Council supports neighbors who want to keep alley free from asphalt

Timing and scope still a bit of a concern

By Mark Reaman

The alley north of the Second and Elk intersection in front of Soupçon will not get any pavement. The Crested Butte Town Council, alley residents and business owners in the neighborhood all agreed that drainage issues could be mitigated using other improvement measures and by using road base instead of asphalt.

The idea of pavement grew into an issue when some neighbors recently became aware that the east end of the alley was slated to be paved later this summer. Many of the neighbors felt a proper public process had not been followed and paving any part of the alley was an affront to some of the special qualities of Crested Butte.

Crested Butte public works director Rodney Due presented four alternatives on how to deal with the situation at the Monday, August 21 council meeting. They ranged from leaving the alley in its current state to dealing with the drainage improvements while paving the alley and nearby town parking area. The council decided to go with the public’s preferred alternative to fix the drainage issue with grading, installing a concrete pan on the south side of the alley and putting curb and gutter around the parking area before topping it all off with road base.

Town manager Dara MacDonald said the preferred option was a bit more expensive than what was budgeted. The cost for that work is estimated to come in at about $24,000, or $8,000 more than expected.

“To be clear, the council has never talked about paving the alleys in town in general,” councilman Jim Schmidt reminded the audience of about 15 people.

Molly Murfee, who lives in the alley, was a primary organizer of the effort to stop the paving. An online petition she started gathered 421 signatures and several comments. “We are pleased with the direction and the help from the town. We all live or work there. I now ask the town to work with Jason [Vernon of Soupçon] and me about the timing of the work. Hopefully it can happen after Vinotok when it slows down for both of us,” she said. “That would be helpful. It is also super-tight in there and we both have gardens, so please take that into consideration.”

Murfee also expressed some concern that the limited green space in the area would be compromised if the parking area were expanded.

Vernon said it was “heartwarming” to have the town listen to the concerns of the neighbors. “If you travel, you know there are cool, special places and this is one of those,” he said. He offered $10,000 toward the project and left a check with the town clerk to contribute to the road base option.

Neighbor Sam Robards also expressed gratitude to the council “for opening up the process.” He again mentioned the specialness of keeping all the alleys in town unique.

Angie Hornbrook read a poem written 10 years ago by Jackson Melnick about the Crested Butte alleys, and added, “I hope it illuminates the spirit of the alleys for you. As the town grows, the alleys will see more use and we don’t want this to set a precedent for the future. It might be a good time now for the council and BOZAR to talk about the future of all the alleys in town.”

“It is important to save every alley in the valley,” added resident (and poet) David Rothman. “Bring down the gavel for the gravel.”

“It does seem that the alleys have become busier and it may be worth a future work session to discuss how to maintain the vital asset we cherish,” said mayor Glenn Michel. “It is something we value.”

“There was a town decision made a while ago to put garages not on the street but in the back of houses in the alleys,” said Schmidt. “So the town emphasizes cars in the alleys. There are repercussions with every decision.”

“I am appreciative of everyone coming forward to speak up and of the town staff for working with everyone,” noted councilman Chris Ladoulis. “One thing to understand is that the town and the council talk a lot about things like the paving program or the snow storage program. It’s not a one-off discussion. These are the types of things that are discussed all year long. There is an election coming up, so some of you who want to guide the town might consider if you could talk about it two Mondays a month.”

No one ran up to get a petition—yet.

The council, however, voted 6-0, with councilman Jackson Petito not at the meeting, to approve the preferred option and use road base instead of asphalt.