Summit County’s adoptable pets for the week of Jan. 30

 

Alfie

Call the shelter at 970-668-3230 with questions. The most recent list of animals available for adoption can be found on the shelter’s website

For the full story click here

Wisconsin teams nab multiple podium spots at 31st International Snow Sculpture Championships

 

The winning sculpture

Winners were announced Friday, Jan. 28, at the awards ceremony held at the Riverwalk Center.

The first-place Wisconsin team was captained by Brett Tomczak and included Jeff Shawhan, Jim Malkowski and Gregory Brulla. Their sculpture, The Digital Divide, depicts two hands — one human and one robotic — coming out of the ground interacting with a wall of binary code in the middle.

“It’s amazing because over the last 12 years, we’ve been here eight times, and of all those times, we got third place once, artist’s choice once — which was really nice — but never first,” Malkowski said. “So we’re really happy about it.”

In second came Team Germany with its sculpture Float. On the team was Franziska Agrawal, Katja Kulenkampff, Gabriela Kulenkampff and Dan Miller-Lionberg.

The abstract piece is made up of five rectangular blocks stacked on top of one another and facing different directions. The work also won the Lothar Luboschik Artists’ Choice Award, meaning it received the most votes from fellow competitors.

The second Wisconsin team won third. Members Mark Hurst, Glen Vogt, Mike Nehs and team captain Neal Vogt constructed a scene of a bee visiting a flower for a sculpture titled Bee Sustainability.

For the full story and all the photos click here

A quick guide to real estate in 2022

 

The Musical Chairs of Real Estate

BUYER'S MARKET:

In a buyers market, you have 8 chairs and only 5 people playing.

SELLER'S MARKET:

In a seller's market, you have 5 chairs and 8 people playing.

TODAY'S MARKET:

In todays market, you have 2 chairs, 123 players, and 1 chair just got sold.

That sums it up in a nutshell!

Frisco short-term excise tax approved on 2nd reading

 

Frisco Town Council approved the ordinance for an excise tax on short-term rentals on second reading Tuesday, Jan. 25. The question on the tax will be on the ballot for the April 5 election.

The ballot language is as follows:

“Whether, commencing June 1, 2022, the Town of Frisco should impose an excise tax of five percent (5%) on the short-term rental of accommodation units as a new tax pursuant to Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution?”

If passed, the current 10.725% in taxes applied to short-term rentals would increase to 15.725%

International Snow Sculpture Championships makes triumphant return this week

 

The International Snow Sculpture Championships, one of Breckenridge’s most beloved annual events, is making its comeback after the pandemic put it on hold, as was the case with many other traditions.

This week, competitors from around the world can be found in the Tiger Dredge parking lot, next to the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge, carving their own unique works of art out of massive blocks of Breckenridge snow — each block is 12 feet tall and weighs about 25 tons. Nine teams are competing this year, with three from Wisconsin and one each from Germany, Ecuador, Mexico and New York. There are also two Colorado teams, one of which is from Breckenridge.

Sculpting started Monday, Jan. 24, and will continue all week through 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 28. The awards ceremony kicks off at 6 p.m. that day at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and proof of vaccination is required for indoor events at the center.

The grand illumination of the sculptures is set for 6:30-10 p.m. Friday, and illuminations will continue nightly from 4:30-10 p.m. until the festival wraps up at 7 p.m. Feb. 2.

Reservations can be made at GoBreck.com

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

52-year-old Breckenridge skier ranked on the Freeride World Qualifier circuit hopes to help grow the sport

 

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Breckenridge resident John Spencer may be the oldest guy on the Freeride World Qualifier circuit, but that doesn’t pose a challenge for him.

Instead, the 52-year-old has steadily worked himself up the ranks, landing at 45th overall after the competition season last year.

The Freeride World Qualifiers feed into the 18-rider Freeride World Tour, where the world’s best freeride skiers and snowboarders compete on some of the biggest, most jagged mountains in the world.

Spencer got into the sport close to 11 years ago and has lived in the area for the past 30 years. Spencer has skied since he was a kid back in Michigan, but it was when he moved to Colorado that he started to stack 100-day seasons.

Along the way, Spencer has grown as a skier, learned how to compete at his highest level and even worked his way out of alcoholism.

Summit County government leaders review latest data after implementing new short-term rental regulations in December

 

It’s been over a month since Summit County government overhauled its short-term rental program, which left many community members feeling disgruntled  about some of the new regulations.

