Briefs Crested butte

Work, work, work…
In what may be a sign of the hard economic times, Parks and Recreation Director Jake Jones told the council that approximately 80 people have applied for four summer positions on the parks-and-rec crew. “That’s about twice as many as last year,” he said. “It is incredible and a lot of the people are long-time locals looking for work.” The jobs pay $12 an hour.

Town crews will start crack sealing streets next week. In the meantime, renovation of the Old Town Hall restrooms is under way. Completion is expected before Memorial Day.
JCI Inc. was awarded the bid to pave Eighth Street. The bid was $220,000 and the project will start in late spring.
The council also awarded Aslan Construction the bid for the town wastewater treatment facility improvement project. That bid came in at $1,361,615. The town received a low-interest, 2 percent loan for the project. The council entered into a bond agreement as well for the $1.9 million loan that is guaranteed through Wastewater Department revenues. Before voting to enter into the loan agreement, the council went into a closed-door executive session for 20 minutes.

You have a chance to comment on Sixth Street Station
A public hearing over the proposed Sixth Street Station will be held by the Board of Zoning and Architectural Review on Wednesday, May 5. This is a chance for the public to comment on the project, which will include hotel, retail, restaurant and underground parking space. It is a 62,500-square-foot mega-project slated for the north side of town.

Changing some control at the Niccoli open space parcel
The town staff and the Crested Butte Land Trust have spent weeks negotiating some changes to the conservation easement, the restrictive covenants, the plat and trail easements at the Niccoli Ranch open space. The CBLT owns the property and the town, which donated $1 million for the property near Crested Butte South, holds the conservation easement. Essentially, changes will be made that allow a trail easement along Highway 135, shrinks the so-called homestead area that will be subdivided and sold as a homesite, and eliminates some control by the town over what is placed on the homestead site. That control will now go to the Land Trust board but must meet restrictive covenants agreed to by both the town and the Land Trust. The council will look at final documents at the May 3 meeting.

Transfer tax tightening up
Also on May 3, the council will hold a public hearing on changes to the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) rules. Town attorney John Belkin submitted changes to “tighten up” the ordinance. “Some people have tried to exempt themselves from the RETT,” he said. “They might try to transfer the land to an LLC for example. These changes will not allow people to skirt the RETT. I think this is a slam-dunk. If you are really exempt, then you’ll get an exemption. If not, you have to pay. It’s the way it should be.”
Belkin said the changes do not fall under the TABOR or Taxpayers Bill of Rights provisions. A public hearing on the changes will be held at the next meeting.

Mountain Express news
Chris Kopf of Mt. Crested Butte was appointed the member-at-large for the Mountain Express board of directors. He replaces Chris Morgan, who was elected to the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council and stepped down from the board. And painting has begun on the new buses. Part of the funding for the bus-painting project is through a $2,000 grant from the Arts Festival. The council also agreed to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement with Mt. Crested Butte over how to run the Mountain Express system. A baseline level of service was included in the IGA at the request of the Crested Butte council.

T.A. still fielding tourists
Jane Chaney of the local Tourism Association gave the council an update on the T.A. Everything appears rosy in T.A. land. Internet inquiries are up, people are responding to advertising and people are still finding their way to the valley.