News

• Telski Files Lawsuit against Prohaska, Fee, and Wisor
• Mountain Village Looks to Increase Resilience for a Changing Climate
• Cat Movie Fisher with Risho Unda

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Telski Files Lawsuit against Prohaska, Fee, and Wisor

The Telluride Ski and Golf Resort has filed a lawsuit against Marti Prohaska, Meehan Fee and Paul Wisor for alleged conduct relating to an offer to purchase a majority portion of the ski resort.

Telski filed the case at the end of February in San Miguel County District Court.

The lawsuit names the three as individuals. It does not include the towns of Telluride or Mountain Village as defendants.

The complaint revisits events from December and January, when Prohaska and Fee traveled to California to speak with Telski owner Chuck Horning regarding a ski patrol strike.

Prohaska was Mountain Village mayor at the time. Fee was Telluride mayor pro tem.

According to the complaint, Fee and Prohaska, acting as the Telluride Ski Resort Fund, offered to purchase 51% of Telski for $127.5 million.

Included in the contract proposal was “Appendix B,” which stated Prohaska and Fee would help end the ski patrol strike, ensure Mountain Village and Telluride kept water prices for snowmaking at 2024 levels, help create housing for Telski employees, shift town spending on regional flight development, and commit $50 million in capital upgrades to the resort.

Fee and Prohaska signed a contract for the purchase. Horning did not.

The complaint also alleges that Wisor drafted a non-disclosure agreement regarding the purchase offer. Wisor is Mountain Village’s town manager but is currently on administrative leave.

Telski brings three claims against the defendants: tortious interference with prospective business relations, intentional interference with contract, and civil conspiracy.

In the first claim, the resort alleges Prohaska, Fee and Wisor improperly used their public office and interfered with business, causing Telski to lose millions of dollars.

The second claim, regarding the resort’s current water rights contract, alleges the three took action to breach the contract or make Telski’s performance more difficult or impossible.

Finally, Telski alleges the three colluded with a common goal of harming the resort, keeping it closed, or leveraging their positions to purchase it.

Telski says the claims represent millions of dollars in economic value to the resort.

KOTO News reached out to Prohaska and Wisor for comment. They were not available by broadcast deadline.

In a statement to KOTO News, Jason Dunn, a lawyer representing Fee, called the lawsuit an effort to “harass, intimidate, and punish,” adding: “Chuck Horning could take these three public servants for every penny they are worth and it probably wouldn’t be a rounding error in his bank account.” Dunn said the complaint has no merit and that they look forward to explaining that to the court.

Telski was not available for further comment by broadcast deadline.

The Telluride Ski and Golf Resort is asking the court to rule in its favor, seeking “money damages, including all actual, consequential, special, liquidated and exemplary damages,” attorneys’ fees and costs, and any other relief the court sees fit.

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Mountain Village Looks to Increase Resilience for a Changing Climate

Climate change is impacting communities, and the town of Mountain Village is taking steps to respond.

Last month, the Town Council passed a new Community Resilience Advisory Plan, building off the town’s Climate Action Plan and serving as a roadmap to improve climate, wildfire, drought and extreme weather resilience.

The plan sets goals across five impact areas: building energy, renewable energy, transportation, waste and natural resources.

Mountain Village Sustainability and Grant Projects Manager Lauren Kirn said the breadth of the plan is intentional, even if the actions are an uphill battle.

“Our efforts whether achieving carbon neutrality, or resiliency measures, will not make a significant dent in global climate change. As you can see from the numbers, that is 100% accurate, but that’s also not the point of this plan,” Kirn said.

The point, she said, is local resilience — not just global impact.

“We face real risk like reduced snowpack, which we’ve already seen this year; acting now is cheaper than reacting later. It does have tangible local benefits like the economic savings associated with reduced energy costs with resiliency protection measures – especially related to wildfire and insurance; a better quality of life; protecting property values. Then there’s the collective responsibility where we have a moral responsibility to future generations and to the environment,” Kirn said.

In total, the plan outlines 14 strategies and 41 actions across the focus areas, phased in over the next one to 10 years.

“There’s the main plan. There’s the implementation roadmap – which is an appendix. Then the goal is to use the roadmap and plan to then come to council with specific yearly projects and budget allocation requests,” Kirn said.

Key strategies include promoting energy efficiency in homes and businesses, increasing local renewable energy generation, expanding multimodal infrastructure and transit-oriented development, expanding composting and recycling programs, and improving forest health and wildfire mitigation.

Over the last several months, Mountain Village collected public input on the plan. Kirn said comments were overall supportive, especially regarding forest health and wildfire mitigation. Comments included four specific project requests.

“A second emergency exit and evacuation route – that came up a couple of times. There was one request for public composting to support businesses. A request for participating in dark sky. Then one request for development of community spaces for locals,” Kirn said.

During council discussion, members were largely supportive, but Councilmember Pete Duprey said the document may be too long to be useful.

“It’s 100 pages. It’s going to tend to go on the bookshelf. I’d like to get us to focus on, over the next five years, what are the five things we really want to deliver on,” Duprey said.

