Vail Trail staff
July 9, 2008

40 Years Ago - Week of July 12, 1968
• Steve Ruder was named Vail’s new fire chief. Ruder and his father, Leonard, helped pioneer in Vail when the elder Ruder became head of all trail clearing and excavation work in 1962.

• The first annual Vail Doubles Tennis Championships were held on July 13-14, with an awards banquet and a movie afterwards.

• Problems with trash removal continued. A trash receptacle behind the Copper Bar had a number of burnt pans that had sat for several weeks.

• Three bedroom apartments located in the Crossroads complex in Vail were selling from $39,500.

30 Years Ago - Week of July 14, 1978
• Colorado Mountain College offered a course in extrasensory perception (ESP). The instructor taught techniques for developing ESP skills by studying auras, meditation and healing.

•The Town of Vail Planning and Environmental Commission received an air pollution study concluding that while Vail’s air is well within acceptable standards, dust particles continue to be a major problem. Vacuum street sweepers were expected to help matters.

• Colorado state parks adopted new guidelines that placed some restrictions on pets in the parks. Park patrons were given fliers detailing limitations, which included using leashes less than six feet in length, and banning pets from beaches.

20 Years Ago - Week of July 15, 1988
• Columnist Jan Gelman found that answering machines were becoming more popular: “No longer are these mechanical voices limited to businesses and big shots.” She detailed the panic upon hearing the beep: “What should I say? What if I blunder my words? Why did I call? What day is it anyway? I don’t know what time it is.”

• Wayne Smith was named the new fire chief for Avon.

• Vail town councilman John Slevin addressed issues facing the city, saying that the future of Vail included massive growth that meant, “We’re going to lose our ambiance, but the population of the world is growing so fast that there will be new Vails born. We will gain people that love being in the “in” place, but unfortunately we will lose a lot of people who came to Vail for a different reason, and who will move on to a quieter setting.”

10 Years Ago - Week of July 10, 1998
• Eagle county decided to double fines for speeding in unincorporated residential areas such as Singletree, Eagle-Vail and Homestead.

• The 4th of July was considered less raucous than previous years, but the Vail Police department still made 43 arrests. Officials claim they were able to defuse many situations before they escalated. On a sour note, police found a woman passed out in a public restroom who was so intoxicated she required kidney dialysis.

• Record traffic through the Eisenhower Tunnel, combined with a major traffic study had sharpened calls for a railway between Denver International Airport and Eagle County Airport. Colorado’s Fixed Guideway Authority met for the first time, and were responsible for coming up with a transit plan by January 1, 2000.