Belly up: Summit saloons A long tradition of food and drink || by Sandra Mather, Summit Historical Society

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

In an effort to draw customers, saloons advertised widely. Ads in the newspaper touted fresh beer and lots of it from companies such as Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) and Golden (Coors). Patrons purchased bottled and draft beer, as well as wine, cocktails and other mixed drinks.

Perhaps the most famous of those mixed drinks was Cherry Bounce, sold by John Dewers at the Corner Saloon, on the northwest corner of Lincoln and Main streets in Breckenridge. Twelve pounds of mashed sweet cherries were mixed with nine cups of brown sugar and two gallons of rye whiskey, bottled and aged for nine months. Although it could be served at that point, it was even better after as much as five years of aging.

Saloonkeepers soon added food to draw customers. They served lots of salty foods requiring more drinks; sardines and real oysters were staples. Spencer’s Saloon advertised a menu that included “oysters in all styles, turkey, ham, Sweitzer Kase (cheese) and Limburger sandwiches, Vienna boiled sausage, hot coffee, tea and chocolate. These dishes served day or night at a lunch counter or tables, as preferred.”

Joe Reeder’s Palace Saloon offered “Sweitzer and Limburger cheese” to accompany ham sandwiches. Thomas Boylan, on Christmas Day in 1881, offered free food: “A grand free Christmas dinner will be set on Christmas Day. All and everybody invited to come and partake Freely.” Jerry Krigbaum, of Dyersville, southeast of Breckenridge, on Dec. 23, 1881, took a two-horse sleigh to Breckenridge to load supplies for a Christmas party. Among the turkey, cranberries, oysters and other food was a 10-gallon keg of “corn juice.” He invited visitors to his saloon to sample spirituous liquor that would make “quail look as large as turkeys and turkeys as large as condors.” At the Denver Saloon, George Hammerschlag offered “Limberger and Switzer cheese, Holland herring and anchovies, served either to individuals or families at the lowest possible rates.”

But nothing matched the menu offered by the Grand Central Hotel, located on the west side of Ridge Street, between Lincoln and Washington. Advertised as the “most comfortable quarters to be found in the mountains,” the hotel, under the management of a Mrs. Dananhower, offered this Sunday dinner menu on February 12, 1883:

SOUP: Occidental

BOILED MEATS: Corn Beef and Cabbage, Tongue, Ham, Leg of Mutton with Caper Sauce

ROAST: Beef, Veal with Dressing, Mutton, Venison, Antelope, Pork with Brown Sauce, Turkey with Cranberry Sauce

ENTREES: Turkey Wing in Yankee Style, Turkey Giblets a la fine Sere, Biscuit of Lamb a la Jardiniere, Pickle of Tongue a la Doxon, Ox Heart a la Doffoh, Calf Heart English Dressing, Sehales Peaches in New England Style, Oyster Suppand

VEGETABLES: Boston Brown Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Boiled Potatoes, Canned Corn, Canned Peas, Turnips

PASTRY: Green Gage Pie, Lemon Cake, Plain Pound Cake, Jelly Roll Cake, Congress Pudding with Brandy Sauce, Cheese

No one left hungry. Sadly, the fire that started in Finding’s Hardware Store in December of 1884 destroyed the Grand Central Hotel and all the other buildings in the block.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Volunteers hang out in Breck gondolas for evacuation exercise

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

Entering a gondola and having it stop suddenly halfway to the top of a mountain would usually be considered a worst-case scenario.

But more than 150 people willingly got inside a gondola they knew wouldn’t make it up to solid ground. Instead, they would have to be rescued by Brekenridge Ski Resort patrollers and be repelled down to safety.

These people didn’t know exactly how long they would be stuck inside the swaying cubes, how many feet above the ground they would be hanging and, in some cases, who they would be waiting with to be rescued.

But, for these willing volunteers, the Breckenridge Ski Resort gondola evacuation exercise was just another adventure to add to the books.

“I have never been stuck in a gondola, and it sounded fun and interesting to me,” said Dillon resident Brian Donalson.

He was joined in Gondola 27 by Jane Hankison, a Silverthorne resident.

“I’m really looking forward to ski season and this sounded like a good start to the season,” Hankison said.

The duo said they felt in good hands being rescued by the ski patrol.

“I’m not too worried about the safety aspect because I know they are trained and it’s a good experience for them,” Hankison said.

