Kaiser Permanente announces Frisco location for new medical offices

#Frisco, Colorado.

Colorado’s largest nonprofit health plan intends to open its first medical offices in Summit County and the mountain region this January.

Kaiser Permanente Colorado announced its new location in Frisco on Thursday, June 11.

The offices will be in the Basecamp retail center at 226 Lusher Court, across a parking lot from Whole Foods Market and Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, next to the Summit Stage Frisco transfer center and near the intersection of Interstate 70 and Highway 9.

Construction has begun on the new facility, which Kaiser Permanente plans to open to its members Jan. 2, said Brent Bowman, executive director of the nonprofit’s mountain Colorado service area.

Kaiser Permanente has been providing both health insurance coverage and health care services in Colorado for more than 45 years.

The nonprofit provides comprehensive health-care services to 625,000 members through 28 medical offices and a network of affiliated hospitals and more than 1,000 physicians with a mission of providing more affordable, high-quality health care.

After recent expansions into southern and then northern Colorado, Bowman said, the organization decided to move west into Summit and Eagle counties and tackle a region recognized in recent years as having the highest insurance premiums in the country.

The organization met with Summit County residents, elected officials and local community and business leaders over the last year who shared concerns about the lack of affordability and options in the health-care market.

“We hear loud and clear that more choices is what residents want here,” Bowman said.

ADDING HIGH-PAYING JOBS

The two-story, 6,000-square-foot Frisco medical offices will offer a variety of health-care services, including primary care, laboratory and medical imaging.

Medical offices in Eagle County are still in the planning stages, and Bowman said he expects an office there to open Jan. 2.

He said 15 to 20 people will work at each office in Summit and Eagle, and the staffing plan for Frisco includes two physicians, one physician’s assistant, nurses, technicians and administrative staff members while specialists from the organization’s Front Range facilities rotate in.

During slow times at the Frisco facility, Bowman said employees there will be able to access the organization’s network and help out Front Range offices who may need extra help responding to patient calls and emails, refilling prescriptions or covering for staff members on vacation.

That way, the organization won’t need to add as many positions at its Front Range offices as those areas experience population growth.

He said the nonprofit is discussing partnerships with Summit physicians and health care providers to add to its network.

LOWERING COSTS

In the spring of 2014, Kaiser Permanente announced it was exploring options to offer health care and coverage in Colorado’s mountain communities for the first time.

Summit County Commissioner Dan Gibbs said at the time that he welcomed the addition of another provider whose competition would hopefully lower costs for local residents.

Pending approval by the Colorado Division of Insurance, Kaiser Permanente will initially offer coverage plans to employers, individuals, and families as well as through Medicaid. Additional plans and options will be added in 2017 and beyond.

Bowman said Kaiser Permanente’s rates will be competitive as it leverages its large size and model that combines both coverage and care to reduce administrative burdens on providers.

Summit members will be able to visit any Kaiser Permanente medical office in Colorado, and Bowman said the organization is exploring what he called domestic medical tourism — or providing plans whose benefits include transportation and accommodation for procedures and visits at Front Range offices.

Kaiser Permanente members already can connect with their physicians and health-care teams, check lab results and schedule appointments through the organization’s website and mobile app. Later this year, the nonprofit will roll out video visits, through which members will be able to talk to their doctors through video from home or anywhere with an Internet connection.

GIVING BACK

As a nonprofit, Bowman said, Kaiser Pemanente reinvests its margins at the end of the year in improving its services as well as its surrounding communities through grants and financial assistance for patients who qualify.

In 2014, the organization directed $109 million to community benefit programs in Colorado.

Kaiser Permanente supports a number of mountain organizations, including the Vail Valley Partnership, the Vail Valley Foundation, The Summit Foundation, Education Foundation of Eagle County and Summit Community Care Clinic.

“When we go into a community we really do get involved in the community,” said Amy Whited, the nonprofit’s public relations and digital media manager.

Kaiser Permanente has sponsored and participated in a variety of local events, including the International Snow Sculpture Championships in Breckenridge and the Alpine World Ski Championships in Vail and Beaver Creek.