When the Summit Board of County Commissioners voted to install the new regulations  they promised community members that they’d continue to gather data and make tweaks as needed once the program takes full effect. They started making good on that promise during a work session meeting on Tuesday, where Summit County Senior Planner Jessica Potter presented the board with the latest data and insights about the new program.

According to a memo produced by Potter, the county has received 63 short-term rental applications since the new program took effect as of Jan. 10. Of that total, 48 applications are based in a neighborhood overlay zone, and 15 are located in a resort zone. 

Potter also broke down how her team would be collecting various data points moving forward. This includes tracking the number of active licenses by both week and by month, how many applications for licenses are received per week, a percentage breakout of how many licenses are in resort zones and neighborhood zones, complaints, and breaking out data by neighborhood. Potter also said her team would be tracking home sales and how the use of these properties changes over time.

Potter then gave insight on how enforcement of short-term rental rules and regulations was being handled. This was a point of contention for many community members, especially those living in neighborhood zones. Since the adoption of the new program in December, Potter’s report said there’s been 44 substantiated complaints reported to the short-term rental hotline, 42 of which have been located in neighborhood zones.

For the complete story click here

Dillon officials prepare to open up winter recreation activities at Dillon Marina

 

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With the water in Dillon Marina frozen over, it’s time for Dillon officials to get the ice ready for winter recreation activities.

“Based on the success of the lake loop last season, we are really excited that Denver Water and the Dillon Reservoir Recreation Committee approved the town of Dillon to expand our winter offerings out on the reservoir this year,” Dillon marketing and events director Kerstin Anderson said.

Anderson said the loop will look similar to last winter, when the multiuse recreation track was built about 20 feet out onto the lake and marked with bamboo poles every 80 yards or so.

The longer 2-mile route loops individuals around the reservoir and runs along the shoreline from Dillon Marina to the Dillon Nature Preserve, down to Roberts Tunnel and all the way across the lake to Lodgepole Street.

The reservoir trails will accommodate the usual winter staples like snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, fat biking, hiking, ice kiteboarding, ice fishing and ice sailing.

New this year will be a community ice rink, which will be maintained as the weather allows throughout the winter.

To read the full story click here

Lake Hill Q&A: Summit County residents ask questions about the development going in near Frisco

 The Lake Hill workforce housing development project that will be located on the outskirts of Frisco is still years away.

Nevertheless, Summit County and Frisco are continuing to engage the community about its impact as the two entities move forward on next steps.

Currently, the county is working on rezoning the nearly 45-acre property to accommodate what could be a mix of 436 deed-restricted affordable housing unit types. The property was previously zoned as natural resources, and in order to be developed, it has to be rezoned as a planned unit development.

The process began in November, and the county has contracted Norris Design as a planning consultant to prepare the application and facilitate the rezoning process. The goal is to wrap up this stage of the project by February.

Read the full story here

Breckenridge Town Council not on board with potential e-bike share program

 

A majority of Breckenridge Town Council members were skeptical of an e-bike share program that was presented at the Tuesday, Jan. 11, meeting, expressing concerns about how the bikes would be used.

Town Sustainability Administrator Teddy Wilkinson said town staff thinks the program is aligned with several town goals, including environmental stewardship and sustainable practices as well as its goal to have more boots and bikes in town than cars.

Wilkinson said the town was awarded a grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation’s multimodal options fund for $420,000 for a feasibility study and subsequent implementation of an e-bike share system. He said the town has about $370,000 left from the grant for implementation and that the start-up could cost around $575,000, with annual operating costs of between $187,000 and $262,000 a year.

Representatives from Alta, the firm that conducted the feasibility study, presented their findings and suggestions to council. The system would allow folks to take an e-bike from a designated bike hub and ride it to a destination around town. The bike then would be left for someone else to potentially use at a different hub or spot around town. The first 30 minutes would be free, and then folks would be charged $5 a minute to keep the bike after that, unless they’re in the local workforce, a student or low income, in which case they’d be charged $1 a minute.

Alta representative Libby Nachman said the purpose of the fee is to encourage the bikes to be used only for transportation purposes — like getting to and from work or running errands — as opposed to recreational use. For that purpose, folks would be encouraged to go to a local bike shop. Nachman said the system works best for one-way trips and added that she sees it complementing other transit services in town like Breck Free Ride.

Frisco Town Council approves short-term rental excise tax ordinance on 1st reading

 

An excise tax on short-term rentals moves one step closer to appearing on the April ballot. Frisco Town Council approved the ordinance for the tax on first reading Tuesday, Jan. 11.

