Monday morning I got a text after skinning up the resort that someone had paid tribute to Schnoid and skied his regular early morning line on Red Lady. Heading home I looked to the bowl and saw a set of tracks in the spot Jeff would normally ski before his early morning work shift. The turns appeared to be in his style – tight and straight. Whether on purpose or not, I took it as a tribute to a good man that is missed — a neighbor revered for his humor and his knowledge who left this world with his boots on after a tragic avalanche earlier this winter. Seeing those tracks gave me a reason to say a little prayer to Schnoid and his family and friends. That guy always made me feel good. For that I am grateful.

Saturday is March 6. It will be the 31st anniversary of a dark day in Crested Butte that took three of our neighbors when the Crested Butte State Bank exploded. The brick building at the corner of Sixth and Elk was a pile of rubble after an explosion destroyed the building when apparently a spark from a light switch ignited a pool of leaking propane. Three ladies, Jade Woelk, Donna Smith and Monica Henning lost their lives in that tragedy. They are the reason there is a Three Ladies Park in Crested Butte. The town was shaken to its core. Many of our neighbors today were in that building on that day and miraculously survived. I will say a little prayer for each of them this Saturday and be grateful I occasionally see them smile as we pass on Elk Avenue.

It was almost a year ago that this valley became one of the hottest spots in the country with the coronavirus. It was in this month of 2020 that we lost the first of the five counted neighbors to COVID. It is still hard to believe I didn’t see Mikey heading into his shop across from my office just a few days ago. Again, just thinking about him gives me a chance to let the Universe know how lucky I feel that he and I had the opportunity to chat often in his shop or on the trails.

For many, Crested Butte is a fantasy. And while true to some extent, that’s not the whole picture. It’s not the total reality.

We are on the cusp of spring break. The streets and slopes will be crowded with families and students taking a break from their pandemic schooling and Zoom work schedules. They’ll be coming here to get outside and have fun. This place will happily accommodate that.

At the same time all the data points to a dramatic rise of new people moving here to call Crested Butte and its surroundings, home. The so-called Zoom Boom is attracting people of means to nice places. Crested Butte is a nice place and it now takes means to move here. The ones I’ve met recently have been great and are comfortable here in nature at the end of the road. That’s honestly a good thing but it sure is changing the place quickly from what it was 1, 5 or 20 years ago.

I put this all out there because as the valley changes so fast it is important for people, both the newbies and the old-timers, to embrace the reality of place. We are a deep community and like any good community there is laughter and joy but also sadness and tears. We are not immune from tragedy and when we lose a neighbor, whether in the backcountry, to sickness or in a tragic accident, it hits here harder because we are so small. We may not know everyone here intimately but we know almost everyone here. And every soul that chooses to be here contributes to making this the special place it is.

So as we approach the anniversary of the bank explosion, this is just a quick reminder to take that breath and appreciate the good and the unexpected that comes to a special place high in the Rocky Mountains. We are blessed with abundant beauty and a community that is tight. The new transplants will soon understand that what really makes this place special – isn’t just the views – it is the people. Losing any of our neighbors is a fresh reminder to appreciate this life. Not everyone gets to live here and be surrounded by splendor and like-minded people.

Crested Butte is a town of life, full of vibrancy and activity but it is also real. Being real brings both joy and grief, celebration and loss. Do not forget to respect and embrace both sides of the coin that makes this place what it is. Whether you see it as good or bad, it just is. And it is a pretty wonderful place. Look, I certainly don’t like every change that we are seeing right now but that’s part of the reality and I’ll take this reality over fantasy every time.

Take that breath. Honor the past. Remember the real things and the neighbors that have helped shape us…and say a little prayer of appreciation this weekend. You are in a really good place with really good people.

—Mark Reaman

An eclectic community that respects the natural world

[ by Mark Reaman ]

With the idea of developing a neighborhood that reflects the beauty and feel of the surrounding mountains, as well as the people who would want to live and work there, the owner of the North Village parcel in Mt. Crested Butte is striving to involve the broad community in his plans for the property. The bare bones conceptual design has been released and while it shows generally where residential and commercial pods would be located on the 150 acres at the base of Snodgrass Mountain, the meat of the project has yet to be detailed.

Claudio and Yvonne Alvarez purchased the property about two years ago and he said the idea was not so much to make money but to come up with a place he and his family could be comfortable in and proud of.
Speaking to Claudio last week it was obvious the family was not a big fan of traditional base area development commonly found in ski resorts. The big buildings, the tight development, the concrete was not appealing.

“The North Village property is so special and so beautiful. It is a unique piece of property inside a town,” he said during the hour-long interview. “We feel the town deserves a quaint neighborhood that mirrors the surrounding beauty. There is lots of greenery and we don’t want buildings on the ridgeline that would block the views of the incredible mountains. Our vision should be a community vision – so we want the town council and other stakeholders to help make a community vision.”

The North Village was originally meant to be the base area of a Snodgrass ski mountain with up to 3,800 units of residential and commercial building. But when the U.S. Forest Service turned down the application to expand lift-served skiing onto Snodgrass, the property sat vacant. There is a spot reserved for a potential reservoir meant to hold water for snowmaking and the town owns 17 acres earmarked for recreational playing fields. The North Village was basically downzoned in 2002 to allow for no more than 1,800 residential units and Alvarez said while no hard density number has been set with his proposal, it would be significantly less than that. The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) is a part of the plan with about 10 acres set aside for a campus that includes offices, laboratories and workforce housing.

The conceptual design, produced by Connect One Design of Basalt, includes space for a potential hotel and other commercial possibilities including a possible lift that would link the neighborhood to the existing ski area. Miles of trails will crisscross the property and a visitor’s center and community gathering spaces are part of the initial vision.

Not a normal developer
Alvarez is a former practicing doctor whose family has a history of ranching and confesses to being lucky when it comes to his financial status. A lover of nature, he sold the HMO business he started in Florida and now, among other things, owns a rum company started in Cuba by his family in 1872. He purchased a ranch at the bottom of Monarch Pass 15 years ago and was introduced to Mt. Crested Butte and the North Village property by local architect Jennifer Barvitsky.

Alvarez admits he is not a developer but describes himself as one of those guys that has to always be doing something. So, when he saw the North Village property, he started envisioning a new project that would hold some of the charm of Crested Butte while also helping RMBL.

“The vision should be one of the entire community,” he said. “We feel this 150 acres can help the town and make it even more special. We understand we are a tourist community, but locals want to live in a beautiful place and we want locals living here year round. So, we wanted to get the town council involved and want to help them with things like a post office, a multi-denomination chapel or new town hall for example.
“I don’t have the attitude that our idea is the only good idea,” Alvarez continued. “I think town needs a mixture of things and this provides a place.”

The development team, being led by Crocket Farnell of Black Dragon Development, has been working with the local Forest Service, trails people, open space and parks people. “The concept here is that you step out of your house and you can walk out in the greenery and look up and see beautiful mountains,” explained Alvarez. “There will be horses which I think is part of Colorado. Ian (Billick) wants traffic to Gothic managed well so the biological laboratory operations up in Gothic can work smoothly, so we are working to see how we can help manage that traffic. We want to move the current Snodgrass parking area that is on private property and increase the parking by shifting it to the proposed visitor center location just north of the current stables that would also have a transit center.”

Alvarez said he wants a tasteful entrance into the community off of Gothic Road. There would still be a Fantasy Ranch operation with the horses, stables and a barn but also a building for community events in the same area.

What do you want?
“Everything is up for grabs in terms of community housing,” he said. “My ultimate vision is an eclectic community with lots of local people living here. Lights in homes would be on year-round. We have had discussions with the Valley Housing Fund to see if we can help them with housing opportunities. We want to provide opportunity for whatever people think is important. People who live here will need facilities for things like health care. They’ll want to be able to get a coffee. We don’t know exactly what is needed but we want this to help give the town vibrancy and life.

“Since I’m not a developer I’m scared of doing something precipitously from an economic standpoint,” Alvarez admitted. “So I want to phase it in. The first phase would include the RMBL campus and some community housing. The expensive thing will be the infrastructure. So that’s the big question mark but I think we can overcome it by being methodical and phasing it in. The key, like in any successful business, is to stick with a good, long-term vision to accomplish this. Once we get the PUD, we’ll put it out there for people and let them help accomplish the vision.”

Farnell said the development would obviously provide any required deed restricted-housing, “but ideally we want mixed levels of income to be able to live here. The goal is to have an actual community. We want the overall site broadly zoned so it can develop organically,” he said. “We don’t want artificial constructs that sound good but don’t work in so-called planned communities. We are simply providing opportunity for meaningful growth for the town. To that end we have made significant efforts to engage the public.”

