Law enforcement agreement extended for six months

Mt. CB and county agree

The Mt. Crested Butte Town Council moved to approve a six-month extension of the law enforcement agreement between the Mt. Crested Butte Police Department and the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Department during its December 15 meeting.

The contract was in flux and set to expire on December 31, 2009 unless a new agreement could be reached. At the December 1 council meeting, Mt. Crested Butte Police Chief Hank Smith recommended extending the contract. The town was reevaluating the contract’s terms because providing sheriff’s services in the north end of the valley costs more than the Town was receiving from the county. According to Mt. Crested Butte Town Manager Joe Fitzpatrick, providing those services costs roughly $181,000, compared to the $112,000 the county allocates to the town.
After meeting with the county, Councilman Gary Keiser said, “We had an honest discussion about our concerns. The public is best served if Mt. Crested Butte has this contract and provides this service, but we do not think we’re getting paid enough for it.”
According to Keiser, if the contract weren’t renegotiated, it could be three to four months before the county could provide the necessary sheriff’s services to the area north of Round Mountain. “If we stopped the service, we’d have no [sheriff’s] services throughout the ski season,” Keiser said.
“We should come to them [the county] with a number,” Councilman Bill Babbit suggested. “It seems like we’re giving them six months to beat us down. We either need to charge more money, or change the service.”
The council approved the six-month contract and agreed to revisit the terms and another extension no later than March 2010.