Eighth Street paving continues to be a challenge for the town

Town crews used to move private fences

The paving of Crested Butte’s Eighth Street is taking longer than expected, and the town has hit a few extra speed bumps along the way. The project was supposed to be completed before the Fourth of July weekend. That won’t happen. And town crews spent several days moving private property off public land.

“We are definitely behind schedule but we hope to have it all done by about July 10,” said town manager Susan Parker. “Several factors have come into play. We had some weather issues. The encroachments played a minor role and there have been some disputes between the contractors doing the work.”
The encroachment issue might be the most obvious, as town employees were seen last week working on private property.
Letters from the town were sent to the owners of the properties along Eighth Street in May informing them of the upcoming paving project. The property owners were asked to remove their private things from the town right-of-way. That included objects like trees they wanted to save, decorative rocks, fences, lawns, flower gardens and more easily moved items like bike racks and chairs.
Several private properties had crept out into public town property. The town conducted follow-up contacts with the property owners by phone or in person.
“Most of the properties along Eighth Street from Butte to Whiterock had encroached onto the town property,” said Parker. “Whether it was a lawn or flower gardens, people understandably moved toward what was the unpaved road. There was significant encroachment by almost everyone.”
Several people in the neighborhood had noticed town employees spending a lot of time working on the private properties at the corner of Eighth and Whiterock.
“Town crews probably spent three days of time working on Paulette Horner’s property and Rick Divine’s property,” admitted Parker. “They both had fences that we agreed to move for them. Paulette’s fence took a lot of time and we also worked around her, giving her time to move her flowers and gardens. We weren’t doing landscaping but we agreed to take down her fence and put it back up on her property.
“We also had to remove a huge rock in the area that was on town property,” Parker continued. “There was a lot of time involved.”
Parker said the message from the Town Council to the town staff was, “Do what we can to help the property owners. The council said the town should take a partnership role. So our staff helped a lot of people move things and we used our equipment to help dig holes for trees that needed to be relocated, for example.”
Parker said the assistance to private property owners probably cost the town a couple of thousand dollars in staff time. “It wasn’t the best scenario,” she said. “We did what we could to be accommodating.”
Parker also wanted to remind people that getting over to Rainbow Park or traveling anywhere on Eighth Street meant crossing a work in progress. “We had a girl ride her bike past the Road Closed sign on Friday night and she hit one of the concrete pans that had been laid,” she said. “She hurt herself. People need to be aware that the signs are there for a reason.”
If all goes well, the signs should be gone and a new paved road should be in place within a couple of weeks.