Alvarez said the project will not be done tomorrow and will grow over many years but he hopes it draws the type of people who are attracted to the valley now — those that love nature and are comfortable at the end of the road. He said his team is already considering how to be sustainable and have looked into incorporating solar and geothermal elements in the plan.

When it comes to picking his personal home site, Alvarez said he doesn’t anticipate living in a big house on top of the hill. “I want to live down low in the heart of the community so I can wake up in the morning and walk out and get that cup of coffee and talk to people.”

Farnell said it is his hope that the Mt. Crested Butte town council would jump in early and address some of its projects such as parking and playing fields so it could take advantage of scaling and crossover when infrastructure is being put in. “They could also consider leveraging their short-term lodging tax to get affordable housing built now and it will be a lot cheaper to do it all at the same time we are putting in infrastructure. There is a lot of opportunity here.

“I would love the town and Valley Housing Fund to come up with a plan for additional workforce housing,” Farnell continued. “It is a golden opportunity to do something significant in a short event horizon. But that takes cohesion across the valley.”

“I try to do things right instead of focusing on the most conventional way to make money,” Alvarez reiterated. “That’s the same with this project. We want it to be a place where people who live here all year can feel comfortable. We want a place where people who work in the valley can live. We want this to have year-round vibrancy and life.”

Alvarez emphasized that he has no interest in having an “other side of the tracks” feel with workforce housing separated from the main community. “We honestly want an eclectic community where everyone blends in nicely,” he said.

Timing…
The idea is to take more input from the public and then submit a formal PUD application to the town. Given the extensive preliminary work that’s been done, Farnell hopes for a smooth and relatively quick approval. From there he said civil design work could take place next winter and shovels could turn dirt in the summer of 2022. Alvarez said completion of the project’s first phase that would include the RMBL campus, new parking areas, a visitor’s center and some housing could be ready three to four years from now. Whether he’ll be able to grab a cup of coffee in the morning in a new community at the base of Snodgrass by 2024 is still too far away for anyone to say for sure.

A virtual open house is slated for March 11 at 5:30 p.m. and everyone is encouraged to attend and provide input. Any questions can be emailed to info@connectonedesign.com

First things first…Despite my offer in last week’s paper, Mark Walter did not call me to take advantage of the opportunity to lay out his real estate plans in the valley as he buys up a bunch of commercial property. I did hear from a couple of people in the real estate business who felt I went overboard to put out there how much money he had and how much money he made in the market over a couple days. Fair. I also heard from some people, mainly mid-timers, who appreciated the editorial and assessment of where the old mining town, now high-end ski resort, is heading. I trust that what I’ve heard about Mr. Walter…that he’s a good down-to-earth guy who loves what this place is and what it represents, is true. And that’s good news. Community attitude still matters. CB may not be what it was but it’s still pretty good. It is what it is.

It was soooooo good for CBMR to get the Extreme Limits open this past week. A foot of fresh brightened up the steeps, the local attitudes and drew hundreds of people to the thing this ski mountain is most known for. Telly got tapped thousands of times at the North Face Lift and despite the look of the lines, the spacing made them actually move pretty quickly.

I figured just getting to the terrain would be a mental health boost and it was — but just as important was the fact the skiing was surprisingly good given the lean snowfall this year. A big shout-out to the packers, the patrol and everyone else in mountain ops that worked hard in a difficult snow season to open up the goods. Skiing around on a blustery Sunday, it was evident by the sound of bombs on the front side that they aren’t stopping. Peel, Forest and more on the West Side opened Tuesday as well. Yeah, there are rocks but if you’ve skied here any time at all, you know what to expect and understand ski tuning is a part of the package.

I can’t help but note the clock at the Four-Way that rarely has the right time. I love that old-school Crested Butte attitude. Yeah, it might be 10 o’clock and the bus should be coming, or it might really be 10:06 and the bus is already powering up the mountain. It doesn’t matter that much since there is (almost) always another bus coming in 15 minutes or less. Sit back, enjoy the bench, breath in some good high mountain attitude and know you’ll get up there safely and eventually.

Speaking of attitude, it appears most people are continuing to wear facemasks on Elk Avenue, on the buses and while waiting in line at the chairlifts. People seem to have an accepting attitude toward the intrusive measures recommended to ward off the coronavirus transmission and it continues to work here. Yeah, we all want to be back to a normal time when we could stand closer together, share a beer and listen to live music elbow-to-elbow but that ain’t happening any time soon. And if that weird variant virus explodes, it really won’t be soon. But this county continues to shine. Vaccines are up, the number of positive cases down (compared to other ski communities) and hospitalizations here are almost non-existent. We’ve been both lucky and good and I’m glad we are keeping it up to give our business-owning neighbors a chance to make a living while providing us all a chance at a sliver of normalcy found through making the effort to show respect for one another.

I was listening to the radio news Tuesday and the debate between politicians and union reps across the country was about the danger of having kids back in classrooms. Well Tuesday marked the 100th day of school for the children of this high mountain village and as principal Sally Hensley reminded me in an email: “Every last one of them have been In Person!” Heck ya! It goes to the spirit and attitude of this place and is absolutely fantastic.

And how good was it to have an actual live event in town? Crested Butte Nordic, which did such an outstanding job when this COVID-19 came roaring through the valley last winter and spring, stepped up huge again this past weekend when they organized a real life outdoor ski race. It wasn’t as big as recent years but just the fact that animals and cartoon characters were zipping around Crested Butte on skinny skis was a blessing.

Yeah – it’s not what it was…but it’s still better — and still different — from most places. That is indeed a blessing.

—Mark Reaman

[  by Dawne Belloise  ]

As a child, David Leinsdorf was fascinated with airplanes, cars, boats and trains, mostly because his father, Erich Leinsdorf, the renowned Grammy award-winning conductor, always traveled for his work in those modes, so David took an early interest in transportation. “I had a model plane with a U-control,” he says of the serious toy airplane with lines attached to an operator controlled handle. “You’d fly it around in circles until you were dizzy. They had a gas-powered engine, and you didn’t want to get your finger in the propeller because it would break your finger.” David’s interest in cars led the then 10-year-old to sneak off with the family vehicle and drive it up and down the driveway, which later progressed to slinking off with the auto for a cruise around the neighborhood at night when he was 12, “When nobody could see how old I was,” he grins, and adds that his parents never knew.

Raised in Larchmont, New York, a suburb of the city, David attended public schools. Despite his father’s talent and fame, David claims, “I played piano badly and briefly. I never had any talent, but my brother was a good violinist. He had more musical talent than I had but we both gave it up. My father pushed us way too hard. He wanted us to learn music because he felt it was important, but to make a career of it, you had to have a lot of talent and motivation and I lacked both. My mother was a music lover but not a musician.”

David laughs that his interest in high school was primarily girls, but he also skied quite a bit, mostly in Vermont at Stowe and Mad River resorts. “When I started driving legally,” he says, “I’d get in the car with friends and go skiing.” Before he turned 16, he’d buy the weekend tour ski trips offered by New York City ski shops that included transportation, ski pass and lessons at Catskill resorts like Belleayre and Hunter mountains.

David confesses that he wasn’t a terribly motivated high school student. He graduated in 1960, with no idea of what he wanted to do. He enrolled at Columbia College in Manhattan. “I was into jazz and NYC had wonderful jazz. The best job I ever had was after my freshman year in college. I was a waiter at the Jazz Gallery on St. Marks Place. I worked from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. That year, the summer of 1961, the Thelonious Monk quartet played for an entire month.” He also recalls seeing legendary jazz greats such as Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane.

In other summers he traveled, visiting his father who was working in Europe. David tells the story of his father’s emigration from his homeland in Austria. “He emigrated in the late 1930s from Vienna when he couldn’t get work in Hitler’s Europe because he was Jewish. He was born into very modest circumstances, no assets or any real reason to stay in Europe, so he emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 24.” His father had warned his mother and aunt to leave, but the challenge of not speaking English dissuaded them. “In 1938, the Nazis came into the Jewish neighborhood, rounded up the women, took them up to the fancy neighborhood and made them scrub the cobblestone streets on their hands and knees at gunpoint. “Erich was right. We should leave,” David’s grandmother told her sister. They left Vienna and moved to New York. David’s dad went to work as an assistant conductor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where he made his debut conducting Richard Wagner’s Die Walkure a few weeks before his 26th birthday. “His life’s work was always music,” says David.

“I really fumbled around as to what I wanted to do in college. I only decided on law when I struggled with physics. Pre-law was not a passion, it was by default,” he says, but he also realized that studying law would give him more options, “You could go into government, or to a law firm or go into business,” not to mention the number of different fields of law. David’s parents also encouraged political discussion at their family dinner table, which heavily influenced him. He received his political science bachelor’s degree in 1964 and entered Columbia Law School.

