Briefs Crested Butte

CB supports Mt. CB grant request The Crested Butte council wrote a letter of support to the Colorado Department of Transportation in support of a grant request from the town of Mt. Crested Butte. Mt. Crested Butte is hoping to obtain funds to finish the recreation path in the north side of town between Marcellina and Winterset. “It’s a very crowded road up there in the summer, with not much room to go for hikers and bikers,” Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick told the council. Crested Butte is not applying for any of the same funds so they agreed to support the request. More town lots moving forward Crested Butte building and zoning director Bob Gillie told the council at the July 21 meeting that the Kapushion family has officially submitted a document concerning installing infrastructure on their land in town. The idea is to eventually release more town lots for sale. The family owns land in the northwest part of town. In that vein, the council scheduled for public hearing an ordinance amending the Subdivision Exemption Criteria and Review Processes contained in the town code. Basically the change would require subdivision exemption proposals that include new infrastructure to have a development improvements agreement to be approved by the Town Council. Loving the backcountry to death? Let’s talk about it… Huckstep said it is becoming clear that the nearby backcountry is feeling the major impacts of a lot of people this summer. He said he wanted to gather local stakeholders and discuss how better to mitigate the impacts of so many people camping and recreating on the nearby public lands. The council felt it was a worthwhile discussion to have and gave the okay for Huckstep to start organizing a regional discussion addressing the issue sometime this fall. Counting vehicles and people Town planner Michael Yerman said the traffic study consultants would begin counting cars soon. He said that aside from the traditional vehicle counter mechanisms being placed around town the consultants would also place a camera at the Four-way Stop so they can get a count of pedestrians. Open containers…for something special…on the horizon Town attorney John Belkin told the council he is working toward bringing the council an ordinance that would allow an “Entertainment District” for special events in town. Such a district could allow people to have open containers of alcohol on designated streets of Crested Butte during special events. He said an event in September might want to utilize the concept. The council wanted to hear more, once business sponsors for the Entertainment District stepped forward. Transportation successes and challenges Councilman Glenn Michel, a council representative to the Mountain Express, reported that the state of the bus system is strong. He said finances are healthy and service is busy. He said the new Express Bus that is running this summer has helped ferry people and bikes between the Four-way and Mountaineer Square, resulting in fewer people with bikes who want to go up the hill getting stranded because of lack of space. Councilman Roland Mason, a council rep to the Rural Transportation Authority, reported that the RTA was also seeing some success with much lower guarantees being required by the airlines for the winter flights. He said instead of having to put up about $600,000, the MRG (minimum revenue guarantee) was closer to $330,000, and that was with more seats being added to the ski season schedule. Mason said the RTA had talked about providing a late-night midnight bus between Crested Butte and Gunnison to help transport late-night workers and revelers, but driver availability issues would likely prohibit such a bus this year. Councilman and restaurateur Chris Ladoulis said there were six employees between his two restaurants who commuted on Friday and Saturday nights and he would probably have to look into contracting a van or bus himself next year to get employees to work from Gunnison. Cattle guard safety Councilman Shaun Matusewicz said the cattle guard on the road leading to Tony’s Trail is dangerous and he is aware of at least two bikers who were injured going over the guard. The council asked town attorney John Belkin to reach out to the property owner to see if anything could be done to make the cattle guard safer. Money for another county economic improvement plan? Councilperson Glenn Michel alerted the council that he would be asking them to include $6,500 in the 2015 budget to go toward a group working on getting matching fund grants to improve the general economy of the valley and to strengthen the personal ties between groups at both ends of the valley. Councilperson Jim Schmidt was reluctant, explaining that he has seen many such efforts over the last decades and they all ultimately ended without much change and the money was just frittered away. Michel took some offense at that characterization, but Schmidt insisted that more specifics be provided to the council before entertaining such a budget item. Michel said he would get the group to make a presentation to the council. Pro Challenge less than a month away The council approved the special event permit for the USA Pro Cycling event in August. They okayed the special “Girls Night Out” time trial that will end in Crested Butte Monday evening before the Tuesday Pro Challenge, along with the actual men’s race. The men’s race is expected to zip through Crested Butte Tuesday afternoon, August 19. The racers will come off Kebler Pass Road, turn on Second Street to Elk Avenue and then head up to Mt. Crested Butte. The roads will be closed and fenced starting early Tuesday morning. There will be a block party and special Alpenglow party on part of Elk Avenue Monday evening. August meeting shuffle The council was made aware that Colorado Day will shift their first meeting in August to Tuesday, August 5. The second meeting will shift because the original schedule called for them to meet the day before the USA Pro Cycling Challenge race. So that second meeting will be held on Monday, August 25.