Mt. Crested Butte News Briefs

CBMR pass sales up

It’s a new pass background, a new photo opportunity, and a new ski season. CBMR’s season pass sales are up 20 percent compared to this time last year, according to vice president and chief marketing officer Ken Stone. “We had a good pre-season sale, certainly more than we anticipated,” Stone says. He credits the increase in pass sales to the loss of “ski free,” and of course, the excellent snow conditions last winter. CBMR also implemented an earlier deadline to get the best deal on a season pass. A second-tier discount is still available on pass products until September 26.

Avalanche fence survives huge winter
The avalanche fence on Sunlight Ridge has survived a record winter, and prevented at least one documented snow slide from potentially damaging Marcellina Lane and nearby condos.
Representatives from the town of Mt. Crested Butte and the company that manufactures the metal fence, Geobrugg, inspected the entire structure on July 30. According to town manager Joe Fitzpatrick, the fence is in excellent shape, but an installation specialist will return later in the summer to adjust a few things and complete the inspection.
Legal changes to Homestead housing
A handful of amendments to the deed restriction that will govern the Homestead affordable housing project were approved by the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council on Tuesday, August 5. The amendments included changes in wording for accuracy and modifications to the restrictions placed on buyers or renters. In the changes a two-person household can own a three-bedroom unit, the Homestead homeowners association must approve a unit’s sale price, and a Mt. Crested Butte business owner (not necessarily a resident) would be able to own a unit and rent it out to his or her employees.
Council member Mike Kube asked if a change that would allow someone to utilize the affordable housing without meeting a one-year residency requirement was included. Community development coordinator Hunter Dale said the town and Crested Butte Mountain Resort, as the project developers, would be able to rent a unit to someone who did not meet the residency requirement, but met other requirements.
The town also approved a few minor changes to the plat for Homestead. A plat is a document filed with the county that keeps record of the size and shape of lots, streets, and other parcels of land within a subdivision. Since the time the town approved the plat in 2006, a few slight changes were made to lot orientations, Dale said. The document has not yet been filed with the county, and the changes were meant to bring the document up to speed before any units are sold.
Mt. Crested Butte website getting more hits
The town of Mt. Crested Butte’s website is getting more popular. Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick reports that just a few months ago the website was getting only between 6,000 and 8,000 hits a month. But in May that number increased to 10,000, and in July there were more than 12,000 hits to the website. Since “hits” is a tally of how many times a webpage is visited, Fitzpatrick says the town also keeps a record of the number of unique visitors to the site.
Fitzpatrick says the website had several improvements implemented this spring, and it’s good to see people are using it to gather information about the town. “We’re happy to have that activity,” he says. The town’s website, www.mtcrestedbuttecolorado.us, contains information about building codes, town regulations, laws, meeting agendas and seasonal activities.
Primary election a slow vote
It cost Gunnison County over $20,000, according to the county clerk’s office, but the Tuesday, August 12 primary election to determine Republican and Democratic candidates was a slow vote. Even though there’s not a position on either party’s ballot roster contested by more than a single person, by law, the primaries must be held.
At approximately 5 p.m., with one hour left of polling time, only eight votes had been counted at voting precinct No. 4 in Mt. Crested Butte. That included the three election officials in the room.
At 5:30 p.m., the same number had been counted in the town of Crested Butte, Precinct No. 3. This time, only two election officials.
More than 100 mail-in ballots were requested by county voters, but it remains to be seen how many were returned.
Even with a small turnout, the primaries weren’t hiccup-free. Annette Fry, a motor vehicle licensing technician with the county clerk’s office, says some of the ballots at the Crested Butte precinct had to be run through the machines twice before the votes were actually counted.
 Richard Dobbin, a Mt. Crested Butte resident and election judge, says there was one glitch early on at Precinct No. 4. As it turns out, it was hard to get even the electronic voting machine excited about the primaries. “It took a little longer to set them up than I thought it would,” he said.
For election officials, the primaries were a chance to play cards or read a good book. “The conversations have been lively,” Dobbin jokes.