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Nix the ski museum

Dear Editor:After mining, Aspen was first and foremost a ski resort, but theres no need to create a ski museum, much less one thats three stories high! Lift One may be historical, but all of Aspen is historical. Lift One is not sacred land where men have died to protect our country and it does not require a costly museum and loss of valuable space.The idea of building a three-story museum (or any height) in the middle of the lodging core to bring yet more cars into what is already a totally congested area for parking is insane. Even when the Food & Wine Festival, Rugby Festival, Arts and Crafts weekend, (and various other events) are not taking place in Wagner Park, there still is NOT sufficient parking for residents and lodging visitors, without adding to the parking chaos with a museum to attract more cars!The lodging core now has four lodges under construction (with the promise of more construction on both sides of Aspen Street) which will bring a huge number of additional vehicles into the lodging core. The last thing needed is to build a museum in the lodging core and jam up the streets and parking even further.I do not believe Aspen needs a ski museum and I do not think it will be used. If a museum were created, it should be on the other side of town near the Art Museum, so if visitors are interested in museums, they can see both museums at the same time and NOT have to move cars around town to do it.Furthermore, look at the salaries museum employees are paid. For example, Aspen Art Museum executive director is paid $164,000 annually; Aspen Art Museum finance director is paid $95,000; and Aspen Art Museum educational coordinator is paid $88,000 annually which totals $347,000 which doesnt include maintenance and operational costs!Theres no justification for spending $500,000 of city funds to maintain a ski museum (after the cost of building it) which will add clutter to the open space on Dean Street and will block the view of Ajax from the street. Enough! We dont need to spend half a million dollars to run a ski museum; we dont need a museum on Dean Street; and we dont need a ski museum at all!Please nix the ski museum!Susan ONealAspen