Briefs Crested Butte

Town gives $20,000 to Quiznos Pro Challenge
In eager anticipation of the Quiznos Pro Challenge scheduled to travel through the Gunnison Valley over three days next August, the Crested Butte Town Council offered up an unsolicited appropriation of $20,000 from its general fund reserves to support the bike race that will be getting national and international media coverage.

Councilman Jim Schmidt asked if the race organizers could explain to the council where their investment would be going, “if it’s going to be spent inside of the community or outside of the community.”
Local attorney and co-chair of the local organizing committee Aaron Huckstep said he, along with co-chair Dave Ochs, race enthusiast Peter Maxwell and Chamber of Commerce director Richard Bond, would do whatever they could to account for the town’s money at any point in the journey.
“Irrespective of what the town is committing to help us, I know that all of us know that it’s going to be a lot of hard work and we have about ten months to get it all done.”
Huckstep said no one expects the town to provide their share of the $100,000 to $125,000 local price tag for the event up front or in cash. Instead some of the contribution might come through in-kind donations.
“When you think about the videos of the Tour de France or the Tour of California and what the coverage looks like,” Huckstep said, “we’re talking about nationwide and international television coverage.”
That could mean a lot of good publicity and exposure for the Gunnison Valley, which could become a draw for touring bicyclists who see coverage of the race, Huckstep said. Town finance director Lois Rozman agreed that it could provide an excellent marketing piece and boost for the local economy in an otherwise slow time of year.
“You have the reserves to do $20,000. I don’t have a problem with that,” Rozman told the council. “You could do $25,000, but as the holder of the wallet I would say that you’re already going to spend $25,000 because it’s going to take a lot of your staff time to do a lot of things.”

Yet another bear
Don’t think that just because the weather turned cold and the snow began to fly, your bird feeders or garbage cans are safe. Crested Butte Chief Marshal Tom Martin told the council that there’s a new bear in town.
“We don’t recognize this one and it’s not behaving like some of the older bears that have been around,” he said. “It isn’t getting into cars, getting into sheds, or getting into houses. This one just gets into garbage. We’re hoping the recent snow eliminates that, because it’s been a mess.”
Martin said he thinks some of the local businesses are growing more relaxed in the way they take care of their trash with hibernation season upon us.