“Girls, jazz and skiing, those were my interests but you don’t have much time in law school to do much but study and for the first time in my life, I buckled down and became a serious student,” he says. Graduating in 1967, David recalls, “I was worried about the draft,” as the Vietnam War was raging, but mumps meningitis at 13 had left him deaf in his left ear which disqualified him from service. After taking the New York bar exam, David worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Antitrust Division. He enjoyed the work but after two and a half years, Ralph Nader hired him to research and co-author a book about Citibank. “A very boring book,” David says. “Burned out from working 24/7 on that project and smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, I was a mess.” In June, 1971, he headed west to Telluride to visit some friends, and never returned to live in New York.

He moved to Crested Butte because Telluride didn’t have a ski area in ‘71 and David just wanted to ski. He had first discovered CB during one of the first Arts Fair weekends. “Give Me Shelter was playing at the Princess Theatre and I thought, this town is all right. There were 250 people living here. I liked Telluride better because I think it makes the rest of Colorado look like the flatlands but again, it didn’t have skiing.”
He packed up in NYC, moved to CB on Labor Day weekend 1971 and went to work doing construction. “I tied the rebar in the San Moritz condos foundation and it’s a miracle that it hasn’t slid down the hill,” he laughs. “I bought my first house at 223 Sopris for $16,000 in the autumn of ‘71.” The following year, he opened the first law office in Crested Butte. “At first I operated out of my home and Mary Yelenick, who owned the liquor store with her husband Frank, answered my phone when I couldn’t pick up.” Later, David moved into the Bullion King building above the Alpineer.

Back then, there wasn’t much law work so David continued in the construction trade for another year until becoming involved with politics. Hired as the town attorney, he resigned his position to run for Gunnison county commissioner. “I got involved in politics when Bill Crank ran for mayor in 1972. I worked on his campaign and he was elected. When there was an open seat on the county board, I went to Bill and said, ‘you ought to run for county commissioner.’ He said he was not interested, so I let him know that I would run if he wasn’t interested. Bill didn’t think I could win but I knocked on every door in the county. I stood in front of the post office, Safeway, City Market. I did a lot of campaigning. I ran against two opponents, Dick Eflin and John Rohde, and I ended up winning with 53 percent of the vote.”

David met Sandy Allen in 1976, a local ranch girl who grew up at Jack’s Cabin. Her great-grandfather homesteaded the family’s Allen Lane Ranch that’s still in operation under Sandy’s cousin Curtis Allen. “She was my insurance agent at the Verzuh agency working for Ron Coffey.” Although they didn’t start dating until 1982, Sandy worked on David’s 1978 county commissioner election campaign. “I won in ‘74, ‘78, ‘82 and ‘86. Rikki Santarelli ousted me from a fifth term in the 1990 election. As Myles Rademan told me, ‘In politics your friends come and go but your enemies accumulate.’” David and Sandy tied the knot in 1983. Their son Joseph was born in ‘85, followed by daughter Abigail in ‘88. “It was a very romantic proposal,” David says with a smile. “I said, ‘Sandy, our ski passes are no good this weekend, wanna go get married?’ She said ‘OK.’ We got in my plane and flew to Las Vegas. There was one paid witness at the We’ve Only Just Begun Wedding Chapel.” David learned to fly in 1973 in Crested Butte. “Ron Rouse taught me. He was the owner of Crested Butte Air Service, which ran commercial flights out of CB airport to Aspen and Denver.”
After his long service as commissioner, David turned his focus to his law practice, which then thrived. “And I became involved in school matters. In 1994, Joe Fitzpatrick and I spearheaded a ballot measure to split CB out of the Gunnison RE1J school district because we wanted a high school and the school board would not give us one. They said we didn’t have enough high school-aged students. So Joe and I worked together to put a measure on the ballot to separate the upper valley from the lower valley school district. We lost the battle but won the war—we lost the election because Gunnison didn’t want to lose the CB tax base but they agreed that we could have our own high school.”

David later went on to chair the school’s accountability committee, after Sandy had resigned, and served as chairman for several years, “One of the best accomplishments of that committee was hiring Stephanie Niemi as principal, who is largely responsible for making CBCS one of the premiere public schools in Colorado.”
These days find David taking three- and four-day weekends with his wife, frequently heading off to their Santa Fe casita. “But the reality is,” he smiles, “Sandy’s roots in this valley are so deep that if I wanted to leave, which I don’t, I’d have to leave alone. We do a lot of hiking and one of the nice things about Santa Fe is you can hike year-round. Regarding retirement, I cannot retire because the high point of Sandy’s day is 7:30 in the morning when I leave for the office,” he grins.

Fighting for sanctuary

[ By Dawne Belloise ]

For all the many times Susan Kerns has moved and all the places she’s lived in, Crested Butte has always seemed like home. With every move to warmer climes, she was drawn back here. And it is here that she is focused on bringing housing to working people because as she says, “having sanctuary is important.”

Raised in Marin County, California, and later Solano, she is the second eldest of four children. Her childhood in Marin was spent in a typical suburban neighborhood where the latest fascination of the era was tetherball. Susan recalls, “I was really into riding my bike and exploring the open land surrounding us,” where she remembers there were cows, pastures and fields. “When I was in sixth grade, mom decided she wanted to live in the country,” she says, so they moved to Suisun Valley in Solano, an agricultural region with fruit orchards. “Peaches and cherries are really the big thing there. I loved it,” she says. Her parents even bought her a horse, “And we had every kind of pet. We were all in 4-H and Gymkhana. It was all about gardening.”
1968 was the time of the Love Generation and Susan recalls, “I was a kid when the tumultuous Haight-Ashbury happened but I remember driving in the Haight with my family and thinking, I wanna be free too. People were running away, and there were free concerts in the park. I got to see Hair (the musical) live at Orpheum in San Francisco. I went to Fillmore West with my dad,” she says of the many concerts her father took her to.

All through high school, Susan had jobs so she could care for her horse. “I had to buy his food and pay for vet bills and horseshoeing. I did babysitting on a cattle ranch, which was super fun because they had horses that we could ride. Also, I was busy cleaning houses.” She had time for few other interests but did enjoy jogging and biking long distances. She graduated in 1975.

“I wanted to study ornamental horticulture. I loved gardening and plants. I had worked for a nursery when I was in high school,” so she enrolled at California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, however the department she wanted was already filled. Instead, she declared fruit science as her major and planned her schedule around the sun. “We called it prime suntan hours. I’d ride my bike to the beach and then come back for afternoon labs.” Encouraged by one of her professors, Susan transferred to UC Davis in 1978 during her sophomore year. Having studied viticulture in her freshman year, she decided to dive into it again but the curriculum, as she says, “Kicked my butt. I had to learn how to study. I had to get tutored to learn how to learn. I flunked all my classes first quarter.”

Although she did better during the next semester she opted to take some time off to go to Paris to study French at the Sorbonne University. “It was a culture shock for the little blonde chick from sunny, friendly California,” she laughs. “I was 20 years old. I was hired as an au pair by a French family. I took a few cooking classes while I was there,” because, she laughs, she had no experience in cooking and those French children wanted sauces with their meals. “I grew up on PBJs.”

After the first semester, her romance with Paris ended. “It was cold. I was living in a tiny student room, a walk-up on the seventh floor, with no shower. I wasn’t happy.” So she returned to her west coast home where her brother had discovered skiing in northern California. “I went with him a few times and I was all about it,” Susan declared of her new love for snow. She spent that winter alone at the family cabin in Grass Valley, conveniently about an hour or so from Truckee and Sugarbowl ski resorts.

In the spring of 1979, Susan went back to school, and by the fall of the following year, she was in an internship at Englenook in Napa Valley, the wine company which was later bought by Francis Ford Coppola. In the summer of ‘81, Susan moved to Sonoma County for a job at Alexander Valley Vineyards. “Wine is really beautiful, it’s art, it’s science, it’s gracious living and microbiology. Wine making is very seasonal, and you have to be there, just like farming. I had to make a choice between being adventurous or being tied to the land.”

She decided to take a winter off to go live, work and ski in Aspen, noting that, ”In Aspen, you can work and ski, or work and party but you can’t do both. That’s how I eventually ended up in Crested Butte.” But at the end of winter she went back to Sonoma to work Clos du Bois, as a wine chemist for the fall crush. She eventually earned a BS in Fermentation Science in 1985.

When Susan married her then boyfriend, Bill Eskew, they moved to Venice, Florida, bought a boat and learned how to sail all summer. “And we learned how to baby,” she grins. “Lily was born that fall, after which, we packed up the van and moved to Crested Butte, Thanksgiving 1984. Our lives were really about skiing and sailing and I really wanted to live in a mountain town.” Susan got a job waitressing at the Plum Restaurant (now the upstairs of Talk of the Town), but her husband, she recalls, never really loved CB. “He wanted to be moving all the time. He was gone a lot with his three veterinarian clinics in California and one in Florida. People actually thought I was a single parent.” Still, she admits, “We had a pretty good lifestyle.”
They moved constantly for 15 years, from California to Florida and back to Colorado, keeping their home in CB. “We’d be here for six months to a year and then move again to spend time in the other places. CB was kind of the home base, even though we weren’t here full-time.” Their second daughter, Chloe, was born in 1988 in Santa Barbara.