This weekend, the nonprofit will participate in the Colorado BBQ Challenge in Frisco.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Colorado Fourteeners Initiative rates state's tallest peaks, estimates $24 million restoration cost

#Summit County, Colorado.

Lloyd Athearn / Colorado Fourteeners Initiative

After three years of high-altitude hiking, painstaking data collection and complicated algorithmic number crunching, the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative has released a report carddetailing the state of 42 trails on 39 of Colorado’s 54 peaks at or over 14,000 feet. The takeaway? There’s a lot of work to be done.

Overall, CFI estimates that reconstruction and renovation of the studied trails will cost about $24 million. Broken down, about $6 million would be required to bring 26 Forest Service-planned trails to sustainable conditions, while the remaining $18 million would go toward creating 16 completely new trails in areas that currently only feature unplanned, hiker-created routes.

Of the 42 surveyed trails, only four received an “A” grade, meaning they are well-constructed and only require general maintenance, with a price tag less than $125,000 each. The rest ranged from “B” to “F,” with various levels of disrepair and difficulty.

The East Slopes trail of Quandary Peak received a “C+” grade, with an estimated $500,000 to nearly $1 million associated cost. The Stevens Gulch trail for Grays and Torreys peaks received a “D” grade, with a similar price tag. The unplanned Blue Lakes trail on Quandary received a “C.”

“Very few of them are in shape where they’d be comfortable going home to their parents and showing the report card,” Lloyd Athearn, executive director of CFI, said with a laugh.

Jokes aside, the issue of the state of the 14er trails is one which Athearn and his colleagues take seriously. After releasing the report card to the public, the organization is now working toward fundraising and maintenance efforts.

CREATING THE REPORT

“We’ve been in this business of building and maintaining 14er trails and educating 14er hikers for over 20 years,” said Athearn, of CFI, which is a nonprofit organization that started in 1994. “We decided that it would be a good thing to take a snapshot of where we are and how the trails we built are holding up and how the peaks where we haven’t been able to build sustainable trails are doing without a trail.”

CFI field programs manager Ben Hanus is the boots behind the numbers. Since 2011, he has been hiking Colorado’s 14ers and collecting thousands of points of data about the trail conditions for the report card.

“It was a really incredible opportunity to get to know these trails that we work on every year so intimately,” he said.

He catalogued more than 20,350 data points for the GIS (geographic information system) database on 10 different factors, including trail width, erosion, existing trail features and nearby materials for potential new features.

Before the data collection, CFI had to rely mainly on word-of-mouth to know the trail conditions, Hanus said, which was rough information with few details. Now, he can tell a crew an exact location, down to the GPS coordinates, of places needing work or locations to gather materials.

“To be able to say with absolute certainty what needs to happen on the trail is the coolest tool,” he said.

He and Athearn worked together, creating and using complicated algorithms to boil the thousands of data points Hanus had collected into a simple, understandable method of consumption. The report card is public on CFI’s website, with further breakdowns peak by peak. As more information is gathered, it will also be available for public viewing, Athearn said.

PLANNING MATTERS

“What was surprising to me was really the huge difference that is made when you’re able to construct a sustainable route,” said Athearn, of what stood out to him from the reports.

When CFI was first organized in 1994, there were only two formally-planned trails going up 14er peaks — one on Long’s Peak and one on Pike’s Peak.

“All the others were just informal routes trampled into the tundra,” he added.

Now, a lot of what CFI crews do is re-route previously unplanned trails into better, more environmentally-suitable and sustainable routes and work to erase the damage left by the unplanned trail.

“We’re maintaining very unsustainable trails,” Hanus said.

The difference on the report card is clear. While most of the planned trails range from “A” to “C” grades, all of the unplanned trails start at “C” and decline from there. Eight of them have “F” grades.

Not only are planned trails easier to maintain, but they protect the fragile alpine and subalpine environment around them.

“The vegetation that grows on these high altitude peaks are really the astronaut plants of the earth,” Athearn said. “They are just out there at the edge of where life grows on this planet, and they’re well adapted to that, but they’re very, very sensitive to trampling. … The goal is with these formal trails, we can protect the environmental resource at the same time we’re protecting the hiking resource.”