Mountain Village Mayor Scott Pearson agreed completing the full list of strategies and actions is not feasible but called the document a “goldmine of ideas.”

“This is a great resource and we can start drawing from it. We can start digging in one at a time at some of these high impact, doable, and feasible things,” Pearson said.

The Mountain Village Town Council approved the Community Resilience Advisory Plan in a 5-1 vote.

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Cat Movie Fisher with Risho Unda

It’s time for another installment of Cat Movie Fisher, a segment where Telluride High School’s Risho Unda chats with members of the community about their favorite movie.

This week, he’s speaking with school social worker Laura Knight.

Story begins at 7:45.

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Telluride Seeks Input on Parking

Parking in Telluride drew widespread attention last summer, and now residents have a chance to weigh in.

The town of Telluride is seeking public comment on its angled parking pilot program and overall parking availability.

Telluride launched the angled parking pilot in April along Colorado Avenue from Davis Street to Aspen Street. The program ran through November. Town officials said the pilot was introduced to increase parking capacity, improve safety and help offset parking loss during major construction. During the program, a number of nearby residents voiced concern and opposition.

Results from the survey will help inform the Town Council as it considers what parking should look like this summer and in the future.

The survey is open to residents, commuters, employees, business owners and visitors. It closes Monday, March 16. Results will be shared with the Town Council at its March 17 meeting.

The survey is available at bit.ly/totparkingsurvey.

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KOTO Cribbage Tournament Returns

It’s time to count your crib, find those double runs, and peg to 31 — KOTO’s cribbage tournament is back.

Whether you’re an experienced cribbage player or new to the game, the tournament is open to all skill levels.

Participants are asked to bring their own board and deck of cards, if possible.

The KOTO cribbage tournament will take place at the Cornerhouse on Thursday, March 5, starting at 7 p.m. There is an entry fee. Prizes will be awarded.

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Colorado Parties Hold Precinct Caucuses

The Democratic and Republican parties in Colorado are holding precinct caucuses this week.

San Miguel and Ouray County Democrats and Republicans are caucusing Saturday, March 7.

Democrats in San Miguel will caucus at the Wilkinson Public Library starting at 3 p.m. In Ouray, precincts 1 and 2 will caucus at the Ouray School, while precincts 3 through 5 will meet at Ridgway Secondary School. Both Ouray caucuses begin at 10 a.m.

San Miguel County Republicans will hold their caucus at Norwood Town Hall beginning at 10 a.m. Ouray County Republicans in precincts 1 and 2 will meet at the Ouray Baptist Church, and precincts 3 and 5 will gather at the Ridgway Public Library at 10 a.m. Precinct 4 will meet at the Duvall Home at 4 p.m.

To participate, voters must be registered with the party at least 22 days before their caucus date.

At the caucus, party members discuss which candidates they want on their party’s primary ballot and select delegates to advance to the county assembly. Party members also elect precinct organizers and help recruit election judges and poll watchers.

The caucus is one pathway to the June primary ballot. Candidates can also qualify by gathering signatures from voters.

Barb Whinery, co-director of voter services for the Colorado League of Women Voters, said caucuses are valuable opportunities for eligible party members to participate in grassroots democracy.

“Precincts are a really important component of this whole election process. You feel ‘I’m just not a number.’ My precinct is my neighborhood around me. Those are the people that, you know, we have things in common ’cause we live in the same place. It’s grassroots and I think we’ve got to start getting people back together and building community and I think this whole caucus process is a way to do that,” Whinery said.

Delegates chosen at precinct caucuses advance to county assemblies, held between now and March 28. From there, some delegates move on to the state assembly.

Both Democrats and Republicans will host their state assemblies in Pueblo. Democrats hold theirs March 28, and Republicans hold theirs April 11.

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Colorado Lawmakers Split Over U.S.-Israel Strikes on Iran

Colorado’s congressional delegation is divided over the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran over the weekend, fueling debate over presidential war powers, according to the Colorado Capitol News Alliance’s Kyle McKinnon.

Colorado Republicans praised the strikes as necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear program and protect U.S. national security. Democrats, however, said President Donald Trump bypassed Congress and lacked the authority to launch the attacks.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., called for congressional oversight in an interview with CNN.

“That’s the accountability mechanism to make sure that we don’t have a president that will get us into a quagmire without the consent of the American people,” Crow said.

Several members of Colorado’s Democratic delegation, including Crow, are seeking a vote on a war powers resolution, which would require congressional approval for long-term military action. Trump has said operations in Iran could last more than a month.

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Rural Hospitals Struggle with Rising Costs, Medicaid Cuts

Rural hospitals across the region are grappling with rising costs and declining funding following significant Medicaid cuts.

As a result, some facilities are laying off staff, scaling back services and, in some cases, warning they could close altogether.

In eastern Idaho, an anonymous donor recently stepped in to save Teton Valley Health Care from shutting its doors, but not before the hospital laid off 26 employees and closed its infusion clinic.

As KHOL’s Jenna McMurtry and Sophia Boyd-Fliegel report for Rocky Mountain Community Radio, the changes are forcing some patients with autoimmune diseases or cancer to drive hours to receive their medication.

Story begins at 18:10.