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Paradise residents’ concerns shift in regard to Hooper project

The public still has issues with John Hooper’s Rock Creek Canyon Project located in the community of Paradise, and the Mono County Board of Supervisors will need more information before it can resolve everything.

At a special Mono County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, April 17, the Board, minus Larry Johnston who had to recuse himself because he owns property close to the project, met at the Paradise Fire Station to review the project’s specific plan amendments and some issues the public had found within an encroachment permit the County had issued Hooper, as well as Hooper’s proposed trails plan.

Local resident Jeff Vaughn summed up the public’s concerns. “Anything iconic [in the project area] is gone. We’re concerned about public access and safety now.”

With the issuance of the encroachment permit, Hooper built some split rail fencing in front of his project, which lies at the on the hairpin turn where the Paradise Lodge once operated.

Described by the public as a “cattle shoot” and giving a “squeeze shoot” effect, the rails were touted as a public safety hazard, which pushes the public into a compromised position between the guardrail and the motoring public.

“The fence is fragile,” said Paradise resident Mike O’Sullivan. “It already impaired snow removal significantly during the one storm we had this year, and it was a very dry year.”

It was also pointed out that the fences remove the option to pull over and chain up in that segment.

“We need to put public safety and snow removal first,” added Liz O’Sullivan. “We don’t want to get sued. Let’s be proactive rather than reactive.”

Mono County Assistant Public Works Director Jeff Walters pointed out that the County had not approved the part of the fence closest to the building.

Hooper defended his split rail by explaining that he had good reason to put it there.

“It gives direction to the trailhead,” he explained. “I got the idea from national parks. Hearing that this is riskier is almost unbelievable. It’s a much safer situation.” Hooper cited the absence of cars backing out into traffic as one example.

Supervisor Hap Hazard felt that pedestrians should be kept off the road and some type of passage should be developed behind the guardrail.

“The split rail looks like channeling for rides at Disneyland, I want to see something different in the long run,” he added.

Supervisor Byng Hunt offered a different perspective when he explained that the split rail fence had actually come in quite handy when he and his wife had been biking in the area recently. He did agree, however, that the pedestrian walkway should be moved behind the guardrail.

“The split rail fence is kind of rinky dink,” voiced Supervisor Tim Hansen. “We can kid ourselves and talk about it, but it is what it is. The County should put in a bridge. It’s the safest option.”

Supervisor Vikki Bauer wasn’t ready to make a decision on the split rail fencing and ask that staff come back with more options. The supervisors agreed to leave the split rail where it is until they determine what will take its place.

Another big community concern was the alleged proposal to use Glen Court as a trail. This reference in Hooper’s Trail Plan alarmed residents who fear that eventually the homeowners of the Rock Creek Canyon project would seek to close off the Rock Creek trailhead from Lower Rock Creek Road and try to use Glen Court instead.

Mono County Principal Planner Gerry LeFrancois said that Glen Court was never meant to be a user trail.

Supervisor Hazard suggested that the road be designated as a utility easement in order to protect it from ever being called a trail. He explained that it would most likely need to be used to tie the area into Digital 395, anyway.

Also discussed Tuesday evening: removing excess signage in the area and the installation of a restroom rather than the re-installment of an old fishing cabin that had been removed from the property.

Supervisors, the public and even Hooper agreed that the amount of signage was overwhelming.

As one member of the audience shouted out, “it seems as though they’re breeding!”

As for the restroom, supervisors felt having it on the property was a good idea, but needed to further discuss if the County should be responsible for maintaining the facility.

So, the Board voted 4-0 to remove Glen Court from the Trails Plan, to remove unnecessary signage, and to adopt Option C, which includes having Hooper put in the restroom.

They asked staff to bring back more information on the split rails, a pedestrian bridge, parking, and maintenance of the restroom facility.

The photo illustrates the narrow road shoulder the public must navigate to access the bike/pedestrian trailhead from the parking lot. (Photo: Lunch)

There was a packed house at the Mono County Planning Commission meeting Thursday morning, March 8 held at the Town/County Conference Room.

Many were present to discuss proposed Specific Plan Amendments to John Hooper’s Rock Creek Canyon Project.

Ironically, the part which most interested the public had nothing to do with the Plan Amendments, but rather, involved a staff-approved Encroachment Permit into the County right-of-way along Lower Rock Creek Road at the curve where the old Paradise Restaurant stands.

