Risk

Life is full of risks.
Get in a car and you take a risk. The risk is higher on the autobahn than on First Street but there is risk. Go skiing and you take a risk. The risk is higher skiing on Baldy during a windy, blizzardy day, as opposed to skiing a spring afternoon on Painter Boy. Walk in front of the post office and you take a risk. It’s higher on an icy January day when HCCA is selling Red Lady Ball tickets, as opposed to a clear June morning. But life is full of risks.
Let’s look at a couple of examples that came up this week.

High Risk
So Monday night when the Crested Butte Town Council was discussing whether to hop in bed with U.S. Energy by signing a “confidentiality agreement,” there were a number of stated and obvious risks. U.S. Energy hasn’t always been the most forthright company to deal with. The company has never been one to communicate well with this community.
For decades, the goals of the town and the goals of the mining company have been at opposite ends of the spectrum. Now, admittedly, it appears that perhaps there is an opportunity to bridge that gap as U.S. Energy starts to realize the proposed molybdenum mine on Red Lady is a liability costing the company millions, as opposed to an asset that will bring in billions somewhere down the road. That just won’t happen, given the high cost of infrastructure and regulatory mandates.
The town has made its effort to reach out to the company, and talks in Wyoming last month certainly appear to have been positive and chummy. But let’s not forget that the mayor thought he was making strong headway with a personal relationship with company execs last year when he was kicked in the chops with the surprising VCUP announcement.
Still, when Councilman Shaun Matusewicz brought up a dozen concerns with the town signing the agreement with the company, he was shut down by his fellow board members. The primary reasoning from the rest of the council appeared to be that, given the town’s past heavy involvement in anything Red Lady, they needed to be a part of any process. That’s ego. They all see a glimmer of opportunity to strike some sort of deal with the company. That’s heavy seduction. They stated that such agreements are a common contract in business deals. But the town isn’t a business—it’s a potential regulator of any activity at any mine site in its watershed.
The council members couldn’t just leave it up to their community partners HCCA and the Red Lady Coalition to possibly negotiate some sort of deal that could then be brought to the town and vetted. But remove some ego from the process and maybe that would be the ideal situation.
Seriously, how many times can your girlfriend do things you don’t like and then keep doing things behind your back before you stop trying to make the relationship all warm and cozy? And USE ain’t yo girlfriend. Will anyone be shocked if USE tries to pull a fast one or sets the town up for a future lawsuit or at least attempts to hamstring its authority? I won’t be. If you have the community watchdogs of HCCA and the RLC in there doing the details, you should be able to trust that they aren’t going to give away the farm. Not signing and not jumping into negotiations actually might provide the town with more power than sitting at the table.
Having one of the partners sit on the outside of the ring isn’t a bad move. It might provide some grounding to the overall process. Being a public body with some regulatory authority down the road is trickier than being a private business or private advocacy group.
We should want a bulldog near the front lines that draws a hard line with the mine company. That’s harder to do when the goal of everyone is looking for compromise.
If all three of our community players are sitting at the table, I’m afraid they’ll all be seduced at trying to make a deal no matter the cost and lose some perspective. That’s human nature. A productive partnership takes different roles. Let HCCA walk in and be the “good cop” in this one. The town doesn’t have to be the “bad cop” but it should not give up its role as a regulatory body, whether on purpose or by accident. This is no doubt a tricky situation, but while being kept in the loop is a good thing, being thrown for a loop down the road could be a tragic thing.
Look, nothing could be completed without town review and approval. Having HCCA and the RLC in the engine room while the town works on making sure the ship is heading in the right direction is a productive partnership. These talks could result in a good positive outcome and the opportunity should be pursued. There are signs that the USE folks are beginning to understand their situation a bit more clearly.
But having all three get into bed with the company that wants to pull a lot of money out of the mountain with no real concern for the community is like pressing the gas on the autobahn during a holiday weekend. It could get us to where we want to go, but it could also end in a burning heap. There are ways to reduce that risk, and one is by having the town step back from that confidentiality agreement.

Low Risk
The final trivia question at the East River lift Sunday was “How many hours did the lift run this season?” Lord knows, we haven’t always been good at math here at the paper, but let’s try. If it ran from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from November 27 through April 6—that totals 131 days at 6.5 hours a day, or 851.5 total hours. Add in a few minutes before and after opening and closing and you have one big machine spinning a lot of laps in the winter.
Now throw in a total of 15 lifts (ranging from a couple of magic carpets to four high-speed quads) and that’s a lot of mechanization on that hill to get us up to the fun zone.
So here’s a big appreciation to that group that keeps the chairs turning all winter long. These things are a tad more complex than my bike and it takes a lot of work and specific knowledge to keep them safe and running. Safe is key. So here’s a shout out to Keith and Thumper and the six man winter crew that toils to make sure those lifts are turning for us in the winter. Riding a chair with those guys behind the scenes is like walking in front of the post office on a clear June morning. Thanks.