Briefs Crested Butte

Wanna be a local politician?
The next Crested Butte town council election is coming up sooner than you might think. Petitions will be available to be picked up on August 6. The town will be putting an election calendar on its website by the end of the week. Three council seats (Jim Schmidt, John Wirsing and Roland Mason) along with mayor Aaron Huckstep are up for election. Petitions have to be returned by August 26 with 10 verified signatures of Crested Butte voters.

Sales tax isn’t declining
May sales tax is in and it was busy in spring. While the month was up .8 percent, the year for the first five months is ahead of 2012 by 5.5 percent. And we can bet that number will grow when June and July are recorded given the number of people who appear to be in town.

Shhh….
The issue of late evening summer noise was again touched on by the council. Councilperson Roland Mason said he has heard more than a few complaints from people who can hear the music coming from Big Mine Ice Arena. Town parks and recreation director Jake Jones said the town decibel level limit is actually 100 and “That’s pretty loud. Maybe we start relooking at the high level,” he suggested. Mason suggested requiring those renting the space to provide noise dampening as part of the contract.

Crossett looking it all over
Town manager Todd Crossett told the council he was looking at an organizational analysis of the town staff. It started with a look at how to address the opening left by town planner John Hess’ retirement but has spread to take a fresh look at how better to organize the staff overall. He did say Jones and public works director Rodney Due were putting together a questionnaire for local businesses to get a pulse on various issues in town.
Letters of support
The Town Council happily signed a letter of support for local high schooler Danny D’Aquila, who hopes to receive an appointment to either the United States Air Force Academy or the Naval Academy. The council was happy to support his efforts to be the first kid from the Crested Butte Community School to receive such an appointment.
The council also gave a letter of support to the Thompson Divide Withdrawal and Protection Act. Organizers presented the council with their plans which center on a “market-based approach as opposed to a litigious approach.”

Affordable rentals in the works…
While saying there are still “a lot of ducks to line up,” councilperson David Owen said there continues to be preliminary movement on a potential affordable rental apartment project in the works for town. It would take some financial support from the town and county and be located on land on the south side of town.

Summer flight support? Maybe…
The council agreed to a lukewarm letter of support for a possible grant being organized by consultants to the Rural Transportation Authority. The money would be used to possibly pay for guarantees to United Airlines to fly summer jets between Houston and Gunnison. But as Councilperson Jim Schmidt pointed out, summer jet service comes with a set of issues including the types of planes that can operate in summer heat at the altitude. The two-year grant would also require matching funds of $350,000 and that means the money would likely take away from winter payments. The council agreed to write a letter but expected to discuss the matter more in depth if it looked like the area might actually receive the grant.
“We’re not sure what we’re giving up or even what we’d be getting,” summed up Mayor Aaron Huckstep, who sits on the RTA board.
 “A letter of support keeps our options open, but a larger discussion is certainly in order before committing to the grant,” said Councilperson Glenn Michel.