Opponents say the split-rail fence installed along both sides of the road about five months ago is an eyesore. They also feel it interferes with snow storage and compromises pedestrian safety between the designated parking area and the trailhead.

Under the current arrangement, pedestrians have to cross the stream in one location via a 4.5-foot wide road shoulder walking against traffic.

The public wants Hooper to build a pedestrian bridge instead which is set back further from the road.

This obviously costs money.

Hooper countered by saying, “The experts [County Staff] told me what to do,” in regards to traffic safety.

Planning Commissioner Steve Shipley suggested the responsibility for such an improvement might lie with the county, “Why would we be asking a private property owner to improve a county right-of-way [property Hooper does not own]?”

This issue heads to the Mono County Board of Supervisors for review next month.

As to public concern that there is a conspiracy to close off the trail at some future date to make Glen Court (in the Paradise neighborhood above Rock Creek Canyon next to the fire station) the primary trail access, Mono County Principal Planner Gerry LeFrancois said this is not the case. “Glen Court was never intended as a primary access point.”

For his part, Hooper added, “The Glen Court thing … wasn’t my idea.”

I spoke to Steve Sheffield of Heritage Propane, a corporate spokesman based out of Massachusetts, a few weeks ago about the proposed acqusition of Heritage by AmeriGas.

Heritage is the parent company of Turner Propane. If the Federal Trade Commission approves the deal, AmeriGas would essentially have a propane monopoly in Mammoth Lakes.

Sheffield says he understands concerns from locals who wonder how a monopoly would affect their gas bills. But like a good corporate spokesman, he talked about “greater efficiencies” that would be realized by a potential deal.

The biggest component of price, he said, are external factors relating to the wholesale price which have nothing to do with local conditions.

Local businessman John Vereuck scoffed at Sheffield’s downplay. “My guess is we can expect a 30 to 40% price hike within a year if this deal goes through. What’s to stop them?”

According to Vereuck, he believes AmeriGas overpaid to purchase Rock Creek Energy in 2009. Rock Creek was the company which built the backbone delivery system in Mammoth and until its acquisition, had charged a fixed rate to the other two companies (Amerigas and Turner) to deliver via its system in order to recoup its lay-in and maintenance costs.

Problem is, said Vereuck, those costs were nebulous and never truly delineated.

“What goes up does not go down,” he explained. “Once a company makes back an investment, does the price ever go down? I’ve never seen it.”

Vereuck believes a monopoly may provide AmeriGas the means to obfuscate like never before.

If the deal goes through, is there any likely competitor on the horizon? I spoke to Eastern Sierra Propane’s Founder and Co-Owner Tom Sigler about that this week. He said he’d recently received a call from Mono County Supervisor Hap Hazard about this very topic, as Hazard is concerned about a potential propane monopoly.

“At this point, nothing seems concrete,” said Sigler. “The government could step in [and prevent the merger], so until we know for sure, we won’t make a decision … I never make plans [based] on speculation.”

Sigler did, however, express some reservations about doing business in Mammoth based upon personal experience. “At one point in time, about two years ago, I called the Town of Mammoth Lakes to get an application for a business license,” he said. “Within 15 seconds, I was told that we [the Town of Mammoth] get a percentage of your income.” That a fee is collected by the Town for every drop of propane sold in Mammoth Lakes.

“I just didn’t like the way that sounded,” said Sigler, who dropped the idea of getting a business license.

MLH foreclosure and government handouts

At the final regular Town Council meeting for 2011 (the Dec. 21 meeting has been canceled), Executive Director of Mammoth Lakes Housing, Pam Hennarty presented the recently updated Mammoth Lakes Housing Needs Assessment. According to Hennarty, the study conducted by RRC Associates, Inc. “reaffirmed what we already knew – there is still a housing need.”

Mayor Pro Tem Matthew Lehman was less than thrilled to hear this outcome and questioned the surveys that were used to gather data for the study.

“I took one of the surveys and the questions seemed to be geared toward what type of housing do we need, not whether or not we need housing,” Lehman said. “You can get any answer that you want if you ask the question in a certain way.

“You don’t have demand presented here,” he continued. “Government can’t afford to continue to pay for everything. We need to let the markets do what they are suppose to do and stop the government handouts.”