With college expenses on the horizon for her daughters, Susan decided to continue her own education at Western State College in 1999 (now Western Colorado University) with the goal of becoming employed as a teacher. “I felt I had to support my girls for college so I enrolled in the teaching program as a secondary science educator.” But her daughter Lily began to have emotional issues in high school. “No one could put a finger on what was going on with her but I could see something was happening. We took a year off and sailed around the Bahamas,” Susan felt the change would be good for Lily. “But returning to Crested Butte, nothing had changed for Lily. She didn’t really want to come back and neither did her dad.” Susan returned to Western to finish her course work and the family once again moved, this time to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where Susan did her student teaching to receive her degree in biology, secondary licensure.

She was hired to teach earth science and biology in the little southern town of Edenton, however, between the southern culture and the destruction of hurricane Isabel, Susan was ready to move on. Lily had graduated and Susan returned to Crested Butte in 2004 as a full-time resident, with Chloe enrolled as a sophomore at the CB Academy and Bill moved to Florida. “What skiing and sailing have brought to me is that you have to be flexible and adaptable, you have to be able to pivot and change course, but perseverance and being present is half of it,” Susan felt of her changes.

Lily, who had been having emotional issues all through high school and college was diagnosed as schizophrenic. “She had been hearing voices. It was horrible. It’s a severe mental illness. To have someone that you love fall apart is unbelievable. I didn’t want to believe it. I went to the National Alliance for Mentally Ill, there were all these people with horrible stories and I thought, how do reasonable people cope? You can’t give up on people. The changes of waves and mountains of sailing and skiing is nothing compared to the challenges of the journey of a severe illness.” Lily’s learned how to cope with her mental illness but she still needs so much support, Susan says. Lily now lives in an assisted living facility in Grand Junction.

For the past decade, Susan has managed long and short-term rentals, “I have strong feelings about housing. In tumultuous times, having sanctuary is important. I still like finding housing for locals, people who work in local restaurants and teach skiing. I do have a handful of vacation rentals, the extended Crested Butte family who typically have been coming for years and consider CB their second home. I’ve seen kids grow up, go to college and come back with their spouses. I’d guess the flip side of earning a living from housing is to volunteer to help create decent homes for those who need a little help in the valley,” she says of her work with Valley Housing Fund (valleyhousingfund.org). My dream is to build housing where people could age in place among their friends and family. No one plans to get old, or injured, or sick, but it will happen to all of us, and that’s why I’d like to see housing designed to not only fit in architecturally, but with universal design for accessibility.”

Susan also volunteers with Adaptive, “Having the Adaptive Sports Center as a central part of our local scene is a shining light for inclusiveness. Volunteering with this group for a couple years really opened my heart, to shed the shame of illness and injury and move to adapting to a new reality to continue living our best lives when Lily became ill.”

Susan feels she’s had a lot of opportunity to do many different things. “I coached skiing, wrote for the different local newspapers, volunteered for CBMR guest services, worked for the Nordic Center, started the Trails Commission and was on the town planning board. CB gives you the opportunity to learn to do anything you want to do. That’s who we are — it’s the people, the community and the setting.”

Adds seat for Met Rec to STOR; one additional seat for planning commission in February

[ By Katherine Nettles ]

County commissioners made several appointments to county boards and commissions on Tuesday, January 26 following interviews they conducted last week on January 19. Several boards had more applicants than positions available, and commissioners encouraged those who did not get appointments this time around to stay engaged and consider reapplying in the future. Board member choices such as a Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) seat that had more applicants than positions available came harder for the commissioners than others, and a surprise additional vacancy to the planning commission delayed part of that appointment process until next month.

Commissioners appointed Pam Montgomery and David Baumgarten to the Library District Board. Commissioners suggested that the two other applicants, Micah Russell and Heather Hughes both have programming skills that might be helpful down the road, making them potential additions to that board in the future. Susan Wyman was appointed to the Extension Advisory Committee, with Melody Roper and John Mugglestone re-appointed. Glo Cunningham was reappointed to the Land Preservation board, and Steve Otero was reappointed to the Veteran Services board. LeeAnn Mick was reappointed to the Historic Preservation board, with three additional north valley appointees: Shelly Popke, David Russell and Heather Thiessen-Reily.

TAPP
Wynn Williams and Bill Ronai were appointed to the two TAPP board openings. After last week’s interviews, all were in agreement that Williams was an asset based on his past experience on the board, especially since one open seat was being vacated by the board’s chair.

“Wynn’s been a steady hand on the wheel, and at the ICELab,” said commissioner Jonathan Houck. He also said the two candidates would bring balance across the valley as a whole. “Different people want different things from TAPP,” said Houck. “I see both Wynn and Bill stepping up to balance all those pulls in different directions.”

Commissioner Liz Smith commented that Ronai’s experience as a CFO would provide strong financial oversight, the need for which has been the subject of many conversations regarding TAPP in recent years.

“I believe that trying to keep these as apolitical as possible just gives additional credibility to the position,” commented commissioner Roland Mason, whose votes for Williams and Ronai were ultimately carried by all.

Former county commissioner candidate Dave Taylor and Mt. Crested Butte town council member Roman Kolodziej had also applied.

One of the reasons Kolodziej had applied was to have more representation from Mt. CB on the board. The Mt. CB town council has expressed concern that there is not enough representation and say from the the towns of CB and Mt. CB regarding TAPP’s strategy and budget.

Taylor had openly criticized TAPP during his campaign for county commissioner last fall. Mason said the financial critiques that Taylor brought up could be helpful, but affected “the good faith of people coming on the board.”

Smith agreed. “When I hear people saying that things are wrong despite the evidence…and when you look at what TAPP has done for Gunnison County, that success is undeniable,” she said.

Houck said that Taylor’s suggestions to establish mechanisms to audit and monitor TAPP are already in place, and Taylor’s suggestions to defund certain aspects were overly simplistic. “Those are simple answers to very complex things that TAPP has to contemplate,” he said.
The two TAPP board members who joined commissioners in the appointment process, Gary Pierson and Kelley Baer, were initially leaning in favor of Kolodziej.

Pierson is Dean of students at Western Colorado University (WCU) and represents WCU on the TAPP board, and Baer is director of sales at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) and represents CBMR on the board.

Baer said she agreed with appointing Williams to retain the knowledge he brings, since “coming out of COVID we know that things are going to be different,” she said. “What I sort of took away from this was Roman asked some really great questions,” she said, and was leaning toward him for the other spot.

Pierson said Ronai was his top choice. “I think he brings a different skill set and different set of eyes to the table.” But he struggled with choice between Kolodziej and Williams. “I saw a kinder, gentler Roman than I’ve seen in the past,” he said of Kolodziej’s interview and approach. Pierson said he also thinks more Mt. Crested Butte representation is important, but he did understand the commissioners’ perspective as well.

STOR Committee
All standing seats on the Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) committee were reappointed: Joellen Fonken representing the Upper Gunnison River Water District; Steve Guerrieri representing the Stock Growers Association, Roman Kolodziej representing Mt. Crested Butte; Mark Voegeli for CBMR; Brandon Diamond representing Colorado Parks and Wildlife; Matt McCombs representing the US Forest Service Gunnison Ranger District; and John Norton representing TAPP. Mallory Logan for the city of Gunnison and Mona Merrill for the town of Crested Butte were also reappointed pending their formal applications.

There were three additional at-large openings, which went to Jake Jones with the Crested Butte Land Trust, Tim Kugler with Gunnison Trails and Hannah Cranor, who is vice-president of the Stock growers Association.

As they discussed last week during an interview with Hedda Peterson of the Gunnison County Met Rec district, commissioners voted unanimously to amend the STOR charter to include an additional dedicated seat for Met Rec. They then appointed Peterson for that seat, noting that Met Rec’s recent deBrucing and restructuring would align well with STOR goals. Meanwhile, the Met Rec board voted at a board meeting last week to allocate $70,000 to the STOR committee.

Planning commission
At the time of the Planning Commission interviews last week, there were three regular openings and two alternates. Since then, board member AJ Cattles announced he was resigning due to a busy schedule and some significant projects coming online. So with an additional open seat, commissioners decided to reappoint Vince Rogalski and appoint two previous alternates, Andy Sovick and Scott Cox, to become regular members, and re-open the process for one more regular board appointment and two alternates. Interviews will be held early next month, and appointments will follow. Those who applied as new members will still be considered, and new applicants are also welcomed.

