Sticking to 156/2/5 could end project

By Mark Reaman

While an official vote was not taken Monday by the Crested Butte Town Council on whether to move off the compromise conditions set with Mt. Crested Butte over the proposed Corner at Brush Creek project, all indications are that the majority of the council is done negotiating.

The council majority appears ready to stand with last week’s Mt. Crested Butte vote to stay with the three conditions of allowing no more than 156 units, requiring two parking spots for each unit and setting aside five acres of the property for a future use.

So unless the project developer, Gatesco, Inc. either agrees with the two towns’ 156/2/5 compromise or can convince the Crested Butte council to move to its latest proposal of 156 units with a 3.5-acre set-aside and 1.65 parking spaces per unit, this particular project could be over.

The Gunnison County commissioners gave Gatesco until October 31 to obtain the formal consent of at least three of the four parties to the Memorandum of Understanding between the county, the two towns and Crested Butte Mountain Resort (the four owners of the land) before allowing Gatesco to submit a preliminary plan application.

Crested Butte Town Council members Will Dujardin and Candice Bradley advocated to continue negotiating with Gatesco, while the rest of the council voiced support to stick with the 156/2/5 numbers. Councilwoman Laura Mitchell was not at the meeting.

Mt. Crested Butte councilman Dwayne Lehnertz attended the October 7 meeting and said his council voted 4-3 to remain on the 156/2/5 compromise since that was agreed to with the town of Crested Butte after five months of discussion. “That was something we all spent a lot of time getting to in good faith,” he said.

Dujardin said he agreed with the tone of a letter from project supporter Jim Starr and said the two sides were so close in numbers that the town should consider more negotiations.

Starr’s letter to the council asked, “Are we really going to pass up or significantly delay 156 units of affordable rental housing and $20,000,000 in private equity for a $40,000,000 project at Brush Creek over a difference in parking of .35 parking spaces per unit, and 1.5 acres of set-aside?”

“A 4-3 vote would suck either way it went,” Dujardin said. “I wholeheartedly stand behind what Jim Starr says. Gatesco is saying that’s it from their end. Now is the time to explore all other options in the next few weeks. Maybe we push for four acres to be set aside to try to get it into the preliminary plan review. If you think 1.65 parking spaces is not enough, maybe we get 1.8.”

“I agree with Dwayne,” countered Crested Butte mayor Jim Schmidt. “What we did with Mt. Crested Butte was a big compromise. It was a long way from the number of units I wanted. I think about Anthracite Place, where the community came together to support that and the county and Mt. Crested Butte and this town all contributed money to it. And again, this project seems so controversial and laden with doubts. I am fine with the numbers we got to.”

“We’re not that far away from making something happen,” said Dujardin.

“I’m not convinced this is the right proposal,” said Schmidt.

“I see no reason to keep revisiting the issue we worked out with Mt. Crested Butte just because they keep asking,” said councilwoman Mallika Magner. “We want a good project. We want a project where the people there will have a good lifestyle, not a place where someone gets home to after working a double and can’t find a place to park.”

“You are making a lot of assumptions, Mallika,” said Dujardin.

“I’m questioning this process,” she replied.

Lehnertz suggested the council review the latest numbers in a revised Housing Needs Assessment that he said proved the Gatesco project misses the mark with what is needed.

Friend of Brush Creek attorney David Leinsdorf said he felt Starr’s letter contained some misstatements and reminded the council that of the 156 units in the proposal, many could charge essentially free market rents, so all 156 units shouldn’t be considered “affordable rental housing.”

Leinsdorf refuted a line in Starr’s letter that stated, “We are experiencing a significant slowing in the generation of sales tax and I can’t help but believe it is caused in part because of the decreasing work force available for our businesses,” by noting that sales tax collections in town were again reported as up over last year by 5.5 percent in August and 2.7 percent for the year.

Leinsdorf also said the parking should be based on number of occupants as opposed to the number of units. He estimated there would be about 400 people living in the 156 units, so 312 parking spaces would not be adequate. “I also urge you to not abandon your ally of Mt. Crested Butte if the north end of the valley wants to have any influence at the county,” he said. “This town initiated the discussion between the two towns and you all worked hard for five months on a compromise.”

Former councilman Kent Cowherd, who had been heavily involved in watching the evolution of the project, also encouraged the town to stand by the 156/2/5 compromise, which he said was fair. “I don’t understand why Gatesco doesn’t fully embrace the three conditions. Then the two councils would support it. All of this friction is unnecessary.”

Dujardin again asked his fellow council members if there was room to compromise in the next couple of weeks, but he didn’t get much support.

Councilman Chris Haver indicated he supported the two towns and didn’t want to negotiate with themselves.

Councilman Paul Merck said he was surprised Gatesco hasn’t agreed to the 156/2/5. “We worked hard for five months to reach this compromise, which was pretty amazing,” he said. “I was surprised we got there. So I think we should stick to it. I feel the compromise is a win for the Gatesco team if it meets those three conditions,”

Bradley disagreed, as she pointed out she was looking for rental housing while no one else on the council was in such a position. “I just have a weird feeling that I’m starving for housing and someone is holding up a loaf of bread and we are saying you can’t have it,” she said. “I think we should work to make something work.”

“I agree with you,” responded Merck. “And I feel we worked a lot to get to the compromise.”

“Is there no way to compromise more?” asked Dujardin. “I feel that compromise was designed to kill the project.”

“I don’t think the compromise was ever meant to kill the project,” retorted Haver.

The only Gatesco representative at the meeting was Jeff Moffett, who didn’t say much other than that the letter sent by Gary Gates to the two councils on October 1 was “designed to provide more thorough explanations” of the Gatesco team’s reasoning for their proposal.

Schmidt noted that there was no requirement to take a formal vote on the issue but that it would be on the agenda at the October 21 council meeting.

October 31st deadline to strike a deal

By Mark Reaman

It appears that with a revised proposal from the developer limiting the number of units to 156, there is new life for the Corner at Brush Creek affordable housing proposal. The majority of north valley elected officials on the Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte town councils now seem to feel there is opportunity to strike a deal with Gatesco Inc.

A two-and-a-half hour joint work session on Tuesday, August 27 with the two councils, Gatesco representatives and the other two owners (Gunnison County and Crested Butte Mountain Resort) of the 14-acre property located at Brush Creek Road and Highway 135, ended with generally positive feelings that a deal was possible.

