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(AP)  FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A northwestern Arizona tribe has voted to take over management of the Grand Canyon Skywalk from the Las Vegas developer who built it.

David Jin partnered with the Hualapai Tribe to build the horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts out from the Grand Canyon on the reservation. But the two sides have been locked in a contract dispute for the past year over revenue shares and an incomplete visitor center.

The Tribal Council voted Tuesday to declare eminent domain over the management contract and provide $11 million in compensation to Jin. The amount is about one-tenth of what Jin has said is fair market value for his $30 million investment.

"The Tribe did not ask for this dispute," Councilman Charles Vaughn said in a statement. "But we have made a sincere effort through private negotiations with Mr. Jin, and he still refuses to make the most basic concessions and complete the work he promised. His participation has been unproductive and created countless delays. At this point, there are simply no other options."

The Tribal Council passed an eminent domain ordinance last year that Jin had suspected was aimed at him. He went to federal court to try to keep the tribe from severing the Skywalk contract under the ordinance, but the judge said the tribe had not sought to enforce it and told Jin he must first exhaust tribal court remedies.

A separate case that Jin filed in tribal court to force arbitration also was dismissed, giving Jin the option of returning to federal court.

Jin approached the Hualapai Tribe in 1996 with a plan to build the Skywalk with his own money. The attraction just west of Grand Canyon National Park has about 300,000 visitors a year and is a major tourist draw for the tribe.

The Skywalk extends 70 feet from the canyon rim and 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. It's designed to withstand 100 mph winds and has shock absorbers to keep the walkway from wobbling as people pass over.

Under an agreement with the tribe, Jin is supposed to split revenues with the tribe for 25 years in exchange for his investment.

The American Arbitration Association ultimately agreed to hear the dispute, and the two sides were supposed to be exchanging documents when the council voted to enforce eminent domain, Jin's representatives said.

Jin has said in court documents that he believes the tribe's motivation in passing the ordinance is to avoid the embarrassment of explaining how ticket revenues evaporated under its watch and to keep from paying him what he's owed.

The tribe denied that and reiterated its stance Wednesday that Jin hasn't fulfilled contractual obligations to complete a visitor center that tourists must pass through to access the Skywalk and failed to account for funding.

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Ariz. tribe votes to take over Skywalk management

TORONTO, Feb. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Tucows Inc. (TSX: TC, AMEX: TCX) plans to report its fourth quarter fiscal 2011 financial results via news release on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at approximately 4:00 p.m. (ET). Tucows management will host a conference call the same day at 5:00 p.m. (ET) to discuss the results and the outlook for the company.

Participants can access the conference call via the Internet at http://tucowsinc.com/investors.

For those unable to participate in the conference call at the scheduled time, it will be archived for replay both by telephone and via the Internet beginning approximately one hour following completion of the call. To access the archived conference call by telephone, dial 416-849-0833 or 1-855-859-2056 and enter the pass code 48872391 followed by the pound key.  The telephone replay will be available until Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at midnight. To access the archived conference call as an MP3 via the Internet, go to http://tucowsinc.com/investors.

About Tucows
Tucows is a global Internet services company. OpenSRS (http://opensrs.com) manages over eleven million domain names and millions of email boxes through a reseller network of over 12,000 web hosts and ISPs. Hover (http://hover.com) is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. Ting (http://ting.com) is a mobile phone service provider dedicated to bringing clarity and control to US mobile phone users. YummyNames (http://yummynames.com) owns premium domain names that generate revenue through advertising or resale. More information can be found on Tucows' corporate website (http://tucows.com).

Tucows, OpenSRS, Hover, and YummyNames are registered trademark of Tucows Inc. or its subsidiaries.

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Tucows Fourth Quarter Investment Community Conference Call is Wednesday, February 15, 2012 AT 5:00 P.M. (ET)

Caroline English moves up ice. Photo courtesy Holy Cross Athletic Dept.

Caroline English is a hockey player with a rare mix of skills: She’s both aggressive and lighthearted and that combination has taken her places in her collegiate career. The 22-year-old junior at Holy Cross College has come a long way since her days in the Dorchester Youth Hockey League. Now she scores game-winning goals against University of Massachusetts Boston, as she did this past Saturday.

 In the three years the Dorchester native has been playing on Holy Cross’s women’s hockey team, she has notched 53 points and has been named ECAC Rookie of the Week, AT&T Crusader of the Week, and to the ECAC All-Academic Team.

This season she was voted assistant captain of her team and elected to the Jansen Leadership Academy.
English is a player who constantly motivates her teammates, according to her coach, Peter Van Buskirk.

“She has such a positive attitude and she is able to connect with everyone. She’s always upbeat and maintains that attitude regardless of what happens on the ice,” Van Buskirk said.

English joined St. Ann’s Color Guard with her sister when she was six years old, but abandoned it a year later for hockey. She broke in her first pair of skates fifteen years ago at the Devine Ice Rink in Neponset.

Her best friend, Jimmy Hayes — who recently made his NHL debut on the Chicago Blackhawks — played the sport. “I wanted to be like him, so that’s really how I started,” said English.

A self-proclaimed tomboy, she joined the Dorchester Youth Hockey League, where her teammates were almost all boys.

English’s mother, Moira, remembers a game where Caroline went down hard on the ice and her father, Jim, didn’t think she was going to get back up. “After that, the boys always had her back,” said Moira.

Aside from her DYH experience, English also skated for Charles River Girls Hockey and at Boston Latin Academy. She was accepted into Tabor Academy as a sophomore and played there for three years, where she was the captain of her team.

