Grand Lake in winter.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Colorado resort town

LIKE A LOT OF COLORADO RESORT TOWNS, GRAND LAKE SUFFERS FROM SEASONALITY. BUT SOME LIKE IT COLD.

A weekday afternoon in July unspools in Grand Lake, and ideal summertime skies accompany roving bands of deep-pocketed tourists. Most motels and lodges post "No Vacancy" signs, and many other businesses are marked "For Sale" and "Help Wanted."

Fast-forward six months. A snowy weekday afternoon in December looks a lot different. The "No Vacancy" and "Help Wanted" signs are nowhere in sight. Occasional cross-country skiers and snowmobilers have replaced the throngs of tourists.

Grand Lake, with 300 year-round inhabitants, sits on the western outskirts of Rocky Mountain National Park. Wooden boardwalks and a noticeable lack of the usual franchises, superstores and other ties to 20th century capitalism set the tone: This tightly knit community prides itself on its heritage and small-town atmosphere. Summers. a nice chunk of the park's 3.3 million annual visitors stops here for necessities, hiking and boating, fueling the economy.

Like Granby, Buena Vista, Hot Sulphur Springs, and so many other mountain towns with ideal summer recreation and no ski mountains, Grand Lake can be a harsh environment for the small-business owner. Survival requires uncommon wiles. Few entrepreneurs retire here - they're ready to move on long before retirement.

Busy summers have always cushioned Grand Lake's slow winters and, especially, springs. "Cash flow is the biggest thing," said Connie Burke, Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce executive director. "In the summer, everybody's pretty flush. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, people try to make all the money that they can." In less-flush times, business owners took out loans to survive the long winter season in a town set 30 miles from the ski bustle of Winter Park. Grand Lake's economic development leaders have wrestled for years with the problem of converting Grand Lake from a strictly seasonal to a year-round economy.

A pair of poster board charts hangs on the Grand Lake Town Hall wall of monthly sales tax revenues for the past 10 years; Grand Lake's sales tax is 8%, with a 1.8% lodging tax.

The leanest month was April 1990, when $8,000 trickled in. July 1998's tax tally was $l 14,000.

In April, the heart of Grand Lake's "mud season," the town's sales tax revenues hover around $15,000, versus roughly $110,000-plus in mid-summer.

Spring is the pits. By comparison, the winter months are almost robust. January '99 sales tax...