The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
From water to marketing
The Crested Butte Town Council heard updates from several local organizations at the February 19 meeting. Maya Silver and Bart Laemmel of the Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE) informed the council that their Energy Smart program was picking up momentum. “It is really rolling along and we are trying to expand the program to other communities,” Laemmel said.
Silver informed the council that other ORE-related programs were also performing well.
“It all certainly looks more promising than the last time you were here,” said Mayor Aaron Huckstep, referencing the last ORE report that painted a shaky financial future.
“We have come a long way in the last few months and feel good with the direction we are headed,” said Silver.
You drink it…We protect it…
The Coal Creek Watershed Coalition was next up for a report. Coalition president Steve Glazer said several projects were under way with the organization. They included water monitoring and education programs.
Glazer went through a presentation of some of the data being collected by the group and how it benefitted the region.
“We provide a lot of support to the town staff and the town depends on the data we collect,” he told the council.
Crested Butte Public Works director Rodney Due confirmed that statement and said, “It’s good work and important data.”
Glazer hinted to the council that perhaps the group could go back to being funded by the town outside of the normal non-profit granting process.
Huckstep said he appreciated the work done by the coalition and all the groups that receive funding would rather have a service contract or be included as a line item in the budget process—but the council was trying to get away from that type of funding.
Chamber of Commerce news…
The Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce provided the final report. Executive director Dan Marshall said the group had recently made great financial strides. “We zeroed out our line of credit this week and that’s a great step,” he told the council. “We are keeping the line of credit open at $40,000 but we hope we don’t have to use it again and we will eventually build up some reserves.”
Marshall announced that the four main chamber-run events would be run by outside groups. Restaurant Week will be taken over and organized by Rachael Gardner’s Crested Butte Events. The other big events, Crested Butte Bike Week, the Fourth of July celebration and the Beer and Chili Festival, will be run by Crested Butte councilman Shaun Matusewicz’s group, Iron Orchid. Marshall said a chamber subcommittee of 10 people chose the groups to handle the events.
Marshall said the business organization seems on solid footing after the trials and tribulations of recent years. He said there were 334 chamber members on board at the current time.
Later in the meeting, the council approved the Chamber of Commerce Service Agreement detailing the relationship between the town and the chamber and the lease details of the visitor’s center at the Four-way Stop.
TA…Going digi…
The Tourism Association came before the council Monday, March 4 with a report. Executive Director Pamela Loughman gave details to the council about the shifts being made since she took over the helm. The TA is trying to work closer with lodging properties throughout the county to ascertain current occupancy rates. She is also moving toward more online and electronic marketing.
