The TFC officially launched last November as a means to help generate a more sustainable local economy by luring lucrative commercial, photo and film shoots to the region.
A crew of about 20 people is working the job, including “a handful of locals” said Wilson, who also indicated that another major sports retailer is “leaning heavily” toward Telluride as the location for its next catalog shoot.
“We will know within the next two or three weeks,” he estimated.
Wilson said that the TFC is generating a lot of interest in the region in the form of hits to its website and phone calls, despite not yet having made its major marketing push.
That is planned for later this month, when member Tim Territo will attend the Association of Film Commissioners International locations trade show in Santa Monica to promote the region’s splendor and keen workforce to thousands of locations scouts.
“Attending is definitely the pièce de résistance of the Film Commission,” Wilson said.
Dog Doo Discussion Returns
Local resident Shawn Smith, who made headlines recently for his campaign to counter canine defecation by wrapping deposits left on his lawn in bacon to appeal to a pooch’s most driving of appetites (thereby spurring spontaneous removal) successfully got the issue back on the government’s radar after appearing before the Telluride Town Council on Tuesday.
Noting that prior to attending the meeting he documented 235 separate violations in 30 minutes, Smith implored council to do more about the “dog crap all over Telluride” that remains a persistent problem despite the passage of an ordinance last year that more stringently punishes the guardians of derelict dogs.
Smith criticized the Telluride Marshal’s Department for ineffective enforcement in the war against dog doo, but Mayor Stu Fraser countered, “We don’t have a marshal’s department with enough people to monitor the streets for dog poop.”
“It’s not an easy situation to deal with,” he continued.
Local resident Bob Erie empathized with Smith’s dilemma, stating that from a dog’s point of view, Smith’s well-tended yard, “is a wonderful place to take a crap.”
Council is expected to take up the discussion when it meets in June.
Jazz Society Given OK to Sell More Celebration Tix
The Telluride Society for Jazz will be allowed to sell up to 4,500 tickets on the Sunday of this year’s Jazz Celebration, Aug. 6-8, after council voted 6-0 on Tuesday to exempt the organization from the maximum crowd size requirement of 2,999 set for “minor” festivals.
The organization requested the increase in order to accommodate a larger crowd that could result if fans coming to two concerts being played by the popular jam band Phish on Mon. Aug. 9 and Tues. Aug. 10, arrive in town early.
“In discussions with promoters of that event, it became clear that providing a diversion for early arrivals might be an effective crowd management alternative,” TSJ Board President Terry Tice wrote in a letter to council asking for the exemption.
As a minor event, Jazz is required to collect an admissions fee of $1 per person per day for crowd mitigation; however, that fee increases to $2.50 per ticket above 2,999 people. Jazz has agreed to pay the additional $1.50 per ticket for every ticket sold above 2,999.
“This is a one-time deal,” said TSJ Executive Director Paul Machado. “We do not want to make this a regular thing at all.”
Best Friends Forever: Telluride and Gyantse, Tibet
Like Boulder to our north and its sister-city relationship with the Tibetan city of Lhasa, Telluride may one day have a similar relationship with the Tibetan city of Gyantse, located about 150 miles southeast of Lhasa in the Nyang-chu Valley, after council voted 5-0 (Councilmembers Ann Brady and David Oyster were absent for the vote) on Tuesday to approve a letter exploring a potential relationship.
“The Boulder-Lhasa relationship is 24 years old and is founded in working together to help both cities understand and help the other town or city to achieve goals in education, environmental concerns, art and cultural activities and in developing tourism based activities. It would be our hope to focus on similar common goals with Gyantse,” the letter addressed to the “Most Honorable Leaders of the Town of Gyantse, Tibet, China” read.
“It’s the first step in trying to go through the somewhat confusing situation that exists in Tibet and China,” said Mayor Stu Fraser.
“It’s a rather political issue,” he said
Local resident Elisabeth Gick, who has visited Gyantse a number of times, instigated the idea, according to Fraser.
Town Park Annexation Moves Ahead
On the heels of its unanimous vote approving the annexation of the Valley Floor into municipal boundaries, the Telluride Town Council on Tuesday started the process again, this time with a unanimous vote to approve the annexation of a 27-acre parcel of land known as the Town Park/Riverside Annexation Parcel.
The proposed annexation parcel is generally bounded on the north by the Riverside Condominiums and Town Park, on the south by National Forest and the Bear Creek Preserve, on the west by County Road 68K, known as Bear Creek Road, and on the east by the Idarado tailings pile.
If approved on second reading the annexation will make certain portions of the Town Park festival grounds and ball fields that are currently located in unincorporated San Miguel County, part of Telluride, while incorporating others into the Bear Creek Preserve. One parcel will be conveyed to the Riverside Condominium Homeowners Association to correct a survey error.
Councilmember David Oyster was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
Post a Comment
