Archive - 2012
October 19th
Would help wayward visitors find their way
The scene was just about as familiar as you can get around here.
A couple arrived in a rented car in the parking lot at The Plaza strip mall along Old Mammoth Road.
“Where is the Visitors Center?” the man asked, in a thick (German?) accent.
“Gosh,” said the Local, “nowhere close to here.”
Says move is “to provide political cover”
Former councilmember Kirk Stapp this week locked horns with the town staff over the publication of an online “residents survey.”
The survey, published last week on the town’s website, is designed to take the pulse of Mammothites over its proposed austerity cuts.
Raises $2,400 for Matt Graef in Susanville race
Almost within reach of making good on an impossible dream, Emily Underkoffler discovered a nasty obstacle in her path: The Wall.
Every marathoner and distance athlete knows The Wall. It appears out of nowhere and causes a shutdown of both brain and strength.
But Underkoffler, a Mammoth Elementary School teacher, a triathlete, and an accomplished skier from Crowley Lake, had something extra.
Mammoth Lakes Town Council also looks at other savings
The Town Council on Thursday was scheduled to continue its headlong dash toward finding $2 million to pay for the first round of the MLLA settlement, this time focusing on the economic development structure, public works, and transit.
It is deep in the heart of winter; there is powder and great athletes everywhere; and most of all, there is wall-to-wall ski and snowboard action.
All right, so it’s not like that yet in Mammoth, but the ski and snowboard crowd will get a taste of it Saturday evening (Oct. 20) at The Village when Warren Miller’s newest ski film gets a screening.
October 12th
Maybe it was the vice presidential debate. Maybe it was that snow was falling for the first time in six months in Mammoth.
Whatever it was, Thursday night’s school board and county supervisor candidate’s forum was sparsely attended, even as the candidates themselves threw their considerable energy into it.
At the table sat Mono County District 4 Supervisor candidates Tim Fesko and Bob Peters, who have been locked in a runoff fight since June, and an election fight since almost the beginning of the year.
U.S. Geological Survey volcanologists and geophysicists plan to conduct the first comprehensive, high-resolution airborne magnetic survey of the rock layers under Mono Basin and Long Valley next week.
When the analysis of the data is complete, the resulting state-of-the-art 3D subsurface geologic map will improve assessment of both volcanic and earthquake hazards in the Mono Basin-Long Valley region. The map will be published by the USGS and made available to the public via the USGS California Volcano Observatory website.
The first snow of the season brushed Mammoth Thursday, dumping a few inches on the high country and leaving the ground in town white for the first time since June.
It was a welcome sight to snow-starved Mammothites—and they were the “lucky ones” in this storm, receiving the brunt of the moisture compared to other parts of the state—but it’s not likely to last, according to the National Weather Service.
Twenty years ago this month, it started to snow.
And snow.
And snow.
By the time it stopped snowing, in June, 1993, the road over the Benton Crossing Bridge was lined with six-foot tall drifts. The piles of snow in Mammoth didn’t melt out completely until August.
Four candidates are vying for two seats on the Eastern Sierra Unified School District board of directors.
The district covers all of the schools and communities north of Mammoth to the Nevada border, including Walker, Coleville, Lee Vining, June Lake and the Tri and Antelope Valley areas.
Two years ago, the district nearly imploded as an eleventh-hour budget fiasco led to the elimination of at least one school and the loss of several teachers. Meetings were filled with fury and frustration and neighbors stopped talking to each other.
“I had a great Columbus Day,” Fido said.
“Gosh, Fido, I had no idea. It seemed like a regular day of work for me, except for no snail mail and the banks were closed. Oh yeah, and there were a bunch of Columbus Day sales events online.”
Mono County’s finance officer Brian Muir will leave Mono County to become Shasta County’s auditor-controller sometime near the end of this year, Mono County officials confirmed Thursday.
Muir has been with Mono County through boom and bust and is credited by many for helping keep Mono County in good financial order.
His experience and professionalism will be deeply missed, said Supervisor Vikki Bauer.
By
George Shirk - Times News Editor
A feisty and sometimes cranky Recreation Commission got to its regular meeting on Tuesday and immediately cut to the chase. To close, or not to close, the Whitmore Pool.
Northern Inyo Hospital, having passed an inspection earlier this week, is set to open on Monday, Oct. 15, at 6 a.m. for surgery check-in.
At 7 a.m., the Bishop facility will open its Blood Draw Lab, and at 8 a.m., patients will begin moving to the new facility. Visiting hours will begin at 10 a.m.
The hospital is a small, 25-bed critical access, not-for-profit facility. The Northern Inyo County Local Hospital District has been providing healthcare in the Eastern Sierra since 1946.
The Town of Mammoth Lakes is seeking input from residents and business owners through an online resident survey.
The survey seeks comments on the proposed restructuring plan, which calls for significant reductions in expenditures to help pay the $2 million a year for the next 23 years in the settlement reached with Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition and divert over $111,000 annually to the Ballas entities.
Community members are asked to complete the survey as soon as possible, but no later than the evening of Sunday, Oct. 21.