Members of the ski patrol ushered the group of volunteers into gondola cabins at the resort base at about 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The occupants of gondola cabin No. 27 chatted as the gondola glided along the cable above town and along the resort’s curved mountainside.

Then the movement ceased and the group was left hanging.

“Oh, here we go,” one of the volunteers said.

The gondola cabin swayed slightly back and forth about 70 feet in the air as the morning sun shown in, warming the cabin for its inhabitants.

The group inside got to know one another in the hour or so they waited. Conversation ebbed and flowed from the exchange of ski stories to marathon running, bicycling and tales from around the globe. Finally, one asked, ‘I wonder how much longer we will be in here?’

Soon, a team of ski patrollers approached the tower nearest the hanging gondolas.

Breck ski patroller Karen Lapides scaled the ladder up the colossal tower. Calmly, she secured herself to the cable and shimmied toward the cabin. Suddenly the occupants felt movement on the rooftop and heard radio chatter.

“I’m going to open the door, so make sure you are secure,” Lapides said to the volunteers inside. A figure appeared in front of the door, and Lapides made her way in.

Once inside, the ski patroller secured another set of ropes and pulley systems, inciting giggles as she instructed the gondola occupants that they would be wearing a “diaper” as they were lowered to the ground.

The once brave talk turned to nervous chatter and wide-eyed exchanges, but the occupants all made their way out of the gondola without a hitch.

“It was good,” Donalson said when he arrived back on solid ground. Hankison was slightly speechless in the seconds after returning to the earth — but both said they regarded the experience as a success.

Gondola evacuation team leader Duke Barlow said he was impressed with the turnout for the volunteer event. About 160 people filled 37 gondola cabins for the evacuation exercise.

“That’s the whole heavy side of the gondola — the one that goes up the hill — loaded up from the bottom to the top,” Barlow said.

Twenty-five members of the ski patrol served as the rescuers. Barlow said the gondola exercise provides invaluable experience for the ski patrol team.

Opening day at Breckenridge Ski Resort season is set for Nov. 8.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Olympics: Breckenridge Dew Tour now a pipeline from Summit to Sochi

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

For U.S. Olympic hopefuls in freeskiing and snowboarding, the path to Sochi will ride through Breckenridge in December.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association announced last week that it has partnered with the Dew Tour, making the 2013 Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships a USSA-sanctioned event and one of five sites to be used to select athletes who will compete in the half-pipe and slopestyle for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Teams at the 2014 Winter Olympics in February.

“We couldn’t ask for a better way to kick off the Olympic selection series,” Jeremy Forster, USSA Freeskiing and Snowboarding director, said.

The partnership is a result of a cooperative effort between the USSA and Dew Tour organizers.

“It’s something that we’ve been exploring for a while,” Kenny Mitchell, the Dew Tour general manager, told the Daily.

Mitchell said that it was a project they attempted for the 2010 Olympic selection process, but were unable to work out the details.

Both sides agreed that it was a natural fit this time around.

“Their event series is a huge part of the action sports landscape,” Forster said of the Dew Tour. “There’s been a good working partnership to make it the best Olympic event series kickoff possible.”

The terms of the agreement will have little effect on the event itself, beyond guaranteeing that the best of the best will show up to participate.

Mitchell did say it may increase the field of competition by an estimated 30 percent to 60 percent, depending on discipline. In addition, all of the event’s judges will be International Olympic Committee qualified. But that won’t mean much change.

“Many of our judges were already IOC qualified,” Mitchell said.

And according to Forster, “the scoring was already fairly consistent.”

Another slight difference will be in athlete selection. As a USSA-sanctioned event, officials will handle invitations for all U.S. competitors, and Dew Tour organizers will determine which international athletes will participate.

For Mitchell and the Dew Tour, it’s clearly an honor to have been selected.

“We are a part of that process that helps to select the team, it’s very meaningful to us,” he said.

Officials at Breckenridge are equally excited.

“We are absolutely thrilled to have the Dew Tour at Breckenridge be a part of the Olympic selection process,” Breckenridge Resort communications manager Kristen Petitt-Stewart said.

The addition of the Dew Tour, Dec. 12-15, as an Olympic selection event will mean back-to-back weekends of Olympic-level competition in Summit County as Copper Mountain will host the first in the four-stop Sprint U.S. Grand Prix series the following weekend, Dec. 19-22. Copper will be the second of the five Olympic selection events for both slopestyle and halfpipe.

