The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Town will try to address problems
By Mark Reaman
Town representatives and residents living in or near The Meadows Condominium Complex will continue to meet to figure how to fairly address issues that surfaced after the McCormick ditch was piped and covered last fall.
The project was paid for primarily by grants from the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District and Western Resource Advocates through the Rushing Rivers Project that protects in-stream flows at headwaters. In-kind contributions came from High Country Conservation Advocates in the form of grant writing, and the town of Crested Butte in labor and equipment.
Ultimately, it is part of a larger goal to eventually pipe the entire ditch in town and water Gothic Field with untreated water. There have been a few hiccups with other landowners in relation to the ditch so the entire project is not completed.
What was once a pleasant and attractive irrigation ditch running in front of the condo complex now looks like expected at the end of a construction project, with some gravel, dirt and straw covering the newly piped waterway. Parks and Recreation director Janna Hansen said the disturbed area was seeded and if the residents water the spot, it should be green by this summer. Residents and neighbors asked the Crested Butte town council last week to help them further clean up the problem and deal with the resulting issues.
“It was like there was no exit strategy after the work was done,” commented resident Anne Moore. “There needs to be an attitude shift toward ‘every block matters.’ We shouldn’t be ripping up natural beauty in the name of so-called progress. Even The Meadows counts and should look good.”
Moore described the re-vegetation process as “dirt on top of dirt with some seeds scattered around with some hay. It’s not good.”
Resident Shelley Popke agreed. “To be clear, the project ended up impacting the whole block and not just The Meadows,” she said. “And we are all facing issues as a result. First there was pooling of water in the area, which became muddy and icy and it was a hazard just to access the properties along that block. Second, water was draining into the crawl spaces in the buildings and third, the aesthetics are just not good.”
Interim Crested Butte town manager Bill Crank said he has met with some of the concerned citizens and planned to follow up with another meeting soon.
“Hopefully we as the town haven’t done anything to exacerbate the problem,” he said. “But we want to try to work the problems out. But let’s understand it’s an irrigation ditch and the idea was to pipe it to cut down on water loss. We had a similar situation on Whiterock many years ago. But I think we can all get together and figure out how to address the issues.”
Crank intended to meet onsite with the neighbors sometime during the following week.
