Despite a well-received slate of socially distanced drive-in movies at Buttermilk during last summer’s COVID-19 pandemic, the Aspen Skiing Co. abandoned plans Tuesday to repeat the program.
“We will withdraw our request for ongoing use of the (parking) lot,” Joey Woltemath, Skico’s senior operations manager in events marketing, told Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday during their regular weekly work session.
The main reason for deep-sixing the drive-in idea this summer is the booming local construction industry and the fact that a large section of the Buttermilk parking lot owned by the county is one of the only staging areas for Aspen-area construction projects. The other three sections of the county-owned lot owned are for free transit parking, paid, multi-day parking and day-use parking for mountain bikers using nearby Sky Mountain Park.
Commuters utilize the Hwy 82 roundabout as they drive into Aspen from down valley on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday approved the state transportation department’s summer 2022 plan to repave Highway 82 and reconstruct the roundabout, including a detour through Woody Creek.
Board members also gave the thumbs-up to contributing $100,000 toward the reconstruction of the roundabout and authorized the use of a strip of county-owned open space between the roundabout and the kiss-and-ride bus stop during construction.
“Doing a detour is really an essential part of this to make (the project) run as smoothly as possible,” Commissioner Steve Child said. “People are going to use it anyway.”