversity while seeking more bilingual employees. But he also dismisses deliberate attempts to recruit Latinos as wrong-headed political correctness coming from university campuses. "If you treat people fairly and equitably, it doesn't mater if you're a Mexican-American officer, white officer or Oriental officer," he told the Record.

The city's police chief more openly indicated preference for bilingual speakers, all other qualifications being equal, as well as more women and greater racial diversity.

However, if police wait for Latinos to put in applications, it will be a long time before the police department becomes more diversified. Experts tell the newspaper there are fewer Latino applicants, although they do not say why.

Steamboat revitalizing downtown

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - City and business officials in Steamboat Springs have been fretting for several years about whether their downtown is losing its vitality.

No doubt it is changing, gaining more galleries and the like over time even as those selling clothes, hardware and other items needed in a working community have disappeared in the face of competition from Wal-Mart and other such stores.

On one front, the city had tried to prevent county officials from fleeing to the edge of town. They have now lost that battle. Some county functions will remain downtown, but many will be gone.

The reason the county officials wanted to leave was at least partly because of how tight parking is in downtown Steamboat. Of the 2,806 parking spaces identified, employees used 1,800 of them.

A new task force now proposes to turn more eight-hour or unregulated parking in the downtown area into four-hour, two-hour or 15-minute parking spaces. To make sure the laws are observed, the group wants to step up enforcement.

There's plenty of parking for employees, says the task force, but they will have to walk a block or two, they say.

Top growth in real estate ranked

SUMMIT COUNTY - Real estate in resort areas has been soaring, but new appraisals for next year's property taxes are based on the period from 2002-04. Among the ski towns in Colorado, the following counties gained the most during that time of the post-9-11 economic shock.

Writing in the Vail Daily, the Eagle County assessor gave the results in this order: Summit (Breckenridge) and San Miguel (Telluride), both 24 percent; La Plata County (Durango) 20 percent; Eagle County (Vail) 17 percent; and Pitkin County (Aspen), 8 percent. She reported that RouttCounty (Steamboat) gained 19 percent, but The Steamboat Pilot reported only 15 percent.

Winter Park could see wildfire

WINTER PARK - The snowpack entering May was at average in the Fraser Valley, but it could be a scary year for fire in the region near the Winter Park and SolVista ski areas. With so many trees dying from pine beetles, there are worries.

The Forest Service has spent $1 million each during the last two years in removing trees, Meanwhile, the town governments of Winter Park and Grand Lake, both located primarily amid forests of lodgepole pine, also have launched independent, tax-supported, tree-thinning efforts.

Aesthetics is partly at issue. The pine needles turn rust colored as the trees die, making them visually unappealing to most eyes. But the broader issue is fire. For a time after the trees die, the risk of crown fires rises considerably. In addition to the resort towns themselves, many homes in outlying areas are dangerously nestled amid pine trees.

In all of this, the coverage of the Winter Park Manifest and sibling newspapers has varied somewhere between abject seriousness and self-parody. Publisher Patrick Brower has gleefully declared "war" on the pine beetle while issuing a supplement devoted to the topic that has the look of a sci-fi horror movie. The supplement is titled, "Revenge of the Mountain Pine Beetle."

Banff affordable housing vanishes

BANFF, Alberta - Several homes developed in Banff's affordable housing project have been resold, and guess what? The prices aren't so affordable anymore. The Rocky Mountain Outlook does not specifically say so, but it appears there were no deed restrictions on appreciation of the houses. Banff town officials say the housing units must be occupied by full-time residents, but no more. In the past, Banff has studied Whistler's deed-restricted housing, which limits appreciation.

Crested Butte readies sandbags

CRESTED BUTTE - For the first time in a decade, Crested Butte will have sandbags at the ready, in case the creek that flows through the town gets a big head of water. Much will depend upon the weather in coming weeks. The snowpack is at 125 percent of average, and if it melts steadily, as it did 10 years ago, the last time a well-above-average snowpack was recorded, there probably will be no problems. If it gets hot and stays hot, then there could be trouble, notes the Crested Butte News.

Steamboat serious on bear law

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - Last year, bears regularly visited trash cans in Steamboat Springs, so the City Council in January passed a law mandating that trash not be set out before 6 a.m. on the day of pick up nor left out after 8 p.m. The exception? Those who have wildlife-resistant trash containers.

To warn of the new law, ads were run on radio stations and in a local newspaper, and brochures were distributed.

Just to show that the town meant business, the Police Department dispatched an officer to see who had violated the new law. Some 52 tickets were handed out, each with a $100 fine. Second offenders get fined $150.

- compiled by Allen Best