Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — After a rocky start to the year, sales tax revenue in Hayden is moving back toward normalcy.

Finance Director Lisa Dowling reported Tuesday that the town has posted $414,993 in sales taxes this fiscal year, a 2.5 percent decline compared with revenue collected during the same period last year.

“We budgeted flat from 2011, and the first couple of months kind of scared us a little bit because we weren’t going to make that,” Dowling said. “We were watchful because sales tax revenue is Hayden’s biggest revenue source, but we haven’t hit the panic button yet.”

In the five months of collections the town has counted in its 2012 revenue — the town counts November and December 2011 collections in 2012 revenue — Hayden has seen sizable increases and decreases each month. In February, the town saw a nearly 24 percent gain in revenue compared with February 2011. It then collected $96,962 in March, which is a nearly 10 percent decline from the $107,606 the town collected in March 2011.

Sales taxes in Hayden are collected two months before they are recorded as revenue, meaning March’s collections are the latest revenues the town can report.

Three Wire Bar & Grill

Yampa Valley Regional Airport Manager Dave Ruppel said although the net profits from the airport’s newest restaurant still are being calculated, he was thrilled with the customer reaction to Three Wire Bar & Grill.

“I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “We’re exceedingly pleased with how it did.”

The restaurant officially opened in December and posted $542,097 in gross sales through April. The total includes one day’s worth of sales in November.

Ruppel said now that the ski season is over, the restaurant operates from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays and adds dinner service from 5 to 8 p.m. on weekends.

To make it more than an airport eatery and to appeal to residents, Ruppel said the restaurant continues to cater for area functions and serves brunch Sunday mornings, among other things.

“They’re doing a lot of special things to draw people in,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a different animal out here than in the rest of town just because we get such huge numbers of people (during the ski season) and then we drop off to almost nothing. That’s our biggest challenge is trying to make it profitable in the offseason, and there are some opportunities to make it work.”

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210 or email scottfranz@SteamboatToday.com