The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
It’s the first mention by the council of “Snow banks on Elk…”
A plan on how to deal with big winter snows with an ever-decreasing budget was outlined to the Crested Butte Town Council on Monday evening. Public works director Rodney Due gave the council an overview of timing, the budget and small changes instituted from last year’s plan.
Due said the big plowing operations will go into effect when the town receives six inches of snow from a storm. “If it’s marginal, I’ll make the call and we may do just a clean-up operation along the bus route and in the core,” he explained. “We have four main operators, and they start about 1 a.m. during a storm and work until the morning hours. The plowing takes eight to 8-10 hours.”
Snow and ice control in town is a team effort, Due said. Chief marshal Tom Martin said his officers were preparing for the coming winter. “The winter parking rules are getting ready to go into effect,” Martin explained. “We will start issuing warnings and probably put out 800 to 1,000 warnings for people parked on the wrong side of the street. Then we will start issuing real yellow tickets, and that’s usually when everyone learns. We want everyone in the winter parking mode by Thanksgiving.”
Due said he learned last year that the snow banks along Elk Avenue are a hot issue. Some people want them for their aesthetic value. Others want them hauled away for safety and parking reasons. “Under our operational plan,” Due said, “it is up to the discretion of the town manager what to do with them, so talk to her.”
Due said the town drivers try to respect the school and other neighbors located near the gravel pit where snow is hauled. “We have talked to private contractors about giving the people near Red Lady Avenue a break and not hauling when school starts or is letting out,” he said.
The town’s Parks Department plows and snow-blows the sidewalks along Sixth Street and Elk Avenue. Parks and recreation director Jake Jones said his crew starts working about 5 a.m. on storm days, and hope to have the sidewalks and Big Mine ice rink cleared off by late morning. “It takes two guys doing 10-hour shifts a day to keep up,” he explained. “It’s a tough season for them.”
He explained that so called “cut-outs” in the Elk Avenue snow banks between the sidewalk and street are meant to service all businesses in the area, and not just one or two. “We really try to provide reasonable access,” he said. “For us, we have a one-inch rule to start clearing sidewalks. We try to keep it down to the pavement. The sidewalks are much safer that way. We also ask the businesses to be a partner in trying to keep the sidewalks safe.”
Town manager Susan Parker said the goal was to maintain a level of service similar to that provided last year. “But this maxes out our personnel,” she said. “Any additional effort would require adding personnel.”
Restaurant owner Liz Satterlee of the East Side Bistro asked if the town could move the big pile of snow stored at the corner of Sixth Street and Whiterock. A lot of that snow is piled there by the state, which plows the highway coming into town.
“With the Four-way Stop renovation, we saw a big increase in the snow pile to the south of our building,” Satterlee explained. “In February or March it was 13 feet high, and people couldn’t see the restaurant. It’s enough of a challenge being off Elk Avenue, but if you can’t see the restaurant when you drive into town, it’s even harder.”
Parker said it was just a matter of money. Due indicated that hauling the snow would probably cost thousands of dollars each time. “We could consider pulling that snow when we haul snow from nearby parking lots,” said Parker. “It’s an additional service, but we can consider it.”
Councilperson Reed Betz wanted to do more than just consider it. “We said we’d consider changes in the plan from last year, so we need to really consider it,” he said. “I have a hard time just saying we’ll think about it.”
Parker asked Betz where he’d like to cut in the budget to accommodate the request. “It was hard dealing with a budget that was reduced,” she said. “Tell me what you want cut. It’s a balance. What should be cut?”
Satterlee said she felt she wasn’t getting the same consideration as the businesses on Elk Avenue. “Maybe you can just move the pile more to the south of the building,” she proposed.
Councilperson John Wirsing asked Parker and Due to take a look at the site suggested by Satterlee as an alternative snow storage location. They agreed to take a look at the specific situation.
In the meantime, start figuring out the Crested Butte parking signs so you can avoid a yellow ticket, and hope that the plow drivers get plenty of work this winter.