Unlike lower elevations, the alpine environment takes much longer to recover, Hanus said. He feels that the key is educating hikers on the unique aspect of the alpine region.

“Once people start to understand these things, it’s like, ‘Well, of course I wouldn’t want to head up this trail and compromise this slope,’” he said.

‘APPROACHABLE EVERESTS’

Summit County’s nearest 14er peaks are Quandary, Grays and Torreys. While all three experience heavy hiker traffic, CFI estimates that Quandary is the second-most hiked 14er in the state — in the 2014 summer season, the peak averaged 692 visitors each week. That dubious distinction comes with a variety of challenges, and the popularity isn’t going to change anytime soon.

“They’re kind of the approachable Everests,” Athearn said of Colorado’s 14ers. On them, people can have experiences that they never would have anywhere else. The important thing is that people understand the fragile nature of the places they’re visiting, which can be difficult when they only see them once or twice over the course of many years, or perhaps only once ever.

“People oftentimes have very limited snapshots in time in which they’re on a mountain,” he said, “and they have a hard time fathoming the cumulative impact of all the people who will climb a mountain over a year.”

He and his colleagues can certainly understand the draw to these majestic mountains, having chosen to make working on them their careers. He said he isn’t interested in limiting hikers on the 14ers and doesn’t believe that would really solve any problems. He and others at CFI hope that the growing love for Colorado’s 14ers will inspire people to contribute to their cause.

“The vast majority of our funding comes from private sources, foundations, businesses, individual hikers through the country,” he said. “Our hope is that explaining the need and documenting this in great detail and saying look, there’s been a lot of thought behind this, it will spur those parties who have a vested interest in protecting these peaks because they’re their playgrounds or because they’re a local tourist attraction that draws people to the community.”

Silverthorne resident and former director of CFI Warren Buettner also emphasized the importance of the 14ers to local economies.

“Colorado 14ers have become a very serious part of our tourism, a tourist destination for many people, so they have a lot of economic impacts for Colorado,” he said.

He’s also seen the crowds heading towards the summits firsthand, through his job and through volunteering with the CFI’s Peak Stewards program.

“These mountains are just being loved to death,” he said.

LENDING A HAND

While monetary donations are always appreciated, CFI also relies on volunteers each summer season for trail restoration and maintenance. The work is physically demanding, as it not only takes place at 14,000 feet, but the high altitude requires much to be done by hand. Power tools are not used, and rocks that weigh 300 pounds and more are often transported by hand through slings and winch systems.

Most volunteer opportunities are for one day. CFI hires crews for the more arduous, multi-day projects that require backcountry camping. Because it is so close to town in Summit County, Quandary Peak often benefits from local volunteers.

Overall, Athearn hopes that the work by the CFI helps impart to others the importance of the 14ers and in taking care of them.

“I’d like (people) to take away that these peaks are really special,” Athearn said, “they’re an integral part of Colorado and our mountain communities and our outdoor lifestyle, that there’s a lot of effort required in time and money to protect these peaks, and the great recreational experiences they offer and that this report card helps us track how well we’ve done in the past and what we need to do in the future to make sure these mountains are still great attractive recreational destinations in the decades ahead. It’s a great place to be doing work and a great cause to be working on. It’s something that really drives us. These peaks are really spectacular and deserve our help.”

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Breck christens new pump track in Wellington neighborhood

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

A new summer distraction is coming to the Wellington neighborhood in Breckenridge.

Locals and anyone with a love for biking’s wild side are invited to the grand opening of the Wellington Bike Park and Pump Track today at 4 p.m.

Mayor John Warner and the Town of Breckenridge Open Space and Trails Division are hosting the event for adrenaline junkies to learn about and enjoy the town’s latest bicycle facility.

The park is designed as a fun recreational playground where riders of all ages can improve their bicycling skills. The facility was constructed by Peter Mills of Elevated Trail Designs and members of the town open space department’s trail crew over a six-week period. It is designed for all abilities and features a large pump track, a Stryder track, three flow trails (one beginner and two intermediate) and a skills area featuring “skinnies” with a small rock garden.

