News in Brief

ASPEN Salomon is out and Helly Hansen is in as the maker of uniforms for 3,100 employees of the Aspen Skiing Co. for the next four years.Salomon earned the contract last fall but the manufacturer and Skico mutually agreed there was too big of a time crunch to overcome, Skico Vice President of Sales and Events John Rigney said Tuesday.Salomon wasn’t able to make refinements the Skico needed in time to deliver the uniforms by Nov. 1, Rigney said. That was confirmed by Tom Berry, president of Salomon North America.”Frankly, we bit off more than we could chew,” Berry said.Salomon is well known for its skis, snowboards and other “hard goods.” It started making ski and snowboarding gear in 2001. It never made uniforms prior to bidding on the Skico job.Once it became apparent Salomon couldn’t deliver the uniforms as needed, when needed, Skico officials explained the issue to Helly Hansen, which has experience in the uniform market, and cut a deal with them. Helly Hansen was one of two finalists for the job and had worked on a conceptual design for the Skico.”We knew more [with Helly Hansen] than we would going in blind with any other company,” Rigney said.RLX Polo Sport, a brand of Polo Ralph Lauren, supplied the Skico uniforms for the last six seasons. The Skico put out a request for proposals last fall.Rigney wouldn’t disclose how big the contract is with Helly Hansen.Both Berry and Rigney said there were no hard feelings between the companies over how the uniform experiment unfolded. Salomon plans to expand its marketing partnership with Aspen/Snowmass, Berry said, and the company continues to have a special deal as supplied of skis to the Skico’s retail shops.”Our relationship and respect for each other hasn’t taken a hit in the least,” said Rigney.Helly Hansen is working on uniforms that will be “predominantly red” for patrol and ski instructors; navy for operations; and white for ambassadors, according to Rigney.

Oscar Hoyos Delacruz, convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of an Aurora man who was hunting turkey near New Castle in 2005, has been allowed to remain in a work release program.Jeff Garrett, 37, was a state lobbyist for Qwest. He was shot on May 14, 2005, while hiding in the brush and calling for turkey in the East Elk Creek area near New Castle during a hunting trip. Investigators thought Garrett could have been mistaken for a turkey. They said Delacruz, a worker at the Bear Wallow Ranch at the time, probably fled that day upon discovering he had shot Garrett.The Colorado Attorney General Office said in March that Delacruz was sentenced on Jan. 30 to three years in a Mexican prison for second-degree manslaughter, but did not add that Delacruz had appealed the case and was on work release. Garrett’s family members and the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office provided the additional information about the appeal. Nate Strauch, communications director for the attorney general’s office, confirmed the case had been appealed. He said Delacruz’s appeal proceedings are ongoing in Agua Prieta, Mexico, in the state of Sonora. The sheriff’s office said the appeal was complete, and Delacruz was sentenced to work release for three years. (Glenwood Springs Post Independent)