Chris Dillmann/cdillmann@vaildaily.com
VAIL In the past, the town’s Vail America Days festivities have seen more than 1,000 cars lined along the Frontage Road after filling the town’s parking structures on the July 4 holiday.
During last year’s pandemic, however, those structures didn’t fill.
This year, Vail was back up to 463 cars on the road, and workers in town said business was steady.
Jon Walters, director of sales at The Sebastian hotel in Vail, said the hotel was nearly full, and many guests had booked early.
“That’s the big difference from last year,” Walters said. “Last year, it all came in fairly short notice, but this year, we’re getting bookings far further in advance.”
John LaConte/jlaconte@vaildaily.com
VAIL The Fourth of July fell on a Sunday this year, and in Vail, that meant both the Independence Day exhibitions and the regular Sunday farmers market were combined into one enormous party.
Crowds spanned from Vail Village to Lionshead, enjoying pocket patriotism displays throughout.
Visiting from Texas, U.S. Military veteran Chuck Utzman and his wife, Jan, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Vail on Sunday, walking the village and posing for pictures with the stilt-wearing Uncle Sam and Betsy Ross characters.
Utzman, who claimed a birthday of May 15, 1929, on his first military registration card so he could go to Japan with the U.S. Army in 1947, went on to fight in both the Vietnam War and the Korean War, as well. He took part in a winter training in Camp Hale in the 1950s, and returned to Eagle County a little more than a decade later to try out the skiing at Vail.
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Vail Fire Chief Mark Novak has for years said it’s not a matter of “if, but when” the town will experience a major wildfire. Now, “when” may be sooner than anyone thinks.
Justin Q. McCarty/Daily file photo
Vail this year is continuing free summer parking, with the exceptions of overnight stays in the Vail Village and Lionshead structures.
In order to keep the structures from becoming summer-season vehicle storage areas, the town a few years ago imposed the overnight charge.
Vail Acting Division Head for Parking Stephanie Kashiwa noted that the overnight charge was waived in 2020 as part of the town’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The charge is back, and more expensive, this year.
Kashiwa said the overnight charge, as well as work wrapping up on the Vail Health Hospital expansion, has freed up “quite a few hundred” spaces in the structures.