MAMMOTH LIQUOR Saturday, May 9/ for Zoom Link: Visit
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the sheet PHOTO: COPELAND News, Views & Culture of the Eastern Sierra Lupita and Luis from Mammoth’s Grocery Outlet with just a few of the many donations the Outlet’s made to Mammoth’s Food Bank. Saturday, May 9, 2020 FREE Vol. 18, No. 19 ‘WORKS DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE SWEET 16 Bishop and Bridgeport still plan on 4th of July fireworks. Mammoth has canceled By Hite ast week the Town of restrictions that we would not Planning Committee. Mammoth Lakes (TOML) be able to manage without sub- The Fourth of July celebra- Lofficially cancelled most stantial staffing and less than tion in Bridgeport is one of the of its Fourth of July festivities. enjoyable interactions with the Town’s biggest annual gather- This means no parade, fire- public, the decision was made ings. works, Pops in the Park, the to cancel the fireworks. Diffi- “This little Town depends on Footloose Freedom Mile, the cult, but to cancel closer to the the Fourth of July celebration. MAC Arts Festival in the Foot- event would also upset people It brings in about 6,000-8,000 loose parking lot or any gather- who, if allowed to travel, would people a year,” said Pemberton, ing of more than 50 people. be counting on the fireworks acknowledging that this year’s “There are too many sig- as part of their vacation and to celebration will be different. nificant unknowns,” said Stuart not have them would be disap- Traditionally there are ven- Brown, the Town’s Parks and pointing.” dors all the way down Main Recreation Director wrote in an The Sheet also reached out to Street. This will not be happen- email to the Sheet, “The Town Bishop and Bridgeport to see ing this year. Pemberton noted, is 100% supportive of Covid- how stay-at-home orders have “We are going to have dis- friendly events this summer, affected the planning process persed events all around town particularly the Fourth of July for their 4th of July celebra- instead of in one place.” but it will be a daunting chal- tions. Regarding Mammoth’s deci- lenge to keep our community “We are still planning on sion, Pemberton simply noted, and visitors safe with the many having it. Hopefully we can “Seemed kinda early,” and left mitigation measures.” have it but we are currently it at that. TOML Town Manager Dan still planning ours,” said Linda Chris Costello, a member of Holler explained the decision Pemberton, a member of both Bishop Town Council and the to cancel thsi way. “Rather the Bridgeport Chamber of Bishop volunteer fire than impose a large number of Commerce and Fourth of July see ‘WORKS, page 7 SIGN OF THE TIMES? Five Star Lodging appeals late remittance fees By Hite n May 6, Mammoth 14), the Governor’s Stay Home Lakes Town Council order (March 19), and the experienced, in literary county Health Department’s O initial order to shut down terms, a foreshadowing. Five Star Lodging, owned by (March 20) which was rescind- Megan and Jason Herbst, ap- ed and replaced (March 21) ... peared in front of Town Coun- During the period from March cil, over zoom, to appeal TOT/ 14 –April 1, our organization TBID penalties and interest was beset with challenges during the month of March. we had no preparation for: a February TOT was due on confusing series of contradic- Friday, March 20. In light of the tory orders to cease operations, pandemic the Town extended hundreds and hundreds of calls the grace period to pay Febru- from angry/frightened guests ary TOT to March 26, meaning as well as worried property late fees and interest began owners; the heartbreaking accruing on March 27. need to layoff most of our team, Jason and Megan Herbst a total loss of revenue and also wrote the Town a letter plead- a technical problem accessing ing their case, “Unfortunately the XPressBillPay website.” the timing of the TOT filing Five Star finally contacted Macey Magee (top right) was treated to a special convoy of local first responders along Sierra Nevada deadline (March 20) coincided Ben Manning, the Revenue Road to help celebrate her 16th birthday on Wednesday. She is pictured with her mother Shannon. The with the closure of Mammoth Specialist for TOML, and paid drive-by was arranged by Macey’s grandmother Debbie Diaz, who serves as the Disaster Preparedness Mountain ski resort (March Liaison for Mono County. see COUNCIL, page 11 Epic manuever Pedro was dynamite Not Al-for(d) Novak Don’t be so testy United we spend p. 2/ p. 8-9/ p. 3/ p. 2/ p. 13/ 2 I www.thesheetnews.com THE SHEET I Saturday, May 9, 2020 EPIC MANUEVER the Ted Carleton ....... Jack of all Lunches Those folks at Vail are pretty tricky. And they’re making rival resort aggregator Alterra 760.937.4613 / [email protected] seem a bit flat-footed. The latest ... Vail has differentiated itself in two distinct ways from Alterra in how it’s June Simpkins...Jack of everything else handling the pandemic - particularly from a customer relations vantage point. 