Me - O - My

Western ski resorts embrace small-town images to make more money

By SANDY SHORE AP Business Writer

DENVER (AP) -- In the ski town of Breckenridge, the holiday rush is for the slopes, not the shops.
Residents can buy a Christmas tree, upscale clothing, boots or trendy cookware but will be hard-pressed to find an iPod along Main Street. Thing is, residents in the quaint Victorian-style resort about 100 miles west of Denver like it that way.
"It's nice being in a place where there are no chains (stores)," said Elisabeth Gallup, 28, who opened her Cookin' Cowgirl shop on Breckenridge's Main Street about three years ago.
It's a familiar refrain in resort communities around the West, which love to cash in on visitors but don't want to surrender the small-town feel they believe contributes to their bottom lines. Big box retailers have passed on many resort towns because of local opposition or because land is too scarce or expensive. Some towns have considered local measures to keep them out, fearing they would detract from the character.
"I don't feel like we're really on the outskirts or super isolated," says store owner Trinidad Carreon of Whitefish, Mont., a ski resort town near Glacier National Park. "We can pretty much meet our needs."
Resort retailers cater to tourists during the busy ski season, which starts around Thanksgiving for Colorado resorts and ends in late March - and during the summer, when visitors enjoy hiking, fishing, golfing and outdoor activities.
The stores also serve year-round residents and, in a growing number of cases, are finding new customers among second-home owners.
"The thing that changes for us being in a resort is that the day after Christmas in the city you've peaked and it's all sort of going downhill," said John Balma, 57, who opened a clothing store called Goods in Breckenridge in 1974.
"In January, it's just like you could bowl through the stores whereas for us, it just kind of keeps going solid all the way through Easter," said Balma, whose store originally sold work clothes and jeans to year-round residents but has shifted to upscale, fashionable apparel.
Although he describes Breckenridge as a great boutique town, Balma admits he is tempted to travel to Denver to shop for electronics bargains.
"If you're a consumer trying to buy a new faucet for your house or something then you kind of miss The Home Depot," he said. "People are kind of torn between the convenience of some of those kind of stores or just not really wanting to be like that."
Breckenridge is tucked in a 9,600-foot valley about 15 miles from a major interstate along a highway that winds through thick stands of forest. Founded in 1859 during the gold rush, the town of about 3,000 year-round residents today stretches seven miles long and two miles wide.
It has an average of 180 shops and a small retail district along Main Street just below Breckenridge Ski Resort, one of the largest in North America.
There are no nationwide chain retail stores, though Wal-Mart is about nine miles down the road in Frisco and Target is a bit farther away in Silverthorne, a 20-minute drive on a clear-weather day.
There are a couple of restaurant chains - including the requisite Starbucks - and a chain grocery store. For the most part, thought, Breckenridge is marked by individually owned boutiques specializing in clothing, ski equipment and apparel, T-shirts, gifts and galleries, including some that pay homage to the city's western history.
Whitefish, a community of about 7,000 near the Big Mountain Ski Resort, is similar to Breckenridge in that the stores are primarily individually owned stores. There are big-box retailers in nearby Kalispell.
"It's a ski resort town that is a small town. We're not like an Aspen. We're not there, nor do the people really want that," said Carreon, whose Back Door General Store features locally made gifts and crafts.
Carreon, who moved to Montana from California, said he has a clientele of about 60 percent visitors and 40 percent year-round residents.
"If we really concentrate on the locals, the visitors really kind of take care of themselves, meaning they are going to come in," he said.
In Taos, N.M., a resort town of about 5,000 that blends a vibrant arts community with a ski area and outdoor activities, retail stores are again mostly locally owned.
"Big boxes are kind of the antithesis of what the community is all about here," said Brian Chew, a 50-year-old self-professed corporate refugee from Boston who owns Taos Mountain Electronics. "It doesn't fit with the local economy, the local environment or the look and feel of Taos."
Chew's business, which features products from digital cameras and computers to high-end home-theater systems, primarily serves year-round residents and second-home owners with a smaller tourist trade.
"Supplies are difficult. It's almost like being on an island because everything has to be shipped here so the prices are naturally a little bit higher," he said, though he doesn't regret his move to Taos where he can bike, ski, cycle and enjoy the outdoors.
Steamboat Springs, a resort town 160 miles northwest of Denver, carries the nickname of Ski Town USA. Some merchants are working to preserve the historic downtown area and, at the same time, trying to coexist with national chain stores, said Tracy Barnett, who heads the Main Street-Steamboat Springs program.
"What we're looking for is to change our mix so we can stop the leakage, the people that leave Steamboat to go shop on the Internet or shop anywhere else," she said. "If they can't get it here they're going to have to go somewhere else.
"What we don't want to lose is the character. It doesn't necessarily have to stay small to maintain the character."
---
On the Net:
Breckenridge: http://www.gobreck.com/page.php
Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association: http://www.steamboat-chamber.com/
Taos Chamber of Commerce: http://www.taoschamber.com/function5.htm
Whitefish Chamber of Commerce: http://www.whitefishchamber.org