“We are excited that town council and Breckenridge Open Space Advisory Commission prioritized creating the Wellington Bike Park and Pump Track to replace the pump track near the ice arena, which will become additional public parking,” said Chris Kulick, an open Space and trails planner with the town. “This facility is a vast improvement over the existing pump track and is much more centrally located to the town’s population base and popular Golden Horseshoe trail system.”

Mayor John Warner echoed the excitement towards the project.

“Our community takes pride in its reputation as a leading bicycle-friendly community,” Warner said in a town press release. “The Wellington Bike Park and Pump Track is another example of the town’s dedication to providing residents and visitors a world-class cycling experience. I encourage all cyclists to attend the Grand Opening and enjoy this wonderful new bike park.”

The Wellington Bike Park and Pump Track is located at 710 Wellington Road (behind the Breckenridge Equestrian Center). The park is free to the public. Riders should have a clear understanding of their ability level and wear protective gear, including a helmet.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Hit the trail in Summit: Escape the crowds with these lesser-known hikes

#Summit County, Colorado.

Courtesy of Dillon Ranger District

Take a summer stroll in the mountains, and it soon becomes a hike, simply because most trails take you up, down and all around. Summit County has walking adventures for all ability levels, with a great deal that can be explored from steps on a well-beaten track.

“The Dillon Ranger District manages 434 miles of trail,” said Ken Waugh, district recreation staff officer for the Dillon Ranger District within the White River National Forest. “We have a huge variety of experiences and settings, fantastic views and many lakes and streams.”

It’s easy to pop onto your go-to trail, or if you’ve never been, to follow the masses on crowd-favored routes. Some of the gems, however, are the hikes that are more hidden.

“There are many popular trails,” Waugh said, “but there are a lot of little-known trails that I would challenge folks to explore.”

Here are some of Waugh’s suggestions, and more detailed descriptions can be found and printed out from the White River National Forest website,www.dillonrangerdistrict.com/recreation.htm, or the Dillon Ranger District site.

EASY: BOULDERING TRAIL (WINDY POINT), 0.6 MILES

Kids can do this hike with ease, and lots of smaller rocks for them to climb on make it extra enjoyable. Adults can work on their bouldering skills, too, just take caution to the risks of falling and hurting an ankle, or worse.

Enjoy the rows of lodgepole pine as you walk and take in views of Lake Dillon while on the short loop. The elevation gain on the trail is a total of 280 feet.

Access this trail from Swan Mountain Road. Take the Silverthorne/Dillon exit 205 off Interstate 70, and head south on Highway 6 for just more than 2 miles. At the traffic light, turn right onto Swan Mountain Road (toward Breckenridge), and proceed another 2 miles. Then turn onto the Prospector/Windy Point Campground road and continue for a half-mile until you can turn left into Prospector Campground. Just past the fee station, there is a parking lot on the right, with no fee to park.

The trail is open in the summer to hiking, as well as mountain biking. Bikers are expected to yield to hikers, but keep your eyes up and aware for fast flyers, especially with kids on the trail.

INTERMEDIATE: BARTON CREEK TRAIL SYSTEM, WESTERMAN LOOP TRAIL, 2 MILES

Otto Westerman was a photographer in Breckenridge in the 1860s, and the Westerman Trail is named after him. The trails in this area use a section of the Peaks Trail, which runs between Frisco and Breckenridge, to make looped routes possible. The Westerman Trail follows a creek for about half-mile and continuously passes through lodgepole pine and aspen trees. There is 400 feet of elevation gain from start to finish.

Access this trail from Barton Road. Take the Frisco/Breckenridge exit 204 off I-70 and head south. Turn right at the traffic light on Coyne Valley Road coming into Breckenridge, and then proceed about 1/3 mile. Turn left at the T-intersection onto Airport Road, and proceed another 1/3 mile, and then turn right onto Barton Road. Continue for about half-mile, and then bear right at the intersection onto a gravel road. Travel another 1/5 mile and look for the short road that leads to a gate on a road to the right. Park near the gate, but do not block it or the fire hydrant on the main road.

The parking at the trailhead is very limited, so make sure you do not block the road, the gate or the fire hydrant. Mountain bikers and horseback riders also use the trail.

