Archive - Feb 2013
February 15th
There has still been no deadline for high-speed broadband service set for Swall Meadows and Crowley Lake after Verizon backed out of a Jan. 28 deadline and the Public Utilities Commission last week rejected Verizon’s request for a deadline extension.
Calls to Verizon were not returned before press time.
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
Says Mammoth ‘looks like a swap meet’ in summer months
After years of wrangling over what to do about the proliferation of what she considers unsightly banner signs in Mammoth, Planning Commissioner Elizabeth Tenney said she has a solution.
“We should eliminate all banners except for special events,” she said at a commission meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 13. “We should eliminate all ‘temporary’ signs, too.”
‘Here we go again,’ says a Roseville-based construction worker advocate
It didn’t take long for two mostly non-local membership union advocacy groups to dump hundreds of pages of comments challenging the proposed new geothermal plant slated for construction in the next few years off of Casa Diablo Road.
‘I don’t want it to look like a junket,’ Fesko says
It didn’t take long for the Mono County supervisors to figure out Tuesday that allowing Mammoth Mountain Ski Area to pay for travel expenses for the supervisors on a “peer resorts” tour was a bad idea.
Mono County lost all three of its top administrators in the last few months, but none of the vacancies will be permanent and efforts are underway now to re-fill all the positions, according to county officials.
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
Legal cannabis nursery approved for Mammoth Lakes Wellness
Long after the resolution of rules in connection with marijuana dispensaries in Mammoth, the town this past week tackled the related issue of legal cannabis nurseries to supply them.
The town’s response: “Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow.”
“Settlement” talks between Mammoth’s community water district and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power appear to have broken down Thursday and the two sides could be headed to court.
According to Mammoth Community Water District attorney Alan Lilly, a hearing date has now been set for Sept. 6, barring a possible settlement between now and then.
Each year, the Mono County Sheriff Search and Rescue Team honors one of its members for his or her individual excellence and public service. This year, the Pete Schoerner Rescue Member of the Year for 2012 was awarded to Jeff Holmquist.
The “Second Annual Alabama Hills Day” has been scheduled for Saturday, April 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Lone Pine. The purpose of the event is to celebrate the scenic landscape and educate the public about the wide variety of groups/activities that access and interface with the Alabamas.
Over 30 different sponsors/exhibitors will be at the event with their displays that will be promoting their activity and use of the Alabama Hills.
Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra wrapped up its third Paralympic Sport Camp of this winter season, and organizers said they were thrilled with the prospective Paralympic talent the camp produced The Alpine Ski and Race Camp is one of several DSES Paralympic Sport camps, which are geared as recruitment camps for further Paralympic training.
Mono County will be hosting a Wednesday lunchtime webinar series in the Mammoth Lakes Board of Supervisor’s Meeting Room on the 3rd Floor of Sierra Center Mall. More information can be found online at http://escrbconsortium.org/business_webinars/.
The Webinars will be every other Wednesday during the lunch hour from 12:05 to 1:00 p.m., throughout 2013. The webinars are free to business owners and residents in Kern, Inyo and Mono counties; others must pay a $ 39 fee to attend.
The Inyo National Forest, Mammoth Ranger District, has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Sherwin-Scenic Loop Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project. This project proposes to conduct fuels treatments by mowing brush and thinning trees on approximately 1,100 acres managed by the Inyo National Forest around Sherwin Creek, Mammoth Creek, and Mammoth Scenic Loop areas, in and around the town of Mammoth Lakes.
There is still widespread influenza activity in California, with levels above epidemic thresholds for the seventh straight week, according to county health officials.
Although evidence shows decreased activity on the East Coast and the Southeast where it started this year, the West Coast, including the Eastern Sierra, is still showing high levels of activity.
Mammoth will have its biggest weekend of the ski season, according to projections released by Mammoth Lakes Tourism on Thursday.
According to the projections, the three-day Presidents Day weekend totals were set at 92 percent of capacity, well ahead of the same weekend of a year ago, when skier visits slipped to 76 percent.
As for the mid-week, the tourism bureau projected Mammoth to be filled to 64 percent capacity, compared to 50 percent a year ago, when sketchy snow depths affected all but the Pacific Northwest ski areas.
Go Fish
February 15, 2013
The kiss of death for any resort community is doing the same thing all the competitors are doing.
The kiss of success is finding the one thing that people want, or the two or the three things, that no other resort, anywhere, can do.
In Mono County’s case, that one thing is not Mammoth Mountain Ski Area—other resorts have big mountains, too.
It’s not our great scenery—others have that, too.
It’s Alpers trout.
Great, big, fat Alpers trout.