The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Some hesitation from both councils
The $500,000 legacy gift from the Whatever USA event will be split among three projects, all of them centered in the town of Crested Butte. The Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte Town Councils this week approved the recommendations of an ad hoc committee that dealt with the financial distribution, but with some hesitation.
The majority of the money, $300,000, will be put toward a project in Big Mine Park. That will most likely be some sort of expansion with the current Warming House but until a Big Mine Master Plan is completed early next year, no specific project will be named. However, a $450,000 expansion plan has been discussed and if the hockey and Nordic communities raise some matching funds, the $300,000 could expedite some major improvements at Big Mine in the near future.
The second biggest expenditure would be $140,000 to be contributed to the cost of putting infrastructure in the town’s affordable housing blocks 79 and 80. The cost of that project is estimated to be $550,000 and the town is hoping for a state grant as well. The hope is to complete the infrastructure next year.
Finally, the committee recommended spending $60,000 on the Mt. Crested Butte recreation path extension between the Slate River bridge in Crested Butte and Eighth Street in town.
The idea is to hard-surface the current dirt and gravel path this spring to make it easier for locals and tourists to use the rec path.
“The discussions were amicable and everyone felt good about the outcome,” said Crested Butte mayor Aaron Huckstep at a Crested Butte Town Council meeting on Monday, December 1.
“We all walked out of the meeting feeling we had a practical and defensible recommendation,” added Crested Butte town manager Todd Crossett.
Crested Butte Nordic director Keith Bauer said the $300,000 should provide “a great jump start for whatever ends up happening at Big Mine. I think both the Nordic and hockey communities will be excited.”
“And my feeling is that it is not just for hockey and Nordic,” added councilman Jim Schmidt. “It will benefit summer activities too as Big Mine has been growing a lot. It is a benefit for the whole community.”
Crested Butte councilman Shaun Matusewicz suggested the council wait until the December 15 meeting before taking any action on the recommendation. “I think a lot of people were out of town for the holidays and may want to come and comment,” he said. “It’s a big issue and I think given the history with Whatever, we need to give the public every chance to comment.”
“Part of the goal of the committee was to target projects that could get completed,” said councilman Roland Mason. “The Mt. Crested Butte reps initially wanted the money to go to one project. I think we should approve the recommendations tonight.”
Matusewicz pointed out that the majority of the money was going to park expansion and the town was already having trouble funding maintenance of what it currently had. “I just see this as inappropriate right now,” he said. “New locker rooms are good but affordable housing is great. I feel the numbers should be switched with more going to affordable housing infrastructure. Let’s do something bigger than a short-term locker room.”
But the rest of the council was on board with the joint recommendation and they voted to support it 6-1.
The next evening, at a Mt. Crested Butte Town Council meeting, several Mt. Crested Butte councilmembers also voiced concern over the recommendations.
Councilmember David O’Reilly said he was happy with the rec path and the Big Mine funding, but was surprised to see Crested Butte’s request to direct funding toward affordable housing. “The rec path, I knew that was coming… I was a little surprised that they asked for affordable housing. That’s just not what I thought the intent of the monies was,” he said.
Councilmember Todd Barnes, who sat on the ad hoc committee that made the recommendation, said he felt the affordable housing funds would benefit the whole community. And since Mt. Crested Butte didn’t have an affordable housing project of its own to put on the table, it made sense. “I think that giving the labor force a position to be able to buy in the not so distant future is important,” he said.
But councilmember Danny D’Aquila disagreed, suggesting that Mt. Crested Butte does have its own affordable housing project, it just doesn’t have the funds for it. “They’re not offering up money to help us with our project,” he said. He also expressed frustration that the discussion about Nordic Center expansion is focused in Crested Butte and not in Mt. Crested Butte.
“We have a lot of undeveloped terrain, and we have talked about a facility at the base of Snodgrass,” D’Aquila said. He added that he understood and supported the need for a bigger facility in Crested Butte, but didn’t want Mt. Crested Butte to be overlooked. “I would like to know when we are going to be on their radar, right down to when the snow cats are going to be out there getting our trails ready,” he said.
Mt. Crested Butte mayor David Clayton suggested that those ideas would need to be part of a long-term approach. “I don’t think we could get them to build a satellite facility in Mt. Crested Butte until they get their needs met downtown,” he said, pointing out that there are four kilometers of groomed Nordic trails at the base of Snodgrass, compared to 55 km of groomed trails elsewhere.
Overall, Clayton felt that the funding recommendations fit the criteria of being “shovel ready,” or ready to go, and benefiting the entire community, from Crested Butte South to Mt. Crested Butte. He also pointed out that grant funding had been secured to finish a portion of the rec path that lies within Mt. Crested Butte. But councilmember Gary Keiser couldn’t believe that none of the projects were in Mt. Crested Butte.
“I’m disappointed there’s nothing in Mt. Crested Butte,” Keiser said. “Our staff put a lot of time in as well as our police department and it seems like we ought to have something in Mt. Crested Butte. The Mt. Crested Butte committee didn’t go in with any suggestions?”
Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick reminded Keiser that discussions had been ongoing since July, and the final recommendation was the culmination of that. “We were all just very comfortable with landing here understanding that yes, we do have needs, but the needs we have don’t have the far-reaching benefits to the community that these do,” he said.
After further discussion, the Town Council voted 3-2 in favor of the recommendations, with two additional members absent. “The town of Crested Butte has just received an early Christmas present from the town of Mt. Crested Butte and that’s all I can say. I hope they don’t forget it,” said O’Reilly.
