The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
By Kendra Walker
Green Deed
The Mt. Crested Butte town council approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority to launch a Green Deed Program. The Town of Mt. Crested Butte has budgeted $50,000 in 2024 to launch the program in partnership with the Gunnison Valley Home Energy Advancement Team (GV-HEAT), which provides energy efficiency upgrades for deed restricted units. The town will fund five to 10 retrofits for deed-restricted units in 2024, depending on the response and interest of the program from the community.
New Toyota Rav4
The town has purchased a new hybrid Toyota Rav4 to replace its 2006 Subaru Outback.
Chamber update
The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce’s new executive director, Heather Leonard, presented a 2023 Q4 report to the council. She noted that in 2023, the Mt. Crested Butte Visitor’s Center had 13,898 guests, a 70% increase over the previous year. “July 2023 had the highest visitation in five years,” she said. The Mt. CB Visitor’s Center also had 361 calls in 2023, a 29% increase over 2022. Leonard noted the increase in call volume could be attributed to a phone now being available for people to call FirstTracks for a ride.
Leonard shared that the Chamber is in the process of finalizing a digital kiosk to be installed at the Four-Way Stop in Crested Butte, and she is working on a grant to hopefully install another kiosk in Mt. Crested Butte as well.
She noted that she is having conversations with other tourism offices and chambers in Colorado to try to understand what they are doing well. She also said in the short-term, they are hoping to update the Chamber website, re-engage their social media, build a stronger relationship with Western, ramp up the Business After Hours events and add more retail elements at the Visitor’s Centers.
“I have spent the better part of the last two months with my ear to the ground talking to people, listening, trying to understand the Chamber’s role within the community, the Visitor’s Centers’ roles, perceptions, how we can continue to be relevant and to make sure we’re doing the best we possibly can. I’ll continue to have those and am working on pulling together information and plans ready for Crested Butte,” she said, noting the April 1 deadline to present a new direction plan for the Visitor’s Centers to receive funding from the towns. “We’re working on a variety of different strategies with how we connect with our visitors and make sure our businesses have the resources to answer questions from visitors. This is an ongoing conversation and we’re continuing to do more research. We hope to have good ideas for where we’re headed,” she said.
