Mountain Town News
Ski management diversity
WHISTLER, B.C. – Being publicly traded, the ski and resort company called Whistler Blackcomb will now have to do some explaining about its lack of gender diversity on the board of directors.
Under new rules adopted by the Ontario Security commission, Canada’s top stock-market regulator, public companies must tell their shareholders how many women hold board and executive office positions and how the company will go about boosting these numbers.
Currently, Whistler Blackcomb has no woman on its board of directors nor in top executive positions.
As for Vail, seven of the eight have male names. The executive team also includes Kirsten Lynch, who is the chief marketing officer and executive vice president.
Vail’s top-rung management will get more diverse next August when Blaise Carrig steps down as president of the company’s mountain division. He will be replaced by Patricia Campbell, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer of Breckenridge Ski Resort.
Replacing Campbell at Breckenridge will be John Buhler, current COO at Keystone, while Mike Goar will leave Canyons, the Utah resort, to direct operations at Keystone.
Aiming for connectivity
LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Slow internet speeds and over-taxed cell phone networks have resulted in formation of the Tahoe Prosperity Center. The nonprofit aims to expand interconnectivity in the Lake Tahoe Basin, seeing it as important for economic diversification.
The center recently gathered data from hundreds of users to see if Internet speeds in the Tahoe basin area are as fast as carriers claim, reports the Sierra Sun. An underserved area, as defined by the California Public Utilities Commission, is one that has download speeds of less than 6 megabits per second. Urban areas commonly have 10-megabit speeds.
“It’s a pretty hot issue,” said Bev Ducey, a program manager for the Tahoe Prosperity Center.
She tells the Sun that grants from the state government could help carriers hang new fiber cables and improve service. Cellphone carrying capacity, however, is likely to be a trickier proposition. It’s more difficult finding suitable sites for cell phone towers in a place like Lake Tahoe as compared to urban areas.
Housing crunch reemerges
WHITEFISH, Mont. – Up and down the Rockies, there is talk about the lack of affordable housing in mountain towns.
In Whitefish, The Pilot reports any number of hard-luck stories as service workers scramble to come up with down-payment and rent.
The median price for a home last year was $245,000, compared to $167,000 just 15 miles down the road in Kalispell and $153,000 in Columbia Falls.
About 30 percent of Whitefish’s workforce is in the hotel and food service industry, earning $17,000 to $22,000 annually, according to a housing authority study. Whitefish, say real-estate agents, has monthly rental or mortgage costs of $800 to $1,300.
The city government has offered density bonuses to developers in an effort to encourage the construction of more affordable housing. But so far, no developer has taken advantage of the offer. Pushback from neighbors is often the problem.
In Telluride and Mountain Village, the joined-at-the-gondola sibling municipalities, there has been much talk during this election season of affordable housing. Mountain Village, the newer and less space-constrained town, actually has enough affordable housing for 80 percent of its workforce. Telluride has about 40 percent.
In Jackson Hole, long-term observers tell the Jackson Hole News&Guide it’s as bad, or worse, than they can remember—and this, without the construction industry fully revived.
Candidates for town and county officials have talked about diverting funds such as the lodging tax to help build more affordable housing. Christine Walker, former director of the Teton County Housing Authority, says that businesses that pay low wages are essentially being subsidized.
In Crested Butte, a community discussion is coming up about how to spend the $500,000 given the town for hosting Bud Light’s Whatever festival in September.
One suggestion, reports the Crested Butte News, is affordable housing.
