The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Town of Crested Butte to ask about pyrotechnics
The Fourth of July celebration took place more than a month ago but the Crested Butte Town Council wants to get some feedback. The topic, of course, was fireworks and whether the town should continue to hold them—and especially to see if the citizens want a July Fourth celebration on July 3 like this year.
So the town will post a survey on its website in September asking for community input.
Town clerk Eileen Hughes came up with four potential questions and the council wanted a few additions.
Hughes’ questions were essentially:
1) Should the town include a fireworks show in its annual budget? A show costs about $1,000 per minute.
2) If the town doesn’t fund fireworks, are you willing to make a donation and how much?
3) Do you have any comments about the display, location or the dates, i.e. a July 3 date?
4) Are you a town resident, property owner, business owner or visitor?
Councilperson Jim Schmidt asked, “Should we ask the people something like, ‘If Mt. Crested Butte holds a fireworks show, is that enough? Or should we alternate years with the two towns?’”
“Just seeing this in writing brought home how pathetic the issue is,” said councilperson Dan Escalante. “We should be big enough boys and girls to deal with it and make a decision. To me it’s let’s figure out how to move forward and do it.”
“Last year we got a strong message to have it in town and people opened their wallets,” observed councilperson John Wirsing. “This year, there was more time to raise funds for fireworks but we got less money.”
“People told me they were disappointed we did it, especially on July 3,” said mayor Leah Williams. “Others thought it was great.”
“At the end of the day we should be able to make a decision,” said Escalante. “In my three-and-a-half years on council we’ve never done an online survey and the first one we choose to throw up there is about… fireworks?”
The discussion continued and eventually the council decided to add a question that asked people where they preferred the fireworks show—Crested Butte, Mt. Crested Butte, alternating sites, or both with shows on back-to-back nights.
The survey will be tweaked and posted on the town’s website in September.