The two sides were grappling with the three conditions reached in a compromise between Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte to have no more than 156 units on the property, provide two parking spaces per unit and set aside five acres for a future public use. Gatesco recently agreed to the unit count but wanted other concessions.

The mayors of both towns expressed some disappointment in the issue of trust between Gatesco and the towns or them personally, given past actions and statements. But most council representatives wanted to continue discussions with the developer in an effort to see if an agreement could be struck for the major workforce housing project.

They did bring up concerns over things such as adequate storage for recreational toys; how much land to set aside for a future public use; how many parking spaces to require; where to place a small transit center for buses in relation to the highway; and how to provide washers and dryers. Of course, everyone agreed that adequate water and sewer to service the project remained the prime concern.

The proposed adjustments

Gatesco attorney Kendall Burgemeister went over a revised proposal from Gatesco that included many changes from previous proposals. He pointed out the 156 units was a 35 percent reduction from the original plan for 240 units. “Getting to that number shows that Gary [Gates] really wants to make this project,” said Burgemeister.

He said the largest building was reduced in size from a 22-plex that was approximately 18,000 square feet and nearly 35 feet tall to a 12,500 square foot, 16-plex that stands 26 feet tall.

While the two towns had stated they wanted to see two parking spaces per unit, Burgemeister said the 156-unit Gatesco proposal has 226 bedrooms with 1.5 parking spaces per unit, or 234 spaces. “A project with 156 units, 1.5 parking spaces per unit, and a modest set aside [of land] for future uses will provide a project that is more livable for residents while still providing ample parking,” Burgemeister wrote in a memo to the property owners.

The developers are proposing a transit center with public restrooms similar to the bus stop building at the Crested Butte Four-way Stop.

Gatesco wants the project to be totally rental with no for-sale units but wants the “flexibility to add additional units in the future, contingent upon reaching an agreed-upon trigger that demonstrates a continued need for workforce housing (e.g. at least 90% occupancy for three years,)” the developers wrote.

Any new building would be subject to the county land use review. Of the 156 units, 77 would have deed restrictions tied to renters making less than 120 percent of the Area Median Income. For two people in the county, 120 percent AMI would be about $53,100. Rent and most utilities would be capped at 30 percent of income.

The other 79 units would have to be rented to locals who reside in the county, but income limits would not apply.

The new proposal shifts to a smaller unit mix, including 30 studios, 60 one-bedroom units, 60 two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom apartments.

Water, storage, bus…

Council representatives had a lot of questions and comments concerning potential population, rental caps, the ability to serve the lowest income workers and the financial feasibility of the project.

Crested Butte mayor Jim Schmidt said one of his disappointments was that significant well testing hadn’t been performed, especially following a particularly dry year in 2018. “It seems that is one thing you’d really want to know,” he said.

“That expensive testing is required in the county’s preliminary plan process. That timeline is not uncommon,” said Burgemeister. “If we dig dry holes, then we don’t go forward and this is all academic.”

Gatesco has had a hydrologist monitoring an already-existing well on the property and very early testing has shown no issues. But Burgemeister emphasized that no comprehensive testing has been conducted and much more intensive water testing will be needed. “We haven’t seen any red flags. The aquifer levels recharge by snowmelt and so are at their lowest in May and at their fullest in mid-summer. We have seen no sign of initial long-term issues but again, this testing is not conclusive. More testing needs to be done,” said Burgemeister.

Storage areas were also a major concern.

“Where do people put their cars, bikes and skis and boats and all the other things people here have?” asked Crested Butte councilmember Laura Mitchell.

“Are you open to a shared storage space that residents could use?” added Mt. Crested Butte councilwoman Lauren Daniel. “The community has a lot of toys.”

“Our philosophy is that if you own a boat you can probably afford to live somewhere else or afford a storage unit,” said Burgemeister. ”I don’t have the exact numbers for size but there is a dedicated storage space for each unit for things like bikes or skis.”

“Your comment that someone who owns a boat shouldn’t be living there illustrates your lack of understanding about the community values,” said Mt. Crested Butte councilman Roman Kolodziej. “People here value outdoor recreation. Where do people in the studios and one-bedrooms put their things?”

“We will have space to accommodate things like skis and bikes,” responded Burgemeister. “I don’t know of any affordable housing that has parking for things like boats.”

Daniel said boats could mean equipment such as kayaks and standup paddleboards instead of big ski boats.

“People living here probably have three or four pairs of skis and at least two bikes,” added Kolodziej. “That’s what people here spend their money on.”

“I’m sorry you took my comment wrong,” said Burgemeister. “I’m very well aware of the values of the community and the recreational endeavors people like to pursue. Skis and bikes can be addressed but affordable housing depends on controlling costs.”

Mitchell, who is also chair of Mountain Express, suggested the bus stop be moved away from the northeast corner of the property and closer to the highway to make access easier for future bus service. She also pushed for the project tying into nearby sewer service, whether it was the East River Sanitation District or even the town of Crested Butte’s wastewater system.

Responding to a question from Daniel, Burgemeister said the project was not shifting to cater to seasonal short-term workers. He said it was more profitable to hold onto renters for as long as possible.

Mt. Crested Butte councilman Steve Morris asked the developer to consider ways to provide more housing for the workers making less than 50 percent of the AMI.

Comments. Lots of comments

Citizen Jim Starr has advocated for the project from the beginning. He said he wanted the officials to look for a way to say yes instead of looking for a way to say no.

“It seems it goes to the issue of trust between the towns and the proponent and the county,” Starr said. “But we need to open our eyes to the critical need we have for this housing right now,” he said. “We have a proposal that started at 240 units and is now at 156. If this doesn’t go through it will be three or four years before anything can be built out there. We need rental housing desperately and the time is now. I’m asking you to open your minds and don’t destroy a good project looking for the perfect project.”

Citizen David Leinsdorf, speaking for Friends of Brush Creek, urged the council representatives to stick to the compromise agreement it took them months to craft. “The 156 units with two parking spaces per unit and five acres being set aside is a good compromise that pleased no one. But this is not located in town so parking will be needed,” he said. “This is public property and as elected officials you carry a public trust. You need to make sure the public benefits of selling this property to Gary for $100,000 matches the public subsidies and costs to the taxpayers.”