The other three stops in the Grand Prix will complete the five Olympic selection events.

Forster said that athletes’ best two results in the five competitions will be considered in the selection process.

Ski and snowboard slopestyle along with skier halfpipe are all new events for the winter Olympics.

Regarding adding the disiplines, Mitchell said,“we might find that freeskiing will be a really big star coming out of the Olympics.”

The rosters for the US Freeskiing Team will be announced Jan. 18 in Park City, Utah. The U.S. Snowboarding Olympic Team will be nominated the following day at Mammoth Mountain, Calif.

The U.S. Alpine team will make its team announcements much earlier on Nov. 8-9, as a part of the team’s November training at the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountain. 

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Ultra Race of Champions organizers call Summity County home

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

If you are not on the edge, you are taking up too much room.”

— Randy “Macho Man” Savage

With a business named Bad to the Bone Endurance Sports, sporting that World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. tagline, a couple calling Frisco home for three summers is staging a world championship U.S. debut that this year covers trail running from Breckenridge over to Minturn and ends up in Vail.

Their event, the Ultra Race of Champions (UROC) 100K, serves as the Ultrarunning World Championship final for the international Sky Running Series, known as the 2013 Skyrunner World Ultra Final.

And you thought the couple, Dr. Francesca and J. Russell Gill III, just ran off into the woods and mountain trails around here for the fun of it. They’re working — hard.

When they’re not running, they’re having meetings with area town, resort and Forest Service officials to lock up their international-athlete-dominated event, which starts Saturday morning in Breckenridge.

As business partners, running partners and life partners, Francesca and “Gill” (it’s easier) have been staying in Frisco’s Bear’s Den, working out of their rental condo and taking off to scout trails and keep their 41- and 48-year-old bodies, respectively, in shape. About the only slow thing Francesca does is walk their aging, barely seeing St. Bernard, Samson, around town.

These ultra-marathoners have been running 20 years each, currently logging between 60 and 120 miles weekly, depending on the training season.

Francesca ran the 2005 Badwater Ultra 135 — Death Valley to Mount Whitney — in 36 hours.

Gill runs professionally for HOKA ONE ONE and Clif Bar.

“A long-run training run can be all the way to 30-40 miles, or 50 if we use a race as a training run,” says Francesca, a native Italian who holds a doctorate in biology.

Their company, based in Charlottesville, Va., has staged some 200 events in 12 years. Recently, they sold their retail store to concentrate more on the event production side.

“This is a huge honor,” says Gill, who is the 2013 UROC race director. “Choosing Vail as the 2013 venue for the Ultra Race of Champions was the right move. Vail is an iconic location and a name recognized around the globe for hosting world championship events. We are ecstatic about hosting the Skyrunner World Series Ultra Final.”

“For me, this is perfect fit,” says Francesca, the UROC president. “I was born and raised in the Italian Alps and UROC being named the 2013 Skyrunner World Ultra Final is a true homecoming. The point-to-point course from Breckenridge to Frisco to Copper Mountain to Minturn to Vail has all the qualifying elements of a skyrunning event, including scenic beauty, dramatic mountain passes, elevation gain and loss and an iconic finish location in Vail Village. ‘More sky — less cloud,’ the tagline of the International Skyrunning Federation, is certainly true for Vail.”

Come Saturday morning at 7, about 380 world-class ultra-distance runners will take off from Breckenridge’s Vertical Runner store (301 N. Main), owned by Ryan Morgan and Molly Mikita, head up Ski Hill Road and into the Tenmile Range, then come down to Frisco’s Historic Park at 8:15-10 a.m., before climbing back up and over the mountains to Copper’s Burning Stones Plaza. From there it’s back onto the mountainous trails to Minturn, then a turnaround with Vail as the target.

The race covers 100 kilometers (63 miles) of running at extreme altitude.

The event course will take an estimated nine and a half hours to cover, Francesca and Gill are thinking.

UROC100k is attracting a field of competitors from the U.S., Spain, Italy, Norway, France, Brazil, Germany, England and Canada.

Some of the big-time men’s names include world beater Kilian Jornet of Spain, Sage Candaday of Boulder, Max King of Oregon and Cameron Clayton of Boulder.

