Briefs Mt. Crested Butte

Deputy town clerk hired
The town of Mt. Crested Butte hired Tiffany O’Connell as its new deputy town clerk. O’Connell will start September 1 and is replacing Jill Lindros, who stepped up to take the town clerk’s post left vacant by the departure of Donna Arwood.
Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick said he was “excited about that,” and Lindros, who has been doing the work required of both jobs for a couple of weeks, looked pretty happy as well.

Sales tax collections still beating the budget
Fitzpatrick told the council at a meeting on Tuesday, August 16 that the town is still collecting more sales tax than it had budgeted for 2011. He said June collections were above what was budgeted by about 5.4 percent—or $3,500—to $67,962.
Beating the budget has become a theme in Mt. Crested Butte sales tax department this year, with four of the first five months of the year beating the budgeted figures by an average of 13.7 percent. Only May fell short of projections. According to Fitzgerald’s report, sales tax collections so far this year are more than 6.2 percent higher than they were during the same period last year.
“We were pretty conservative in our budget [last year],” Fitzpatrick said. “We budgeted down expecting the possibility of another down cycle and we hadn’t budgeted down enough in the past.”
And with the 2012 budget discussion coming up, Fitzpatrick is expecting another year of conservative budgeting. “We still have a hole to crawl out of,” he said, referring to the town’s financial situation.
Bringing in more money than they budget for is helping the town reach its five-year goal of rebuilding its financial reserves, hoping eventually to put 45 percent of their operating budget in holding.
By comparison, most other Colorado ski towns have seen their sales tax revenues go up since last year. According to a chart provided by Fitzpatrick, gains have gone from modest, in places like Fraser and Silverthorne, to major, as in Summit County where officials saw an increase of more than 27 percent over last year. Mt. Crested Butte is comfortably in the middle of the pack.

Budgets
Town finance director Karl Trujillo told the council that most of the town departments that draw from the general fund are under budget so far this year.
One of the biggest savings of the year has been in town services and utilities, which has managed to cut its spending to the tune of $61,000, although Trujillo warned that money could get “eaten up” if this proves to be a winter with heavy snowfall.
The parks and recreation department also saw about $19,000 in savings this year and is planning on spending about $10,000 on the town’s park; that money will be combined with $5,000 donated from the Scheske family. “We wanted to do something special out there for them,” he said.
On the other hand, the town’s transportation department is over budget, which Trujillo attributed to “higher sales tax collections.”
Trujillo said the roads department was also over budget, owing to the “big snow year.”
In the other town departments, Trujillo says, “Not much is happening.”

Nevada Ridge
Community development director Carlos Velado said he met with members of the Army Corps of Engineers about the ongoing concerns over the wetlands around the Nevada Ridge subdivision in Mt. Crested Butte. He also said the developer continues to be involved.
“There’s still some work that needs to be done on the wetlands,” Velado said. “The Army Corps is kind of taking the lead on following up with the applicant on work that needs to be done.” He told the council that most of those conversations have focused on the construction of “drop structures” that weren’t built as they were designed.
“The first step would be for the Army Corps to notify the applicant of the deficiencies and what needs to be done to meet the provisions of the Army Corps’ permit,” Velado said.
He said the costs of improving the wetlands could come out of the $170,000 letter of credit that was pulled by the town, with the consent of the developer, to finish the work at Nevada Ridge.
“All the work that needs to be done might not be covered by that letter of credit,” Velado said. “We don’t know that yet.”
 
Tourism Assessment
Jane Chaney and Wanda Berth made an appearance at last Tuesday’s meeting to offer the council a brief review of an assessment that was recently done of the Tourism Association. As in other presentations done around the valley, the assessment showed a sound organization running the valley’s marketing.
But after councilman Gary Keiser asked for a clarification of the word “fragmentation” used in the assessment to describe the valley, Berth said “he didn’t define that in his assessment for us. He put that in there for us to discover…”
Chaney explained that the person who conducted 25 interviews with people around the valley noticed a “bit of push and pull between the north end of the valley and the south end of the valley.” She went on to suggest some of the findings of the valley’s now-defunct Civility Initiative that urges groups to find common ground.
“We plan on going out into the valley and requesting meetings with different groups and individuals to help carry this message forward,” she said. So watch for a resurgence in civility.