“We’ve got a lot of good applicants but we’ve got a whole different scenario than we did,” explained Houck. He also said the commission could use more up-valley members to balance it out.

“I appreciate living in a community where people want to be involved in these boards and committees,” said Houck. He noted that many other counties struggle to find applicants, or struggle with applicants who have an ax to grind and have personal vendettas or political motives. “We tend to have a lot of people who passionately and from a place of service want to be involved.”

[  By Dawne Belloise  ]

On a powder day with excited crowds piling up at the bus stops throughout town, itching to hit some of those first stashes of white fluff, you might find Jeremy Herzog in his ambassador mode, two-way radio in hand, negotiating between Mountain Express drivers and waiting riders. With the COVID-19 rider protections in place, allowing 19 passengers per bus, Jeremy sums up the numbers situation at key stops and relays that information to the drivers as they count the riders already on board. It’s just one of the many hats Jeremy wears as the new Mountain Express managing director, hired in June to replace retiring Chris Larsen.

Born in Millbrook, N.Y., a small town about two hours north of New York City, he was raised with a younger brother by school teacher parents. “The community I grew up in was similar in size to Crested Butte. I was a rule follower,” he laughs, “and I wore sweater vests.” Hockey was Jeremy’s big sport. “I learned to skate when I was four on the pond in front of my house,” but because he attended a small school, he was also able to play soccer and tennis, although he claims he wasn’t very good at the latter. “When you only have 12 kids trying out for a tennis team, you don’t have to be very good. Hockey was my primary obsession.”

In high school, Jeremy considered participation in community service to be of utmost importance so he started the Interact Club, in conjunction with the Rotary Club, to help increase community service by teens. “We took on a bunch of projects. For example, on Halloween we trick-or-treated for canned goods for the food pantry… instead of toilet papering people’s houses.” He graduated in 1997 in a class of 48 kids and was accepted into Notre Dame University.

Jeremy’s choice to attend Notre Dame was quite intentional. “I was in this small connected community and worked as hard as I could to get out,” he admits. His graduating class at Notre Dame was larger than his hometown population and he was only an hour or so away from Chicago, where there was plenty to do. Having played hockey for most of his life, Jeremy recalls, “I saw the rugby team practicing one day and said to myself, I need to do that.” So he signed up and played through his college days. To continue his involvement in serving his community, he became the resident advisor in the dorms. He graduated in 2001 with a dual degree, a BA in political science and a BS in management information systems, essentially a business degree with a focus on computers.

Jeremy was determined to begin his career after graduation so he moved to Chicago, utilizing his computer degree. “I started working for a big management consulting company, Eccentrue, which dealt with Fortune 500 companies.”

He was with them for six years before moving to Leo Burnett, the second largest advertising firm in America. “They make about 40 percent of the Superbowl commercials you’ll see. I was leading teams to build websites, mobile apps and transform business. It was very corporate. I was working in a 35-story building in downtown Chicago,” he says of the firm that created Tony the Tiger, the Marlboro Man, the Maytag repair man and Allstate’s good hands. He was there for seven years, enjoying what he calls the urban experience. “Coming from a small town, I especially liked the anonymity of getting on a stacked subway car and not knowing anyone. I also rode my bike to work. I loved exploring new restaurants—Chicago is a great city for restaurants. I was a season ticket holder for the Bears and taking the subway to the games was really cool.” He joined a competitive rugby club, playing with them for over a decade. “We had night training twice a week and Saturday matches in the park.”

Jeremy was late to the ski scene, only discovering it during his senior year at Notre Dame when a college buddy invited him to spend spring break at his Dillon, Colo. condo. They skied Copper the first day. “It was the first time I had seen the Rocky Mountains and I was just awestruck. My first day of skiing, my friend took me to the top of a groomed black diamond run and told me, if you get going too fast just do a hockey stop. My friend was a ski racer. It was pretty steep and I was kind of scared but I got down without falling. I was hooked. I knew I had to get back to Colorado someday.”

Jeremy met his wife, Nicole Del Sasso, through mutual friends in Chicago and they married there in 2013. Throughout his career in the city, he continued to return to Colorado yearly to ski, realizing, “When I took these trips, I always felt more at home in the mountains. I’d ski mostly the I-70 corridor resorts. After Nicole and I got married, we talked about our future together and imagined a different lifestyle for us than my urban counterparts. Starting with our honeymoon in Jackson Hole, we visited 23 mountain towns over a three-year period.” But he feels they saved the best for last, visiting Crested Butte twice in 2016. “We just knew by the first hour of being in Crested Butte it was the more connected community and ski town that we wanted to call home.”

It is election season and two of the Gunnison County Commissioner seats are up for election with two candidates running for each position. The Crested Butte News will be asking the local candidates for their views on issues for the next several weeks. We have requested they keep their answers to 500 words or fewer.

If you have a burning question for the candidates, feel free to email it to editorial@crestedbuttenews.com. We are starting the questions early this year because it is expected many people will get their ballots the week of October 12-16 and send them back as soon as possible.

Remember, all qualified voters in Gunnison County get to cast a ballot for one candidate in each district.

And everyone is invited to the Crested Butte News Candidates Forum being held on Sunday, October 11 at 6 p.m. at the Crested Butte Center for the Arts. Given the public health orders, there will be limited seating in the theatre but there is opportunity to attend and watch the debate. It will be broadcast on KBUT Monday evening, October 12.

—Mark Reaman

 

Liz Smith

District 1 candidate

Can a rural Colorado county with a ski area at 9,000 feet that depends on tourism (which at the moment includes jets, vehicles and fossil fuels) make a difference with global climate change? Does it matter? What would you do to make an impact on climate change as a commissioner?

Gunnison County can make a difference. We may not produce the emissions of densely populated areas, but everyone has to do their part. And, as John Hausdoerffer explained in his letter to the Times last week, we are: Gunnison County has been a leader in harnessing geothermal energy in county buildings, and work is underway to figure out how we can increase our goals for 20 percent reductions to 40 or 50 percent by 2030. Reaching the county’s goal of 85 percent methane flaring or capture in the North Fork is critical. In terms of impact, the greenhouse gasses from this initiative alone are equivalent to [approximately] 90,000 cars.

Beyond that, implementing a composting program would reduce methane emissions and preserve limited landfill capacity. How can we make this happen? Some of the cheapest homes and rentals in the county come with massive energy price tags for financially vulnerable residents, and the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority GV-HEAT program has been an incredible asset for improving efficiency. At the same time, I’d like to explore how we can incentivize better energy efficiency in new buildings without placing undue burden on buyers who find our housing market outpacing their resources.

Some second homeowners and business owners made a splash this spring and summer with the GV2H Political Action Committee that made mention of raising $3 million to help elect like-minded people to political positions and monitor local government boards to ensure their interests are being addressed. What is your take on the GV2H PAC?

It’s important to listen to concerns from people in the county who don’t necessarily vote here such as second homeowners and students at Western. They’re part of our community and their voices are vital. I think most people agree.

The GV2H PAC is where agreement ends, and it’s unfortunately become a wedge issue within the second homeowner community. My priority in this campaign has been to share my message of unity and what I stand for. I have refrained from mentioning my opponent in ads or campaign content (though he mentions me frequently and seems to like my platform). Since he is being publicly supported by GV2H, however, I think a comment is warranted.

For weeks, the only item listed under Dave Taylor’s platform was a letter to the editor he submitted in response to a letter critiquing his affiliation to GV2H. He asked, “Tell me what second homeowners want that we don’t all want” or that “is antithetical to the common good?”

Where to begin? As second homeowners Mikki Couch and Peter Esposito have indicated in letters to the Times and Crested Butte News, this PAC can’t be described as “apolitical” or the voice of second homeowners. For those who can’t access the group’s private Facebook page, just look at GV2H founder Jim Moran’s Twitter to see what kinds of ideas are driving this organization (and why so many second homeowners have been kicked out or left).

Dave claims he doesn’t have an “agenda,” but GV2H has one. They want to leverage the wealth of second homeowners who are still with them and were upset by our county’s decision to close when we had the third highest infection rate in the nation. They want to establish a permanent presence to “represent our interests” in local politics. The “our” in this statement channels some of the most extreme partisan viewpoints of non-residents. We don’t “all want” this or PAC money influencing our elections.

As of last week, GV2H put up their first signs supporting Dave on Main St. in Gunnison. No candidate can claim to stand for unity while accepting the support of this organization.

We’ve heard rumblings that some people feel non-elected officials wield too much power in local governments and should be reined in or even replaced. Do you share that perspective? If so, specifically where? If not, is everything perfect?