Crested Butte Mountain Resort general manager Tim Baker said housing challenges are not unique to Crested Butte. “This is an unusual circumstance,” he admitted. “As a company we see the best results through partnerships. Long-term, the problem is not going away. It is a challenging dynamic to be navigating but we are happy the conversation is continuing.”

County manager Matthew Birnie said the county would be supportive of whatever compromise is reached between the developer and two towns. “I do think housing is in a state of crisis and we have an opportunity to do a project that is meaningful,” he said. “I don’t think it is doing any favors to hold on to five acres for future use when a use is obvious now.”

Birnie noted the county’s recently purchased 13-acre property across the highway from the Brush Creek project could likely be used for future parking if needed. “If this project doesn’t go forward  Jim [Starr] said nothing would be there for three or four years. I’d double or triple that number,” Birnie said. “I agree with Jim that there are no perfect projects and I appreciate that Mr. Gates is willing to go through the county’s arduous process.”

The town council reps all were pleased with the tenor of the meeting. “I think we’re a lot closer than we were,” noted Mt. Crested Butte councilman Michael Bacani.

Crested Butte councilman Will Dujardin wrote in a letter that he did not “believe an inability to reach specific consensus between our councils’ numbers on the parking spaces per unit and land set aside for future use vs. the Gatesco plan should be deal breakers in sending this to preliminary plan.”

Kolodziej said the issue was critical and they needed “to find a way to make this happen. I think we’re close.”

Crested Butte councilwoman Mallika Magner voiced her concerns with the proposal over density, storage areas, parking and transportation.

Mt. Crested Butte councilman Dwayne Lehnertz referred to the Housing Needs Assessment Survey and said this project would provide more rental housing than called for and he preferred to look at long-term home ownership opportunities to build a stronger community base.

Crested Butte councilwoman Candice Bradley disagreed. “There is a huge rental crisis and I’m part of it,” she said. “I’ll never own a house in the Gunnison Valley and my friends are in the same boat. We need to focus on this.”

Mitchell agreed on the need for rental housing and emphasized the need to address water and sewer issues but felt the conversation should continue.

Mt. Crested Butte councilman Nicholas Kempin said the meeting had a better tone than those in the past and he felt things were moving in a positive direction. Morris agreed that notable progress had been made with the meeting and the new proposal.

Crested Butte councilman Chris Haver appreciated some of the adjustments by Gatesco but said he would have a hard time approving an “open-ended” development. He also said nearby trail issues needed to be settled.

Daniel said she liked the idea of a mix of deed-restricted housing and more free market units dedicated to locals. She said the preliminary plan was the place to settle water and sewer issues and she “didn’t want to lose the opportunity to work with Gatesco. For me, I’d be willing to relook at the five-acre set aside.”

Crested Butte councilman Paul Merck said he hadn’t heard the group say “no” to the proposal but rather ask important questions. “I feel like we’re down to the little things to work out like parking and the bus stop location. I’m amazed we’ve gotten to where we are. We’ve made a lot of movement,” he said. “There will never be enough housing to support everyone who wants to live here. But with this one, I think we’re really close so let’s keep going.”

Mt. Crested Butte mayor Janet Farmer said she felt obligated to support her council so was willing to move ahead, but she had concerns. “One thing for me is that with the new breakdown in unit size it doesn’t seem geared enough toward families. And given the location, people will have cars, so we need two parking spaces per unit. The consensus of the group seems to be to keep working with Gatesco.”

Crested Butte mayor Jim Schmidt was not a fan of that path. “Like Jim Starr said, it is a matter of trust and therein lies my problem,” he said. “I think Todd Barnes said it best when he said ‘If this is how you treat me in the courtship, I hate to see what it will be like when we’re married.’ I’m just disappointed by Gatesco for a number of reasons I’ve stated publicly. I think it is time to end this relationship. It matters who we’re in a partnership with. I’m not there.”

Farmer agreed with Schmidt that there had been some points of contention with Gatesco she did not appreciate and, for her, “damaged some of the trust she used to have with Gatesco. If we’re moving ahead we need to rebuild that trust.”

The councils will retreat to their individual meetings to further discuss the issue before reconvening for more negotiations with all the partners and the proponent. No future joint meeting was set.

Communication and relationships really do matter as much or more than the ends and the means of most communal problems. It is particularly evident in a small community like this one and sometimes takes an uncomfortable situation to facilitate a positive move forward. Some cases in point from just this week:

I attended a grievance hearing Monday afternoon being conducted about a resident of Anthracite Place whose lease was not going to be renewed next month. My interpretation is that communication between administrators and the tenant had gotten sideways. Because no definitive reason for the non-renewal was cited and one wasn’t given to me when asked, my gut tells me that the Gunnison Valley Rural Housing Authority staff seemed frustrated about the time, effort and attitude needed to deal with this particular resident, who happens to be a person with physical and cognitive disabilities. It appears that what had once been a good relationship soured and the hole kept getting deeper. The resident admitted that he at times had probably reacted too harshly in situations and he was apologetic. The administration admitted they weren’t trained to deal with his disability.

A three-member panel of the GVRHA board— Carlos Velado, John Messner and Chris Haver—made up the grievance hearing committee and they did a great job of listening to both sides with an open mind. It became evident early that they were interested in solutions instead of blame and defensiveness.

Ultimately an agreement was reached in concept to use an advocate to help with more sensitive communication from both sides. The broad outlines of a plan going forward were established, timelines were discussed and in theory, a final resolution will be accomplished soon. It was a good process that ended in a good understanding that respected the need for better communication and compromise.

The beginning of what could be a similar positive solution to an issue about the Old Rock Schoolhouse is germinating between the town of Crested Butte and the Gunnison County Library District. In an effort to get all of its rentals in order, the town recently asked the Library District for a proper lease that included a pretty good rent increase. The library board reacted negatively to the idea and then came back with a proposal for a new lease that included an option to buy the Old Rock. Both sides have probably gone a little far in their initial offer—the library wants the town to do or pay for about 95 percent of everything, including changing the light bulbs—but the seed of a good idea that could benefit both was planted.

Whether that seed sprouts depends in part if each side can get beyond perceived slights and misinterpretations of things communicated poorly. Perhaps the cleanest way to move forward is for a group of representatives from the staff and both boards to work out some of the broad details and then bring in everyone for a final deal.

