USA Pro Cycling Tour coming to….Telluride

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Twelve Colorado cities will host next year’s USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

Next year’s race, scheduled for Aug. 20 through Aug. 26, will begin in Durango and end in Denver after some 520 miles of racing that include five ascents of passes over 10,000 feet.

Several sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because race organizers will not officially announce the route until Tuesday, confirmed that a dozen of the 25 Colorado cities and towns that bid for host status won a coveted stage. This year’s inaugural seven-day race started in Colorado Springs and ended in Denver, with 135 of the world’s top cyclists drawing one million spectators along a 518-mile montane route.

The first stage of the 2012 race will wind 111 miles from Durango over 10,222-foot Lizard Head Pass and down into Telluride.

Read more here!

Association of Realtors pledges $10K

By: tara | Posted in: In the Press | No Comments

Association of Realtors pledges $10K to regional air org.

TAR has given $216K to airline guarantee program since 2002

 The Telluride Association of Realtors recently pledged $10,000 to support the Telluride Montrose Regional Air Organization’s Airline Guarantee Program.

TAR believes that the program is critical to the success of the region’s tourist-based economy and has been a supporter of it for years. Since 2002, TAR has contributed upwards of $215,000 to TMRAO’s guarantee program. This year’s pledge of $10,000 puts the exact donation total at $216,800.

“We’re pleased with the support from TAR and also the broader support of many individual TAR member brokerage firms of our air service development and support efforts,” said Scott Stewart, TMRAO’s executive director of air service development. “Air service is a critical part of the local economic infrastructure and the TAR contribution helps TMRAO continue its efforts toward the overall economic health of the community.”

TMRAO’s Airline Guarantee Program provides broader air travel options to those flying to and from the area. Started in 1985, the program encourages major airlines to offer adequate and attractively priced flights into the Telluride and Montrose regional airports by utilizing revenue guarantees, a type of cost sharing. Through donations from numerous local and regional entities, it shares the fiscal risk with certain airlines, allowing such carriers to better and more cost-effectively serve the region. This is critical in a place like Telluride because, due to their small population bases, Telluride and Montrose typically would not support the quality of air service they presently possess.

If the program didn’t exist, airlines would be forced to reduce their flight numbers/frequencies into the region, which would, in turn, drive fares up, potentially devastating the local economy and causing damage to the ski resort.

“Because of this community’s commitment to air service, and in particular the real estate community’s strong contributions, our air program has helped us through some of the toughest economic conditions in the last few years,” said Dirk de Pagter, chairman of the board of TMRAO.

To emphasize the Airline Guarantee Program’s success over the years, $175,000 was invested into the program back in 1992; by the 2007-2008 season that amount had increased into a guaranteed payment of more than $1.2 million from a budget of almost $2.2 million. In 2009, the maximum exposure for summer and winter went up to over $4 million, thus exemplifying the program’s success even through tough economic times.

“These are difficult times,” says de Pagter, “not to mention that oil prices are going through the roof and aircraft sizes are ever increasing. These factors all make it more challenging to service our small airports, which is why the real estate community’s support is so vital.”

We got another overnight….on Great Lakes

By: admin | Posted in: In the Press, Vacation Tips | No Comments

All,

Great Lakes has added an additional weekly Overnight Flight between 7/17/11 and Film Festival/Labor Day Weekend on Saturday Nights!

 What this means is we will have an Overnight DENVER TELLURIDE FLIGHT coming in on:  Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday

 Early AM Return from TELLURIDE to DENVER on:  Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday

  Let’s try to fill up that NEW Saturday EveningInbound/Sunday Morning Return!

Also Note that Great Lakes has added some additional flights over Film Festival!

Flight loads have been good so far into Telluride Airport this summer…let’s keep on filling these flights…it helps our efforts to keep them and/or in the case of the overnight flights get them back in the winter!

Telluride Airport Extends Operating Hours

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Telluride Regional Airport will operate 6 a.m. – 9 p.m. year round, effective
immediately

By Kathrine Warren
Staff Reporter

In a board meeting on Thursday, the TRAA voted 7-0 to change the Telluride Regional Airport’s operating hours, with the hopes of bringing in more air passengers in the wintertime. The new operating hours are open to both commercial and private aircraft.

For more than 25 years the airport’s operating hours were 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after sunset.

The idea to change the airport’s operating hours first gained traction last summer when TRAA realized the airport could be ineligible for $1 million in Federal Aviation Administration funding if the its enplanement numbers — the amount of commercial passengers arriving and departing — dipped below 10,000.

Airport officials saw extended winter night hours as a chance to attract more commercial flights per day and in turn, more visitors.

As TRAA explored extending hours, residents of the Last Dollar and Aldasoro subdivisions came out swinging against the proposal while other community members thought the change would help the region’s economy.

Past meetings have been rife with passionate opposition and support for the idea, however only a handful of people were present Thursday and there was no public comment.

“This has been very contentious,” said TRAA chairmen John Micetic. “I hope we move forward and move forward positively, for the whole community.”

Ann Brady, Telluride Town Council member and TRAA board member, acknowledged that the community will grumble about it, but pointed out, “We’ve given months and months to this.”

Telluride AIDS Benefit

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Telluride AIDS Benefit gives away $140k

By Matthew Beaudin
Editor

The Telluride AIDS Benefit gave away $140,000 to five AIDS treatment and prevention groups last week, marking one of the festival’s most successful years in its 18-year history.
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$25,000 in College Scholarships

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THE STROKES OF GENIUS HELP SIX LOCAL KIDS SWING HIGHER EDUCATION

Telluride High School Graduates Receive $25,000 in College Scholarships

TELLURIDE, Colo. (May 26, 2011) – Thanks to the Strokes of Genius (formerly Benchmark) Fund, college tuition is a bit more affordable for six 2011 graduates. Now in its 18^thyear, the Strokes of Genius Scholarship has become a proud Telluride tradition. It is the largest and longest running local scholarships available for Telluride’s graduating seniors, enabling Telluride students with both financial need and academic merit to pursue higher education.
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Ah Haa’s 007 Art Auction

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Telluride Foundation

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On your mark, get set, RUN-DOLA!

The Telluride Foundation announces the first annual Telluride Classic Run-dola footrace that will take place on July 4^th at 8a.m. The Run-dola is an open registration uphill footrace from the base of the gondola in Telluride to the ridge that parallels the gondola.
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Telluride Mountian Film 2011

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Parties to Remember

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Telluride citizen Rosie Cusack is equal parts raconteur/real-estate broker/home decorator/party-giver nonpareil. On that last front, her two hot-ticket parties – one in March, another on or around Labor Day, when she celebrates her birthday as well as the comings and goings of friends who set their annual calendars, like she does, by the Telluride Film Festival – feature barbecued Omaha Steaks. “I’m friends with one of the owners,” she explains, “for going on 16 years.” As a matter of fact: “I brought Omaha Steaks to the Telluride Film Festival,” another hot-ticket Labor Day tradition, which features them at its closing picnic every year.

Read more: Watch Newspapers – Parties to Remember