{"id":19986,"date":"2019-11-07T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/ski-academy-could-drive-local-residency\/"},"modified":"2019-11-07T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T22:21:00","slug":"ski-academy-could-drive-local-residency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/ski-academy-could-drive-local-residency\/","title":{"rendered":"Ski Academy could drive local residency"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The full-time ski academy programs offered through the competition center at the Winter Park Resort could play a big role in luring more families to the Fraser Valley to settle either full-time or part-time.<\/p>\n

What in the world, you might be asking, does this have to do with \u201ceconomic development?\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the mostly highly sought after potential homebuyer in these parts is the person or family who isn\u2019t necessarily a second homeowner, but a person who chooses to live in the valley year-round \u2014 or mostly year-round \u2014 and make roots in Grand County. That is, this would be a family that puts its children in the local schools, has perhaps one local job and \u201cbuys in\u201d to Grand County in general.<\/p>\n

Why is this the hoped-for homebuyer? Because these are families that pay the taxes, make the emotional investments locally and that bring, simply, more locals to the county. We have plenty of second-home and part-time owners.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that homes are being built at a feverish pace in the Fraser Valley right now. It\u2019s no secret that many more homes are set to be built in the near future, also at a pace that might seem to exceed market demand.<\/p>\n

I think, based on my experience, there\u2019s a real asset in the valley that could help bring more of these \u201cnew local\u201d families to our county. That is the programs at Winter Park Resort\u2019s Competition Center, and in particular the \u201cski academy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ski academy programs offer a truly unique, fairly priced and excellent system for skiers of all disciplines \u2014 snowboarders, free-stylers, alpiners and even Nordic skiers. It offers a great opportunity to get a full-time skiing curriculum while allowing the skiers and riders the chance to be in school as well.<\/p>\n

I know this because I have my children enrolled in the comp center programs and my oldest son participates in the Ski Academy (full-time) program for Nordic skiing. We\u2019ve been doing it for three years now.<\/p>\n

This program is a hidden gem and I\u2019m just surprised that it isn\u2019t taken advantage of by more people in Colorado \u2014 in particular by more people who live and work in the nearby Front Range.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s good about it. This program allows a private-school-like skiing curriculum and experience in a public school setting. This means that the cost of this program, when compared to something comparable in communities like Vail, Aspen or Steamboat, is much less. Believe me, I\u2019ve checked.<\/p>\n

This happens because the competition center and the East Grand School District, in particular the middle school and high school, have an excellent working relationship that allows students, families of students and ski coaches and the ski areas to work together to make this full-time academy a reality. This working relationship, which is pretty darn unique in the nation, works well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m waxing poetic about this because I think this ski program and its work with local families points in the general direction of how the linkage between the Fraser Valley and Front Range families, enhanced by such programs, can bring our valley more families who live here.<\/p>\n

Denver and the Front Range aren\u2019t really that far. With regular train service, mostly excellent roads and expanding public transportation options linking our valley with the Front Range, there\u2019s a real opportunity for a new type of homeowner putting down roots in the Fraser Valley.<\/p>\n

Location neutral workers who take advantage of the internet to work from home and other workers who don\u2019t have to be in their offices everyday can all take advantage of the proximity of our valley to the Front Range. I already know of a few families who do this very thing, and they live and work (most of the time) in Grand County, expanding our local population.<\/p>\n

These sort of competition center programs can help lure the right families to Grand County who would not usually give it a second thought. And that\u2019s good for us because it makes our county a more diverse, expansive and enriching place.<\/p>\n

And it can help get us more year-round (or mostly year-round) locals.<\/p>\n

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He provides free and confidential business management coaching for anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He can be reached at 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The full-time ski academy programs offered through the competition center at the Winter Park Resort could play a big role in luring more families to the Fraser Valley to settle either full-time or part-time. What in the world, you might be asking, does this have to do with \u201ceconomic development?\u201d Perhaps the mostly highly sought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 16:26:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}