Steamboat Today: Tom Ross

Gaps opening in downtown Steamboat Springs shopping district

The empty storefronts on Lincoln Avenue and its side streets this spring are subtracting from the retail experience in Steamboat Springs’ historic shopping district, Mainstreet Steamboat Springs President Bill Moser said this week.

On the Market: Trial attorney Welsh to join Feldman Nagel, LLC

Patrick Welsh is a civil and criminal trial attorney with the office of Feldman Nagel, LLC.

Tom Ross: A picture of Routt County veterans

Every year on Memorial Day, I pause to recall my grandfathers, both of whom saw combat in World War I. One fought in France, the other, improbably in Siberia.

Steamboat Cub Scout receiving chemo for brain tumor

Izaac Kinnison being treated in Denver

Izaac Kinnison, a fourth-grader at Soda Creek Elementary School, was diagnosed with a inoperable, malignant brain tumor earlier this month.

Early summer, scarce water pose decisions for Routt County hay growers

Farmers and ranchers welcomed the cold moisture that brought 0.17 inches of rain to Steamboat Springs overnight Wednesday and whitewashed the bald forehead of Storm Peak. There just wasn’t enough of it.

Historic Places Bike Tour to visit Steamboat area buildings, landmarks

Modern cruiser bikes and venerable Steamboat locations come together Saturday during the Historic Places Bike Tour.

Friday is last day to change party affiliation for primary

Registered voters who want to change their party affiliation in order to vote in one of the contested Republican races in the June 26 primary election have until Friday to do so.

Grocery enters planning process in Steamboat

Vitamin Cottage could occupy Lincoln space

Company officials aren’t ready to confirm it, but it appears the specialty grocery store hoping to come to downtown Steamboat Springs will be a Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage.

Routt County plans to hire part-time building inspector

Employee would help planning department

The Routt County Board of Commissioners gave its blessing Tuesday to a plan to hire a part-time temporary building inspector to help the county’s Regional Planning Department.

Routt County could retain groundwater quality expert

The Routt County Board of Commissioners could decide Tuesday to retain a consulting hydrologist to advise officials.

Tom Ross: Pioneer woman chased grizzlies

Have you noticed that the popular imagery of pioneer women in the American West doesn’t do them justice?

Public invited to try its hand at community planning

Steamboat Springs and Routt County officials are inviting residents to play a high-stakes poker game that could influence how the city and surrounding land in the county are developed in the future. But it’s not like it sounds.

On the Market: Shell open house set for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday

Representatives of Shell Exploration and Production Company will be on hand from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Steamboat Springs Community Center to share details of their energy exploration plans for Routt and Moffat counties.

Ignite Steamboat sparks entrepreneurial spirit

Local networking group Ignite Steamboat aims to connect lone eagles and location-neutral businesses on the premise that putting creative people together can lead to something new and exciting.

Tom Ross: Workin' on pizza moves

Most of us have amusing stories to tell about our first jobs as teenagers. And if you’re like me, you associate those jobs, which marked your entry into the adult world, with a particular summer.

Costs soar for Steamboat's ski season flight program

Managers of Steamboat’s ski season flight program expect to spend a record $3.5 million to meet revenue guarantees that brought direct flights into Yampa Valley Regional Airport last winter.

Technology forum explores growing digital traffic in Steamboat

Here in the Yampa Valley, smartphone pioneers today are using their handheld devices to clock their speed on ski runs, check the latest fishing reports, exchange smiles on FaceTime and post tweaked sunset photos to Facebook via Instagram.

Region's deer herds dwindling; officials adjust hunting permits

Game managers are dropping the number of hunting licenses available while they search for answers to explain why the number of deer in western Colorado is decreasing.

Moose killed in crash; orphan calf expected to be OK

A cow moose was struck and killed in a car crash shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday near U.S. Highway 40 and Anglers Drive in Steamboat Springs.

Steamboat lodging to bounce back from March letdown

After a particularly challenging March for Steamboat’s resort lodging industry, some executives are looking toward two-wheeled transportation to help drive summer bookings.

Optional buying slows Steamboat housing market recovery

In a sign of the times, Tom Fox received 52 applications when his company, Fox Construction, ran a classified newspaper ad this spring seeking to hire a project manager and estimator.

Seasonal allergies strike in Steamboat with early arrival of spring weather

The fate of allergy sufferers in Routt County was sealed during the last week in March when temperatures reached 60 degrees and higher during seven days and tree pollen counts spiked.

Routt County considering adding staff for drilling permits

With Shell Oil officials saying the company could seek three oil drilling permits in Routt County in 2012 and another five or six in 2013, the Routt County Board of Commissioners is contemplating how best to add planning staff to handle the workload.

Construction is under way at senior living community in Steamboat

Development officials confirmed Monday that construction on the 117,000-square-foot continuing care community Casey’s Pond Senior Living is under way.