As if to prove his point, Hennarty confirmed with The Sheet that MLH is currently in default on one of its two office spaces in the Sherwin Plaza Shopping Center on Old Mammoth Road.

“We received our default letter on Monday,” Hennarty told The Sheet. MLH plans to downsize from the two office spaces into the single office space where they are still current.

“The town cuts hit us hard. We have been trying to negotiate the terms but it hasn’t worked out,” Hennarty continued. “We are hoping to deed it back in lieu of foreclosure, but that’s probably not going to happen.”

Town Council member and MLH Board member Rick Wood agreed with Hennarty. “Budget cuts have real consequences,” he said, referring to the cuts made to MLH when the Town tightened its belt last summer. MLH’s operational revenue comes from the Town. “We couldn’t negotiate a loan modification so we can’t afford to be in the space.”

The man holding the note on the loan, John Vereuck, was not terribly pleased with MLH’s decision. He told The Sheet that MLH stopped paying the note before negotiations for a modification had ever really started.

The updated study is available at www.mammothlakeshousing.com or by calling MLH at 760.934.4740.

Medical Marijuana lessens traffic fatalities

According to the Wall Street Journal, a recent study claims that medical marijuana laws reduce traffic fatalities. The study, “Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities and Alcohol Consumption,” D. Mark Anderson and Daniel I. Rees, Institute for the Study of Labor working paper (November 2011) examines federal data before and after 1996 when the passage of medical marijuana laws began. Today, 15 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. According to the WSJ article, “researchers found a nearly 9% decrease in overall traffic fatalities. (That figure took into account trends in neighboring states.) Virtually the only reason for the decline was a drop in alcohol-related traffic deaths.”

Basically the study concluded that in states where marijuana was legal, people tended to smoke more weed and consume less alcohol. “The authors suggest that pot users may be more aware of their intoxication and correspondingly less reckless, and that using the drug at home, as opposed to bars, might be another factor,” the article concluded.

Spike Todd

Longtime local and owner of Mammoth Liquor Spike Todd was life-flighted out of Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in Bishop at 12:50 a.m. Friday, Dec. 2 to the intensive care unit at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev.

According to posts by his brother, Bob, at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/spiketodd, “Spike went to the doctor Monday and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. He had covered the Bishop football game Friday night and seemed fine. He met his son, David, in Kern Valley Saturday and returned to Mammoth. He told me he had a headache for several days, but it had subsided a bit by Monday.

Still, he was weak and sick and didn’t work last week. Deb [partner] insisted he go the hospital Thursday night, and it was quickly determined he needed critical care. The doctors later said if Deb had not brought Spike in he would not have made it overnight.

The winds were too high to fly out of Mammoth-Yosemite Airport, so he was ambulanced to Bishop, and then flown to Reno.

The cause of his condition is streptococcus pneumoniae (I looked on the fax results about the blood culture).

He was diagnosed with fluid in one lung, along with kidney and liver failure. He suffered a mild heart attack Saturday morning.

A cat scan would help pinpoint the location of the problem in his lung, but he’s not strong enough for that yet.”

Bob’s latest post, dated Dec. 7, stated, “Spike is having a good day, nurses and Dr. Terry say. Fever came down and is being managed; breathing issues are better. He’s still fighting a tough fight, but some optimism today making us all feel good. Great nurses Melissa today and Kelly last night are keeping Spike as comfortable as can be.”

Visit the caringbridge.org website above to keep up to date on Spike’s condition or to send him get-well wishes. If you don’t already have one, you’ll have to sign up for an account, but it only takes about two seconds.

Deena Kastor won the women’s division of Dodge San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon just eight short months after giving birth to her daughter, Piper. (Photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun)

Mammoth residents Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor went to San Jose to rock, and the two Olympic medalists did just that, easily winning their respective divisions on Oct. 2 in the 2011 running of the Dodge San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, one of the Bay Area’s biggest road races.

Keflezighi, who is training for next month’s New York City Marathon, won the 13.1-mile race in 1:02:17, more than two minutes ahead of runner-up Giliat Ghebray, a Cal senior from Union City, who turned in a respectable 1:03:38. Sergio Reyes of Palmdale was third, coming it at 1:04:20.

