There’s No Bidness like TBIDness
Mammoth Lakes Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) was established in 2013. At the time, MMSA (now Alterra) CEO Rusty Gregory had a grandiose plan to generate more air travel to[…]
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Seismic Activity At Foundation
The Mammoth Lakes Foundation Board recently determined it needed to slash its permanent staff from four members to two in the wake of the Covid crisis. “In order to preserve[…]
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A Run on the Bank
Like everyone else, I suppose, I am watching the corona drama unfold with a mixture of horror and fascination. All the while looking at my own books and trying to[…]
Byrne Baby Byrne
We all respond to pandemic hysteria a little bit differently. My response has been low-grade pyromania. I live next to LADWP property in Bishop. And there are tumbleweeds everywhere –[…]
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Gentleman Jack
He was the type of guy who still wrote thank you letters. A guy who made it a point to remember people’s names. And if he were in line at[…]
Taking COV(ID)ER
With COVID-19 aka coronavirus causing major shutdowns in cities across the globe, it was only a matter of time before the Eastern Sierra saw large-scale shutdowns of its own. Life[…]
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Coronavirus Finds Timmy Lupus
The Bad News Bears (1976) was one of the seminal movies from my childhood, and I think of it this week during the worldwide coronavirus meltdown because it really does[…]
All Is Not (Hollo)well
Finger-pointing, accusations from former employees, threats to The Sheet over supposed personnel documents which Lunch has never seen, and at the center of it all, veterans who’d prefer more service[…]
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March Madness
Over the course of the past week, concern about COVID-19 (coronavirus) has reached fever pitch around the globe. On March 11, a number of major points in the evolution of[…]
Results are in!
Voters in Inyo and Mono Counties turned out on Tuesday, March 3, to cast their ballots in a number of races both local and national. The Inyo County results were[…]
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Rabbi of the Mountains
For the first time, maybe ever, Mammoth Lakes will have a Rabbi living here supporting the Jewish community and spreading kindness to anyone who needs it. Rabbi Yisroel Gordon recently[…]
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Scare-port Blues
Mammoth-Yosemite Airport’s commercial service is scheduled to be shifted to the Bishop Airport by late October. This would mean a daily, year-round flight from Los Angeles and two[…]
Burbine= Fine Wine
There’s a reason why the name stuck. In 1998, newsman Tom Brokaw published a book called “The Greatest Generation” to describe Americans who came of age during the Great Depression[…]
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Walk it Back
Just when you’d think you’re fully out of the weeds, you can get pulled right back in. The conversation around the proposed Colitas Farms project in Walker came before the[…]
I URD-GE YOU TO RECONSIDER
So a few things that have crystallized (and not) for me this week. On Measure F … I see an argument on both sides. On the Fire District’s side, how[…]
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Courting a New Court
Bishop City Council held a special meeting on Monday, February 10 to hear a presentation on plans for a new court building in downtown Bishop. Court Executive Officer Pam Foster[…]
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The Real McCoy
“Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.” -William Butler Yeats Dave McCoy, founder[…]
Dusty in the Wind
The Mammoth Grand Prix wrapped up last week and a local Mammoth Snowboarder named Dusty Henricksen managed to capture a first-place finish in the Slopestyle event in February. The 17-year[…]
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Walker on the Wildside
In 2016, California voters passed Proposition 64, known as the Adult Use of Marijuana act, to allow for the growth, sale and usage of recreational cannabis in California. The question[…]
Hungry for Justice
“A party without cake is just a meeting,” said the famous American culinary icon, Julia Child. It is also said that “Where there is cake, there is hope.” So, notwithstanding[…]
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Scopes Trial
Inyo County hosted two public scoping meetings, in Bishop and Mammoth, as part of the environmental review and initial study which need to occur this year before Bishop Airport can[…]
Embrace The “Suck”
The Sierra Nevada can be an intimidating place to settle. The combination of altitude, isolation, and extreme weather remove any possibility that that it might be easy, creating an environment[…]
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LAPLANTE TAKES ON THE GRAND PRIX
The Mammoth Grand Prix begins Wednesday January 29 and finishes up on Saturday February 1. Skiers and snowboarders from all over will be competing in the event, looking to get[…]
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LEFT OUT TO DRY
Southern California Edison representatives were in town earlier this week for a presentation on a subject that refreshingly had nothing to do with Public Safety Power Shutoffs, although it may[…]
HE DID IT HIS WAY
Bob Todd was a drinker, a toker, a gambler, a slob, a Deadhead, an avid sports fan. He was loud, outspoken, caustic and funny. He didn’t broker dummies and fools.[…]
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HOW BOUT SOME GATORADE
I want to relate a story told by Major Gen. Ted Banta at the Operation Mountain Freedom (Wounded Warrior) luncheon Thursday. He was talking about a Marine Gunnery Sergeant named[…]
NEARING CLIFF
The new year is only three weeks old and Mono County’s financial headaches are already getting started. At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Public Health Director Sandra Pearce, Public Health[…]
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BUYER BEWARE
On January 5, 2019, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, “High Cost of Wildfire Insurance Hurts California Home Sales.” The article discussed rising insurance premiums associated with houses[…]
NOT QUITE TAKING FLIGHT
While businesses in town may have seen an uptick in customers and sales during the holiday season, dismal passenger enplanement numbers served as a reminder to Mammoth Lakes Tourism, the[…]
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A COCKTAIL TO AVOID
In no particular order … I’ve been catching up with some reading this week. One headline from the Dec. 18 Wall Street Journal that caught my attention: “Pittsburgh Airport Ramps[…]
PITCH THE TENT!
