'Enough' With Gridlock For Skico

January 31st, 2007 at 06:13am Michael Conniff 2

ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)--In a letter to The Aspen Times signed by a truckload of executives--including the new president and chief executive officer Mike Kaplan--Aspen Skiing Company torched the city of Aspen for its inability to solve the transportation bottleneck on Highway 82 and called for the immediate implementation of widened lanes for mass transit on the road from Buttermilk to the roundabout entrance to Aspen.

"This cluster jam of idling cars is a mockery of what Aspen stands for," the executives write, "the ideas modern Aspen was founded on, and the quality of life that keeps us here. It's ruining our town. Visitors come to Aspen seeking a world-class resort, and find world-class gridlock. The hassles are even more painful and infuriating for the many thousands of residents and workers that get flogged each day running the gantlet."

The incendiary letter was also signed by Skico honchos David Perry, senior vice president, Mountain Division; David Bellack, senior vice president and general counsel; David Corbin, vice president, planning and development; Matt Jones, vice president and chief financial officer; Jim Laing, vice president, human resources, rental/retail; Jeanne Mackowski, vice president, marketing; Don Schuster, vice president, real estate development; and even Auden Schendler, managing director, community and environmental responsibility.

The Skico brass said traffic was so bad "the power of four is meaningless if you can't get from mountain to mountain." The Power of Four is the company's primary marketing message, trumpeting the four mountains it owns and operates: Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass.

"The nightmarish traffic patterns we are experiencing each morning and evening don't just make us late and frustrated," they write. "They are harming the economy, the environment, and making Aspen significantly less attractive to tourists and commuters alike. If the situation remains unchanged and our guests actually choose to go elsewhere, what might a 10 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent dip in sales tax revenues do to the community? A 10 percent drop is almost a million dollars. If nothing changes, more and more of our potential work force will decide not to make the upvalley commute, worsening an already critical staffing crisis.

"The response from Aspen Skiing Co. is "enough": Enough traffic. Enough hassle. Enough deadlock. The congestion is an embarrassment, a maddening reflection of civic paralysis. We've got to fix the Entrance to Aspen now. Our guests and workers demand and deserve a functional and civilized transit system--not this torturous entrance exam."

What's the answer? Skico prefers "the 'preferred alternative' that was recently reaffirmed by the Colorado Department of Transportation is the product of years of research, hundreds of public meetings, and $4 million worth of analysis. Back in prehistoric times, before climate change and oil wars dominated the front pages, we studied 45 different alternatives and, as a community, determined that two lanes of traffic and two lanes of dedicated transit across the Marolt property was the preferred alternative. This option doesn't please everyone - it's not 'perfect'--but we can't keep making the perfect the enemy of the good. More to the point, the preferred alternative is the only solution we can actually build and have operating by 2014."

Entry Filed under: Politics, Transportation, Snowmass, Aspen, Travel, Business, Pitkin County