Editorial

Well, some observers found it rather curious to see Community Development Director Mark Wardlaw “high-five” a member of the Clearwater development team following approval of Clearwater’s request for General Plan and zoning amendments on Wednesday. If the outcome was so perfect, shouldn’t he have been high-fiving Tom Moody as well? After all, isn’t he supposed to work for both of them?
… So, I had a brief moment of excitement on Tuesday thinking that I’d caught the Town red-handed doing something improper, but sadly, my Dirty Harry-like detective work proved fallible.
While I was dropping off my buddy Bruce Sacerdote at the airport, I saw a Town vehicle parked at the curb and witnessed a Town employee pick up a young woman, usher her into the passenger seat, and drive off. Aha! The bastards are picking up their girlfriends on company time. So I tailed them all the way back to Town, observed the drop-off at the Forest Service compound, and followed the Town employee back to the Visitors Center.
Aha! The Visitor’s Bureau is involved. This is even more nefarious than I thought. Are T.O.T. dollars spent on nothing more than personal valet service?
Later, I learned he was simply picking up a Visitor’s Bureau contract employee. It wasn’t a girlfriend, a wife, or Mary Carey. Just an employee. Damn.
… But back to Bruce. He flew in on Monday and out Tuesday. A 24-hour tour. Said he loved it and would return with family next time. Also said it really didn’t add much expense onto his original Boston-S.F.-L.A. travel itinerary.
He and I (enjoying my first day on the mountain all year. Pathetic.) were both impressed by the food at Main Lodge. A marked improvement. I guess bringing in Patina was a bigger coup than I realized.
… I had several irritations regarding the whole propane franchise issue. First, you had Councilman McCarroll and Mayor Velveeta extolling the virtues of AmeriGas. McCarroll called them an “extremely good corporate citizen” and Velveeta added that “AmeriGas has committed to being customer-service oriented.”
Maybe true, but seriously, what a lot of prattle. How do you really know? At one point, McCarroll said of Scott Baugh, representing Rock Creek, “For the record, I met with Scott Baugh for one hour today … and he is not a contentious person.”
Is maintaining that someone’s a nice guy a true substitute for due diligence? I don’t think so.
Then there were the constant threats by AmeriGas and Rock Creek that if the Town didn’t succumb and approve the deal immediately as written, the deal was dead. Well, they made the threat on Dec. 17, and repeated it on Jan. 7, and lo and behold, the deal was still alive on Jan. 8. To his credit, Town Attorney Peter Tracy didn’t buy into any of it. When an AmeriGas attorney suggested that the franchise transfer and amendments to the franchise agreement were two separate matters and not germane to each other, he interjected, “According to section 11 [of the franchise agreement], they’re totally germane.”
Baugh was also the one who said, “Lemme be the bucket of cold water on this. It [the proposed franchise transfer] all expires tonight. This is all for naught if we don’t get this done tonight.”
Tracy held firm and said, “We’re pretty late on this to be scrambling around.” Ultimately, a decision was pushed to the next day. And you know what? Nothing had expired.

From Wolf. We actually sent our McNugget dipping sauce aficionado out to cover some real meetings this week. The experience has left him broken and disillusioned.
At the Tourism meeting on Tuesday, Visitor’s Bureau Director Danna Stroud said that the Town booked 1,000 rooms less than projected (based upon MMSA lift ticket sales). 900 of those rooms were condos; 100 were hotel rooms. Hmm. Where did they all stay? “I don’t believe what the Mountain is telling us is correct. I’m not buying it,” said Bill Sauser. Teri Stehlik was more realistic. She thinks that second homeowners simply aren’t obtaining business licenses or properly paying room tax for the rental of their units.
On Thursday, Wolf double-dipped to cover the Tourism and Rec meeting on Measure R. Commissioners were happy to report that the money has officially started to trickle in – $59,000 thus far – and Town Council hasn’t stolen any of it yet.
They promise to establish priorities by Jan. 20th so that various organizations will know what potential projects and applications would have the best chance for success. Clearly, a Monorail from the Sheet offices to Giovanni’s will be among the most compelling ideas under consideration.
Wolf’s also promising to actually update The Sheet’s long dormant blog and drag us kicking and screaming into the online age. Check out select stories & columns, view photos that didn’t make it to print, take a weekly poll, and leave comments about whatever or whoever is on your mind. (Full of McRage over the McDonald’s sauce policy? Feel free to McVent.) http://mammothsheet.blogspot.com will get you there.

And from Geisel’s desk…

Geoff Carreiro

One of our readers called in and asked if we’d consider reporting on reaction from some of the late Carreiro’s students at Mammoth Elementary School. According to our caller, he wasn’t officially a full-fledged teacher, more of a teacher’s aide or substitute in actuality, but to all who worked with him, student or teacher, he was considered “every bit the teacher.”
We’d love to speak with anyone that has memories of his work at MES they’d like to share – get in touch with me here at The Sheet. Meanwhile, we thought it would be nice to include a mention of another interesting, and perhaps lesser known, aspect of Geoff’s life, one that ended all too soon.

Remembering Roy …

Unlike many of our readers, I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Roy Saari very long, or well for that matter. What I can tell you is that he is very well remembered, something we all hope for I’m sure.
Everyone I’ve talked to about him has uniformly lauded him, personally and professionally. And they weren’t just being “polite.” I’m a writer … I can tell the difference. No, these people — all of them — meant it.
Covering Planning Commission meetings taught me something about him: he was a great leveling force. He had a way of tempering things, reining in discussion when it was getting too skewed or running away with itself. It’s no wonder he was in public service for so long. Ability to legislate like that, as well as get along with staff, other commissioners, developers and, yes, even reporters – these are a much-desired collection of traits.
This year, ironically, I also had the good fortune to sit down and chat with his daughter, Joani, with whom I’d previously only exchanged short business phone calls and e-mails. During the fall, I picked up my ski pass from Joani and we talked for perhaps a half-hour. I only wish now that I’d been able to do the same with Roy. Amazing the opportunities one misses going through life.
A celebration of his life is set for tomorrow, Sunday, Jan. 11, at 11 a.m. in the Mammoth Mountain Main Lodge’s Mountainside Conference Center. The Planning Commission has also planned rememberences of its own during its meeting on Jan. 14, starting at 9 a.m. in Suite Z of the Town offices.

Library reopens!

And finally, the clouds have parted and the “Rainy Day” we wrote about in last week’s Sheet is now just a memory. The Mammoth Lakes Library reopened this past Tuesday following its being awash in water damage from a burst pipe during the holidays. Servicemaster and library staff apparently made quick work mopping things up and repairs were quickly completed.
Now, if only we can get the Ice Rink back up and running. Details page 13.