On the distaff side, it will be Sweden’s Emelie Forsberg, Boulder’s Darcy Africa, Francesca Canepa of Italy, Leadville 100 winner Ashley Arnold and Eagle County’s Anita Ortiz.

Here’s a partial lineup of running events Francesca and Gill stage: Miller Lite Charlottesville Marathon; Whole Foods Half-Marathon, 8K and Kids Mile; Über Rock 50K and Cruxy Half-Marathon; Charlottesville Fall Classic Half-Marathon and 10K; Real Girls Run Half-Marathon; Bel Monte 50-mile, 50K and 25K Endurance Runs; Danger!Zombies! Run! 5K; and the First Night Virginia 5K.

Miles F. Porter IV, nicknamed “Spike,” a Coloradan since 1949, is an Army veteran, former Climax miner, graduate of Adams State College, and a local since 1982. An award-winning investigative reporter, he and wife Mary E. Staby owned newspapers here for 20 years. Email your social info to milesfporteriv@aol.com

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Whole Foods construction cropping up along Interstate 70 in Frisco

#Frisco, Colorado.

The Frisco Town Council and staff members took a slightly different approach to their work session on Tuesday.

Instead of meeting inside the chambers, the group gathered outside a fenced-off construction zone. Each representative put on a hard hat before trudging along dirt paths, amid the beeps and rumble of heavy equipment and other machinery at the site of the future Whole Foods Market retail complex.

A large concrete building is taking shape on the far right of the development site entrance. This 32,000- square-foot structure will transform into a supermarket specializing in natural and organic products, and will serve as the anchor of the complex.

When finished, the 9.4-acre land parcel will be comprised of five commercial/retail buildings, including the Whole Foods Market, an inline retail building, the gateway building, a wellness building and regional retail building.

Brynn Grey X LLC developer David O’Neil did his best to bring the blueprints and architectural sketches to life during the tour, describing where each of the buildings would be located and features along the project site.

“As you come around the corner here, the whole thing just explodes,” O’Neil said. “You’ve got a park in the middle and the entrance to Whole Foods in the distance. The idea is to pull everyone along the shops and into the parking lot of the Whole Foods.”

Frisco Councilwoman Kim Cancelosi expressed gratitude with the way the project was coming together.

“This is even better than what the drawings show,” she said during the site tour.

O’Neil said the project layout was designed to flow, making it easy for people to get around the area.

The developer said the retail complex would also feature a park, public bathrooms and a place for pet owners to walk their dogs.

“Throughout the whole development — unlike any other grocery-centered shopping mall you’ve seen — there is huge connectivity from the park in the center, to pedestrian and bike connections and the transit center,” he said. “So once you park you are going to be able to get around the center without risking your life.”

O’Neil said he expected Whole Foods to spur more development activity.

“All of this stuff will just create more energy, and that’s great to get more people to the area from I-70,” he said.

“None of this would be happening without you guys suffering with me the past two years,” he told town representatives.

Constructing the center

The developer was joined by on-site contractors during the site tour, including project manager Mark Riedel from Saunders Construction.

Riedel said there’s about 50 construction workers currently onsite as the Whole Foods building is being constructed.

“The Whole Foods building and permit process has gone well and we are also hoping to get started on the inline building soon,” he said.

Project managers said road paving is also slated to begin, weather depending, within the next few weeks.

O’Neil said workers had to pay special attention to the base of the road due to poor soil quality.

“We came in and over-excavated the material, brought in rock and put a road base which will provide structural integrity,” he said.

The developer also said contractors had discovered an “underground river” coming in from under I-70.

“That created some issues. So we intercepted that water and we are going to take that ground water and discharge it into the wetland,” he said.

O’Neil said contractors were monitoring water quality within the wetlands to make sure it was being impacted adversely by construction.

“We’ve really done a great job creating a separation from the wetlands,” he said.

The Whole Foods development parcel not only borders wetlands, it’s also in close proximity to a residential neighborhood, the backside of commercial structures and the Summit Stage Transfer Center. Developer O’Neil said when the development is complete, it will all flow together.

“When we’re all finished with the landscaping, the connections will work so it will feel like it’s seamless,” he said.

Making the sale

The Frisco Town Council and staff members have been paying close attention to the project, which is being developed on the land formally known as the “interstate parcel.”

The parcel was owned by the town until late May, when the council voted to sell the property to Brynn Grey for $4.5 million, with no payments due until June 2024. The land had been appraised for 6.75 million in 2011.