Joni Reynolds has received heavy criticism, but the fact is she’s done an incredible job managing our local response to COVID-19 and leading the state along the way. I’ve had several conversations with John Norton of TAPP, both one-on-one and during BOCC meetings, to discuss strategy and talk about increasing transparency. TAPP has been successful, but south valley tourism has taken a harder hit this year. We also need to protect our resources and trail systems essential to the north valley tourism, which has been overrun this summer. I think it makes sense for the chambers to be part of these discussions too.

If you could wave your magic wand and see one fundamental change in Gunnison County four years from now, what would it be?

Apart from the pandemic magically disappearing? I would say housing. When the workforce is priced out, it hurts businesses and erodes the essence and character of our community.

What’s your last best ski run?

I love skiing with our son Jacob, who just turned 6. It’s so rewarding to see how fast he’s picked it up. (Shout out to Carolyn, his amazing Cruisers teacher!) Right before CBMR shut down, mogul runs like Twister and Resurrection were in heavy rotation.

You get eight minutes to ride the Silver Queen or 18 minutes to ride up the Rec path. What three people (past or present) do you want to hang with?

Ruth Bader Ginsberg and author Toni Morrison. As a former collegiate runner, I’m a huge fan of Emma Coburn and have seen her around while running but haven’t had the chance to officially meet. (Hi there, Emma!)

Social media platforms you use: Facebook? Instagram? TikTok? Snapchat? YouTube? Twitter? Others?

Facebook and Instagram: @lizforgunnisoncounty.

 

 

Dave Taylor

District 1 candidate

Can a rural Colorado county with a ski area at 9,000 feet that depends on tourism (which at the moment includes jets, vehicles and fossil fuels) make a difference with global climate change? Does it matter? What would you do to make an impact on climate change as a commissioner?

The ultimate conundrum and the ultimate controversy wrapped up together.

Gunnison County, via TAPP, spent $2,700,000 in 2019 to attract visitors to our valley. I own an RV campground and my business is at record levels. I can see private aviation parking from my front yard, and anecdotally, I see more private aviation than ever in the past. Gunnison County has received $26,000,000 to enhance our airport, theoretically to attract more air travel.

Attracting more bodies to our county is detrimental to the environment in some way. Hypothetically, if we could raise our prices for everything 20 percent and have 10 percent less people come here, we would make progress both environmentally and economically.

I wish it could be that simple; it is not. We must maintain the fabric that makes us a community and accommodate growth at the right pace.

We are human (worldwide) and the world population grows every day. Humans are driven by their self-interest to survive and improve their lives, which is antithetical to the health of our planet. We have overpopulated our planet to what some believe is the breaking point; we will adapt and improve technologically, but we will survive and thrive.

I will advocate for our county to grow, and promote growth in an environmentally responsible way. Financially, we should focus on getting the most from our environmental efforts and use our taxpayer dollars efficiently.

Some second homeowners and business owners made a splash this spring and summer with the GV2H Political Action Committee that made mention of raising $3 million to help elect like-minded people to political positions and monitor local government boards to ensure their interests are being addressed. What is your take on the GV2H PAC?

Poor communication and disregard for property rights was the catalyst for GV2H. I believe I was the first to address this issue with John Messner on April 12, 2020. My letter to John was published in the Times on April 16.

It has been told that the letter was sent from Health and Human Services without the approval or review from the BOCC. Really? While HHS had broad power during the pandemic, it is inconceivable that the BOCC did not request to review out-going county communication.

Gunnison County property owners all have the same property rights, be it their second property or their 10th property. Most would have respected a logical plea to stay away because of our limited capacities. For some, Gunnison County could have been the safest place for them to be (vs. New York City or New Jersey).

Now, some are offended that property owners are upset, when it was county leadership who were responsible for upsetting them.

We all have the right to peacefully protest, be it through a GV2H PAC or walking the street for our cause. My message is the same as last week: Treat others how you expect to be treated and promote compassion, equality and inclusivity to all.

We’ve heard rumblings that some people feel non-elected officials wield too much power in local governments and should be reined in or even replaced. Do you share that perspective? If so, specifically where? If not, is everything perfect?

The elephant in the room is not hard to identify: Matthew Birnie.

I believe that Matthew knows more about our county government than anyone else. His knowledge is very valuable. With knowledge comes power, and I believe Matthew is inclined to exert his influence as a strong-willed individual.

I am equally strong-willed, and if elected, I will use my intellect to equal Matthew’s knowledge and together maybe it will work well. Plus, I can sell our ideas better than Matthew’s abrasive manner.

The baby will not go out with the bath water. I will treat all in county government with respect and will earn their respect in return. I have been told that Matthew will take on the character of his BOCC; if elected, I hope that is true.

If there is a problem with Matthew it rests solely on the shoulders of Jonathan Houck and Roland Mason. I do not hold my opponent Liz Smith responsible.

If you could wave your magic wand and see one fundamental change in Gunnison County four years from now, what would it be?

Different question same answer: Compassion, equality and inclusivity for all.

What’s your last best ski run?

Have to say ski runs. Skied a triple, triple (three runs three times) on the Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek 30 years ago. Time goes by—don’t waste it!

You get eight minutes to ride the Silver Queen or 18 minutes to ride up the Rec path. What three people (past or present) do you want to hang with?

My Mom (deceased), Martin Luther King Jr., Jim Nance (sportscaster).

Social media platforms you use: Facebook? Instagram? TikTok? Snapchat? YouTube? Twitter? Others?

Only Facebook.

 

 

Jonathan Houck

District 2 candidate

Can a rural Colorado county with a ski area at 9,000 feet that depends on tourism (which at the moment includes jets, vehicles and fossil fuels) make a difference with global climate change? Does it matter? What would you do to make an impact on climate change as a commissioner?

Yes, we can and we are making a difference, yet we have plenty of urgent work to do. Yes, it matters! The Draft Gunnison Valley Climate Action Report gives specific policy recommendations that we have been implementing and will continue to do so under my leadership. If the whole of the county (Towns, WCU, CBMR, GCEA and County) act urgently and with purpose we can reduce our GHG emissions by 50 percent by 2030 from our 2015 baseline assessment. See more at vote4houck.com.

Some second homeowners and business owners made a splash this spring and summer with the GV2H Political Action Committee that made mention of raising $3 million to help elect like-minded people to political positions and monitor local government boards to ensure their interests are being addressed. What is your take on the GV2H PAC?

Let me start here: After many conversations with seasonal residents, it appears that many of second homeowners do not align with the stated goals or approach of the GV2H PAC. Many of them stated that when we take care of the needs of full-time residents (workforce housing, transportation, etc.) by extension their time, investments and experiences while here are enhanced. When the GV2H chatter started, I spent 1.5 hours on the phone with Jim Moran. We have different perspectives for sure. He pushed me to lean on manager Birnie and Public Health director Reynolds to open Gunnison County completely; this was late April. When I stood by the decisions we were making it was made clear that I would be in the crosshairs of him personally and the PAC. I have been privy to the social media postings in the GV2H group and the “Save Our Gunnison County’s Summer and Businesses” group that Moran actively engages with. They accomplished their goal, which was to beat the bushes to find a candidate who would carry their torch and plant their flag. That person is my opponent Trudy Vader. She is their chosen candidate and they expect her to carry their agenda forward. She has stated that she has met with them numerous times. GV2H has endorsed her. What is the GV2H plan? I quote directly from their website their plan:

“In short, we will win by: setting up a permanent organization, engaging in local and state elections, supporting or opposing candidates, engaging legal representation of our interests (as the rules are being made) and fighting the rules through litigation (or the threat thereof) whenever our interests are disregarded, ill-considered or abused.”

I choose not to buckle to their threats of dark money and influence but rather have stayed the course of keeping the health and safety of everyone at the heart of my decision-making. Many second homeowners and seasonal residents have reached out to me offering support of my decisions, support of my re-election and thanks for making the often-difficult decisions so they could eventually return feeling safe and enjoy the place they equally care about and love.

We’ve heard rumblings that some people feel non-elected officials wield too much power in local governments and should be reined in or even replaced. Do you share that perspective? If so, specifically where? If not, is everything perfect?

Based on some calls and emails I have received over the last eight months, I believe this question is mainly aimed at our Public Health director. In 2006 the State Legislature passed legislation with very clear language that gave, in a declared public health emergency, the county PH director far ranging authority to make decisions without the influence of politics. Joni Reynolds, with a career full of relevant education and experience was able to guide us with leadership and expertise to make the hard and often heart-wrenching decisions outlined in the public health orders. It was never lost on her the parallel economic emergency unfolding simultaneously and those impacts weighed heavily on her, too. I was directly informed, involved and entrenched in the decisions. I supported doing what was necessary, despite vitriol being hurled at us by folks who discounted the seriousness of COVID. I believe our quick, immediate and science-based actions saved lives. Our economy has recovered quicker and outpaced other Colorado resort counties who were more timid in their response.

If you could wave your magic wand and see one fundamental change in Gunnison County four years from now—what would it be?