The Multi-use-facility (or MUF) appears to be gaining traction. This week, on Tuesday January 7, both Mammoth Lakes Recreation and the Recreation Commission received an update on the progress made[…]
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GET PITTED
Every developer that has ever built in Mammoth Lakes has to face the question: “What about snow storage?” Mammoth Lakes is fresh off of a winter that dropped 492 inches[…]
CALMING THE WATERS
BUSD Supt. Katie Kolker talks goals, building trust Katie Kolker took over as Bishop Unified School District (BUSD) interim Superintendent on November 4, 2019, following the conclusion of former Superintendent[…]
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THE BALLAD OF A SELF-MADE MAN
Tony Colarsardo: 1950-2019 To call Tony Colasardo a pillar of the Mammoth community would be an understatement. He was more of a steel column. And now he is gone. Colasardo.[…]
ONE MAN, MANY CAROLS
Gus Kreiger is just a single person but starting this coming weekend, he’ll transform into a full ensemble of more than twenty distinct characters over the course of his performance[…]
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WE NEED STU!
You can really make a game of it. Think of all the businesses that have come and gone in the Village at Mammoth since it opened in May, 2003. Hennessey’s,[…]
ALL THE WAY BACK
This season the Bishop Broncos football team cruised to an 8-2 regular season record and entered the playoffs as the #1 overall seed in the division 6 central playoffs. After[…]
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Still Depressed- the Sequel
The initial findings of a nine-month Workforce Health and Well-Being Project for Mono County employees revealed exhaustion, frustration, and anxiety within the ranks, painting a picture of a workforce struggling[…]
Send in the Browns
In response to last week’s editorial, I heard through the grapevine something along these lines, “There he goes again – suggesting that Mammoth Lakes Tourism (MLT) should operate with less[…]
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Park Place vs. Boardwalk
Mammoth’s Town Council and Planning and Economic Development Commission (PEDC) held a special joint meeting on Wednesday to discuss the preferred draft plan for The Parcel workforce housing development. Public[…]
Helping to Understand the Universe
A crowd gathered at Cerro Coso Community College in Bishop on the night of Thursday, November 14, to hear a talk by Dr. Katie Bouman, an assistant professor of computing[…]
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Poison Pill For Mill City Tract Owners
“We were hoping as we got more detailed studies maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as we thought. But I’m not going to sugarcoat this. This isn’t good news.” Inyo[…]
The Boy of Summer
Marty Burgenbauch: 1948-2019 It’s fairly ironic that the last band (of many bands over the years) Marty Burgenbauch was a part of was called “The Jaded Haters,” as Marty was[…]
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I’m With Keynes
There was a great essay in November 2 issue of The Economist on credulity and politics, pretty much asking “Why isn’t lying more damaging [to politicians]?” I could quote the[…]
Is The Plan To Ban?
Mammoth Town Council met Wednesday night, November 6, in front of a completely packed Suite Z. Some people left after the town announced its new hires and handed out awards[…]
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Whacking the Tobaccy
On November 1, a new tobacco ban goes into effect county-wide, removing flavored tobacco products such as menthol cigarettes from the shelves of local retailers. The institution of this ban,[…]
ON SHAKY GROUND
Covid further impacts tough financial picture for NIH While no one (with the exception of the Northern Inyo Hospital District Board) knows exactly why Northern Inyo Hospital parted ways with[…]
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The Young and the Restless
Young people may be out of work, but their wallets are full The economy, and the world at large, is at a standstill. The Fed helped pass the CARES act[…]
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EPIC MANUEVER
Those folks at Vail are pretty tricky. And they’re making rival resort aggregator Alterra seem a bit flat-footed. The latest … Vail has differentiated itself in two distinct ways from[…]