DIFFICULT: LENEWEE, 3.8 MILES EACH WAY

Trail use on this more difficult route is considered low, so it’s a great place to catch some solitude this summer. The trail is open to mountain bikers and horseback riders, as well as hikers.

In the Peru Creek drainage, this area is rich in mining history. There are numerous underground mine shafts scattered about, so don’t venture off the trails. The area is also known for its wildflower abundance, most prominent around mid- to late July.

The trail traverses up to tree line through fir trees and lodgepole pine, gaining an elevation of almost 2,000 feet in the first 2 miles from the trailhead. After you ascend into the alpine tundra, the trail becomes less evident and it’s important to pay attention to the route, marked by rock cairns along the trail.

The route’s highest point is at 12,437 feet in elevation. Since the trail takes hikers above timberline, be sure to begin the hike early in the morning, and be cautious of afternoon thundershowers and lightening, which move in quickly.

Enjoy views of Dillon Reservoir to the west and the mountains of the Continental Divide to the east and south. The Jumbo Mine can also be viewed from the trail.

“Lenawee Mountain is actually not really a single mountain, it is more long ridge line, with two highpoints and five side ridges fanning out to the south,” according to an author’s post atwww.summitpost.org/lenawee-mountain/632425.

To access the trail, take the Silverthorne/Dillon exit 205 off I-70, and travel east on Highway 6 toward Keystone. Just past Keystone, turn right onto Montezuma Road, also known as County Road 5. Follow the road for about 4.6 miles to the intersection with Peru Creek Road, also known as FR 260. Stay on this road for about 2 miles to the Lenawee Trailhead on the left side. A small parking area for this trailhead is a few more yards up the road to the right.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

BreckCreate hosts Creativity Crawl, grand opening of Old Masonic Hall

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

Liam Doran / Breckenridge Creative Arts

On Saturday, June 13, from 6 to 9 p.m., Breckenridge Creative Arts will host a Creativity Crawl highlighted by the grand opening of Old Masonic Hall, the newly renovated historic building on the north corner of Main Street and Washington Avenue.

The Breckenridge Arts District studios will be animated, with local and regional artists demonstrating their unique skills and craftsmanship. Annie Kerr, with Wild Balance jewelry, will have a station in Old Masonic Hall, where she will be demonstrating the techniques she uses to create her handcrafted earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

“I use semiprecious stones, antiqued metals, sterling silver and 14-karat gold. They are all hand crafted, and generally, especially with the necklaces, I put a little asymmetrical flair on all of them. All of them are lightweight enough for the active High Country lifestyle.”

Other featured artists include Bernadette Foley with Breckenridge Candle Cabin, Erica Ragusa with Ambika Herbals and Therapy, and West Palm Beach, Florida, ceramic artists Ronald Shaw and Jeni Licata, who are in residence at the Robert Whyte House in the Breckenridge Arts District through Sunday, June 21.

Attendees are encouraged to start their art-hop at Old Masonic Hall, where a downtown map will be available, featuring participating galleries, restaurants and specialty shops. There also will be music provided by DJ Chris Diabolo, craft beverages from the Breckenridge Brewery and a whimsical art installation titled “Transitions” by Colorado artist Jennifer Ghormley.

OLD MASONIC HALL

Most recently known as Abby Hall, Old Masonic Hall was originally owned by Dr. B.A. “Braz” Arbogast and was used as a grocery store and a doctor’s office. A local Masonic Lodge purchased the building in 1905 for $800. A century later, locals John and Wendy Cooney bought it, and it was being used as a church when the town of Breckenridge purchased it in 2013.

Because of its many uses throughout its history, the hall had not retained much of its original historic material on the interior, said Jenn Cram, director of public programs and engagement for Breckenridge Creative Arts.

“The building had really been divided up into different rooms and compartmentalized, so one of the wonderful things about this rehabilitation is that we’ve really opened the floor plan back up and brought back the historic shine to it,” she said. “We reinterpreted the trim details and paneled the doors and brought back all of those period finishes to let the building breathe again.”

The most noticeable change is the storefront on Main Street, Cram said. BreckCreate partnered with the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance to restore the front of the building to its original grandeur based on period photos, bringing back a historic piece of Main Street.

