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Taking part in the celebration of the award presented for engineering construction management in a medium community to the promenade at Steamboat Ski Area last month by the Colorado Chapter of the American Public Works Association was Drexel, Barrell & Co. engineering and surveying.

Drexel Barrel primarily was responsible for the tricky relocation of utilities and the study of Burgess Creek, said the firm’s project manager, Mike Mordi.

“We conducted the calculations of the flow rate that would make the creek safe for wading,” Mordi said. “We also designed the diversion structure to divert the water back above ground.”

Drexel Barrell has been working in Steamboat since the 1970s and was involved in the design of the original base area when Burgess Creek originally was taken underground in a culvert running beneath the old Headwall ski trail.

State Land Board OKs ConocoPhillips lease

The Associated Press

The Colorado State Land Board unanimously has approved a $137 million oil and gas development lease with ConocoPhillips to develop resources at the 26,000-acre Lowry Range property.

The Denver Post reports that the board had delayed its vote on the lease because another state agency is pressing ConocoPhillips to pay $152 million for cleanup of leaky underground gas tanks at 354 sites. State officials said Friday that dispute is unrelated to the lease.

The deal approved Friday represents the largest per-acre mineral lease price for the land board. ConocoPhillips would pay the state 20 percent royalties on oil and natural gas produced there.

The lease only allows for 650 acres of surface disturbance, but the company can use horizontal drilling to drill multiple wells from a single well pad.

Vail Resorts to continue reining in energy costs

Vail Resorts Inc. said it has met its goal of reducing its energy consumption by 10 percent, and it plans to keep going.

Since announcing its energy-reduction goal in 2008, the company has taken steps including replacing inefficient lighting and making its snowmaking systems more energy efficient. Vail Resorts said Thursday that those steps helped it reduce its electricity and natural gas usage by 10.75 percent in three years.

It said the energy savings are equivalent to the annual energy usage of about 1,400 average U.S. homes.

The company now is aiming to reduce energy consumption by another 10 percent by 2020.

The company operates four ski resorts in Colorado and two in the Lake Tahoe area. It has announced plans to also acquire the Kirkwood resort in the Tahoe area.

Yelp raises $900 million; market eases below 13K

Stock indexes crept lower in midday trading Friday, putting the Dow Jones industrial average on track for its first weekly loss following two weeks of gains.

The Dow fell 12 points to 12,967 shortly after 10 a.m. .

Yelp Inc. jumped more than 60 percent on its first day of trading. The online review site’s initial public offering valued the company at $900 million.

In other trading, the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4 points to 1,369. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 8 points to 2,980.