Frankly, despite a tepid response from the town council, I think the big idea of a lease-purchase could be a good one. The town can sell the Library District the building and include in the contract that it has to be a library that is open six or seven days a week. If for some reason the district feels compelled to sell it in the future, the town should include a clause in the contract that they can buy back the Old Rock for what they paid. Instead of a 10-year process, it makes more sense as a one-year deal if the Library District gets its tax passed this November.

Seems to me both sides get what they want. The town maybe can’t say it owns one of the cooler structures in Crested Butte but it rids itself of an expense line item and can ensure that it remains a library in perpetuity. The library board can own its north valley building and be responsible for it. That makes it easy for them to explain to Library District taxpayers in Gunnison and Pitkin why they should invest in improvements for Crested Butte’s Old Rock that is an asset owned by them and not just the citizens of Crested Butte. It probably makes the upcoming November ballot issue an easier sell across the county.

The idea, which is far from being negotiated in any real detail, presents itself as another potential win-win compromise that moves things along instead of making people irritated. That’s where the relationship element comes in and the two sides need good, honest communication to make it happen. The current silo approach is counterproductive. Overcoming the friction developed earlier this summer shouldn’t be hard as long as both sides take a breath, speak their truth and move forward with sincere intention.

Which brings me to the Gatesco situation discussed Tuesday at the county commissioner meeting. I do like how Gary Gates has come down to the 156-unit cap required by the Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte councils. Based on his apartment size revisions, it appears to me he is probably shifting focus from long-term family or couple-type rentals to a more seasonal focus with more studios and one-bedroom units in the mix. I’m not sure about that move but it is certainly worth discussing. And that’s what will hopefully happen later this month as the commissioners basically allowed his extension, with the big caveat that he has to please one or both of the land partner holdouts, Crested Butte or Mt. Crested Butte.

The communication and relationship issues have been a consistent problem with this deal and I’ll go out on a limb and say that if that doesn’t change, there will be no deal. Gates’ attorney Kendall Burgemeister said as much late Tuesday night when he told the CB council that Gary wants to give “one last good faith effort to keep the project going” and indicated there was more “flexibility” to play with on the other two conditions. There is longstanding bad blood to overcome between the Gates development team and some members of both town councils. It was evident as recently as this last week. The Gatesco team decision to keep both councils in the dark about lowering the unit number until just before the county hearing on Tuesday was baffling. I’ll go out on another limb and say such a decision is antithetical to good communication and constructive partnerships.

Now Gary did say he’d been communicating with the other two partners in the property these last six months. That would be the new ski area owner Vail Resorts and the county. That too would tweak me if I were on either council. As a partner, I’d want to know what they’re talking about with our property and if say, Vail is snatching up all or most of the proposed units for their seasonal employees. That too might be fine and is worth discussing but I’d want to be part of the conversation as a partner in the deal.

So… In my opinion, this has been an issue with little positive relationship building. Gatesco attorney Burgemeister tacitly admitted as much on Tuesday morning when he said that while people can take issue with the way Gatesco has done some things in this process and the tone of the communication, you cannot assail Gates’ commitment to the project. You in fact can, because for the deal to come to fruition, that commitment takes a trusted relationship with several personalities and partners instead of an adversarial attitude based in righteousness from either party.

That said, the commissioners gave the parties until Halloween to come up with a deal. Scary stuff. Any deal will have to start by draining the pool of mistrust and negative politicking and refilling the pool with honesty and respect. It won’t take long to see if that is possible.

At the end of the Anthracite Place grievance hearing on Monday, some members of the audience thanked the three-person panel for being open to listening and compromise. They said they appreciated the compassion and fairness of the panel seeing the issue in human and community terms.

“Hey, we’re part of the community too,” assured chairperson Carlos Velado.

At the end of the Gatesco hearing, commission chairman Jonathan Houck said it was a good meeting and “despite differences we are able to have productive discussions and I appreciate that.”

Cheers to both those sentiments.

It is that attitude that makes most of this stuff really work in the small town life we are living. Speak your truth. Be honest and respectful. Work together and let the chips fall where they will.

—Mark Reaman

“Everybody knows me by ‘Ski.’ No one knows me by Dan and no one forgets my name,” grins Dan Zeroski. “There’re a lot of Dans in town.” In a snow resort town, you might think he got his moniker from being an outrageous skier and although he could be considered a senior über athlete, the name is a condensed version of Zeroski, which, he says, “I got before I learned how to ski.”

He grew up in the first town on the underground railroad stop in Ohio—it was on the border of West Virginia where slavery was legal and in Ohio it was not. His parents owned a bar and restaurant after his dad quit the coal mines. Ski has a fraternal twin brother. They were two of five kids. His early life was riddled with health issues. “I had pneumonia when I was two and because of that, hardening of the lungs.” He doesn’t actually remember that he had been pronounced dead as a toddler and the priest administered last rites, nor does he know how he miraculously survived. “I guess I came out of it. I survived it but I always had health and respiratory problems from the damage it caused to my lungs. Once I got into junior high school I got into sports and fitness and most of the health issues went away. I had been sick all the time, had hard breathing and allergies, anything that had to do with my respiratory system.” Ski attributes the healing and better health to staying fit and “keeping my lungs strong, with aerobic fitness.”

Ski’s four other siblings also kept him from slowing down and he says of his small town upbringing, “You did whatever you could come up with. We had a 10 p.m. curfew with a siren from the firehouse but the town didn’t enforce it because they didn’t have a police force. We just did what we wanted because our parents were working in the restaurant. Part of the culture of the area was that we could get alcohol whenever we wanted. I was bartending when I was 16.”

But Ski says the effect of allowing youngsters to have an alcoholic beverage was the opposite of what you might think. In fact, most European immigrants allowed their children to sample beer or wine because it was part of the culture and therefore the children learned to drink responsibly as adults.

“When you grow up with that, you don’t really drink because you were taught responsible drinking. I still only drink socially once in a while. The communities were ethnic because of the steel and coal mines so there were Polish, German, Italian, Czech, Irish and Scandinavians. All the communities were always tight. Softball competition was big.”

Ski recalls that, like Crested Butte, polka bands were the thing. “If you go back in the early days of Crested Butte, my community and Crested Butte were similar. You had the various ethnic social clubs.”

