Archive - Jan 4, 2013
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi – Mammoth Times Staff Writer
Mono County Administrator Jim Arkens accepted a job as the Sutter County Administrator on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
He sent the Times a letter of resignation (directed toward the Mono County Board of Supervisors members) on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 9.
Arkens did not attend the Jan. 8 Mono County Board of Supervisors meeting, where three new supervisors, Tim Alpers, Fred Stump and Tim Fesko were sworn in.
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
Action film star, snowboard entrepreneur, in Mammoth this weekend
Jeremy Jones says he has a good idea what the worst job in the mountains might be.
“I think what the ski patrols do in places like Mammoth, Squaw, Jackson Hole, Aspen, you know, avalanche prone areas, first, I would not want the avalanche forecast job, nor the Ski Patrol.”
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
Mountaineer is back from the Eastern Karakoram
Back from perhaps his most important expedition yet, Andy Selters has produced what’s likely to become his most memorable show.
With three Canadians and four Indian-Nepalese climbers, Selters ventured to a restricted and barely-explored area at the northern tip of India, the Eastern Karakoram.
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
“Happy New Year, Fido!”
“What?”
“It’s a new beginning, Big Boy. Out with the old and in with the new!”
I reached into the closet for Fido’s New Year’s hat. It’s a silver, pointy, cardboard thing with an elastic chinstrap, and on the front it says “Happy New Year.” Actually, Fido’s goofy New Year’s cap looks just like mine.
“I don’t get it.”
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
‘We can’t patrol the town 24 hours a day, seven days a week’
Got a noisy party going on next door? Calling the cops won’t get you very far.
Looking for that school resource officer in the hallways of Mammoth’s schools? He may be there, maybe not.
Have a late-night problem with stuff that isn’t directly related to public safety, such as vandalism or a low-level misdemeanor? It will have to wait.
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
Council cites spotty attendance, lack of issues
Having trimmed the town staff to the bone, the Mammoth Town Council Wednesday brought the axe down on two of its citizen commissions.
Gone is the Mobility Commission, whose main task over the past two years was to help shape short- and long-range plans for such things as transit routes, pedestrian routes or, as chair Sandy Hogan once put it, “anything to do with mobility.”
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
Watson happy with crowd behavior
The crowds in Mammoth over the New Year’s holiday were as big as they’ve ever been, said Police Chief Dan Watson, but on the whole the alcohol-marinated visitors behaved themselves.
“There was a lot of revelry, a lot of partying in town,” he told the Town Council Wednesday evening.
‘Every Seventh’ project a quest of hope, compassion
Lela Williams has seen things most people could not bear and done things most people could not stand.
The co-owner of the Looney Bean said she has watched her family lose everything and flee to America with only what they could carry; she has run from gunmen, leaving her vehicle behind, disappearing into the jungle like a wraith.
Mammoth is at about 50 percent of normal precipitation for the year
In one short month, Mammoth and the Eastern Sierra broke out of a year-long drought and landed squarely in the middle of an average winter—at least so far.
As of Jan. 2, Mammoth Pass was at about 50 percent of its average moisture for the entire winter, and at about 100 percent of the average amount of moisture it normally gets as of that date, according to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power data.
Nancy Upham probably knows more about the huge Inyo National Forest than anyone else
Stretching from Tioga Pass south to Olancha, taking in every peak in the Sierra between, the giant Inyo National Forest pretty much dominates everything that does—and does not—happen in the southern half of the Eastern Sierra.
This week, this land of granite peaks and mile-high meadows lost its most familiar and constant voice when Public Affairs Officer Nancy Upham retired Jan. 3.
By
George Shirk, Times Managing Editor
Questions remain as to who pays, who profits
A new bike festival is officially on track for Sept. 4 to 6 in Mammoth, but it will not be a done deal until financing is solidified.
The “Kamikaze Bike Games” is to be organized and hosted by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, with proceeds set to go to the Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation.
Whoa! Meb Keflezighi, Mammoth’s most famous Olympian, is re-locating the family to San Diego, although he’ll still keep his digs up here and will train here, too. Then again, San Diego is warmer, there is no winterto speak of and, well. …
Let’s not live in fear
January 4, 2013
I am writing to respond to the article on the cover of the Dec.21 edition titled “Atmospheric river” pattern threatens to flood California.”
I can understand the impact which occurred in December 1861 and the devastation it must of had. However things aren’t exactly the same as 1861.
All the major rivers in southern California are hundreds of feet wide and deep, lined with concrete.