Briefs Crested Butte

Town grant procedure getting a bit stricter
The council will be making some adjustments to how it doles out money to local non-profit organizations. Essentially, the council will be losing the Venture Fund and combining it with the Service Grant application process and changing the name to Community Grants. Grant requests will be considered twice a year instead of just once. The idea is to return to a more formal process and try to keep all the requests on some sort of level playing field.

Lobar eyeing Elk for outdoor seating as well
Kyleena Falzone returned to the council to formally request outdoor seating outside the Company Store on Elk Avenue. The co-owner of the Lobar recently put a deck on the west side of the building but would prefer Elk Avenue seating. Because the Lobar frontage is a narrow doorway to the underground restaurant, the current town rules don’t accommodate the request at the present time. The council had requested a letter of support from the building’s owner. Falzone told them she and a partner had closed on the building and she was now the owner. She’d said she’d be happy to write a letter in support of the idea. The council wanted to hear from town Building Director Bob Gillie, who was not at the Monday meeting, before proceeding.

New bike event shaping up for early September
A new bike event has the tentative approval of the Town Council. The West Elk Bike Classic is a Western State College event that will take place September 2. The riders will leave Gunnison and ride to Paonia over Highway 92 before slogging over Kebler Pass to end up at Fourth and Elk to drink beer and tell stories. The council was willing to close off a portion of the street to accommodate the race but a concern from a neighbor delayed the approval. Kay Peterson is helping organize the event and was given some time to work out issues with the neighbor. She will return to the council in a month.

Watching the water
The council formally requested “party status” through the town attorney in the matter of consideration of adoption of revised water quality classifications, standards and designations for the Gunnison and Lower Dolores River Basins before the Water Quality Control Commission. It will ultimately impact discharge from the town wastewater facility.