During junior high, Ski played football, basketball, baseball and in high school he focused on football and wrestling. He graduated from high school in 1975 and he says that, “At that time people thought I was crazy for wanting to go to college because you could make $80 a day with great benefits in the coal mines and steel mills. We had a guy who graduated with our class who couldn’t read or write and his first day in the coal mines he was making more than the teachers with their college degrees.”

Foregoing the mines and mills, Ski went off to Northeastern State University in Oklahoma in Tahlequah, capital of the Cherokee Nation. “Best three years of college was my freshman year,” he leans over and laughs. He earned his bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and safety with a double major in history in 1979, and stayed on to receive a master’s degree in junior college education, graduating in 1980.

He says, “I wanted to coach so I took a teaching job at a high school in Cleveland, Oklahoma,” where he taught history and coached wrestling, but when he was offered a position to teach health and PE and work with the Oklahoma State Wrestling Team at Oklahoma State in Stillwater, he jumped at the opportunity. While he was there for three years, he also earned a doctorate in education, “in higher education administration with emphasis in physiology of exercise in 1983. My dissertation revolved around developing a curriculum for martial arts so that universities could teach it. It had never been done before.”

Ski had studied Tae Kwon-Do in his freshman year at college. “It’s 65 percent feet and 35 percent hands. A lot of your contact is usually with your feet,” says the second degree blackbelt who fought professionally for two years on the Professional Karate Association circuit and was two-time national karate (in Tae Kwon-Do) and had Chuck Norris sign his trophy.

As part of his paid work- study program as a student at Northeastern, Ski ended up being the trainer for the football team, because he wasn’t big enough to actually play on the team. He remembers that the team would sign up for special boxing matches. “They’d have these boxing matches called Smokers, a one-day event. I didn’t know anything about boxing,” he grins, but he signed up. “I ended up boxing and became an Amateur Athletic Union [AAU]. My claim to fame in boxing AAU State Runner-up Champ was fighting for my club team and they wanted points to win state and I had to fight in the Open Advance division because I was over 21 years old. I got matched up against a USA Army champ and he was scared of me,” at least for the first round, he says, “because he heard I was a national karate champ, then the next four rounds he beat me like a drum because he realized I didn’t know anything about boxing.”

Post-doctorate, Ski was offered a job at a public school in Ardmore, Oklahoma. “I wanted to coach so I took the job: football, wrestling and track. It was an alternative school where we had fifth through 12th graders in the same room. These were children with a lot of issues but they functioned very well because they all had the same problems and couldn’t socially adjust to a normal environment. It was a unique situation.”

He was three years at Oklahoma State, one year at Ardmore and 31 years at Stillwater High School before retiring in 2015. “Work was cutting into my playtime so something had to give,” he says not quite seriously, “so I gave up work to play.”

He discovered Crested Butte in 1991, “When my friend brought me up. I’d live here during the summers, and bought a place in 1999. Some summers I’d be scraping ice off my windshield in August and then I’d pull back into Stillwater and it’d be 110 degrees with humidity. I’d miss the hottest part of the year there but still it’d be up in the 100s. Once you spend a summer in Crested Butte, you can never spend a summer in Oklahoma again.” Now that he’s retired, he’s a full-time Buttian.

“I’ve run to Aspen over West Maroon Pass, had lunch and run back. You tell people in Oklahoma that and they think you’re crazy but you tell people here and they ask if they can go with you. That’s the difference in attitude. Colorado is one of the top-ranking states for health.”

Ski’s done 68 marathons and ultra marathons including, he lists, “London; St. Petersburg, Russia; Zermatt, which was my favorite with 26.2 miles all uphill along the Matterhorn.” He continues, “Mt. Davos, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Austria, which started in Tirol, France over Brenner Pass into Innsbruck; Grindalwall, Switzerland; and my last marathon was Tulsa Route 66 on my 62nd birthday and was my 62nd marathon. My last ultra was the Grand Traverse from Crested Butte to Aspen.” He’s also climbed all 54 official Fourteeners, “and four unofficial Fourteeners,” he says.

Internationally, he’s climbed the Matterhorn, Mt. Blanc, the Eiger, Jungfrau Monk and enjoyed traveling to 43 countries. “Zermatt is my favorite city and Switzerland my favorite country but,” he confesses, “my all-time favorite place is Crested Butte.”

“My thing is running and skiing.” The last two years he’s taught ski school at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. “It was by default. I was with guest services, a volunteer service with CBMR, and we’d back up the ski patrol, everything concerning safety and guests.”

After a month of training this past season, he taught full-time. “Two years ago I worked for CBMR, now I work for Vail. I wasn’t planning on working, but I was doing it as a favor for some friends because they needed ski instructors.”

When the Public House, the newest Crested Butte brewery, opened two years ago, Ski was called upon. “The manager emailed me to do security because of my background. I did it one night and was asked again for the next concert.” He’s been there ever since. “In everything I do, if it’s not fun, I don’t do it. I get paid for skiing during the day and listening to music at night and it caused me to come out of retirement,” he says.

Of course, Ski plans on going to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He worked the Olympic trials in Atlanta in 1996 for the USA Track and Field, filming for the trials. He also went to the 2012 games in London and got to see local runner Emma Coburn compete. He travels a lot with his longtime buddy, Duane Vandenbusche, who is also an Oklahoma State alum. “We met here. I worked with him in his running camps. I’m his technology advisor,” Ski says tongue-in-cheek, “because I know how to turn on a computer so he thinks I’m a genius.”

Ski’s life philosophy matches his warm sense of humor, which is in constant play. “I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead! It’s the atmosphere, the weather, the people here, everybody’s laid-back with no stress,” he says of Crested Butte. “You don’t have to deal with any stress or listen to the news,” he wisely surmises and jokes that he heard we have a new president since he retired. “Everybody’s into fitness here, and an active lifestyle is what I like.”

“In this little bitty town of Crested Butte, we’ve got all these people working on this issue in Haiti”

By Kendra Walker

It started with Union Congregational Church (UCC) looking for an international organization to partner with that would align with their mission to do good works in the world.

They found Beyond Borders, an organization that is trying to help rural Haitians fight the practice of child domestic servitude, known as “restavek.”

