Briefs: Crested Butte South

By Katherine Nettles

Annual meeting reframe? 

During their June meeting, the Crested Butte South Property Owner’s Association (POA) board of directors discussed some possible changes to this year’s annual member meeting scheduled for Saturday, August 24. Typically, the annual meeting takes place in Sunset Hall at Red Mountain Park, followed by a picnic dinner at the park provided by the POA. POA manager Derek Harwell described to the board how, as the POA parks subcommittee on donations and events has discussed, the annual meeting and picnic could be refashioned into a larger and possibly revenue-generating event. Harwell suggested a ticketed event with food trucks, live music, sponsors and auction items.

“It’s a different direction we could go to generate some revenue,” he said, and added that it could improve attendance to the annual meeting.

The idea would be a priced admission to the dinner and music event, but those who attended the annual meeting would be given a dinner coupon to use at one of the food trucks. POA board president Andrew Sandstrom had some initial questions about how that could work, but said he was glad to hear some new ideas on making the annual meeting more exciting and better attended. The subcommittee will continue developing a plan this summer.

Red Mountain Park redo requires public access

The POA board also discussed the Red Mountain Park master plan, which includes a full reconfiguration of the ball fields, hockey rink, skate pond, tennis and basketball courts, parking areas and playground. The POA has been in touch with Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) about grant funding for a transformative redo on the park, and Sandstrom reported that state funding requires the park to be open for public access as opposed to it being privately owned and technically for members only. The POA’s legal counsel has advised that the POA just needs to have it in writing that it isn’t restricted in use, so the board is exploring options, but one possibility would be to grant an access easement to Met Rec or Gunnison County, both of which are qualified governmental agencies that could sign off on grant funds for the project. 

MetRec funding

The POA recently received a Red Mountain Park operations grant from Met Rec for the next three years, which may help open up POA funds for some minor upgrades there while working toward plans for a full park renovation. The grant is for $34,000 per year, the majority of which is to be used for maintenance. A small portion will also go toward equipment.  “The goal is, obviously those are expenses we’ve incurred in the past anyway, so we could do some shorter-term improvements now on the park with those funds that are now freed up,” said Sandstrom. 

He used the example of redoing the ball fields first, and maybe providing an additional parking area.