Tom Ross: Jump in the car and go

Sometimes your best move is to just jump in the car and go. There’s no need to over-think your next outdoor adventure, especially if you’re headed out to pack as much exploring as you can into a 34-hour trip.

Trailhead Lodge auction nets 24 winning bids

About three dozen units in the Steamboat Springs base area development were put on the auction block Sunday during an event in downtown Denver. Trailhead Lodge was acquired by a Salt Lake City company through foreclosure proceedings last year.

On the Market: Local Realtors achieve national recognition

Joanne Erickson and Eliese Pivarnik, of Colorado Group Realty, have been awarded the Accredited Buyer’s Representation designation by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council.

Interest in commercial leases, construction ticks up in Steamboat

The physical evidence won’t be visible for a little while, but there are increasingly positive signs of new activity in commercial construction and leasing as well as multifamily development.

Average Routt County home price slips to $605,320

Routt County’s year-to-date average home price is down from $631,224 in 2011, according to Brooke Roberts, Land Title’s director of sales and marketing in the company’s Breckenridge office.

Tom Ross: A Nitty Gritty ditty

When I read Thursday’s news release announcing Independence Pass would open early, I had a flashback to one of my favorite Nitty Gritty Dirt Band songs, “Sarah in the Summer.”

Water resources to be scarce across Colorado

Retired water commissioner Elvis Iacovetto, who managed irrigation ditches on the upper Yampa River for 24 years, told an audience Friday afternoon at Library Hall at Bud Werner Memorial Library that he never has seen spring stream conditions as bad as they are now.

Conservation easements approved for ranches north of Hayden

The Routt County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously this week to commit a little more than $1 million of dedicated property tax revenue to place large conservation easements on a pair of western Routt County ranches whose history is woven into author Dorothy Wickenden’s best-selling nonfiction book “Nothing Daunted.”

Steamboat's Duckels Construction wins bid for west Routt roundabout

The Routt County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to award a $1.9 million contract to Duckels Construction for a giant traffic roundabout on Routt County Road 27.

Routt County Highway Cleanup Day returns May 19

Organizers of the sixth annual Routt County Highway Cleanup Day are urging volunteers to sign up early for the event that takes place from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. May 19.

State bill would withhold revenues from counties that thwart oil drilling

A bill before the state Legislature that appears to threaten thousands of dollars in revenue to Routt County from energy severance taxes will return to committee Wednesday.

Draper demoted to Road and Bridge assistant director

Paul Draper, the longtime director of the Road and Bridge Department, has accepted a demotion to assistant director.

Yampa River likely peaked after rainstorm

Rain late last week might mean it’s all downhill from here

The Yampa River jumped to 1,570 cfs at 7:30 a.m. Friday where it flows beneath the Fifth Street Bridge in downtown Steamboat. And with the benefit of hindsight, that may turn out to have been the river’s peak for spring runoff 2012.

Tom Ross: Steamboat’s pioneer businesses

I made an assignment for myself last week: get away from my computer and visit a gaggle of local businesses. It was good to enjoy the brisk spring air, and at the same time I was reminded of how beautiful our city’s historic shopping district is.

South Routt sees sales traffic in 1st quarter

The neighborhoods around the base of Steamboat Ski Area accounted for the bulk of real estate transactions and dollar volume in the first quarter of 2012, as they typically do. But the South Routt market — excluding Stagecoach, Oak Creek and Phippsburg — showed some surprising strength.

Steamboat stores make sure no item goes without a home

Spring is the best time of year for Annie Tisch at her Steamboat Springs consignment store. “This is when people go through their farm sheds and garages and bring in unusual things,” Tisch said.

On the Market: Steamboat attorney is speaker at convention

Catherine Swan — an attorney at Holloway, Brabec & Karet, P.C., with offices on Lincoln Avenue in Steamboat Springs — is among the speakers at the American Bar Association’s Construction Forum annual meeting, according to a news release.

Tom Ross: Home, home on the range

If you and I were cowboys and cowgirls living in the Yampa Valley in spring 1912 instead of 2012 (and sometimes I wish we were), by this date, we would already have driven the cattle into the foothills to begin the annual shove up.

Steamboat's Joe Pete LoRusso helps set skydiving world record

Effort brings together 60 adventurers 60 and older

Joe Pete LoRusso recently returned from Lake Elsinore, Calif., where he teamed up with 59 other people — none of them younger than 60 — to set a new world record.

Group to pay to keep water in Yampa, other state rivers

Statewide conservation organization Colorado Water Trust has launched a short-term water leasing program to preserve healthy flows in many of the state’s rivers.

60 people attend Routt County meeting about sandhill cranes

Ruling on Northwest Colorado crane hunt set for July 12, 13 in Sterling

A decision on a proposal for a limited hunting season for greater sandhill cranes in Routt and Moffat counties is scheduled to be made during a meeting July 12 and 13.