“You’ll remember that on the main pedestrian level, there was paneling and funky, non-historic windows,” Cram said. “You couldn’t really see inside the building, and now you can see in.”

Elegant hickory floors greet visitors from the Main Street entrance, which opens into a large exhibition space containing a display that interprets Masonic history and the history of the building. The remainder of the space is populated by pieces from artists working on the Arts District campus to get people excited about the different demonstrations and workshops taking place there.

“Right now, we have an installation from Jennifer Ghormley; she’s a paper artist and printmaker that teaches on campus,” Cram said. “In July, we’ll have a contemporary ceramics installation by Molly M. Then in August, we have an installation by San Francisco artist Julie Hughes, and she will be our guest artist at Robert Whyte. She is doing a cast paper installation.”

ARTS DISTRICT CONNECTION

A large studio will accommodate more participants for children’s art camps and painting and photography workshops, and BreckCreate administrators will be leaving their horse-stall offices at Fuqua Livery Stable and settling into a new space in Old Masonic Hall in order to be more accessible to the public.

Stairs at the rear of the main-floor exhibit space lead to the upper level, home to a new multipurpose room, outfitted with barres and mirrors designed for dance and yoga.

“If we have a special project, we can use it for other mediums and special events, as well,” Cram said. “We also have a warming kitchen, which will make it really easy for caterers to come in.”

On the backside of the building, a plaza off the warming kitchen was designed and landscaped with blocky boulders and paving materials similar to those used in the Arts District, providing a visual connection between the two and establishing the Old Masonic Hall as part of the Breckenridge arts corridor.

“We think that it’s a wonderful addition to our historic Main Street,” Cram said of the newly refurbished building. “It’s going to be a wonderful addition to the Arts District because it gives us a presence on Main Street where we can greet people and educate them about what’s happening on campus.”

For more information, including a full listing of concerts, performances, festivals, workshops and special events in the Breckenridge Arts District, visit breckcreate.org.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Dillon Air and Water Show takes to the wind and waves this weekend

#Dillon, Colorado.

Marc St. Pierre / Special to the Weekender

“Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.”

Thus begins the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. The poem, beloved of aviators, details the soaring, wheeling, “tumbling mirth” of piloting an aircraft through the sky’s “long delirious burning blue” and “footless halls of air.”

While not everyone gets the chance to pilot a plane themselves, spectators can enjoy the swooping antics of a variety of antique and vintage planes at the air and water show in Dillon this weekend.

SUNWARD THEY CLIMB

For the third year in a row, Dillon celebrates National Marina Day on Saturday, June 13, with an air and water show.

“Harbor master Bob Evans is a pilot himself, so he has a lot of passion and was instrumental in bringing the event to us,” said Kerstin Anderson, director of marketing and communications for the town of Dillon.

Pilots and their planes are flying in from various locations across Colorado and the U.S. to participate in the air show, which will begin at 10 a.m.

The show will get off to a loud start with a Korean War-era T-28, which a press release of the event described as sounding “a bit like a growling machine gun.”

Pilot Danny Sorenson will provide a solo performance with his home-built Sorensen BF9-2 custom biplane. Maneuvers including loops, rolls, hammerheads, inverted flight and more are to be expected.

Another aerobatic display will feature a Sukhoi Su-26, a single-seat plane from the former Soviet Union.

Summit County resident Gary Rower and his formation partner Buck Roetman will pilot a World War II-era Stearman PT-17 and a Pitts S-25 for a combination of solo and dual acrobatic performances, as well as a mock dogfight.

The air show will last about two hours, wrapping up around noon.

“I think that it’s pretty inspiring,” Anderson said of the air show. “I come from a Naval family myself, where I had my father and cousins and uncles who flew; so to watch these beautiful planes with a crisp blue background of the mountains, watching them twirling and doing loops is just really something special.”

Aviation enthusiasts and amateurs alike will enjoy the show, she said, and an announcer will be on hand to narrate and explain the history behind the aircraft. The Marina Park and shoreline near the Dillon Amphitheatre are recommended as the best places to view the show.

