Traffic and safety top list of concerns over CBCS plan

Also fears that Tommy V field will be too small

Concerns about the flow of vehicles and pedestrians near the expanded Crested Butte Community School took center stage at a public meeting Monday, March 30, when the Gunnison RE1J school district’s board, superintendent and design team members listened and took notes as their site plan was put through the wringer.

The meeting was an opportunity for the public to comment on ways the site plan could be improved. After little more than a mention of the new classrooms, the library and computer lab expansions or the improved athletic facilities, the crowd got down to business.
In the new plan, the district hopes to solve some of the current parking congestion by adding a second 59-space parking lot at the high school end of the school. A few parents in attendance felt that would only make the problems worse by encouraging students and parents to park along Red Lady Avenue for athletic events in the high school gymnasium.
The planners have also tried to improve the flow of traffic inside the lots to keep cars moving in one direction and away from pedestrians as much as possible. The buses will have a lane for loading and unloading kids and the two lots should help keep the high school drivers away from elementary-school-aged kids.
“I’m just thinking about how people use the space, how people enter the parking lot. People do not obey the rules that exist today,” said Loree Weisman. “So not only are you not addressing the real problems, in my opinion, you’re compounding them because [the plan is] not addressing the needs of the people.”
Several people suggested that the parking lots should have a one-way entrance and exit to keep traffic flowing in the same direction. They said the amount of traffic trying to navigate the limited space of the parking lots is creating a very unsafe situation for kids trying to walk to school.
Community School neighbor Krista Hildebrandt told the board, “Safety is a problem. When my children go outside and cross the street, I fear for their lives. I have stopped more than one driver, screaming that they aren’t paying attention to my child, who is merely walking across the street. I have also seen children chase balls off of the playground and into the street.”
Lead architect Mike Archibald stepped in to remind the parents that a wall or fence would be built between the school grounds where the playground sits and Red Lady Avenue to keep wayward playground balls and children in pursuit out of the street.
“We’re hoping the fence will keep kids crossing the street in certain areas, where they can be seen and supervised by a crossing guard. We also think it will cut down on the number of balls that roll into the street,” said Archibald.
The school district is planning to employ a full-time crossing guard at the intersection of 7th Street, Red Lady Avenue and Hwy. 135 in hopes that children and parents alike will be more apt to follow the rules of the road.
One suggestion that has been repeated by the public and explored by the school district is to put a turning lane on Hwy. 135 for a driveway directly into the main school parking lot.
Archibald said, “We’ve looked at and tried to establish a way we could utilize an access from the highway side. But after looking at all of the options, we’ve determined with the school and town staff that an access drive from Hwy. 135 is just not possible.”
The person with possibly the most experience watching traffic around the school said he was encouraged by the plan.  Crested Butte Chief Marshal Tom Martin said, “This whole discussion is about 40 minutes a day. Really, there are only 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon that it’s a complete cluster around the school. Ideally, the school wouldn’t be situated there, but given what it is, I think this plan is the best I’ve seen.”
Another issue of concern was the size of the relocated Tommy V field and the effect the school expansion would have on other athletic amenities. According to some at the meeting, the field as it is designed is unsuitable as a baseball field and only partially serves the interests of the community.
Even Archibald said the field was too small to be a regulation baseball field and too big to be an official softball field. “It’s not a true baseball or a true softball field,” he said.
Weisman said, “I was on Town Council the first time the field was built, and it was a very stressful process when we were putting in Tommy V field and it wasn’t regulation size for tournaments. We spent a lot of money … to make it all happen and it looks like we’re about to engage in the same mistake, by building a very expensive field that isn’t regulation size.”
 Weisman pointed to the revenue generated by athletic facilities like a softball field, using Gunnison’s indoor ice rink as an example. She said, “Look at the benefit Gunnison is getting from the covered ice rink. Their lodging is up, their tax revenue is up, while everyone else’s is down.”
Michael Villanueva also stood to encourage the school district to look at options for making the most out of the ball field, which is a memorial to his late brother.  “I was born here, I got to play sports here and when it came to the big game, we always had to go to somewhere else to play. It would be nice to give kids an opportunity to have the best ball field, to give them that chance to be equals wherever they play,” said Villanueva. “That cycle of building fields that are too small isn’t ending, so take this chance to do it right.”
Jake Jones, Crested Butte’s parks and recreation director, stood up to defend the Tommy V field as it had been designed. He referred to the agreement between to the town and the school district that required the field be “as good as, or better” than the existing field.
“If you’re looking for the Field of Dreams, this isn’t going to be it. We just don’t have the space. If there were the opportunity to grow it in the future, we would love the opportunity,” said Jones. “And I want to emphasize that the school will give us a much better bathroom than what is there. That’s a much improved amenity.”
Still there was concern among those in attendance that the town is working its way out of any outdoor athletic facilities that are viable for official competitions. One person said the soccer field is the wrong shape and the track is too short and several said they didn’t think the relocated Tommy V field would serve the community because it would be too small.
Lauren Alkire, Crested Butte’s parks and recreation programmer, quickly went to work dispelling the false rumors and explaining those that came closer to the truth.
“The only facility that we have that isn’t built to regulation specs is the track. We are at too high of an elevation to hold [Colorado High School Activities Association] sanctioned track meets anyway,” she said.
“All of our soccer fields are within official recommendations, all of our baseball fields are within recommendations. And the school field is absolutely within those recommendations for Babe Ruth and a high school baseball field.”
Not everyone in the audience saw the need to rethink the site plan for the expanded school, however. Several parents, including local engineer Lee Olesen, stood up to congratulate the board and designers on a well-developed plan.
“I think what people aren’t realizing is that you can’t fit 10 pounds into an eight-pound bag. This is the space that they have to build on so that’s what they have to work with,” said Olesen. “So I like it—it’s a greatly improved plan and I just hope it doesn’t get delayed anymore so we can get to work on it.”
The school board said it would review the comments made during the meeting with the project designers and incorporate some of the best ideas into the plan.