After discussing the excise tax — which is a tax imposed on goods, services or activities — in November, the originally proposed 7.5% tax has been lowered to a 5% tax. It is estimated to generate between $1.2 million and $1.5 million in additional revenue each year that would be used for workforce housing programs, supplementing 5A revenue.

“I want to ensure you that we are not looking purely to short-term rentals to fund workforce housing,” council member Melissa Sherburne said. “What we’re looking to do is to help offset the problem short-term rentals have created in our local housing landscape. … Workforce housing is an age-old problem in mountain towns — has been for decades.”

Adding a new 5% excise tax to the current 10.725% in taxes applied to short-term rentals brings the total tax to 15.725%. To compare, Crested Butte has the highest short-term rental tax among mountain towns at 20.9%. Avon has a 14.4% tax, Vail is 10.3%, Breckenridge is 12.275%, Dillon is 10.875%, and Silverthorne is 10.375%. Breckenridge’s figure does not include the bedroom license fee, and Silverthorne is proposing a 4% incremental increase to the lodging tax.

Breckenridge opens Imperial Express, highest lift in North America

After picking up a surprise 6 inches over the weekend, Breckenridge Ski Resort announced Sunday, Jan. 9, that Imperial Express SuperChair is open for the season with access to Imperial Bowl and Imperial Ridge.

Serving in-bounds terrain above 12,800 feet, the Imperial Express is the highest chairlift in North America. The move means the resort now has 65% of its terrain open.

The lift opened once the resort had tallied 136 inches on the season. Last season, the lift opened Feb. 19 when the resort had 173 inches of snow. In the 2019-20 season, it opened Dec. 20, when there was 131 inches of total season snowfall at Breckenridge.

Be Careful Out There

 

Two snowshoers who were killed in an avalanche Saturday, Jan. 8, on Hoosier Pass have been identified as Hannah Nash, 25, and Drake Oversen, 35, of Colorado Springs, according to the Summit County coroner.

The pair died along with their dog, Valerie, after they were caught and buried in an avalanche they triggered while snowshoeing near North Star Mountain. The cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, according to the coroner.

The slide broke about 10 feet deep, 400 feet wide and ran about 250 vertical feet.

Ethan Greene said the avalanche danger was rated considerable (3 out of 5) in the Summit County area on the day the snowshoers died, and the location where the avalanche occurred near North Star Mountain was exposed terrain where avalanches are more common. He said the area was a wind-loaded, near-treeline slope that also happened to be facing northeast, making it particularly high risk for an avalanche.

The magic and science of snowflakes

 

Snow is, of course, also essential to our rivers and water supply. The 40 million people in the Colorado River basin, and the vast agricultural network that we take for granted when we shop for groceries, depend on winter snowpack. Summit snow fills reservoirs with essential spring and summer water.

We hear a lot about how many inches of powder we can expect, and we plan our days around those predictions. But how many snowflakes actually fall in these storms? Many billions of these spectacular crystals create a snowfall. One pound of snow has an average of 22,400 snowflakes. And each snow crystal is an incredible work of science and art.

How do these spectacular snow crystals form? Snow crystals generally are hexagonal (six-sided) due to the way they form. And they’re not frozen raindrops (those are sleet). Snow crystals appear when water vapor converts directly into ice without going through a liquid state. Water molecules in ice crystals join together in a hexagonal structure because it is the most efficient way. After the crystals form a small hexagonal plate, branches sprout from the six corners as the crystal grows larger and more complex.

Read the full story here

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News

Front-line workers struggle to enforce mask mandate as some people refuse to comply

 

Front-line workers in restaurants, retail stores and public transit are finding themselves once again tasked with enforcing a mask mandate and taking the brunt of criticism from those who don’t comply.

Summit County Commissioner Elisabeth Lawrence said she’s heard from many who are concerned about seeing a lack of compliance at big-box stores and was shocked herself to see more than half of people in one such store without a mask.

“We are not trying to put front-line workers in a confrontational situation,” Lawrence said. “I think a lot of them have a lot of trauma from the last year and a half of that sort of thing, and that was not our intention. We’re hoping to gain compliance through education.”

Tim Jones is a bus driver with Breck Free Ride, and while public transit has required masking throughout the pandemic, he said he ended up in an altercation with a rider who refused to put on a mask after being asked multiple times.

Jones said the rider threatened him after he repeatedly asked the rider to put on a mask. Jones said that while he was reporting the incident over his radio, the rider came up and shoved him, and the police were called.