Spent the Fourth of July in Aspen; as usual for me it was the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Good — the best of old Aspen in front of the fire station for the parade. Driving past Paradise Bakery boarded up was coronary time. But I was informed the horribles who bought it had a good plan for the community. They had identified the trophy bride segment as being under-served, so a wonderful boutique will be going in there — much better than all those families eating with running and laughing children. Good for them.
The really bad news was the study group for the airport. I won’t go into the politics of it, but it started its devious route with a county manager way back and has wound through the Crown family, Gulfstream and several career politicians to get to this point. My share now is that you don’t want to be setting in a 737, loaded on a hot day at 9,000 feet, engine out, missed approach, making a tight turn over the town of Aspen. This is where it is heading, and it behooves all of you to pay attention to what is going on. I’ll finish this later when I have more space.
Les Holst
Sarasota, Florida