Breckenridge Summit County real estate blog, Colorado news

Another winter storm has blanketed our Colorado resorts with more fresh snow — 10 inches at Keystone on Tuesday 2.24 — and the conditions for skiing and riding are amazing.

With our SteepSavers last minute lodging deals, now is the perfect time to treat yourself to a mountain getaway.

Enjoy great March and April events like the Keystone Culinary Festival, Beaver Creek Wine and Spirits Series, Spring Back to Vail and Breckenridge Spring Massive 2009.

Also in this SteepSavers, Learn how GORE-TEX® can help you get the most of every day on the slopes.

Don’t let one of the best seasons in recent memory pass you by — plan your trip now for the best selection and saving.

Keystone Real Estate

3 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms TownHome $199/night

Tags: Keystone, ski, winter

Confluence Energy and Colorado Blue Logs LLC are partnering to salvage pine lumber from beetle kill. They plan to build a 6,000-square-foot building to house the lumber starting in January, and hope to open in April.
Colorado Blue Logs plans to build smaller, affordable homes for some of its 20 to 25 employees with the wood.
Breckenridge realty

Copper Mountain development is focusing on sustainable living. Copper installed a 4.2 kilowatt solar system to generate power for part of the transportation center. Its new training facility, Camp Woodward, will earn the Green Globes certification. Its efforts will help combat the rating it got in 2007 by the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition as the worst “green” ski area in the West.

Copper Mountain real estate info

Tags: Copper Mountain

Summit County Wildfire Council is thinning and removing dead trees in about a third of the areas adjacent to neighborhoods that are most prone to wildfires. Just this is costing more than $13 million.

The council lists 27 high-risk areas, including those in the Acorn Creek subdivision and in the Lower Blue Valley. Ptarmigan in Silverthorne also made the list, partially because of its steepness and dirt road access.

Now that many pine trees have died from the pine beetle, shorter grasses and shrubs, which can act as fuel for fire, are growing.

The biggest obstacle to removing dead pine trees is cost. Experts estimate the cost between $6,000 and $8,000 an acre, and federal funding isn’t coming through, so the burden is left to the state and private citizens.

Tags: Summit County

The Denver Water Board is paying HDR Engineering $52,180 to present road alternatives to the Dam Road. HDR gave 15 routes as alternatives, ranging from $18 million to $49 million.  

Denver Water officials admitted they can’t afford building a new road but said grants from the Department of Homeland Security may help.

But they’re still suggesting three “viable” options, mostly originating from the existing road and dumping out in Silverthorne, at Stephen’s Way, Wildernest or Anemone Trail.

Local officials say such routes would strain Silverthorne’s    I-70 interchange, which is one of the busiest in Colorado. They prefer to keep the Dam Road open, perhaps by building a bridge over the dam, and add that they don’t have the money to maintain another road.

Denver officials said, on Aug. 1, that they weren’t sure of their next move, but they’d keep locals in the loop.

Real estate Silverthorne

Tags: Dam road, Denver, Silverthorne, Wildernest

Colorado made headlines when legislation stating employers must allow working mothers to breastfeed passed.  

Sen. Dan Gibbs supported it, saying that it helps babies’ health, with so many working mothers in Summit County.  

Summit Prevention Alliance is providing grants up to $500 for local businesses to help accommodate breastfeeding, by creating private rooms or providing refrigerators for milk. It’s not acceptable for bathroom stalls to be mothers’ only option.

Meanwhile, Lake Dillon Preschool made progress for children by completing its $115,000 playground, after fundraising for seven years. It provides fall zones that are bouncy, as well as safer fences.

Courtesy of  real estate Summit County

Tags: Lake Dillon, school, Summit County

If you’ve never taken the short hike up to the Old Dillon Reservoir, located off of the Dam Road, you may have missed out, because the town of Dillon is draining it. Within a day, the lake went down a foot.

But if you fish, it’s a great time to catch and keep the fish.

Dead pine trees add to an already compromised dam; if the trees fall (thus uprooting), it will weaken the dam’s capacity to hold water. A break would flood Interstate 70 and companies in Silverthorne. The lake spans 10 acres.

Drained water will go back into the Salt Lick Creek, and the process will occur over the next month.

Like the closing of the Dam Road in early July, the news came abruptly and required “immediate action,” after a regularly scheduled inspection.

But the reservoir won’t be gone for long — next year, they’ll start building a new dam to hold water again, and they’ll restock it with fish.

Silverthorne real estate

Tags: Dam road, Dillon, Dillon reservoir, interstate 70, lake

Students in Summit County have always done well on the state’s assessment tests, and

last school year was no exception; they scored above average, though they did score lower when compared to their 2007 scores.

But, third-grade students who speak Spanish — most of them as a first language — didn’t do as well. At Dillon Valley Elementary School, 78% scored less than the average, which was 70%. Silverthorne third graders did poorly as well.

Fifth graders did better; in Dillon Valley, 65% scored average or higher. The scores also showed much improvement in fourth graders, which officials say is evidence that the schools’ teaching systems are working.

As a result, the state’s Department of Education is conducting a pilot program in the Summit School District for three years to help Hispanic students achieve better results. The district will receive between $200,000 and $300,000 a year to put into new academic programs.

Summit County real estate

Tags: dillon valley, school, Summit County, summit school district

If you’re looking at moving to Alma, you might want to know it’s not such a cowpoke town. In fact, it has a Montessori school, which is now accepting children ages 18 months through third grade this fall.

Its capacity is nearly doubling, from taking in 12 students, to 22. Director Jesse Hoehn hopes to keep expanding, up to accommodating sixth graders.

The school opened in 2006 and plans to be certified by the international Montessori association in two years.

Dillon and Breckenridge also have Montessori schools. The method of instruction engages all of the body’s senses in order for students to learn better.

Published by Breckenridge Colorado real estate

Tags: Breckenridge, Dillon, school

After so many Summit County locals and officials expressed discontent over the Dam Road closing, the Denver Water Board gave in — mostly.

The board reopened the road Friday, but the Dam Road will only remain open in the daytime, and Read more »

Tags: Dam road, real estate, Summit County