Mountain businesses talk shop with the town

“July is busy enough as it is”

Nearly six months ago, members of the Mt. Crested Butte business community and the Town Council met to discuss how they could work together. One of the messages sent by the business community was that events are critical to drawing people to the mountain.

The council and six mountain businesses came together again on Tuesday, June 15 prior to a regular Town Council meeting. At the onset, Mt. Crested Butte mayor William Buck said in response to the business owners, “We’ve been focused on bringing more events to Mt. Crested Butte,” citing Fat Tire Bike Week, the Fourth of July fireworks, and Bluegrass in Paradise as a few of the summer highlights.
Chris Osmundson, co-owner of Flatiron Sports, posed the meeting’s first question to the council: “Does the retail community become more important again now that our building fees are not what they have been? Is that the impetus for this meeting?”
The council reassured Osmundson that retail business, and the sales tax revenue it provides to the town, has always been important. Mayor Buck noted, “53 percent of our budget comes from sales tax.”
Collectively, participants voiced big-picture concerns regarding base-area drainage issues, cleanliness, and maintenance of common areas.
Real Balance owner Ron (R.B.) Bathje said he was frustrated about how the town and ski resort neglect the corridor between the lifts and Mountaineer Square, and the area surrounding his business.
“I get little to no response from the ski area,” R.B. said. “Everything inside the CBMR line gets manicured.
“We’ve been taking too big of steps—things are awash, not whole anymore,” R.B. continued. “Part of it is slowing down a bit, try to help the ski area. We need all of us to make this whole thing work. I struggle with Chamber fees, pass prices, the new definition of hard work… modernization is part of the problem. We need to consider all the steps the ski area is taking—the marketing is questionable; Snodgrass may come back to life but it’s still a ways out there.
“A lot’s been lost the last six years and most of us are here for a reason. One word comes to mind—mindfulness,” he said.
Mayor Buck responded, “That’s why we’ve tried to develop these public-private partnerships. We’d like to work with the resort on these things.”
R.B. countered, “We need to be part of this partnership talk—I don’t feel like part of this partnership. I refuse to pay the extortion money to the Chamber.”
Councilperson Gary Keiser reassured all the business owners of their value to the community.
“We think you, the business community—you all are very important,” said Keiser. “And we are supportive. You’re a critical part of the community. It’s the ongoing businesses that keep this whole thing running, and we want to hear from you what we can do better. We’re not CBMR, but we do talk to CBMR, and we can certainly bring some things back to them.”
The resort was not present at the meeting, which chafed some of the participants. “I’d really like to see Ethan, Tim or Diane here the next time we have one of these,” said Avalanche Bar and Grill owner Todd Barnes. “To not see them here for a second time is a little bit irritating.”
CBMR officials said it was a mistake on their part to miss the meeting, and not intentional by any means. “We had the wrong date. We were as disappointed as anyone that we weren’t there,” said Ken Stone, chief operating officer for CBMR. “We all had it on our calendars for the following night—it wasn’t intentional or lack of interest on our part. We had the wrong dates on our calendar. We realized the next morning and we’ve been catching up with everyone individually.”
Director of operations for CBMR Ethan Mueller was out of town when the meeting took place, but he emphasized the value the Mueller family places on the community. “Working with the community has and always will be very important to my family,” he said. “We realize the impact we have on the communities we work with, and take that responsibility very much to heart.”
Daren Cole, CBMR’s vice president for sales and marketing, echoed Stone’s sentiments, and said they were reaching out to the meeting participants individually. He said CBMR would also be responding to the comments from the meeting. “We had a follow-up conversation with Joe [Fitzpatrick] and we will have responses on the business community’s comments to him sometime this week.”
Beautify the base area
Another hot topic at the meeting was the need to spiff up the base area beyond Mountaineer Square earlier in the spring, as well as the Gothic Rd. corridor.  
Osmundson addressed Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick, “We’ve tried to ask the town to help us clean up the base area, but that has been difficult to accomplish the last couple years. Why is this so difficult?”
“There’s nothing preventing us from cleaning in between the Treasury Building and Golf Course,” responded Fitzpatrick.
Co-owner of Flatiron Sports GJ Santelli said, “You walk through Mountaineer Square and then it’s dirty—it just needs to get cleaned up.”
Fitzpatrick said the town would work on keeping that corridor cleaner.
“I’d love some bike racks out there,” Barnes added. “I brought one from home last year and it filled up with bikes. Let’s have them in front of the kids’ museum, Oz’s place, etc. I’ve tried hard to beautify the outside of the Avalanche this year. Where the red press concrete stops, that is a pretty ugly area. Nobody’s cut the grass, picked up the garbage—it’s just dirty.”
Tracy Hastings co-owns Mt. Crested Butte’s Treasury Liquors and The Store. “I agree with the greening up of the place,” she said. “Four to five years ago I felt like we were doing really good with pulling weeds, cleaning up, etc.
“I think it’s important for all these entities to look like they’re ready for summer earlier, not on June 15 or 20,” Hastings added. “Maybe get something together where we do a big ‘sprucing up’ day. Greening up is important.”
Hastings also said, “I think it’s great that we’re bringing in new events. But July is busy enough as it is. I would like to see us try to bring in people this time of year.”
She proposed another idea as well—“How about Mt. Crested Butte Week from Labor Day to the Fall Festival?”
And for all the commotion over two towns’-worth of fireworks, Hastings was thankful that it would be worth her time to be open for business this 4th of July.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you for the 4th of July fireworks,” she said. “You can talk and talk and talk, but sometimes you just need to make a decision. We’re excited to be able to open the 4th of July.”
Post office boxes on the Mountain
The Mt. Crested Butte community has voiced its displeasure with the lack of post office boxes on the mountain, of late, and R.B. reiterated the point at the meeting.
“To me a post office is a town hub and a lot of information comes and goes,” he said. “We’re well past the date of needing to get moving on a post office.”
Councilperson Danny D’Aquila has been heading up the town’s pursuit of a solution. He said CBMR was willing to assist with providing a space, and one of the ideas is to put the post office boxes in the Grand Lodge.
“CBMR would split the Grand Lodge amenities back into three—coffee shop, gift shop, and post office boxes,” D’Aquila said. “It’s been great to partner with CBMR—if it doesn’t work, we’ll try another area.
“It will not be a manned station, but CBMR plans on selling postal supplies, and hopefully generating traffic. Ten years plus has been a long time; I think we understand everybody’s heartburn about it. I’m especially anxious for an answer.”