English was recruited by Van Buskirk and he has not been disappointed. “She’s been a first-line player since she arrived. She had very good skating speed, was very competitive, and good puck skills. I was happy to recruit her,” he said.

Fresh off her team’s latest win, English was eager to talk about Saturday’s game.

“It felt really good. I’ve been in a funk with scoring. [Teammate] Stacey Hochkiss kept setting me up and I kept missing so it felt good to finally put it in the net,” said English of her game-winning goal.

When English isn’t playing hockey, she spends time mentoring young students at Quinsigamond Elementary School in Worcester, where she has worked for the past three years. She helps her coach at the school’s ice rink sharpening skates, and also works at a coffee shop on campus. She hopes to work with kids after graduating.

“I love working with kids. I have a lot of little cousins that I see all the time,” she said.

Moira is very close to her daughter and is proud how Caroline has developed as a hockey player and a person. “She puts her heart and soul into the game. It’s a thrilling ride to watch her,” she says.

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Front Line Crusader: Dot skater makes her mark for Holy Cross hockey team

Published: Feb 12, 2012 02:00 AM
Modified: Feb 10, 2012 06:04 PM

DOT, residents discuss Smith Level Road plans
6 issues remain controversial

BY TAMMY GRUBB, Correspondent

CARRBORO - Neighbors and representatives of the N.C. Department of Transportation hashed out their differences last week over the utility easements and rights of way needed to upgrade and expand Smith Level Road.DOT division engineer Mike Mills apologized for any public confusion about the necessary easements and said DOT staff had reduced some and eliminated others. One area that did not change was in front of homes between BPW Club Road and Willow Oak Lane, where the steep slope requires wider construction and drainage easements to be placed a certain way, he said."We've probably got less impact now than we did at the public hearing in 2010," Mills said.DOT staff also agreed Tuesday to review six remaining issues, including what landscaping to replace, the neighborhood impact of prohibiting left turns out of Willow Oak Lane and how work at the Culbreth Road intersection will affect a Teal Place homeowner.The discussion followed a November meeting in which DOT representatives couldn't provide easement details. The aldermen asked DOT to meet with neighbors and return with more information. Neighbors told town staff early this year that DOT representatives were meeting with them individually.Mayor Mark Chilton thanked DOT representatives and neighbors Tuesday for a respectful discussion."Sometimes people get drawn into the temptation to attack the employees of the state Department of Transportation. I think it's clear that the people at DOT are trying to mitigate the impacts here," Chilton said.No left turnBerryhill neighbors thanked DOT for making some easement changes, preserving a neighborhood sign and considering compensation for one of two rock walls at the Willow Oak Lane entrance. DOT also added a high-visibility pedestrian crosswalk at Smith Level Road.However, neighbors continued to push for the inclusion of a left turn from Willow Oak Lane to the north.DOT's plan allows northbound drivers to turn left into the Berryhill neighborhood, but those leaving to go downtown must turn south and make a U-turn at BPW Club Road. The other option is to drive through the neighborhood to BPW Club Road and turn left at the Smith Level Road traffic light."If it's unsafe for a car to stop there and turn, how safe is it for me to cross that street with that speeding traffic coming down the road to take a bus for which the bus stop is exactly on the opposite side?" resident Anil Peres-da-Silva asked.Alderwoman Jacquie Gist asked if DOT staff had studied how the change might affect neighborhood safety. They had not, Mills said."I think there is a reason why people believe this is going to increase the traffic through their neighborhood," Gist said. "Before this change is implemented, I think that's one piece of information that's very vital to the safety of the community."Property questionsOther residents, particularly in the Enclave and Teal Place neighborhoods, questioned the required amount of private property, easement locations and whether utilities could be moved or buried.Phyllis Holt, who has lived for 11 years at the corner of Culbreth Road and Smith Level Road, said her front door is just 16 feet from DOT's construction stake. Holt said that would put traffic and the "big state machine" in her front yard, and the homeowners association would be compensated for her loss, because it owns the land."I appreciate that the DOT is working to alleviate and attend to our concerns, but I'm the big loser, and it's really sad," she said.The aldermen agreed the changes would be extremely detrimental and asked DOT staff to find a way to mitigate the effects.The final plans for the $3.5 million expansion project are expected in September, with construction running from early 2013 to 2015.The project approved in 2010 shows a two-lane Smith Level Road, with a landscaped median from the Morgan Creek Bridge to BPW Club Road and a center turn lane from there to Rock Haven Road. The traffic light at Rock Haven Road will be replaced with a roundabout.Bike lanes and sidewalks will be built on the road's western side and from the bridge to just south of Woodcrest Street on the east. Federal and state money will pay for the road work and 70 percent of the sidewalk construction, with the town picking up the remaining 30 percent, or roughly $55,000. OWASA will pay for a third of the cost to move water lines, Mills said.Mills said the Smith Level Road planning process has played a key role in changing the way DOT staff approaches other situations around the state, Mills said. While it's difficult to anticipate how a utility company's easement regulations will apply to a specific parcel, the staff is trying to make more information available to residents at the beginning of a project, he said.Alderman Dan Coleman advised DOT staff to work on how they handle residents' concerns about what will happen to their property, as well as how the staff approaches property owners about potential changes."I know 20 years ago, we did not do that," Mills said. "With this project, we're trying to be more sensitive to the community."

Grubb: 336-380-1325

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DOT, residents discuss Smith Level Road plans