U.S. Water News Online
DENVER -- After 20 years of ski vacations in the Vail Valley, all Cynthia Hunt had to show for it was a turtleneck from the Beaver Creek resort.
That is until recently when the Chicago marketing executive plunked down $65 for a 6-pound water valve cover just like the ones embedded in Vail's streets. The cover is emblazoned with the Vail logo, its 1962 founding date and the elevation in the ritzy resort town, 8,150 feet.
Vail, home of the nation's largest ski resort, is also selling 52-pound manhole covers as it tries to raise extra cash to make up for declining tax revenues.
Vail started using the custom cast-iron covers in its pedestrian villages last year. It didn't take long before people looking for authentic souvenirs began stealing them right out of the ground.
Workers were forced to glue the covers down but then Town Manager Bob McLaurin came up with the idea to start selling the covers this summer.
The venture proved so popular that the town posted the covers on eBay for the holiday season, hoping interest in the town's 40th anniversary would boost sales.
``We figured if someone could hawk a Polaroid photo of one of Elvis Presley's last ski trips to Vail for $1,495, we should have an online presence as well,'' McLaurin said.
Despite a hefty $295 price tag, the larger manhole version is the most popular seller and is recommended for use as a garden conversation piece or a patio inlay. The smaller one works well as a trivet or paper weight and both are available in black and nickel finishes.
The town had sold just over $14,000 worth of covers recently, depleting its entire inventory, town spokeswoman Suzanne Silverthorn said. Another shipment was on its way from a foundry in Utah.
The money has come in handy since sales tax revenues were down this year because of a drop in tourism.
Denver business owner Paul Kulas plans to get legs welded on his two manhole covers so he can use them as end tables in the dream house he's building outside Vail. He also bought a small one, which he keeps on his desk.
``Having the manhole covers around will remind me to work hard and make my mortgage payments,'' said Kulas, who dreamed of owning a house in Vail while visiting with his father there in the 1960s.
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