Parents living in rural poverty in Haiti who are unable to provide for their children often send their children to live with an unknown family in the capital city, Port-au-Prince. The child will help perform household chores in return for food, a place to stay and the opportunity to go to school. The parents feel they have no other option and the intention is that the child will have a better life in the city; however, these children often end up abused, neglected and trapped in domestic servitude.

According to a study commissioned by UNICEF, an estimated one in four Haitian children between the ages of five and 17 live apart from their parents, and roughly half of these children end up trapped in domestic servitude. Despite being illegal, restavek is not regulated by the government.

“We were told that about 250,000 Haitian children currently live in restavek,” said UCC member Kate Vogel. “We kept hearing ‘I thought I was sending my child to something better than what I could provide,’ even though that was not the case.

“I was just horrified when I first started hearing and learning about this,” she said. “Haiti is so close to the U.S. and how can we not possibly become involved and try to help?”

Members of the UCC congregation first traveled to Haiti in 2012 to work with Beyond Borders, and made another trip in 2018. During these visits UCC members immersed themselves in remote Haitian villages to learn about the issues the communities face, live with local families, meet restavek survivors, visit school classrooms and help provide support.

“We really wanted them to understand it wasn’t about us being the rich white people trying to come in and do things our own way,” said UCC associate minister Rev. Kelly Jo Clark. “It was about respecting the Haitians, coming alongside them and helping them do what they want to do to improve their country.”

Beyond Borders’ goal is to help change the situations and the community attitudes that allow and encourage restavek, from the ground up. The organization works with the Haitian people to provide them with resources to build grassroots, community-based movements that support the following: creating work opportunities for parents, developing quality, local education for children, ending child slavery and preventing violence against women and girls.

Beyond Borders also focuses on empowering restavek survivors to come forward with their stories and become activists.

“It was so affecting to meet these women and learn about how they’re trying to rebuild their lives,” said Vogel. “They’re doing it the hard way, but a way that might actually work in the long run.”

UCC continues to support Beyond Borders through regular donations and fundraising, and hopes to organize another visit to Haiti in the future.

Artist Donna Rozman is another longtime Crested Butte community member involved in helping local Haitians. Coincidentally in line with UCC’s work with Beyond Borders, Rozman has been helping Haitian women learn skills that will lead to their getting jobs so they can afford to provide for their children, instead of sending them away.

Rozman, who lived in Crested Butte almost 40 years and now lives in Gunnison, first traveled to Haiti in 2013 with a small group of potters to teach local women how to make pottery to earn money. “I never thought my skills as a potter might be helpful to someone in a country like Haiti,” said Rozman.

Through the Haitian non-profit, The Apparent Project, Rozman works with Papillon Enterprise, which helps teach Haitians artisan skills, supports them with full-time jobs and assists in marketing and selling their hand-made goods through the website Papillon Marketplace.

Since her first visit, Rozman has visited Haiti twice more to help teach pottery to new beginners in the program, as well as help women she had previously worked with hone in their skills to make mugs, bowls and plates. The Papillon Enterprise now employs more than 300 local artisans who have all learned a craft to make a living and provide for their families.

“It was really great to see the progression,” said Rozman. “One woman who we taught has become the manager of the potters. She’s now a skilled potter and she can throw mugs faster than I ever could.”

Rozman also explained that the clay the women use in the pottery comes from the central plateau in Haiti and is often used as food by people suffering extreme poverty. They will resort to making clay cookies to feed their malnourished children as an antacid and source of calcium. But now, Rozman has helped some of these Haitians use the clay to feed their children through a more sustainable method.

“It was really wonderful to be involved with this and share my skills as a potter in that way, as opposed to teaching here in the United States,” she said. “When I teach here [in the U.S.], it might change someone’s life but not in the same way. It’s so crucial to them [Haitians] being able to make a living. I think it changed my life and has made an impact.”

When members from UCC learned about Rozman’s work with the Papillon Enterprise, they wanted to collectively share what’s happening in Haiti with the rest of the Crested Butte community. “We didn’t know each other, but we were dealing with the same problems, just in a different way. In this little bitty town of Crested Butte we’ve got all these people working on this issue in Haiti,” said Vogel.

On June 27, the UCC will host an educational event at 6 p.m. at Rumors Coffee and Tea House to inform the community about what’s happening to the people in Haiti. Rozman will speak about her experiences teaching pottery and members from the UCC congregation will share their stories about working with Beyond Borders.

“We would like more people who are interested to learn,” said Vogel. “We want to personalize it and let people know how they can help and work in Haiti.”

“There are huge problems not only in Haiti but around the world,” said Rozman. “I just did a tiny little bit. But if a lot of people do a little bit, it can actually do quite a lot.”

For more information on the June 27 event, contact Kate Vogel at kgvogel@unm.edu or (970) 349-1890.

Silver lining

By Dawne Belloise

As the hillsides have suddenly turned into a lush green in contrast to the seemingly never-ending snows and the leaves have finally exploded on the trees and town prepares for the onslaught of tourists, Meaghan Young is busy with the final touches for her new jewelry boutique’s grand opening this Saturday.

Learning the arts of platinum and goldsmithing, diamond setting, hand engraving and wax carving have, in essence, been a lifelong process for Meaghan. Her design studio and the jewelry school she’s created is a culmination of years of planning, hard work and sometimes a struggle, but it’s been a dream since the day she sold her first handmade necklace, right off her own neck, to a customer on the other side of the bar she was tending.

Meaghan started off her young life in Carthage, New York in a log cabin her parents built. “We had 400 acres that my parents bought with my dad’s brother and his wife. My parents were Catholic and I remember my dad thinking they wanted a Christian commune, but that never happened,” she mused.

As children, Meaghan and her older sister, Maura, enjoyed living life off the land. “We played outside all the time, running around barefoot, planting gardens. We had huge vegetable gardens.” As a little girl, she was an award-winning Irish step dancer but she was also a bit of a self-proclaimed tomboy. “We’d take the tractor into the woods to cut down trees since we heated the house with wood. We built forts. We didn’t have TV because Dad wanted us to use our imaginations. I had an awesome childhood. My dad would take me everywhere—skiing, camping, canoeing, mountain climbing in the Adirondacks,” Meaghan recalls fondly and adds, “He’s the reason I ski.

