Local business leaders hope for fun

Improving the “constant bad mood”

Vibrancy can be hard to define, and even harder to create without the right mix of people in the right place and time. So to get a good look at what vibrancy looks like, and gather some idea about how to bring it to the mountain, a couple of local business leaders suggested the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council look south, toward Gunnison and the annual Night of Lights.

“Paul and I don’t go do things too much anymore, but we went to the lighting of the Christmas Tree down in Gunnison and we were so impressed,” Red Lady Realty office manager and Mt. Crested Butte resident Kathy Hooge told the council at an open meeting with business leaders Tuesday, December 4. “There were so many people there. I didn’t have any concept of how many people were in the Gunnison area.”
Gunnison Chamber of Commerce director Tammy Scott said she doesn’t have any way of counting the people who attend the event, but can look at the snarled parking and crowds, and guesses that somewhere around 5,000 people come from across the region to kick off the season.
And the people weren’t just out enjoying one of the many tasteful fire pits spread out along Main Street, eating the S’mores being offered, or taking the wine and cheese or cookies and punch that seemed to be outside every shop.
“People were buying,” Hooge said. “People were not going in and grabbing some free tidbit—they were shopping. And they were purchasing and the restaurants were packed and I thought, ‘Whoa, we should be trying to figure out some way to make all these people feel more welcome up here.’”
The weekend that follows Night of Lights is more of the same as the Gunnison Chamber of Commerce starts its Gunnison Greenbacks promotion. This year nearly 200 people lined up to wait for the sale to start, and in two days, Scott says, well over $20,000 is pumped into the local economy.
And Hooge wasn’t the only one from the north end of the valley to be impressed.
“We went down there the other night for that and it was fantastic,” said Ironhorse Property Management owner Steve Ryan. “You could tell from all the business owners that nobody had a sense of ‘What’s in it for me?’ Everybody had little tables out in front of their business with cookies, punch. If you wanted to donate to offset the cost, great, put a dollar in the jar. Otherwise, every 30 feet there was a fire pit.
People were roasting marshmallows; there were carols and singing. Santa was at the Elk’s Lodge. You never think of Gunnison as a destination like that, but it really brought people out of the woodwork.”
Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce director Dan Marshall said his organization was looking at extending some existing events and creating some new ones, including independent contractors in the planning process to make each event as successful as it can be.
“I’ve been talking with businesses in Crested Butte about the first weekend in October to try to push another event into the shoulder season—an October Fest, incorporated between Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte for a two-day event. Those discussions are continuing, which is good,” Marshall said. “We’re always having conversations about how we can fill in those gaps and explore other events for the shoulder seasons.”
But there wasn’t much on the schedule for the holiday season this year and the chamber’s own Butte Bucks promotion is still expected, but hasn’t started. As of Tuesday, December 11, the newly minted coins hadn’t arrived.
“When I first moved here we had a lot of events that really started the holiday season,” Elevé Salon owner Penni Ervin said. She said there used to be a Media Cup event every year that brought journalists to town and gave them something to write about. “I don’t know what happened to that,” she said. No one else did, either.
But even without bringing in visitors for the holiday season, Hooge said, some people in town were leaving to do their shopping because enough shops in town are closed to give them the impression that everyone is closed or that they could do more shopping elsewhere.
“So you’re saying we could activate the base area with a coordinated season kick-off,” Mt. Crested Butte Mayor William Buck said. “Yeah,” Hooge responded.
“When you think about an event, like at the base area, the biggest thing to create vibrancy around the area is the locals. And I think what’s happened is that the people who have been here for 15 or 20 years are just in a constant bad mood,” Ryan said. “But if you think about an event that kicks off the holiday season, I think you create a lot of ambassadors of good will. Have an event that gets everybody pumped up and excited about the winter season. If people are excited about it, it would create kind of a ripple effect more than anything.”
Brad Bogard, manager of the Club at Crested Butte, told the council he felt like there were some good things happening, pointing out the Torch Light Parade, but suggested that the holidays become something celebrated throughout the month of December.
“I think it almost needs to be a month long. There needs to be something going on all the time. It’s not necessarily events every day or events every week. But like Steve [Ryan] said, we need more people out promoting Crested Butte and that’s what I don’t see here.”
With a clear call to draw people in and keep them here around the holidays, a few ideas were offered from the business community. Councilman Andrew Gitin suggested the resort build the ice sculpting event into more of a show, as it had been in years past.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort general manager Ethan Mueller, who told the council the resort was introducing two new kids’ events this winter and looking to continue improvements of their summer product and extend activities into the shoulder season, said events like Rock on Ice were good places for the local business community to show their support for what they see as successful events.
“You guys are on the concept of bringing more businesses into the fold and … we’ve been exploring that as well with the Town Center Association and us as CBMR,” Mueller said. “The more we can do to create that atmosphere the better. Quite frankly, the more the merrier. Two or three years ago, the Town Center Association made the call to scale [Rock on Ice] back for budgetary reasons. But that might be a good example of how other businesses and/or the town could help to support that event.”
Bogard said he appreciated CBMR’s willingness to step up when people want to work with them, but added, “I wonder why it’s got to be you guys all the time. Why can’t the Club, for example, in the second weekend in February supply the hot chocolate and cookies and Ironhorse has the next weekend or something. From what I’ve seen here, a lot of times it falls on CBMR and I’d like to see all of us get more involved.”
Steve Ryan of Ironhorse agreed, suggesting that a group of business leaders trade something like hospitality duty, greeting guests and offering help where they could at CBMR’s busiest times. “We’re all invested in the resort succeeding,” he said. “I don’t give a damn if people stay in one of my houses, just as long as they come back. If they’re here they’ll eventually do business with everyone in some way and it serves us all well.”
Getting people here was also discussed, as Mueller explained CBMR’s new relationship with Allegiant Air, and several business leaders expressed their frustration at the cost of flying into Gunnison while other resort areas use accessibility and relative affordability to their advantage.
“This is not meant to offend anyone, but Crested Butte charges class-A prices for less than Class-A whatever it be—airfare, rooms, our homes, whatever. There are a lot of different facets to that,” Ryan said.
Mayor Buck said, “We in this room all talk about the fact that we have a demand problem, so that gets us back to vibrancy and our competition … You’re saying we need to improve the product.”
“You bet,” Ryan responded.
To accomplish all that had been set out in the meeting, which is one of two held for business leaders and town council members each year, Ervin suggested the business community form a holiday committee and she volunteered to sit on it, “maybe to work on getting some of these things going with the town,” she said.
The town is also putting up some money to give traction to some of the ideas people have to make the winter more vibrant, even if it’s after the holidays have ended. This year both Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte are each offering $7,000 to grow or create new winter events. Applications are available on either town’s website.
“I don’t think it’s too late even to do a Christmas tree lighting or something like that this year,” said councilman Danny D’Aquila. “We’ve got a few trees right out front that could work.”