The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Planning for a letter of support
By Kendra Walker
Members of the Mt. Crested Butte town council have voiced concerns over the ongoing lease negotiations between Crested Butte Search and Rescue (CBSAR) and the Crested Butte Fire Protection District (CBFPD). During their April 21 meeting, the council expressed support toward CBSAR and encouraged them to bring forward a letter of support for the council’s consideration at their May 5 meeting.
As previously reported in the Crested Butte News, the fire district and CBSAR have not been able to come to lease terms at the newly constructed facility given the consistent addition of a termination clause by the CBFPD.
“Crested Butte Search and Rescue and the fire department are negotiating with each other over a lease for the space down there. I’m inviting search and rescue to submit a letter that we would be happy to consider,” said mayor Nicholas Kempin. “I know there’s support on this council and interest in trying to help them.”
“As a resident, it’s infuriating to see this bait and switch maneuver that I think is being done by the fire district,” said council member Steve Morris. “I think there was a permanence that is easily implied with the ballot language and so this seems like a super shifty sleight of hand for a longer-term game plan that they probably had prior to the ballot measure. So I’m disgusted with what’s going on down there at the fire protection district and I’d like to see a letter of support or whatever search and rescue needs in this process. I would hope that we’d be able to support that.”
He continued, “Anybody I’ve talked to believes that they were voting to put them in a home for us. In addition to supporting search and rescue in this, I also think it’s reasonable to be curious about third party audits of the fire protection district as well.”
The council also heard from a representative for the CBSAR team. “Thank you all for putting this as an agenda item. Our goal in being here tonight is to just maintain some public discourse about how this building is used. We are still in very productive conversations with the Crested Butte Fire Protection District. We’re very interested in maintaining a very positive professional working relationship with that organization,” he said. “Our primary concern really is that if we are displaced that our organization may not have a home immediately. We do have a limited number of calls, but we do provide an important resource specifically to this type of community that does spend so much time outside. And we also have some concern referencing the bond language about potentially having to ask this community, the fire protection district voters, for additional funds to house our organization. Those are our primary concerns discussing this unilateral termination portion of the proposed lease.”
The council invited search and rescue to submit a letter for the council’s consideration, which they plan to formally review during their May 5 meeting. The CBFPD is slated to address the lease situation at its May 12 meeting.