The sale sparked public criticism during a standing-room only May 28 council meeting. During the meeting, a few community members described the sale as unfair to small business owners and claimed sales negotiations shouldn’t have been held behind closed doors in executive sessions. Others urged the council to go ahead and move the project forward.

The town council went through with the sale, citing other factors that needed to be considered beyond the appraised value of the property. The Whole Foods project is a widely accepted use for the property, in contrast to previous proposals made for the land, according to town representatives. Town manager Bill Efting said in May that a delay of sale would only lead to loss of revenue for the town. Town representatives also argued that the sales tax generated by the Whole Foods development would be a significant boon to the town budget.

A Colorado comparison

Reports released by the town of Frisco estimate $1 million in sales tax revenue will be brought in every year from the development of the Whole Foods supermarket and accompanying enterprises.

A Whole Foods that opened in Basalt revived the town’s sluggish sales tax revenues, according to a report by the Aspen Times. The opening of that grocery store spurred a 34 percent surge in the town’s retail food category.

While the report credits Whole Foods’ presence as helping fill vacancies and spurring development at the Willits Town Center, it also reported town officials catching flack for creating a commercial powerhouse that has made tough competition for the downtown core.

Frisco Town Council member Kathleen Bartz expressed a similar sentiment during the Whole Foods site tour on Tuesday.

“I think one of the concerns we’ve heard over the years is that now we are going to get people off I-70 — which is something we’ve been trying to for a gazillion years —but we do need to move them up to Main Street and get the mom and pop places frequented,” Bartz said.

While developer O’Neil said he didn’t have an immediate answer, he said he planned to meet with Whole Foods representatives to discuss cross marketing within the town, and invited members of the council to take part in those conversations. Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Dancing with the Mountain Stars pairs Summit movers-n-shakers with pros

#Keystone, Colorado.

This Saturday, feet will tap, dresses will swirl and the music will play on at the sixth annual Dancing with the Mountain Stars at the Keystone Conference Center. The event is a fundraiser for St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, with proceeds going to help fund four hospital programs that provide free support and services to the community.

The premise comes from the popular television show “Dancing with the Stars,” in which celebrities are matched with professional dancers and pitted against one another in competition for best performance. At Dancing with the Mountain Stars, the “celebrities” are figures from the local community, and the professionals come in from out of state, bringing their years of experience — including performances on “Dancing with the Stars” — to assist their partners.

Benefiting the community

In past years, Dancing with the Mountain Stars has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, which have gone to support the hospital in various ways. Last year, for example, the money raised paid for a new Flight for Life helicopter.

“We’re very fortunate that the community has embraced the hospital and the event that supports the hospital,” said Debra Edwards, president and chief development officer of the Summit Medical Center Health Foundation.

This year, the money will be directed to hospital programs.

“In the past, we’ve always had a capital need, like the helicopter, a piece of equipment (or) expansion program at the hospital,” Edwards said. “We don’t have that need this year, so we feel the most appropriate place is to support the No. 1 priority of our hospital, which is injury prevention.”

The four programs chosen to benefit from Dancing with the Mountain Stars are SAFE KIDS, Think First, the Traumatic Brain Injury program and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program.

SAFE KIDS and Think First focus on child safety when it comes to car seats and helmets.

“Each of those programs also include seat belt safety and distracted driver education in the schools,” Edwards said.

The programs offer free car seat and helmet fitting checks, and focus a lot of attention on education and awareness of the issues, particularly in schools. All the Summit County elementary schools, the middle school and the high school have interacted with the program. Programs at the high school focus not only on seat belt safety but also on cell phone safety, emphasizing the dangers of driving while texting/calling; other programs encourage kids to wear helmets during biking, skating, skiing, snowboarding and rock climbing activities.

The Traumatic Brain Injury program deals with anything from minor concussions to more serious injuries. According to Edwards, Summit County exceeds the national average in the number of traumatic brain injuries for the population, a fact most likely related to the easy access to vigorous outdoor activities.

“We’re doing a lot of work with student athletes, their parents and teachers, about how to deal with students after a concussion and how to treat it,” Edwards said.

The SANE program trains nurses to deal specifically with cases of sexual abuse and assault and provides education and awareness to the community about prevention.

