Briefs Crested Butte

Town letting county look at
impacts inside town
The Crested Butte Town Council is ready to sign onto an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Gunnison County to expand the county’s land use reviews and regulations. The IGA will allow the county to consider impacts within the town when reviewing Proposed Special Development Projects by the county. In other words, if a big project, say a mine, is being reviewed by the county, it can take into consideration impacts on the town of Crested Butte.

Town planner John Hess told the council at the January 18 meeting that the IGA allows the county to consider social, economic, environmental and public welfare impacts. “It is expansive,” he said.
“It is requesting that the county consider impacts to the town under the 1041 regs,” said town attorney John Belkin.
“It seems like a benefit to the town,” added mayor Leah Williams.
The rest of the council agreed.

Talking trash
The municipal representative for Waste Management, Aaron Diez, introduced himself to the council. The residential contract for trash collection in town is up at the end of the year. Diez said he wanted ideas on how to better increase recycling in town.

Arts fest looking for funds
The council will consider a request from the Crested Butte Arts Festival. The festival is asking for $2,500 from the town’s venture fund to help subsidize some advertising in their event brochure for local businesses. Board president Diane Markowitz told the council the festival is trying to alleviate some of the concerns brought up by Elk Avenue business owners in a recent survey. “We are going to put bigger gaps between the tents so the businesses are more visible this year,” she said. “We are using our brochure to add some collateral for local businesses and tout the local restaurants and shops. It’s some extra exposure for them without costing them anything.”
“So it will cost us,” said councilperson Reed Betz.
The request will be considered at the February 7 meeting.

Chamber gets new agreement
The council approved a service agreement with the Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce. Executive director Richard Bond said the agreement included four notable changes. “We want to develop an Events Master Plan between the town, Mt. Crested Butte and the Chamber,” he said. “We want to come up with new events for the area. Given our cash flow situation, there may be a time when the Visitor’s Center side of the budget would lend money to the Chamber side. We wanted that made clear. And we included that the Chamber would not employ or contract with illegals.”
The council had some concerns about the building maintenance but Bond and Parker said those issues would be discussed during the lease negotiations. The council approved the service agreement.

No movement on Berkshire’s plowing suggestions
The council touched briefly on a suggestion by former councilperson Skip Berkshire to realign the town’s winter parking regulations and thus plowing schedule in town. He pointed out that homeowners on one side of the street get a larger burden of shoveling snow banks left by town plows. Williams asked if the council wanted to discuss the topic. She was greeted with silence. It appears Skip will continue to be doing more shoveling than his neighbor across the street.