Manhole covers get around, so Vail has them for sale

People were stealing so many Vail manhole covers that the town now sells them on eBay.
DENVER (AP) -- 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 last week when the Chicago marketing executive plunked down $65 for a 6-pound water valve cover just like the ones embedded in Vail's streets. It will fit in better on a table in her entryway back home than the 52-pound manhole covers also being sold by the ritzy resort town to raise some cash.
"This doesn't look like something you'd find in a curio shop," Hunt said of the cover, emblazoned with the Vail logo, 1962 founding date and its elevation, 8,150 feet.
Custom covers
The town, home of the nation's largest ski resort, 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.
Despite a hefty $295 price, the larger 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.
Sold out
The town had sold just over $14,000 worth of covers by Wednesday, 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.
"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.
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 in Eagle County 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 since the 1960s when he used to ski with his father at the resort.
On displayHunt said that once back in Chicago she would display her piece of Vail along with antique snowshoes and wilderness maps. Although she couldn't imagine wanting to lug home some public works property there, she thinks Vail, with its international cachet, might be onto something.
Town officials agree and have already talked about opening a storefront to sell selected town property, Silverthorn said.
Next up could be park picnic tables handcrafted by town workers at $2,000 apiece.