Mountain Town News
Bar to pay city revenues
ASPEN, Colo. – In February, a brawl broke out in Whiskey Rush, a bar in Aspen. Two patrons were cut by beer bottles and broken glasses.
Instead of calling 911 immediately, bar managers cleaned up the glass and assisted the injured patrons. For that delay, reports the Aspen Daily News, the bar now has agreed to pay Aspen’s city government 20 percent of its gross sales during the week in which the fight occurred, or between $1,300 and $1,500.
An attorney for the bar told the newspaper that the staff responded promptly. “They rendered aid and cleaned up the glass to make sure no one else was injured. But no one stopped and said, “We better call 911,” said Chris Bryan, the attorney.
The municipal code, however, requires “immediate reporting” to police.
“I think the concern in this case were the injuries to people, and that we don’t want to have bars in town that, in any way, shape or form, allow the type of behavior that results in people getting hit with glass objects,” explained Debbie Quinn, the Assistant City Attorney.
Exceptional Western “winter”
CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — More than drought, the story in the West this winter was of warmth. Winter this year felt like spring, notes the Crested Butte News, and the records kept at the nearby hamlet of Gothic testify to the unusual warmth.
billy barr, who doesn’t capitalize his name, has been tracking weather and snowfall at Gothic since 1974. This winter, he tells the News, he measured 38 record high temperatures, compared to 4 or 5 temperature records set most seasons.
But barr also recorded a temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit on Feb. 6, a full month earlier than the previous earliest date. He recorded rainfall on March 19 at Gothic, elevation 9,500 feet, 25 days earlier than previously recorded.
‘This winter is so exceptional, but lack of snow is less concerning because that has to do with where the weather patterns go. We don’t get it, New England does. That doesn’t cause me as much concern as the heat. To me this heat has been outrageous,” barr said.
All of barr’s record highs on his books have happened since 2000.
Elsewhere across the Rocky Mountains, newspapers last week reported raised eyebrows about snowpacks that were eviscerated by warm temperatures in March.
“March precipitation roared in like a lion and left like a thirsty little lamb,” reported The New Mexican of Santa Fe. Temperatures around Albuquerque were three degrees above the three-decade average. And now, water flowing into New Mexico’s major reservoirs is expected to be half or less of the 30-year average through July, the newspaper reported, citing federal agencies.
In Idaho, it was much the same. In Ketchum and Sun Valley, the Idaho Mountain Express reported it was the warmest winter ever recorded in the Wood River Valley. Peak snow accumulations usually are measured on April 6 in the higher valleys of central Idaho. This year, those snow depths were between 34 and 68 percent of average.
In southwest Colorado, the snowpack of early April was 49 percent of the 30-year median. In lower elevations, such as Lone Cone, west of Telluride, snowpack was just 11 percent of average.
Colorado continues to talk about a statewide water plan. Nearly all of the state’s water is allocated primarily to farms, with about 8 percent going to towns and cities. The population, now at 5.3 million, may grow to 9 to 10 million at mid-century. Still uncertain is the effect of rising temperatures on water supplies.
“Things are extremely serious right now,” Steve Child, a Pitkin County commissioner, said at a recent meeting covered by the Aspen Daily News. “Given all the climate change issues added on top of the doubling of the population of the state … we’re bordering on a crisis situation right now. Most people don’t realize where we are and how serious it is.”