Kastor only recently returned to running after giving birth to a daughter, but handily won the women’s division in 1:12:23. Clara Peterson of Larkspur was second to Kastor with a time of 1:15:23 while Cal graduate Brooke Wells of San Francisco was third in 1:16:15. “She’s made a lot of progress in a really short period of time,” Deena’s husband Andrew recently told The Sheet. “Everything’s coming along just fine and she’s pretty much back in business.”

Both Olympic medalists live and train in Mammoth, and are preparing for the U.S. Olympic trials Jan. 14 in Houston.

Meb wins the men's division (Photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun)

Keflezighi led a lead pack of five runners through an opening mile of 4:35. At mile 3 the 2004 Olympic Marathon silver medalist picked up the pace, running a series of sub-4:40 miles to open up a sizable lead on the rest of the field, one he held all the way to the finish line.

“It couldn’t have gone any better. A lot people were cheering, ‘Go Meb,’ and it was just awesome,” Keflezighi told Running Competitor. “My Mom is here and my brother lives here, a lot of the people are aware of what I have done and it’s nice to have the course coming back with the crowd.”

The event turned out to be a solid tune up for Keflezighi, who won the 2009 New York City Marathon–the first American do so in 27 years, and is preparing to finish at the front of the pack in the ING New York Marathon in November. “I run to win, which means challenge myself and don’t hold back. It was good today,” he added.

Equally impressive as Keflezighi’s victory was the comeback performance from Kastor, the only American woman to ever break 2:20 in the marathon.

“It was just awesome,” said Kastor, “San Jose really came out and showed their true colors today–the communities that we ran through, the neighborhoods everyone came out in their front yards cheering on all of us runners,” she told the San Jose Mercury News. “I felt good out there. It didn’t take too much out of me so it will be good to get back into training this week and use this as a stepping stone for the Olympic Trials in January.”

Runners from all 50 states and 14 countries participated in the race, including a group of California’s fastest runners, with no less than 10 athletes training to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials in January. Three-time Super Bowl Champion and race founder Roger Craig completed his sixth straight San Jose race, along with San Jose resident and soccer star Brandi Chastain. The sixth running of the half marathon was expected to attract 13,000 entrants.

This year, the race was being eyed as a proving ground on how the current crop of top U.S. runners would measure up against recent fierce competition from top runner from other countries.

Tracy Sundlun, co-founder of the Rock ‘n’ Roll racing series and a promoter and coach for 30 years, said a big factor is money. A $5,000 first-place prize, Sundlun said, does not “raise an eyebrow” in the United States, but runners from East Africa, for example, see that amount as significant and will throw themselves into the race to capture that kind of prize money.

Sports writers and analysts have lamented that the U.S. running elites might have fallen off the pace recently. But the top finishes Sunday by Kastor and Keflezighi are being viewed as indicators that U.S. distance competitors are back in top form and ready to rock in upcoming major races, including shots at Olympic medals next summer. – AG/Running Competitor/San Jose Mercury News

Planning dudes, dudettes abide by use-permit

Rock ‘N Bowl moved one step closer to actuality this Wednesday at the Planning Commission Meeting in Suite Z. Architect Bruce Woodward presented and answered questions regarding the project, a 12-lane bowing alley with pool tables, darts, 3 golf simulators, a restaurant and bar.

Some of the specs: the two story, 25,300 square foot building, to be located between the Castoff and Southern California Edison on Chateau Road, will be 33 feet tall at the tallest, with a front yard setback of 20 feet.

The building will include four colors: the primary color is a tan vertical ribbed metal siding, and green vertical ribbed siding, raw steel lapped siding, and brick red horizontal ribbed siding will be used as accent colors. The project will provide a color mock-up on site prior to the construction of the building, as well as a sample board that can be turned to show the metal in shade and sunlight.

Rock ‘N Bowl will provide 37 on-site parking spaces, and 17 additional spaces will be offered off-site, most likely through an agreement with one or more property owners to do shared parking. A sign of steel, stained wood and halo-lit letters reading “Mammoth Rock ‘N Bowl, food, fun and games for everyone,” will sit at the Northwest corner of the lot. Due to Sign Ordinance constraints, the sign square footage has been reduced from 31.5 to 29.5 square feet.