“The local ski hill was called Ski Ridge, which was basically one long ridge, and that was it. We used to ski in jeans,” Meaghan confesses with a grin. “I went to a Catholic school up until tenth grade. Dad was a basketball coach and I really wanted to go to college to play basketball, but we’re all short,” she laughs of her family genetics. “I was the point guard through high school and I could make three-point shots all day long.” In fact, she admits proudly, she won trophies for that talent.

Meaghan graduated from high school in 1994, and says, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I went to SUNY [State University of New York] Cortland.” That is, until her mom sent her a newspaper clipping of a job opportunity at the Adirondack Lodge as a joke. Meaghan applied and was hired for the front desk summer position.

“The lodge was in the High Peaks region. It was a backcountry lodge with a campground at the trailhead for the highest mountains in the New York Adirondacks. All the staff lived on the grounds. It was one of the best summers of my life.”

As often happens at summer camps, Meaghan fell in love. She quit college and hitchhiked across the country with her new romance. “We hiked 40 miles across Yellowstone wilderness and came out at Jackson Hole. It was the most challenging hike I’ve ever done. I had a 60-pound pack on my back.”

They headed to Gunnison to visit a friend who was attending Western State (now Western Colorado University). “We stayed in the dorm with him for a week. It was September 1995 when we arrived and my boyfriend decided we needed to settle for the winter so we got jobs at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. I was front desk at the Crested Butte Lodge in Crested Mountain Village. I had to be at work at 7 a.m. and we were living in Gunnison, so I’d get up, walk across town in the middle of winter and hitchhike from High Country Gas station but sometimes I could not get a ride. Then I’d have to call Deedra Bennett-Schnaitter from the pay phone and tell her I couldn’t get a ride so she’d have to open for me,” Meaghan says of that epic 1996 winter where she learned to ski powder. “The skiing was awesome. I had never powder skied, and it was deep.”

In the spring when the lifts closed, the couple bought an old Jeep and drove back to New York to work for Adirondack Mountain Club again. Two years later, when they decided to go their separate ways, Meaghan moved to the Green Mountain Club on the Long Trail as a backcountry caretaker on Mt. Mansfield.

“I carried an axe, cleared trees and helped hikers who were doing the Long Trail,” says the mountain woman. “The hikers would stay in my cabin with me, which was one room with a plank floor and they’d sleep on the floor for $5 a night. I had my own little plank area,” she laughs.

Every week, Meaghan would get a day-and-a-half break from the isolation of remote mountain-top living, but it was no easy trek out to her car. It was straight uphill and so steep that it entailed climbing ladders to get out. Once she reached her car, she could drive down to the ski dorms at Stowe to do laundry and head out to Burlington for socializing at pubs with some brews and music before heading back into her wilderness.

She decided to leave the position early, before the end of her May-through-October job was completed, because, she says, “I’d be alone for days on end and I couldn’t take it anymore. The isolation was too much. I called a friend in Gunnison and told her I was considering returning. I have a car, a pair of skis and $600,” she told her friend, who then offered a place to live. Meaghan packed up the car and drove west. It was 1998.

The following year she moved to Crested Butte from Gunnison and was employed at the Avalanche, where she stayed for eight years, working her way up from busing to bartender. She was also attending Western State College for political writing, identity politics and gender studies. “I took a year off to write my thesis and train for the Telemark Extreme Comps but I tore my ACL,” and that was the end of the Extreme training. She went on to graduate in 2003. She was planning to head to the University of Arizona to get a masters in Latin American politics. “I wanted to be fluent in Spanish and Portuguese but life had a different plan for me.”

During a weekend trip to Ouray, she happened to go into a bead shop and was enthralled with the many colors and beauty of the beads. She made herself a necklace of the beads she had bought and while she was tending bar at Timberline one of her customers offered to buy it. “I sold her my necklace, right off my neck. At the other end of the bar, another woman who had noticed my necklace also wanted one, and so did her friend and I’m thinking, I can make money selling jewelry?”

A phone call to the Ouray bead store informed Meaghan that the shop was closing up for good that very day. She jumped in her truck and raced to Ouray. “I bought that same bead in every color she had, and she gave me all her vendor information, where to buy the clasps and everything. And that’s how I got into jewelry making. I began making necklaces and decided to go to California with a friend who was doing designer clothes trunk shows. I sold out of all my necklaces. I was putting pendants on my beaded necklaces and decided I wanted to learn to be a silversmith.”

In 2006, Meaghan landed a job at local jewelry shop Zachariah Zipp, “Noel suggested I go to The New Approach School for Jewelers in Virginia Beach. I didn’t have the tuition money or a car to make it happen but I knew I was going somehow.” Her mom got her a car and a friend cosigned for her tuition loan. “I packed up my dog and drove across the country for the three-month program. It was a tech school, eight hours a day for three months. I learned diamond setting, gold and platinum smithing, hand engraving and wax carving. My plan was to return and be the jeweler at Zachariah Zipp.”

But when the owner of the school offered her a job to assist in running the school, Meaghan jumped at the opportunity, “I came back to Crested Butte and sold everything I owned.”

Meaghan stayed at the school in Virginia Beach for a few years, meeting the father of her now 10-year-old son, Jack. They married in 2008, while her husband was stationed in the Navy Special Forces there, and then transferred to San Diego.

It was an especially difficult time for Meaghan. “My father, who was in North Carolina, was dying of cancer, and I had a three-month-old baby. There were so many challenges—my father passed away, our Virginia Beach house wouldn’t sell because it was the market crash, so financially we were strapped. I had started my own jewelry company, My Om Designs. I also became a yoga teacher. My designs were yoga-oriented, lotus designs. I started traveling to go to Yoga Journal conferences and yoga festivals to sell my jewelry, mostly in California but from San Francisco to NYC. It was super promising with almost breakthrough moments, and then silver went from $15 an ounce to $50.”

With the many difficulties in their lives, Meaghan and her husband divorced and she was left on her own as a single mom to deal with the loss of her father.

“Everything came crashing down. I tried to make it on my own in California as a single mom but it was so expensive and I had very few friends. I decided to visit Crested Butte,” and that turned it for her. She moved back with her son in 2012. “It was a hard decision but I basically grew up here, spending all my twenties here and all my really good friends were here and they were all having children. I felt I needed support, especially as a single mom. It was the best decision I could have made for myself and my son.”

