Pending Transactions

With many school kids going back to classes the summer crowd has thinned out a bit but tourism remains healthy. The nearby Lions Fire burning on the other side of the Minarets and the Ritter/Banner peaks remains burning but the smoke has been moving north and sparing Mammoth Lakes proper. Helicopters are still buzzing overhead as they shuttle between Mammoth Airport and the fire location. Two weeks ago in The Sheet, longtime Red’s Meadow pack station operator Bobby Tanner made an argument to let the fire burn. His sound argument is that the area has been over protected for so long that it has accumulated vast amounts of dead trees and brush. The incident commander calls the burning area  “some of the most unforgiving terrain in the nation.” The fire is currently 80% contained but they may just let it burn until the snow flies. The cooler temperatures certainly help the fire crews.

California’s “Super Volcano” was back in the news during the period. Now there is “240 cubic miles of magma hiding.” But there seemed to be some confusion as to where all of the magma is hiding. The San Francisco Gate article featured a caldera diagram and a photo. The article specifically referred to the Long Valley Caldera (Mammoth). But the caldera diagram was of the Medicine Lake volcano, an area in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and the photo was of Mt. Lassen. That gives the writer and the article poor credibility.

The article refers to our local caldera that blew 760,000 years ago (part of the local knowledge). Gladly, the “scientists do not believe that an eruption of that scale will occur anytime in the near future.”….A couple of years ago I had the privilege of sitting in on a private presentation by the famed Dr. David Hill who was in charge of the USGS monitoring in the Mammoth region for many years including the early 1980’s when Mammoth was “going to blow.” I remember him saying that the main problem was the the USGS had “no protocols” how to handle the public safety aspect of the local geologic activity. I’m betting they still don’t. The recent volcanic activity on the Big Island of Hawaii is likely to prove they still don’t have real protocols in place. So meanwhile, dimwit newspaper writers can continue to produce hysteria headlines….But one of the first rules of living in Mammoth (from the 80’s and 90’s) is; don’t let your gas tank go below half full.

Last Thursday night there was a presentation by the owner of the Sierra Nevada Resort at Mammoth Brewing. Mr. Jim Demetriades is arguably one the smartest guys in the room, at least around Mammoth. And certainly one of the wealthiest. He has been pushing a major redevelopment of his Old Mammoth Road property since he purchased it in 2005. Based on the presentation I would say he is bored (and frustrated) with real estate development, especially since he has many new entrepreneurial enterprises with major universities and young intellectuals.

But the focus of the presentation had to do with the Mammoth Airport / Bishop Airport situation. His contention is that the Bishop Airport improvements will take at least 10 years, and maybe longer if there is environmental based litigation (and the local Sierra Club nazi wasin the room). At the same time the FAA is basically ready to fund the $40 million for the Mammoth Airport terminal improvements. Demetriades recommended we should be moving forward with these improvements immediately. He also impressed upon the crowd that the newer jets that United is bringing (and will bring) to the local air service are far better for handling the altitude and winds. And there are far more pilots available for those aircraft than the Alaska 400 turbo props.

Apparently Demetriades had some of his “think tank” partners do an independent analysis of the whole situation, and moving forward with the Mammoth Airport improvements is the highly recommended course. Even if Bishop falls into the picture later on. He said he has discussed this with Rusty Gregory, but Gregory believes the Mammoth improvements should be much smaller and still believes Bishop is the ultimate location for major air service. Demetirades also implied that there have been 500,000 Ikon Passes sold already. I haven’t seen that number announced anywhere, but if it is true then the Ikon Pass is clearly competing with Vail’s Epic Pass.

The post presentation discussions around the room were enlightening. Maybe it was because Demetriades paid for all of the beer, wine and pupus that were served throughout the evening. Long time former Town Councilmember John Eastman agreed with Demetriades that the FAA money should be spent ASAP. Town Manager Dan Holler looked at him like he was crazy. A local airport official who had recently toured the Bishop Airport facility said that the landlord, LADWP, wasn’t going to allow any increased water usage and that there were wetlands issues with the main runway. And a longtime (and native) Bishop resident said that while the Bishop business community is presently in favor of major airport expansion, there would eventually be opposition.

A few months ago when I was down at Mammoth Airport renewing my TSA pass, the airport manager told me clearly; “we can’t subsidize two airports.” So with everything else that this Council is contending with, the airport controversy looks to be heating up. We’ll see if Rusty has his way with the group, or if they can think for themselves.

And from the hypocrisy department, Councilman Bill Sauser was quoted in this week’s issue of The Sheet complaining about an additional layer of asphalt as part of the new Main St. sidewalk projects. He apparently wanted to see something more aesthetic in the design. There’s already seven lanes of traffic and parking on both sides, so there’s already plenty of asphalt. But Sauser is the first and biggest champion of paving over everything possible at Mammoth Creek Park West. Hypocrisy is clearly in vogue.

Favorite New Listing For The Period!