The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Joint police force will have to wait
The two town councils from the north end of the Gunnison Valley got together to talk about some matters of mutual concern on Thursday, June 7. They put the issue of a consolidated police force for the north end of the valley on the back burner for the near future, tackling trails and cyclists, and ultimately offering up a lesson in the differences between a “brand” and a “campaign.”
The off-seasonal meeting between the Crested Butte and the Mt. Crested Butte town councils aimed first at addressing the idea of combining the police forces in the two towns to serve the safety needs of the area and save a little cash doing it.
Right now the town of Crested Butte staffs a Marshals Office with eight employees and Mt. Crested Butte contracts with Gunnison County to provide a chief and five sheriff’s deputies in a satellite office to handle the Sheriff’s duties north of Round Mountain.
Combining the two agencies could save on administrative expenses, or so the thinking goes, but town managers Joe Fitzpatrick and Susan Parker said it’s an idea they’d had little time to explore.
“I think this is an item we can move on from pretty quickly,” Fitzpatrick said. “I have had no time to work on this since our last meeting. We have quite a few projects taking precedence over it. We will continue to work on it, but neither one of us has had an opportunity to get into this with any depth.”
Parker, who said she personally believed regionalization of the police force was a good thing, invited Crested Butte Chief Marshal Tom Martin to the meeting to make the point that the timing isn’t right.
“I just don’t know that, at the time, it’s in [everyone’s] best interests,” Martin said. Parker elaborated later, saying there were “different cultures and different citizenries.”
The topic was tabled until the time is right, with members of both councils agreeing that the matter was an important one. Mt. Crested Butte Councilman Andrew Gitin pointed out an incident in that town that required a sheriff’s deputy to respond from Parlin. Crested Butte Councilman Jim Schmidt commented that he likes knowing the police personally.
“I don’t think I know the name of one sheriff’s deputy,” Schmidt added.
Trails, on the other hand, are a different story. Schmidt and his fellow councilmembers from both towns knew the names of most of the good places to pedal or stroll in the area. But their concern at the meeting was for the tourist or second-home owner who gets out there and can’t find the way home. For them, the discussion made its way toward uniform signage that can be used at the origins and intersections of favorite local trails.
Crested Butte Mayor Aaron Huckstep said, “For that reason, the trail experience here in this part of the valley is something that could be improved upon.” The goal then, becomes finding a sign that has the aesthetic and information everyone can agree on.
Crested Butte Parks and Rec director Jake Jones told the councils a Perimeter Trail looping Crested Butte was in the planning stage and could be an opportunity to set a standard for a sign that could be used elsewhere. The Lower Loop system of trails was the favorite example in demonstrating the need for signs.
“This conversation is taking place so it’s very contemporaneous with what’s happening on the ground,” Jones said. Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association and the Crested Butte Land Trust have collaborated on a signing solution for the distressed travelers along the Lower Loop.
“We want signed trails, I believe. We don’t want our trails to be a secret,” Jones said. “Trails are a major portion of our economy in the upper valley and there might have been an era when people wanted their trails to be kept a secret. But we’re past that point, I hope.”
And while the plan may sound simple, the execution could prove more difficult, as Jones and other trail system stakeholders work out a way to get sponsorship for the idea.
To add further deliberation to the process of picking a style of sign, Mt. Crested Butte Mayor William Buck responded to Jones, “You mentioned the word ‘brand.’ This is a branding opportunity.”
That part of the discussion is one that will be worked out, Jones said, as the various partners find a solution to route-finding on popular local trails.
“I don’t know that I would need more direction other than the conversation we’re having right now to hear that both councils are concerned about this and want something different or better than what they see today,” he said.
The councils from both towns were also concerned with the Recreation Path linking the two communities and discussed ways of replacing the remaining unfinished surfaces, like those near the Slate River Bridge, with concrete or pavement to give the path a more accessible and contiguous feel along its length.
“We stepped out and built this path to nowhere, because we had a pretty good piece of private money and some grants and an opportunity to build it, so we did,” Fitzpatrick said of the impetus for the path 25 years ago. “The function of it was to be a paved, hard surface … that would allow all people to access the two towns.”
But the final stages of the project languished until it opened, unpaved in parts, in September 1996.
“It remained a path to nowhere for a very, very long time. But if we hadn’t built it when we built it, it wouldn’t be there at all. We as a community have, in my mind, been waiting since 1996 to have it finished. I would like to see it become a priority, from the bridge into some paved surface within the town of Crested Butte, to allow it to function as it was always envisioned.”
Jones agreed with Fitzpatrick, saying the “concept is supported in the Parks and Rec Master Plan,” which considers the development of recreational amenities for the entire community in the upper valley. “What I envision is getting it hard-surfaced from the bridge to Elk Avenue, where that part of the trail stops at the Eighth Street sidewalk. Then it would be hard-surfaced from Mt. Crested Butte to Elk Avenue.”
However Jones acknowledged, “For both towns, the list of needs and wants is long, but the revenue is significantly shorter.”
One of the things on Jones’ list that might make finishing the last piece of the Rec Path possible is the proposed Perimeter Trail that’s included in the Master Plan. “That portion of the trail from the bridge to Elk Avenue is part in parcel with that concept,” he said, adding that the envisioned Perimeter Trail likely won’t be entirely hard-surfaced.
The National Park Service, at no cost to the town, is funding the Perimeter Trail planning process, resulting in what Jones said is a longer wait for a final plan. But including the Recreation Path in that plan might get it done sooner rather than later. Another round of discussions about the trail will take place later this month.
On Mt. Crested Butte’s end, the most expensive and difficult part of the Recreational Path is under way. “Mt. Crested Butte is investing about $800,000 in a piece of this trail … by the Town Hall. Right now it terminates at Marcellina Lane and Gothic,” Fitzpatrick told the councils. “We have designed everything all the way up to Winterset and eventually it will go all the way up to the Snodgrass Trailhead, so it would essentially link the National Forest to the towns with a hard surface.”
He added, “We have so many other unpaved trails for people to enjoy but there are some people who want that [amenity]. If you look at road bike folks, they like a nice clean, hard surface. So it would be a great fit with what we’re doing with the Pro Cycling Challenge Race.”
That race is coming to the two towns August 21 for the second consecutive year, raising hopes and expectations that the valley will get a prime place in front of a worldwide audience and a windfall of race-watching tourists.
But that kind of publicity isn’t cheap and along with the $20,000 commitments coming from both towns, race Local Organizing Committee co-chairman Dave Ochs told the councils there’s been a “bit of a hiccup in the sponsorship” of the event. “It’s tough. Some of the other towns have full sponsorship from their communities. We’re a little bit different.”
“We don’t have that much industry but we’re banking on our local businesses and industries to support the event again this year.”
Ochs also told the councils the Handcycling Criterium that preceded the race coming through the town of Crested Butte was canceled this year because of its proximity to the Olympic Games and the relatively small number of people who had signed up for the event.
Otherwise, planning for race-day is “full-bore,” Ochs said, and members of both councils were anxious to get the festivities under way for the summer.
The councils will convene for a joint meeting again in October.