Workforce housing built to a level that more folks were housing-secure and living where they work. Currently, Gunnison County is facilitating the building of the largest workforce rental housing project in county history. You can count on me to put more units on the ground in the next four years!

What’s your last best ski run?

After 40+ days of continuous work at the start of the pandemic, my wife Roanne forced me to take a few hours away from the response work. We did a BC ski tour near Carbon Peak. Safe, low-angle glade skiing—that was my last best run!

You get eight minutes to ride the Silver Queen or 18 minutes to ride up the Rec path. What three people (past or present) do you want to hang with?

Really only one person—my mom. She died by suicide when I was 8 years old. I never had a chance to have an adult-to-adult conversation with her. I sure would like that opportunity.

But, if I had to add two more it would be Thomas Jefferson to chat about what he envisioned the West could be after hearing the reports of Lewis and Clark, and Bruce Springsteen, well, because he is the Boss.

Social media platforms you use: Facebook? Instagram? TikTok? Snapchat? YouTube? Twitter? Others?

Just Facebook. My teenagers would die if I were on their platforms!

 

 

Trudy Vader

District 2 candidate

Can a rural Colorado county with a ski area at 9,000 feet that depends on tourism (which now includes jets, vehicles and fossil fuels) make a difference with global climate change? Does it matter? What would you do to make an impact on climate change as a commissioner?

Yes, it matters. Large-scale renewable generation of electricity is at the center of decreasing Gunnison’s carbon footprint. The question that needs answered, will Gunnison County have the courage to truly address the issue. We have three natural renewable resources that could have a real impact on our carbon foot: geothermal, pump storage hydropower and solar. Geothermal is my preference. It has near-zero carbon emissions and “among the smallest land surface footprint per kilowatt (KW) of any per KW generation technology,” according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). A Stanford University study, Global Climate and Energy Project compared the energy stored on investment (ESOI) of hydropower and solar. The ESOI is the calculation between the amount of energy created by a technology divided by the cost to build it. Hydro had a score of 210 ESOI, meaning it is able to store 210 times more energy over its lifetime than it is required to build. Solar depending on the battery had an ESOI score of 2 to 10. Geothermal was not part of the study but I would venture to say it would match or have a better ESIO than hydropower.

Some second homeowners and business owners made a splash this spring and summer with the GV2H Political Action Committee that made mention of raising $3 million to help elect like-minded people to political positions and monitor local government boards to ensure their interests are being addressed. What is your take on the GV2H PAC?

People are frustrated with the three like-minded county board members. Three un-like-minded leaders can bring different viewpoints, talents and deep meaningful discussions to make better decisions for the whole community. I feel that creation of the GV2H PAC lies directly on my opponent’s doorstep. The other ski towns’ counties asked their second homeowners to leave or stay away, rather than mandating and threatening them. Our leadership created a potential lawsuit liability for the county and motivated the second homeowners to create the GV2H PAC. I feel poor governance leads people to find new ways to be heard by elected officials and that is exactly what happened in Gunnison County.

I have listened to the second homeowners and… hourly wage workers, salaried professionals, small businesses and restaurant owners, building and construction contractors, realtors, ranchers, county, state and federal employees, homeowners and potential homebuyers. I have been abundantly clear with each group that as an unaffiliated county commissioner I will not make decisions based on political ideologies, agendas, special groups or cronyism, but rather the priority needs of the community as identified by data and information. A simple look at my platform at www.VoteTrudyVader.com will clarify exactly what my commitment will be as county commissioner: building housing, supporting local businesses, addressing climate projects and community outreach.

We’ve heard rumblings that some people feel non-elected officials wield too much power in local governments and should be reined in or even replaced. Do you share that perspective? If so, specifically where? If not, is everything perfect?

Oh yes, there are rumblings. In fact, I would say in most of the conversations with community members this issue is brought up by them, and it happens throughout the entire county. Why? Is it true? And what leadership accountability does my opponent have regarding this issue? From those conversations that I have had I feel my opponent demonstrates two weak areas of leadership ability.

The first has to do with not being a visible, active, communicative leader. Prior to COVID-19 not many people were familiar with the role of county health departments. So, why would they give any credibility to our county health director, especially when she has been left standing alone so often without our top county leader present. It gives a very confusing message. We have seen leaders across this country at the local, state and federal levels present with their health personnel. Communicating together about COVID-19. My opponent has been missing in action. It has created a perception of a power vacuum. And as the saying goes “perception is reality.” As your county commissioner I will stand with county workers in crisis situations and be visible and present for businesses and community members.

The second rumbling has to do with the county manager. I feel my opponent’s lack of formal training or any real experience managing and evaluating employees’ performances has contributed to the mixed messaging of “who is the boss.” I managed 30 to 80 employees for eight years and have performed well over a hundred formal evaluations. I have worked for, with and on governing boards. I know the protocol for those who report directly to the board. In all fairness to the county manger he needs to be evaluated by a sound performance tool rather than in the court of public opinions. I will request an annual 360 performance evaluation of the county manager and attorney. This researched-based evaluation provides actionable feedback about an employee through researched based survey questions given to people that he/she professionally interacts with.

If you could wave your magic wand and see one fundamental change in Gunnison County four years from now, what would it be?

Fix the housing crisis. It is the keystone to the stability of the county. It impacts businesses’ ability to hire qualified staff. It impacts workers’ ability to live a balanced life. It impacts first time homebuyers’ ability to buy a home and begin building personal wealth.

What’s your last best ski run?

I can’t remember but it was a great day with my kids.

You get eight minutes to ride the Silver Queen or 18 minutes to ride up the Rec path. What three people (past or present) do you want to hang with?

My mother, father and brother who have all passed away. I would tell them that I love them and give them a hug.

Social media platforms you use: Facebook? Instagram? TikTok? Snapchat? YouTube? Twitter? Others?

Facebook, TikTok and You Tube.

 

 

Town will explore options outside of Crested Butte

By Mark Reaman

It is understandable that no one relishes living near an RV dump station, even if you live near a wastewater treatment plant, and that sentiment was made clear to the Crested Butte Town Council Monday night.

Residents of the northeast part of town strongly encouraged the council to close the RV dump station located at Eighth Street and Butte Avenue, or at a minimum relocate it so that summer RV traffic is mitigated. Council will have staff pursue conversations with Gunnison County and the Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) committee to see if another location in the north valley is feasible.

“There is no good answer to this issue,” Crested Butte public works director Shea Earley told the council in a memo. “It is the town staff’s opinion that we, as a community, have a responsibility to provide a location for people to deposit their septic waste.”

Earley said providing such a service helped protect the environment from people who might choose to dump their waste in the nearby backcountry and gave people a safe place to deposit their waste. He said to extend sewer services out of town at, say, Avalanche Park would be very expensive and to fill a large tank that was then pumped into the town wastewater treatment system was not physically feasible.

Gunnison County commissioner Roland Mason said that while the county owned 14 acres south of town, there has been no discussion on what to do with that property. To use a space near the county shops south of town would likely involve the Colorado Department of Transportation and expensive road improvements. “Being tied to a sewer plant is important for the environment,” he said.

Town manager Dara MacDonald said the staff had been looking at alternative routes to and from the RV dump station that would alleviate some of the traffic issues that have popped up recently with an increase of use. The traffic issues, she said, brought safety concerns, congestion and occasional confrontations.

“I have heard from people that we are a resort town and we should provide amenities for people who come here,” said mayor Jim Schmidt. “I assume some of the people using it come into town and buy things and go to our restaurants. The other option would be in the south end of the valley, perhaps near the airport.”

“When it was first put in in the 1990s there wasn’t a neighborhood there,” said council member Mona Merrill. “It will just get more congested as that neighborhood continues to grow. I am not entirely convinced it is an amenity we need to offer if the county can help us. The solution five years from now is not to keep it there. We don’t want people dumping waste in the backcountry so we need to collaborate with the county for a solution.”

“I really would like to see our neighborhoods preserved,” added council member Mallika Magner.

“I live two blocks away and that neighborhood is dealing with a lot as the town grows,” said council member Will Dujardin. “I know the need for it but it came to a boiling point this summer with all the congestion. I think in the short-term it might be a signage and communication issue while we work to find a better place outside of town. I recognize it is by the wastewater treatment plant.”

“I think it is a topic we need to address with STOR,” said council member Chris Haver. “My thought is to start the conversation with the county and look at a long-term solution and do community outreach for next summer.”

“If the council wants to say you will decommission the dump site, then say it,” advised MacDonald. “There will be no motivation for another entity to work toward a solution otherwise. And if that’s the case where in two years or five years you close it, I don’t recommend building additional infrastructure on that site.”

“I’m not prepared to put a sunset on that site tonight,” said Dujardin. “It feels like there is a large demand for this.”