Lighting will be night sky compliant, and Community Development Director Mark Wardlaw pointed out that “the municipal code has noise regulations, and we enforce those.” The bowling alley will be open on weekend nights until 1 a.m., with weekday hours to be determined.

The most contentious issue remained the number of parking spaces. As The Sheet previously reported, Woodward and team were able to winnow down the 140 parking spaces originally required by the town to 37. Now town staff, including Wardlaw, Senior Planner Ellen Clark, Associate Planner Pam Kobylarz, and Senior Associate Civil Engineer Peter Bernasconi, have determined that because of the parking demand for all uses, Rock ‘N Bowl must provide a total of 54 spaces. The current lot only has enough room for 37, therefore the additional 17 will be provided off site. Rock ‘N Bowl will also provide 5 on-street parking spaces that will help supplement the overall parking, but pursuant to code, these spaces can’t be counted toward the total.

Another concern was the sign, which Sign Ordinance dictates must stand at a maximum of 8 feet. The Commission and staff debated whether 2 10 ½ foot vertical steel beams supporting the sign could be allowed to exceed that 8-foot height limit if they were a ‘necessary structural design issue,’ which Woodward admitted they were not, or if they might be necessary for visibility come winter. Woodward explained that he “wanted something you can see when looking down Old Mammoth Road. The sign will still be considerably smaller than most old signs in town.”

Some of the Commission’s other concerns included snow storage, given the Rock ‘N Bowl site was previously used for just that; the texture of concrete on the building, which Woodward pointed out accounts for only about 1% of the overall building material; roof color; and landscaping. Woodward was amenable to all suggestions, although Commissioner Elizabeth Tenney’s concern that any shrubs would be “trashed” in snow storage areas, and her suggestion that Woodward use “perennials and wildflowers, like Roberto’s and the Post Office,” sparked a debate within the Commission. “I respectfully disagree,” said Vice Chairman Jay Deinken. “At my home we’ve had bushes and plants that come back just fine from winter.”

Overall the Board had few complaints with the project. The public was also largely behind it. “I’m fully in favor of this project,” said Dave Harvey. “Many of us in town have been waiting for this project to come along. In this economic environment, it’s great we’ve got someone willing to take a risk.” Of issues like parking and signage, Harvey had only this to say: “If we’re going to be a feet-first community, let’s act like it.”

The Commission found the project to be categorically exempt from CEQA, and approved both the Use Permit and Design Review.

Katie Vane is bowled over at the idea of having a little Brooklyn in Mammoth.

I spent the last two years living in Manhattan, attending graduate school for one of the most useful degrees out there: an MFA (Masters in Fine Arts) in Fiction. I lived in Mammoth for the summer before I moved to the Big Apple, and I remember the looks I got when I told friends where I was headed in August. They were the same looks I got from friends in NYC when I described where I was heading after graduation. “That sounds like the total opposite of the City,” they said.

The funny thing is, while NYC and Mammoth are vastly different in many ways, in other ways they are surprisingly similar. In the neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn, it isn’t unthinkable for neighbors to greet each other on the street, or for patrons to chat with the men and women behind the counters of their local delis, bodegas and grocery stores.

New York gets a reputation for being a hostile, lonely place; it’s a reputation that’s sometimes earned, and almost always cultivated, but I often had a different experience with the City. I saw plenty of acts of generosity worthy of a small town, the best example being when a young man dashed after a woman on the subway to return the wallet she’d dropped. I even got to know the folks in my neighborhood, those who waited tables at my favorite restaurants or walked their dogs at the same time I was headed to class. Moreover, in a city of millions, you can still bump into friends. On the subway especially, I ran into friends and former schoolmates all the time. Turns out the New York subway is a bit like Mammoth’s Vons in that respect.

That’s why moving back to Mammoth hasn’t been as jarring a transition as my friends might have imagined. But — and it’s a big but — of late I realized what’s missing the most in Mammoth is having a diversity of watering holes, particularly come nighttime. Yes, Mammoth has plenty of great places to drink, but New York also has concert venues, art galleries, late-night diners, karaoke, and hey, even bowling alleys.

One of my favorite places to hang out in NYC was a bowling center called Brooklyn Bowl. It offered 16 lanes, a lounge, a stage for concerts, and a bar featuring beer on tap from the adjacent micro-style Brooklyn Brewery. The place was the perfect combination of bar, dancehall and game room. And I wasn’t the only one who thought so … Brooklyn Bowl was swamped every night I was there.

