Town and fire district close to sewer agreement for new campus

Working out details of a public trail

By Mark Reaman

It appears the town of Crested Butte and the Crested Butte Fire Protection District are very close to an agreement that will provide town sewer service to the new CBFPD fire hall and search-and-rescue building. Wording on how to guarantee a public trail on the new safety campus by the Slate River has yet to be worked out, but the understanding conveyed by representatives of both entities at the May 15 town council meeting was that the idea of a public trail was agreeable to everyone.

Under the current town code, town could supply water and sewer to a residential home outside the town boundaries. But for a facility like the proposed 22,000 square-foot fire hall and 6,000 square-foot CBSAR (Crested Butte Search and Rescue) building, the property would have to be annexed into Crested Butte. This currently proposed agreement would have the council change the town code to not require annexation but in exchange the town wants the CBFPD to install a sewer lift station; provide a public eight-foot-wide trail easement; have a community comment discussion over what is involved with a potential training tower that might use combustibles; construct an eight-foot-wide public concrete sidewalk along Gothic Road; and provide a detailed explanation to the town how they are meeting the November 2021 ballot language regarding the construction of multi-family housing and equipping and improving all facilities to include solar panels and other sustainable features.

CBFPD CEO Sean Caffrey said the town and fire district have been in “productive conversations” for months over the proposal. He said the trail location could be an issue given design of the facilities, but everyone is working to “figure out where a trail can work. The district is excited to have a trail on the site.” Caffrey did mention some preliminary concerns, but town staff and town attorney Karl Hanlon said that the town was confident the potential constraints could be figured out.

“I am glad for the collaboration and am in favor of getting a trail easement,” said councilmember Jason MacMillan.

“To be clear, we don’t have an official agreement from the board on an easement,” said Caffrey. “Given the government-to-government transaction there might be another mechanism to use. We can look at that.”

“I have faith the intention from everyone is to work together on this,” said MacMillan.

 Mayor Ian Billick made clear that the town believes that under state and regional regulations, the CBFPD must tie into the town sewer system given its close proximity to the site. If an agreement can’t be reached between the two entities, an annexation would be necessary. “But if they run onto barriers on the trail issue, the town will revisit and rework the details,” he said.

The council voted unanimously to proceed with the wastewater hook-up agreement under the town’s proposed legal language. 

Caffrey said after the meeting that the next steps on the sewer tie-in agreement from the CBFPD perspective were basically administrative — working out the fine print, cost sharing and such. “We’re essentially agreed on the main terms and just need our board to sign off in June and work through the details,” he said. The expectation is that the CBFPD will soon be approaching the town about providing water service.

Construction of the new fire hall and CBSAR building is expected to begin in the spring of 2024 and take two years to complete.