NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon has sold most of the nearly 2,000 acres he owned in Missouri Heights to a development group headed by John McDonald, the man who created the Dallas National Golf Club in Texas. McDonald plans to build a golf club development much like the Dallas project. Gordon, who bought the property in 2006, will retain a 50-acre parcel.
Construction of The Residences at the Little Nell is essentially completed and the $150 million project, adjacent to the Silver Queen gondola at the base of Aspen Mountain, is set for occupancy in early February. It will be managed by the Aspen Skiing Co.’s Little Nell Hotel and has been 8 years in the works.
One of the new laws that went into effect on January 1 was an increase in Colorado’s minimum wage. The new minimum wage in the state went up 26 cents to $7.28 per hour for nontipped workers and $4.26 per hour for tipped workers. The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour and will go to $7.25 an hour in July.
-Associated Press, 01.01.09
Denver architect Peter H. Dominick Jr. died Thursday cross-country skiing near Aspen of an apparent heart attack. He was 67. Dominick designed buildings across the state and the U.S., probably best known for his work on three Disney resort hotels as well as the Riverfront Park in Denver and the Ritz Carlton in Vail.
-Rocky Mountain News, 01.03.09
Wall Street ignored all the bad news and declines of 2008 and started 2009 with a big rally, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring more than 250 points, to close above 9000 for the first time in two months.
-Associated Press, 01.03.09
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation conducted 202,772 background checks in 2008, up 26% from the 160,756 in 2007. Background checks to clear buyers exceeded 200,000 for the first time in history.
-Rocky Mountain News, 01.05.09
Todd and Lisa Gibson are planning to renovate and reopen the Durango downtown iconic restaurant Farquahrts, but also have plans to auction off the memorabilia that adorned the eatery since it opened as Farquahrts in 1973. The date for reopening and the auction has not been announced, but chairs, photos, paintings and even tin from the ceiling will be in the auction.
-Durango Herald, 01.04.09
A volunteer group, Change We Need, met over the weekend in Steamboat Springs to map out plans for a light bulb swap, replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs in Routt County. The group is seeking donations of CFL bulbs and plans the swap for the weekend of January 17.
-Steamboat Pilot, 01.05.09
Sandra Mather is the author of “Golden Gulches,” a book documenting the use of hydraulic mining in the Breckenridge area, published by the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance. The mining technique blasted water to wash away entire hillsides to retrieve gold in areas like Iowa Hill from 1860 to the 1930s. The 77-page book features historic photos and diagrams to explain the complicated equipment and mining method.
Print Version