So when I heard about Rock ‘N Bowl, the bowling “center” proposed to the Town’s Planning Commission by architect Bruce Woodward and real estate investor Dan O’Connell, I was excited to think that Mammoth might get a chance to augment its nightlife. At the meeting O’Connell noted that, “There’s nothing to do here except eat and drink, and if these last two weeks haven’t punctuated that, nothing will.”

The bowling center would be built between the Cast Off and the Southern California Edison building, on a lot used now for snow storage. With 12 lanes of bowling, a bar and restaurant facilities, as well as billiard tables, a potential music venue and dance floor, and three golf simulators upstairs, Rock ‘N Bowl would be the kind of “adult entertainment center,” as Woodward put it, that I’ve been missing.

After the winter we’ve had, I know I’m not alone in needing something more to do in Town than just drink. But I’m a little afraid to get my hopes up with Rock ‘N Bowl, considering some of the obstacles the project will face as it seeks approval from Mammoth’s Planning Commission and Town Council. For instance, up until Monday night, the Town was requiring a total of 140 parking spaces for the bowling center. To put this in perspective, 140 parking spaces would mean a parking lot essentially the same size as the entire lot on which the Rock ‘N Bowl would be built. Or to put it another way, 140 parking spaces would mean a parking lot as big as the one in front of Vons.

This number has since been reduced to 37. As Community Development Director Mark Wardlaw said this week, the justification for the reduction is that in the initial analysis, parking for the various uses (restaurant, bowling, dance hall, etc.) were calculated separately.

Another hurdle for the project may be Development Impact Fees, which a member of the development team said are currently calculated at nearly $1 million for the 24,000-square foot project. The developer hopes to negotiate this number downward.

If the details are worked out, construction on Rock ‘N Bowl can begin as planned in April. The way I see it, Mammoth already has some of New York’s worst qualities: tricky rules for development, soaring rents and an overall cost of living such that most friends I know are working two if not three jobs. Why not emulate some of NYC’s (shocking, I know) better qualities? We have plenty to do in the daylight here, but why not take a few lessons from “the City that never sleeps” and incentivize some much-needed variety to Mammoth’s nightlife?

We received the following press release on Tuesday:

The Town of Mammoth Lakes has received the results of the Hearing Officer’s decision on the appeal of termination filed by former Mammoth Lakes Police Sergeant Eric Hugelman. The Hearing Officer reduced the penalty and determined he [Hugelman] should be reinstated. The Hearing Officer’s opinion is binding unless appealed, and Town will be evaluating its options.

Mammoth Lakes Town Council will be briefed during closed session on Jan. 5. Since this a personnel matter and could involve litigation, no further public information can be provided.

What information The Sheet did gather came from a source who said what doomed the Town’s case was that at least two additional disciplinary matters which Hugelman was involved in were inadequately investigated and then dismissed by then-Chief Randy Schienle.

A lack of cumulative evidence may have been responsible for the Town losing yet another legal case.

Hugelman, however, may not demand reinstatement, but instead will likely seek early retirement based upon a medical disability.

All it costs is money.

2011 … Perfectly professional, (yet preposterous) prognostications

January: Mono Court Superior Judge Mark Magit, in one of his first rulings, will sentence Allen Blumer to do community service in one of Mammoth’s medical marijuana dispensaries … on the condition that he can look, but he can’t touch. He is also to be given keys to the building, so that if he locks himself in, he won’t have to bother the local news media.

March: Mammoth Mountain develops a new product called the “Gray Club,” named after the color of its lifties’ t-shirts.

The $99 membership fee allows you to buy $30 lift tickets if any two of the following conditions apply:

1. Winds over 50 mph. 2. Rain. 3. Upper mountain closure. 4. Metallica’s playing at Steeps Bar.

April: Bad news: The Town loses its airport lawsuit appeal. Good news: The Town has no more lawsuits left to lose. Bad news: The Town hires back Tracy Fuller as Town Manager in the hopes of creating a few.

June: Motocross advocates successfully lobby Mammoth’s Town Council to push for reconsideration of the Mammoth Motocross track’s use permit. The Forest Service responds by immediatel;y shutting down the track to all users, thus cancelling the 43rd annual 2011 Mammoth Motocross.