“We’re constantly educating about sexual assault and sexual abuse in our community, … so we cover the 5th Judicial District (Summit, Lake, Grand, Park and Clear Creek counties), and we also serve the 9th Judicial District (Eagle, Pitkin and Garfield counties), so we’re providing services all the way over to Aspen and Rifle and everything in between,” she said.

Those services are provided free to victims and whenever possible work in conjunction with other local organizations to provide further support.

The goal this year is to raise at least $150,000 for these four programs.

Dancing for a cause

This year’s Dancing with the Mountain Stars features nine local celebrities — real estate broker Kari Canfield, High Country Healthcare doctor Javier Gutierrez, Allure Medical Aesthetics office manager Kifaya Doss, gardener and restaurant owner Jane Gansmann, nurse and former ski patroller Josh Golden, controller for Everist Materials Doug Hartley, Key to the Rockies owner and operator Mike Magliocchetti, Summit School District superintendent Heidi Pace and TV8 Summit’s Ashley Prill.

Each will participate in a specific dancing style. The dancing varieties range from the samba and the tango to the Charleston and the Lindy Hop.

The professional dancers this year include Italo Eigueta, Haylee Roderick, Averie DelGrosso, Abrea DelGrosso, Chris Jarosz and David Moon.

Heidi Pace said that she’s glad to have a professional by her side when it comes to her dance, a Viennese waltz.

“I think it will be a lot of fun. My professional dancer and my coach are just tremendous. They make you look good, and I appreciate that,” she said with a laugh.

Dancing is not a common pastime for Pace, who said the last time she took to the stage was during ballet class as a child.

For the past two months, Pace and her fellow dancers have been practicing three times a week with local coaches to get the steps just right.

“I’m happy that I’m supporting a good cause,” Pace said.

A full event

In addition to the dancing competition, Dancing with the Mountain Stars includes a reception, silent auction and dinner and dancing for all the guests afterward. There are also a few other things planned, which people will have to attend to find out.

“We’ve got a few surprises that we’re throwing in there,” Edwards said. “We try to do something different and unique every year. That way, it’s exciting and new, even if you’ve been to every one.”

Tickets for several seats are still available for purchase, and Edwards urged anyone interested to call (970) 668-6906 as soon as possible.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Town of Dillon program aims to polish its diamond downtown core

#Dillon, Colorado.

Some say the Dillon town core is a diamond in the rough. Town officials are now looking to put a polish on downtown by rewarding business owners who weathered the Great Recession.

Today the town of Dillon will unveil its Property Improvement Incentive Grant Program for commercial building and business owners located in the Dillon town core. The program’s goal is to leverage private improvements, while making revitalization efforts affordable, creative and community-based, as well as promote economic vitality within the town core.

“This idea was presented to us (town council) by the economic development committee and is designed to help sustain local businesses, while encouraging new business growth,” said town of Dillon Mayor Ron Holland. “Personally, existing businesses are more important to me because they’re here and they survived the economic downturn.”

The grant is designed as a 50/50 split for business and property improvement projects in the town core. The matching grant is capped at $10,000 per project.

Approved improvements include signs — new, repairs, replacements and removals, as well as facade improvements visible from the public right-of-way.

Bill Falcone, president of the Dillon Business Association, said he’s excited about the program, not simply because of the potential benefits for local business owners, but also for the entire town.

“I have to give credit to the town council and the Dillon Economic Development Committee for coming up with a great proposal,” Falcone said. “It’s a win/win all the way around because the grant will help owners improve their businesses, which will also improve all of downtown.”

The Property Improvement Incentive Grant is administered through the town of Dillon’s Economic Development Committee. The Dillon Town Council will provide final approval of any proposed improvement projects.

Owners interested in seeking grant funds may do so by downloading an application off the town of Dillon website, which can be found by clicking the “business” tab. Certain documentation, such as proof of ownership, project design drawings, cost estimates and maintenance plans must be included with all applications. Officials also recommend meeting with town or economic development council representatives about their project before filing an application.

Projects will be judged on their economic and aesthetic impacts within the town core and whether or not they follow town core design guidelines, in addition to their overall quality contributions to adjacent properties and visibility from public right-of-way.

“There’s so much we can do through P3 (public/private partnerships) to help our local businesses,” Holland said. “A lot of projects have been put on hold because of the economy, but now business owners can get these projects off the ground by partnering with town through this matching grant.”

Applications will be accepted through October 18. For more information, call Susan Fairweather at 970-262-3403.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.