Black Friday!

We’ve all learned that the Friday following Thanksgiving is the day that retailers will go into the “Black.” That means that they expect to start making a profit for the first time this year. How so? It seems that it takes this long in the year to cover expenses such as rent, taxes, marketing, etc. It isn’t as though we all need more stuff, but it is a good thing that they survive the year just for these next 35 days or so. They add to the communities that they serve by paying taxes, hiring staff and more. Remember, businesses don’t need schools and many other community services, but they do pay a huge amount toward those services.

The difference that we see is that in Estes Park, for many businesses, there is never a “Black Friday.” That’s right; they never see a profit and over 20% of them close each year leaving holes in the downtown buildings, losing jobs and lowering the tax base. This says nothing of the great personal losses to the business owners.

The Town would have us believe that the business failure is because (these are quotes) the owners are stupid, don’t have enough capital, have no business plan and picked the wrong business to get into. Well, in part that might have some truth in it but if we look deeper we can see that we have a Town that has chosen to be the grand marketers for our community and have failed, time and time again, to bring people to the community. Grand Master Marketer Marsh has said time and time again that they are doing a great job. His evidence is that he advertises in the summer and we are filled with people. He doesn’t advertise in the off season because there is nobody here. What a genius. The Trustees and Butthead Baudek agree. What a shame.

We get what we are willing to tolerate. In this community we seem to tolerate failure and have no interest in change, even if it would benefit each of us.

Another example is EPURA. The Town wants to extend EPURA because as Baudek has said, “they are the planning arm of the Town.” What it really means is that they have stolen money from EPURA and put it into the Town general fund and want to continue to do so. In this Town it is fine to break the law, fine not to be accountable. Congratulations citizens. You have just exactly what you deserve. If EPURA was to do its job they would realize that failure in our downtown is blight and we need to address that. We don’t need more sidewalks leading nowhere. Extend EPURA? No way. Will it happen? Unfortunately it probably will. People in this Town simply go along to get along and they don’t expect success and don’t hold people accountable. What a shame.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For this day, at least for one day, can't we all just get along?

Hope your Thanksgiving is filled with joy and happiness.

EP

THE ORDINANCE

As we examine the functions of the town, it is imperative to examine the action arm of a town government. When elected officials of a community wish to establish a local law or policy they create an ordinance.

An ordinance must be created in the public eye there must be opportunity for public comment.

or·di·nance, n, An authoritative command or order.
1. A custom or practice established by long usage.
2. A Christian rite, especially the Eucharist.
3. A statute or regulation, especially one enacted by a city government.

If you are curious as to what your town should be doing spend a few minutes reading through the towns ordinances and one quickly can tell how your community operates.

These documents dictate, by Town law, what services your town is obligated to perform.

Examples:

Your town is obligated to provide police and fire protection, zoning and code enforcement by ordinance.

A law, any law, including ordinances, are only as good as the governing bodies resolve to enforce those ordinances.

The Town Administrator has the responsibility to enforce all ordinances in this community.

The following is a hyperlink to all the town ordinances online:

http://www.estesnet.com/townclerk/municode/default.aspx

We believe the town government is not being vidulent in protecting the rights of all the citizens of this community. Enforcement of ordinances maintains order for all within the community.