In addition to selling bearware, Joe Parrino now sells “Give Back Our Track” tees in an effort to help offset MMSA’s monetary losses. He offers a very generous 80 (Joe)/20 (MMSA) split.

July: Z-Bar Ranch’s business takes off when it adopts a French menu and instructs all of its waitstaff to speak like Inspector Clouseau. “Zee Escargot is an excellent choice, Madame!”

August: Having learned his lesson, former MLPD Sgt. Eric Hugelman lands a job as a Verizon customer service representative, so he can pick fights with people any time he wants with impunity.

October: Town Manager Robert Clark, wishing to bring attention to what he considers the woeful understaffing of Mammoth’s Town Offices, gets an idea when he sees the movie “A Day Without a Mexican.” So he pays Dan McConnell $25,000 out of the Council discretionary fund to film a documentary which he will title, “A Day Without a Taxeater.”

Unfortunately, the only free day McConnell has is a Saturday and the documentary is a flop. It does, however, still win the Woolly D’Or at the 5th Mammoth Film Festival.

November: MLTPA’s John Wentworth wakes up one morning and asks himself, “Wait a second. Am I the grumpy old deadwood f$#@?”

December: In an act of humanitarianism, Sierra Nevada Lodge’s Jim Demetriades flips his ice rink over so as to house Mammoth Dog Teams, recently kicked out of the Sheriff’s Substation.

Several cabins sitting along the creek on John Hooper’s property were one source of contention in the Rock Creek Canyon Project, which was given the green light by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night. (Photo: Lunch)

In between snow storms the Mono County Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday evening, Dec. 21, at the Crowley Lake Community Center to make the final decision on John Hooper’s Rock Creek Canyon Project. Board members ultimately voted in favor of the project, deciding that its benefits outweighed the  issues of concerned that had been raised by the community and the Department of Fish and Game (DFG).

The project had already been to the Mono County Planning Commission, which gave its recommendation to move forward on Dec. 10. The community members that had attended, however, were dissatisfied with the Commission’s recommendation so many of them attended Tuesday night’s meeting to see if they could persuade the Supervisors to vote in a different direction, since the supervisors were responsible for the final decision.

Representatives of DFG had attended the Planning Commission meeting to point out that the study for the project that had been done on the deer herd was done during the wrong time of year. They requested that another study be completed.

The community’s main concern was potential non-conformance issues with the project. Hooper is planning to keep three of the original cabins on the property and connect them by corridors to news homes that will be built. The original cabins are not within the 30-foot setback from the creek that the County imposed in 1990 because they were built prior to that date. The community members who spoke out believed that Hooper should have to follow the new 30-foot setback policy because he would be remodeling the old cabins and connecting them to new structures.

Hooper, however, said that since he planned to remove 7,500 square feet of other non-conforming structures on the property, the benefit outweighed the approximately 775 square feet of non-conforming expansion he planned to add.

The Supervisors ultimately agreed with him.

“We want to work with someone who wants to make a bad situation better,” said Supervisor Vikki Magee-Bauer. She likened the property, which had been in a major state of disrepair prior to Hooper purchasing it, to the property where the Double Eagle in June Lake now sits.

“The Double Eagle was a trailer park before,” Magee-Bauer explained. “Someone took a bad situation and made it better, and that same opportunity exists here. We’re not voting on a new building in the 30 foot setback, it’s already there.”

As for the deer, Supervisor Byng Hunt seemed to sum up what his fellow supervisors were thinking when he opined that “the deer herd will survive with or without the project.”

Supervisor Hap Hazard, who represents the Swall Meadows/Paradise portion of the county, claimed he was still undecided on what to do at the beginning of the meeting. He later, however, came to the conclusion that Hooper should be allowed to move forward as he wished.

The Board voted unanimously in support of option two, which addressed non-conformance issues. Option two does not allow any net increase in square footage within the 30-foot setback by using smaller corridor connections. The existing footprint will be decreased by the same amount of square footage proposed for new construction.

“It zeroes out removal and expansion,” Hazard said.

In regard to any affordable housing that Hooper would be required to supply, the Board asked that staff research whether it would be better for Hooper to build a unit on the property or pay an in lieu fee, so that a unit could be built somewhere else in the county in a location that might be more in need of affordable housing.