The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Plan is for 2018 construction
By Mark Reaman
Momentum to expand the Big Mine Park Warming House continues. Crested Butte Parks and Recreation director Janna Hansen gave the Town Council an update on the progress at a work session in March.
The council gave the nod of approval to keep moving forward and put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the expansion this month. The council has budgeted $43,000 for architectural design and construction documents for the project in 2017. It is hoped that ground can be broken on an expanded warming house in 2018.
“There has been a lot of growth and a lot of change at Big Mine Park in the last 33 years,” said Hansen as she gave a PowerPoint presentation on the project. “There is a clearly demonstrated need to expand the facility. It is at capacity and has been for years. Just go there after school in the winter sometimes. It can be wild.”
Hansen pointed out that both the local Nordic and local hockey programs have been growing continually and she sees no sign of that slowing down as school enrollment continues to increase and more people move to the valley.
More than $1.5 million in capital improvements have taken place at Big Mine Park in the last five years, with most of that being the roof over the ice rink. Some $300,000 is still earmarked for Big Mine Park facility improvements from the Whatever USA event. Both Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte representatives felt that was an appropriate way to spend some of the money garnered through the Bud Light weekend.
Last summer the town completed a utility project at Big Mine that upgraded sewer lines to expand the facilities. The next phase would be the Nordic Center expansion and hockey changing room additions. Representatives of the town, Crested Butte Nordic and the West Elk Hockey Association have met to collaboratively figure out the best approach for the expansion. As the project moves ahead, the “team” wants to add a couple of at-large community members to the task force.
The team has vetted a few possibilities for expansion and seems to be settled on an expansion to the west of the current warming house. “After looking at several alternatives we concluded that a shared warming house with adjacent hockey changing rooms as a major expansion of the current warming house was the best option,” explained Hansen. “Going through the ‘cons’ of the option, we determined that they were not insurmountable. It fits within the budget and reflects that we are a small town that shares spaces.”
Hansen said the current building could be lifted up and moved while a basement is built and the expansion widened. “But a project of this size could take a couple of building seasons so it might be that we won’t have the warming house for one season,” Hansen cautioned. “We can deal with that with planning.”
The next step is to request, receive and evaluate proposals from architects and contractors. Hansen hopes to have proposals back by the end of April to review. While $387,000 is budgeted by the town for construction in 2018, it is expected that both Crested Butte Nordic and WEHA will help raise additional funds for the project and there are also grant opportunities for such a project.
“The council should be asking, ‘Why are we doing this?’” said Crested Butte mayor Glenn Michel. “For me, it seems a good investment for the town. Nordic brings people in. Hockey brings teams here. We know it will help improve our quality of life. It will help improve our economy. It is a good amenity for our citizens.”