Therefore we will be providing examples of what we observe as blatant ordinance violations within town limits in an effort to assist the town administrator in performing his duties, as a public service.

Donkey Time

Final word on the vote:

Democrats: getting the job is one thing, doing it is another, you donkeys better be right!

Fire district: funding fire protection, quote Randy Repola, “If it’s not broke don’t fix it”!

School district: Get involved with oversight committees, demand accountability!

Thank you all for the fantastic voter turn out.

VOTE EARLY - VOTE OFTEN

Estes Park speak your mind,,, VOTE!

With that said, we invite you to take a tour of your polling place, Town Hall. Look around nice isn’t it? State of the art computers on every desk, hard wood trim, clean, painted and new carpet. Go on over to the billing station, nice isn’t it, all new. Wander on over to the trustees board room, you will find state of the art audiovisual equipment, built in broadcast studio, well trimmed and gold plated. The town administrator’s office, EPURA office space is generous, beautiful office furniture and well appointed conference room, with art! Solid wood front doors, lots of space no one crowded, well heated in the winter, cool in the summer and handicapped accessible. One would be hard pressed to find a nicer town hall in Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, Telluride, or Jackson Hole.

This ladies and gentlemen is the old high school, we built a new campus for the kids 35 years ago, remember? This building is older by decades than any of the school buildings.

So why is the old high school thirty five years later a state of the art Town Hall and the schools, thirty five years later, a dump? The town administrator’s wife works for the school district, so does the mayor and his wife. This is a small town the same people belong to all the same clubs; the same people sit on commissions with the town and the school board. They all belong to the Rotary together, the bank presidents, school super, town administer, and mayor they all schmooze socially. Let me repeat this again this is a small town all the money comes from the valley. The school board gets a pretty good budget, so why the huge disparity? They shared the same accounting firm, banked at the same bank, belong to the same clubs.

I do not get it. Call me dumb, call me slow, call me hardheaded, call me negative, and call me a poop. Why does town hall seem to have all the money they need to give away $4000,000.00 dollars a whack to invest in property outside town limits, supplement the school district swimming pool, build visitors center, kayak things, sidewalks all over the county, annual employee bonuses and the school district has holes in its jeans? The bankers drive Mercedes Benz stretch luxury automobiles but the businesses cannot afford to pay their light bills! There is money in this town coming from us, coming from our businesses. It’s going somewhere, it went somewhere, and it didn’t go to the kids. Citizens of Estes Park you need to start getting a clue and stop feeding this money machine. Town employees own buildings down town, school district employees own businesses around town, the town and the school district are the biggest employers and the players are pulling milk from both cows. You want more money from me,,, for the kids. Yea sure.


The fire district idea is simply creating bigger and more complex government to squeeze more money into the system.

The school board wants money for the kids, the Estes Parkian wants accountability from the adults.

One Constant In Comments

Isn’t it amusing that the common thread though out the comments is that there is one side that wants accountability and another side that doesn’t want discussion. The call for discussion or accountability is answered not with reason or with a well thought out argument, it’s simply the same story, such as “do it for the kids” “you don’t have a plan” “you aren’t being positive.” What a tiresome display of the uneducated. In other words, I don’t have a plan either, but you should just go along to get along.

The most educated and thoughtful arguments are discounted with the above comment and that is precisely what is wrong with Estes Park. No thoughtful arguments are listened to, just shot down by the sheep, blaaa, blaaaa.

Here’s a thoughtful idea. Vote no to anything that doesn’t pass the smell test. That would be everything that we are looking at now. Force the School Board and the Town Board to present plans that are accountable, well thought out and reasonable. Give us options and alternatives. To those of you that don’t think this is positive, you will do what you are told anyway, so ignore this. You don’t have thoughts or ideas and don’t care about them.

Is it the Estesparkian’s job to find solutions? Is it any citizens? NO! One would, however, expect that a board or entity that asks us all to support them would be clear about their plan. A plan, by the way, is more than asking for money. Vote no you ask? Yes, that is a plan.