“It’s a great location to watch them from, and they zoom past you and it’s loud and thrilling,” Anderson said.

FOOD, MOTORS, MUSIC AND MORE

Early risers can start their day at the marina before the air show enjoying a pancake breakfast. The breakfast is a fundraiser for the Dillon Junior Sailing Club, a youth nonprofit. The funds will go toward repairing the Junior Sailing dock, for buying new practice boats and paying competition fees. The club will also be selling raffle tickets to win a sunrise flight onboard a Flight For Life helicopter.

During and after the air show, the marina parking lot will host several booths. The U.S. Air Force Academy will have a glider on display, and Colorado Northwestern College will display a plane that’s in the process of being built, as well as provide information on their aviation program. Hudson Auto Source will also have several cars and trucks on display.

Among the other booths will be one on the timely issue of wildfire preparedness. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

From noon to 2 p.m. the U.S. Air Force Academy rock band Blue Steel will perform at the amphitheatre.

The marina will also be putting the “water” into the water and air show by offering free, stand-up paddleboard demonstrations and discounted boat rides. The boat rides are part of the Let’s Go Boating fundraiser for the League of Animals and People of the Summit (LAPS). LAPS is a local, nonprofit organization with an animal focus. It supplements the spay/neuter program at the animal shelter and offers an assistance fund for locals whose pets have large emergency veterinarian bills. The boating tours include boats and pontoons and last for 45 minutes. Rides cost $20 for adults and $10 for children. This fundraiser will be available both Saturday and Sunday.

Since the marina parking lot will be taken up by booths and presentations, Anderson recommends that people utilize parking in downtown Dillon and walk down to the marina. Alternately, people could park at the City Market parking lot and take the Summit Stage bus over to the marina.

“Plan on spending the day,” she added. “It is a full day of fun down there.”

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

Summit to continue with Highway 9 Iron Springs realignment despite $5 million cost increase

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

Courtesy of the Colorado Department of Transportation

Summit County will continue to pursue the realignment of State Highway 9 through Iron Springs, despite a $5 million increase to cost estimates. Colorado Department of Transportation officials recommended that the county pledge to match 20 percent of the full cost despite the price hikes for the project to have a better chance of being fast-tracked by CDOT.

“We had heard that the cost was going up, but they hadn’t agreed on what the total cost was yet between all of their engineers,” said assistant county manager Thad Noll. “That was unfortunate.”

While preliminary estimates marked the total cost of the project at $15 million, the most recent estimate, a combination of CDOT and independent evaluations, came in at $20.6 million.

“It was over the last five months that we got to this point,” said Grant Anderson, a resident engineer with CDOT.

He said the increase stems from the fact that highway construction costs have increased between 10 and 15 percent since initial plans were drawn. The project has also grown in complexity, with wildlife underpasses added to minimize the road’s impact on the surrounding wetlands.

The new alignment would move the highway west, further away from Dillon Reservoir, in order to allow State Highway 9 to be expanded to two lanes. It would also shorten the highway by just under half a mile, and create a less steep curve than the bend dubbed “Leslie’s Curve.” The existing bike path would then be moved to follow the shore of the reservoir.

The realignment is also preferred, as impact studies show that realigning the highway would be less environmentally destructive than widening it in its existing location. Noll said that in the proposed location, the highway would be moved further away from drinking water supplies in the reservoir, and will allow sections of the wetlands to be restored.

“It will be better environmentally, safety and experience-wise,” Noll said.

The only deterrent is the growing cost of the realignment.

“We can trim some fat from the project,” Anderson said. “But it’s gonna be pretty rough.”

APPROVAL PLANS

With an evaluation team from CDOT scheduled to look at the project on Monday, Thad said the county will write a letter to CDOT expressing their intention to maintain their 20 percent contribution to the project with a match by CDOT, despite the higher cost.

“We’ll say yeah, we know the cost is going up and we’re gonna share the pain,” Noll said. “Because we know if we say no, the project isn’t going to get done at all, and we would have to wait 10, 15, 20 years before CDOT will have the money to do it.”