760.937.3967 / [email protected] 1. Vail is offering 20% to 80% refunds to Epic passholders for the Covid-shortened sheet Zachary Hite ................... Writer 2019-2020 ski season. 20% if you skied 5 days or more. 80% if you had never used your News, Views & Culture of the Eastern Sierra [email protected] pass before the shutdown. 2. “New for the 2020/21 season, Epic Coverage is included FREE for all passholders, Recte de decem novem cynicorum Owen Page ..................... Writer and provides refunds associated with certain personal events, including illness, job -Mencken [email protected] loss, and injury. It also expands coverage to protect you from certain resort closures, such as any due to COVID-19 ... If any of the following happens over the course of the Melissa Maddux .............Writer next season, you will get a full or prorated refund. We are giving you the protection [email protected] FREE because it allows you to look past today’s uncertainty and toward a new season.” Clouds McCloud ......... By contrast, Alterra has offered no 2019-2020 refunds and pass insurance costs extra. JACK LUNCH Ass-trologer Further, one reader pointed out this fine print regarding Alterra’s Ikon offer which PUBLISHER Spike Todd ...........Beverage Consultant states that a buyer can defer a 2020-2021 pass for any reason between Sept. 10 and December 10 for use in 2021-2022. P.O. Box 8088 “If there is a price difference between the credit amount issued for the 20/21 Ikon Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546 For a subscription, contact Lunch at his Pass product and the Ikon Pass product purchased for the 21/22 winter season for 760.924.0048/[email protected] above e-mail address, or call the office. Issues whatever reason, including price increases, passholder age or eligibility for certain An adjudicated paper of general circula- are mailed out bi-weekly. Cost is $75/year. discounts, the purchaser will be required to pay the price difference.” tion. © 2020 The Sheet, all rights reserved. Translation: Even though you might pay in 2020 dollars and defer the pass for a year, same way ever again. That’s what’s going to happen with this.” the deferral won’t work like one of those USPS “Forever” stamps. They’ll hold your That if the wealthy come through this just as wealthy, if not more, while the vast money, and it’s virtually guaranteed that while they hold your money, it will lose value majority struggle, massive political disruption is possible. “Just as we come out of our - in the form of potential price increases that dilute your initial investment. holes and see what 25% unemployment looks like,” she said, “we may also see what Onto the coronavirus thoughts of the week. collective rage looks like.” Well … the more you know, the less you know. And what America needs most right now, she said, isn’t this drumbeat of testing, Which is why people who don’t know much try to avoid knowing anything. It’s too testing, testing, because there will never be enough super-fast, super-reliable tests to demoralizing. determine on the spot who can safely enter a crowded workplace or venue. America What has struck me this week … needs good information, from many rigorously designed studies, about the prevalence Frank Bruni’s column in the New York Times on Monday where he interviewed Lau- and deadliness of coronavirus infections in given subsets of people so that governors rie Garrett, who wrote the 1994 bestseller “The Coming Plague” and has been predict- and mayors can develop rules for social distancing and reopening that are sensible, ing a pandemic like the current one for the past quarter century. sustainable and tailored to the situation at hand. A few of her observations: 36 months is her best-case scenario in terms of event horizon. She can’t see a vaccine A second article that intrigued me appeared in the latest issue of the Economist and coming anytime in the next year. talked about China’s public policy approach. That a whole ‘new normal’ will be created. “Did we go ‘back to normal’ after 9/11? Notably, China is hard-core in initiating lockdowns and restrictions at any hint of No. We created a whole new normal. We securitized the United States. We turned into outbreak. an anti-terror state. And it affected everything. We couldn’t go into a building without The article talks about Harbin, a city of 10 million.