Archive - Nov 9, 2012 - News Article
Congrats to Elizabeth Tenney, who sure can pack a punch in 95 words. She won a 95-word essay contest sponsored by the Reno Gazette-Journal. …
By
George Shirk - Times News Editor
Rusty Gregory says he knows what one of Mammoth’s problem is, and that it is he himself.
In a carefully crafted speech in front of the Town Council on Wednesday night, the CEO of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area made good on his promise, made early in the week, to step into the murky, tempestuous waters of town politics.
He also promised to throw the weight of the Eastern Sierra’s biggest economic engine—the ski area—into the town’s effort to survive its daunting, short-term financial obstacles, creating in the end a solid growth cycle.
By
George Shirk - Times News Editor
The snow fell, the wind blew, the temperatures dropped and the chairlifts ran.
Mammoth Mountain opened its new ski season yesterday (Thursday) with modest enthusiasm on the wind-blown ski hill and with cautious enthusiasm in the executive suites at Main Lodge.
“The most important thing,” said CEO Rusty Gregory, when asked about the new season, “is snow. It’s snow and the return of enthusiasm on the part of our Southern California marketplace to visit it because of it.
It is a cold November morning.
It is 3 a.m., 29 minutes after a 6.0 earthquake hit the Mammoth Lakes area hard and sharp.
Unlike many buildings, Mammoth Hospital is standing, but the lights are out and the power is out.
Somewhere outside the building, a fire burns, filling the air with smoke.
People panic, and screams are heard from all over.
By
George Shirk - Times News Editor
After more than a month of hearing testimony, issuing surveys and taking soundings from the town’s department heads, the Town Council on Wednesday began deliberating which cuts will be put in place on Dec. 5.
Though the deliberations are in an early stage—the council announced a special, unscheduled meeting for Nov. 14 to do more work—Mayor Matthew Lehman seems to have made up his mind.
At the top of his list is to stick by the proposed cuts to the Police Department, and to use Measure R funds for a period of two years to keep the Whitmore Pool open.
If there was ever an example of how much of a difference an election can make, head over to the Eastern Sierra Unified School District and talk to Mollie Nugent, the district’s chief financial officer.
“It’s allowed us to keep $191,000 that we would otherwise be deficit spending,” she said. “It means we don’t have to take things way from the students, the teachers at mid-year. It means we have options.”
“It’s a windfall,” said Superintendent Don Clark.
Imagine your 85-year-old father living at home alone, but monitored 24 hours a day with sensitive devices that let his doctor or caretaker—or you—know in real time if he’s fallen or had a heart attack.
Imagine a prisoner in the Mono County Jail who falls sick with strep throat and needs to be transported to Mammoth for treatment, requiring a sheriff’s escort, paramedics, security—everything paid for by taxpayers.