“There is a demonstrated need,” said MacDonald. “The town collects thousands of dollars every summer in contributions from people who use it. But that waste will go somewhere if this is closed.”

“Reaching out to the county to see if they can offer assistance is important,” said council member Candice Bradley.

“STOR is a great place to have this conversation for the long run,” said Mason.

“And winter is the perfect opportunity to have the discussion with our partners,” commented Haver.

Citizen Kent Cowherd said the RV dump was an amenity the town should keep providing. “If it is closed there will be an impact on the environment,” he said. “Look for solutions and I suggest going with your suggested option 3 even though it is the most expensive. Move the dump and loop the RVs so they come in, use it and exit off Pyramid Avenue.”

“We understand the need to keep the dumping out of the backcountry but I would encourage the council to preserve the quality of life in that neighborhood,” said Heather Seekatz. “There’s the cell tower issue and this and river access. It feels like we in that neighborhood get shit on.”

“The council seems more concerned with issues outside of town than the people inside of town,” said Tom Cosgrove. “You don’t have to solve the world’s problems all the time. Focus on town. There are 150 people who signed a petition saying they don’t want a dump station in that neighborhood. Listen to the people.”

“I don’t really think people with RVs will be dumping in the backcountry if this is closed,” said Johnna Bernholtz. “But I’m tired of us having to provide everything for the county up here. Thanks for reaching out to them.”

“Down the road I see perhaps a station outside of town but keeping the town facility open as well so there are two places,” said Mason. “That is way down the road but the STOR committee is a good place to start.”

MacDonald said she and Crested Butte STOR representative Mona Merrill would approach STOR about the issue and pursue a solution outside of town. If that doesn’t go anywhere they will look at in-town mitigation possibilities with lots of input from neighbors.

Winter still the fastest-growing season

By Katherine Nettles and Mark Reaman

Tourism is exploding into the spring and fall shoulder seasons, lodging revenue growth is outpacing that of similar mountain towns, air marketing is on and trails are still the main product marketed to visitors.

All this and more was the focus of a semi-annual Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) update to Gunnison County and the town of Crested Butte officials last week, and according to TAPP’s executive director John Norton, “2020 may be our best year ever.”

Norton and his team of TAPP staff, including communications director Andrew Sandstrom and ICELab director David Assad, reviewed TAPP’s purposes and fulfillments of its Memorandum of Understanding with the Gunnison County Commissioners for both tourism and long-term economic development at the September 22 meeting.

Lodging revenues and tourism growth

“Lodging revenues are growing,” said Sandstrom. “And that is the end-all item on our overall report card,” he said. In fact, TAPP has tracked more than $20 million in lodging sales this year.

Norton said that shoulder seasons have grown 70 percent, “primarily as overflow from summer,” including both June and October.

Norton gave two reasons why 2020 might be considered TAPP’s best year yet, despite the pandemic: first, the Gunnison Valley has seen small lodging revenue losses (in the single digits) compared with similar areas.

“We’ve never seen the split from other hard-to-get-to players like Steamboat, Aspen and Telluride,” said Norton, all of which are down 20 percent or more this year due to the pandemic. “Those other resorts were off by double digits. Our July was actually the biggest lodging sales month in the history of the valley.”

July’s record lodging revenue was the second reason for 2020 to be a great year.

Norton said, “We saw an average of $2 million in visitor spending per week for those nine peak weeks of summer.”

Norton did acknowledge however, that the south end of the valley was struggling with its lodging numbers, as was Mt. Crested Butte. It seems Crested Butte is carrying the increases as a whole.

“The valley was down 2 percent in lodging revenues through July,” he explained.

“We planted the flag on trails,” Norton told the Crested Butte Town Council on September 21. “The commissioners wanted us to market the entire county and we are fortunate to have great trails at both end of the valley.”

As for the strong numbers reported this summer, Norton said, “Part of that is luck in that the trails strategy we adopted five years ago paid off when we were ready to open. My sense is that … 2020 could overall be bigger than 2019. We hope we can keep it up. We are very happy. It is great to see this type of bounce back. A lot of people have benefitted from it.”

Marketing

Marketing-wise, outsourcing photo and video production is a big part of the TAPP budget.

“We’ve been criticized that we spend too much on videos and content, but as they say, content is king,” said Sandstrom of the tourism industry.

Most messaging comes through digital technology, and TAPP is consolidating its four separate websites.

One of TAPP’s MOU directives of economic development is to recruit new locals by “Targeting professionals who now have the ability to work remotely.” The ICELab is marketing to those remote workers based on quality of life and access to trails.

“We have wonderful schools, wonderful towns and a wonderful trails system. People attracted to those are people who would enjoy and contribute to life in our valley the most,” stated Norton of the strategy.

The ICELab is also charged with supporting the Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) committee, the Crested Butte Conservation Corps, STOR Corps and the Crested Butte Avalanche Center.

When asked by Crested Butte council member Mallika Magner about diversity in its messaging, Norton said TAPP has done some shifting to reach out and represent more people of color in its marketing. He explained TAPP’s partner, Blister, was producing podcasts with people like the founder of the National Brotherhood of Skiers and a current Black downhill mountain biker. He said more people of color are being used in photo shoots and an effort to attract the Black Foxes, a mountain bike club comprised of Black riders, was being made.

“Our focus is still attracting people in their late 20s to late 40s who are mountain athletes but we will be featuring and imaging more people of color,” Norton said. “We are more aware of that than we have been in the last few months.”

The TAPP representatives also responded to questions of two familiar, though conflicting, refrains from the community at times: that the Local Marketing District funds are being spent on things other than tourism, and that the marketing has been too successful and should stop altogether.

“Even if I weren’t with TAPP, I’d have a hard time arguing that tourism wasn’t important up until such time as we had built a whole new economy. As for our other efforts taking monies from tourism, they do. But for those who think we’re hurting tourism by working in other areas, it’s a difficult claim to make. 2020 may be our most successful tourism year ever, judged by how we are doing relative to others. And those five prior years have far outperformed old TA efforts,” responded Norton.

Commissioner Liz Smith said, “We’ve had trouble keeping up with people in the backcountry. I’m wondering, what do you see as the limit of growth when it comes to trails? Crested Butte has a really thriving arts scene, and there has been discussion of getting a more robust recognition of the Gunnison Arts scene to draw people here as well,” she suggested.

“The world changes in the north valley next year. And it does so with the designated [USFS] camping spots. There will not be the same wild undesignated camping that we have seen,” answered Norton.

Sandstrom said he also thinks the impacts will be mitigated by new campsite management systems, and thinks that marketing targets more thoughtful visitors.

“We want like-minded people here that will take care of the backcountry,” he said.

Regarding arts, Norton said, “We have found through Arrivalist data that there aren’t as many arts enthusiasts as we thought we would have.”

Sandstrom agreed that overall, “Arts are a great amenity once people are here, but it typically is not the reason they come.”

Smith said she understands that people don’t come here to go to the theater. “But there are some opportunities to get creative. I’m just throwing that out as a creative possibility to think through,” she said.

“TAPP’s function is not to create new products, but more to promote the products that we have. So as that develops, we will be able to incorporate it,” answered Sandstrom.

Commissioner Roland Mason asked about the organizational flow within TAPP, and how the organization would handle succession planning for the executive director’s position.

“I realize plenty of people have called for my head in recent months,” quipped Norton. “But thankfully, none of them are on this [commissioners] board.”

Given that TAPP operates on a budget of more than $2 million that is taxpayer funded, Smith said, an appendix of its specific administrative decisions would be illuminating. She said she has fielded a lot of questions on that during the past six to eight weeks.

“Our institutional knowledge is protected,” said Sandstrom. He and Assad cautioned that when the organizational strategy is clearly mapped out in detailed documents, then it can be also be used by competing entities.

“It may not help us in the long run,” said Assad. But they agreed to follow up with Smith and provide a walk-through.

Last, commissioner Jonathan Houck brought up a few high points, such as TAPP’s “connectivity to the PIO function” throughout the COVID response.

“I think it was the right thing to do,” said Houck.

He urged others not to lose track of how important that connectivity has been in achieving public health and economic strides, and will be important to maintain this winter.

Houck thanked them for their level of availability to the public regarding questions and, at times, objections.

Winter

“Winter is our fastest-growing season in the past five years,” said Norton. He noted that conversations with Crested Butte Mountain Resort executives have been optimistic this year, with EPIC pass sales up 14 percent from the same time last year.

“Vail’s intention is to open in November and stay open safely,” he said. “They don’t want an interruption like last year.”

TAPP does plan to have air marketing, in coordination with CBMR.

“In winter, Vail Resorts agreed with the same positioning we were taking where CBMR was seen as geared toward adventurous and extreme skiing,” said Norton. “That doesn’t mean families can’t come here and have a great time, but those families rip.”