Next, the project would be reviewed by the state Transportation Commission on July 16. Construction would start next April, with the project tentatively finished by 2017, if the project receives final approval for CDOT’s RAMP (Rapid Acceleration of Maintenance and Partnerships) program.

“It’s a really significant project for the area,” Anderson said.

He added that contributions by the county and other partners would be crucial to the consideration of the project.

“The whole program is set up on partnerships,” Anderson said. “If the partners don’t want to participate, I don’t think it gets as much weight as far as which projects are selected to move forward.”

Noll said the county would look into bringing in additional partners for the project, with a number of stakeholders who would benefit from the realignment.

“We’re gonna see about getting other partners,” Noll said. “In the end, the community is really the beneficiary. Because we’re going to end up with a spectacular bike path and a much safer, shorter highway.”

If approved, he hopes to see the project go to bid by this winter.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.

National Repertory Orchestra presents opening concert, 'The Red Violin'

#Breckenridge, Colorado.

Travis Wilson / National Repertory Orchestra

The National Repertory Orchestra will host the opening night concert of its 56th summer season at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge Saturday, June 13. This year’s season will include 16 concerts at the Riverwalk Center, in addition to community events and a series of free ensemble concerts in Breckenridge and throughout Summit County.

The opening night program, “The Red Violin,” spans more than a century of musical excellence, including beloved staples of the late Romantic repertoire, as well as award-winning film music of today. Music director Carl Topilow, whose distinguished career as a conductor and pops orchestra front man includes 37 years with the NRO, will conduct the performances.

The first work of the night, “Luminosity,” is a composition by three-year NRO alumnus Anthony DiLorenzo. Since his time with the NRO, he has gone on to work with many of the nation’s most prominent orchestras and has also achieved considerable success in Hollywood film scoring.

With emphasis on dramatic effects for brass and percussion, “Luminosity” is exemplary of the striking musical imagery that makes DiLorenzo so effective in Hollywood. He describes the piece as an evocation of cosmic majesty.

“The music is meant to be vibrant and energetic as it mimics a distant pulsar emitting bursts of light and energy,” he said. “The star can illuminate the most wondrous display of beauty and color, showing off its magnificent power and nobility.”

The evening continues with a performance of “Don Juan,” one of the signature tone poems of the great German composer Richard Strauss. Strauss is known as an innovator of the musical language, and his innovation often presented challenges for musicians: At its 1889 premier, this tone poem presented unheard-of technical difficulties.

Through musical storytelling, “Don Juan” depicts the passions, heartbreaks and eventual downfall of the legendary Spanish libertine. The brash charisma of Don Juan’s heroic horn theme has made it one of the iconic sounds of music’s late Romantic period; listeners can gauge the hero’s mood by the inflection of this theme and by the way it interacts with the melodic themes of his lovers.

Next on the program is music from John Corigliano’s 1999 Academy Award-winning score for “The Red Violin.” The solo part for titular violin, played by co-concertmaster Timothy Steeves, is the first of the season’s many showcases for the virtuosic skills of the NRO’s talented soloists. Steeves is currently pursuing a doctorate in music arts at Rice University. His violin performance leads the orchestra through a kaleidoscope of emotions as Corigliano’s expressive music unfolds.

Jean Sibelius’s First Symphony offers a fitting end to the NRO’s first performance of the summer season. Imagined in snowy Scandinavia, the symphony’s sweeping themes will sound equally at home amid Breckenridge’s own majestic surroundings. Along with his tone poem “Finlandia” and Second Symphony, Sibelius’ First Symphony (premiered in 1899) is associated with the Finnish national awakening and corresponding struggle for independence; Sibelius himself is considered a national hero, and Finland is currently celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth.

The first movement’s boldly original opening — a hauntingly beautiful melody for solo clarinet — prefigures the career of a man who would go on to revolutionize the symphonic form. The symphony then takes us through a gorgeous slow movement, an exuberant scherzo and, finally, the passionate return of the opening melody in the finale. Its music is an ode to the perseverance of the human spirit, a meditation on natural beauty and an exciting vision of what is to come.

Fatty’s Pizzeria and Bob and Nancy Follett are the sponsors for the NRO’s opening night concert. For more information, visit www.nromusic.com.

Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.