Starting out in property management for Crested Butte Property Management, she eventually branched out on her own after a few years. “At one point I was teaching yoga, teaching silversmithing, I was helping to run a property management company while doing some of my own on the side and trying to work on my jewelry, all while raising a three-year-old son. I was really stressed out! Luckily, my mom moved out here in December 2012 and helped me immensely. That changed everything for me.”

Fast-forward to the present and Meaghan has conquered her dreams, opening the Crested Butte Jewelry School above Marchitelli’s Gourmet Noodle. “The school is really important to me because I love teaching. It’s really cool that more and more women want to express themselves creatively and want to learn the art of silversmithing. Historically, jewelers are men, but when I went to school, half the class was women and 98 percent of students that I teach are women.”

And this week, Meaghan Young Jewelry Design, her new jewelry boutique design studio, opens on the corner of Elk and Third, just behind Lavish. “I’m giving away a $3,500 custom engagement ring at the opening. To be eligible you must sign up online www.meaghanyoungjewelry.com.”

Meaghan felt that it was important that both her school and studio were in the heart of Crested Butte’s Creative District, but she felt it equally important to be able to reach those creatives who aren’t in a position to attend in person, so her classes are now also online. “I wanted to reach more people. People who live in certain areas of the country who don’t have access to nearby classes can take my online course. When I wanted to become a silversmith, online resources weren’t available to me. This is a comprehensive course where you can successfully become a silversmith.”

Meaghan has found her place and feels fortunate. “I absolutely love and adore this community. I’m so grateful for all of the support I’ve received from friends and business people, too. Someday, I want to travel the world. I’ve worked ridiculously hard and have wanted to give up several times,” she says, but her encouragement to others who are struggling is, “Never give up on your dreams, your goals or yourself.”

If last weekend was a touchstone of the community’s past, with family of Crested Butte old timers gathering to remember their time in this changing community, this weekend is a touchstone of the community’s future. Nearly 60 children will make the walk in their gowns and officially graduate from the Crested Butte Community School on Saturday.

These graduates have an idea, but may not yet fully appreciate, what they accomplished and what they will take with them as they enter the next phase of their life. The CBCS is not a place where kids go to wait it out. The school experience over there can be demanding, engaging, challenging and fun—sort of like a good life.

As a parent of two CBCS graduates and as a community member who remembers when students learned where KBUT is now and middle school basketball games were played in Jerry’s Gym, I’ve seen that the CBCS is a phenomenal place for our children to learn. That is not an accident. The people who are in charge of caring for and teaching our children from the time they enter pre-school to the time they take that walk this Saturday are extraordinary. The teachers, coaches, principals, front desk folks, cafeteria help, custodians, bus drivers, aides and parent helpers all contribute to shaping the lives of the village’s children. And the Crested Butte school embraces that community learning.

It is not unusual to see a class of elementary or middle schoolers walking in a pack as they explore the local museum, the haunted places of Crested Butte or the studio of the local radio station. I love that the school allows the kids to get up on the ski hill as part of their winter. The students in Crested Butte don’t just talk about affordable housing in the valley—they literally design and build affordable housing in the valley. The kids can explore sports, the arts, science, the trades, AP coursework, volunteerism. The CBCS is a great college prep school but the administrators work hard to reach and teach every student no matter what their interest.

Of course it isn’t always glitter and rainbows. And that is part of the experience as well. There is the unfortunate reality for this generation that they know the difference between a lockdown and a lockout and have to prepare for and deal with both. There can be experiences of overindulgence, of parties out of control, of trying new things and failing. But that is how people here learn. There are consequences to actions and for the most part, the school and the community allow the young members of the tribe to learn from mistakes while celebrating their accomplishments.

And I’m afraid some of the resources over at the school—teacher time and workload, physical space, overall numbers—are getting spread a little too thin. Before it gets out of hand and begins to impact the quality of the product, quantity needs to be addressed.

But for the most part, there is a reason the school is overflowing—parents want their kids to go there. People move here for the school. It is that good. As we reported just a few weeks ago, the U.S. News and World Report ranking of schools in America placed the CBCS near the top 1 percent in the country. It was listed as the fifth-best school in the entire state. It is consistently recognized for its excellence.

Look at the profiles of the CBCS graduates in this paper and see where they are headed. It’s not hard for a smart parent in Texas to do the math and see the benefit of the education and the cost of a public school like CBCS that can prepare their kid for a top-notch university. Do the math comparing tuition at a private prep school and consider the social benefit of living in a small mountain town with a resort, and for many it is a no-brainer. I truly believe that school has had more impact on the growth of the community than the sale of the ski resort to Vail or the 600th mile of mountain bike trail near White Pine.

So here’s to the end of what the graduates must feel has been a long journey—but is really just the beginning of a new adventure. Here’s to a great school that treats students with respect and as full members of a different sort of community. Here’s to a place where most kids can feel the personal relationship of those that teach them. Here is to the future.

—Mark Reaman

Sunday was a good ending day—to a great season. Slushy spring skiing, tutus and onsies, smiling people all communing on the lift-served hill to enjoy one of the better ski seasons in recent memory. One mid-timer who is edging toward old-timer status mentioned Sunday in line at the NFL that this season was pretty average—even slightly below average—for when he first arrived in the 1980s. True that, but times are a-changing and I’ll take this past season over and over and over again in this world of climate change.

Transitioning to the summer and the bike, paddle, hike or golf seasons began Monday. Ahhh, off-season. They aren’t always great but they are always sweet for the breath of refreshment they bring. This one appears it might fall into the sketchy category, at least for the start, if your off-season joy is based on the weather. It looks like we may transition right back to winter for much of the next couple of weeks. Anyway, it obviously will be a while before single track mountain biking or high alpine hiking is available anywhere in the north valley. But we need the water and it’s good for Blue Mesa.

Normally, this is a great time of year for bikers to get their spinning legs back at Hartman Rocks. That won’t happen for a while, either. Tim Kugler of Gunnison Trails said that a “mud closure” was put in place at Hartman’s as of this week. It’s too muddy for fat bikes and too wet for mountain bikes, so now it is in wait-and-dry-out mode. He predicts it will be late April before biking is okayed down there for the trails that are getting the sun. But hey, the skiing is still good in a lot of places if you are willing to earn your turns.

That puts a bit of hurt on those who love the idea of great skiing literally switching to great biking like flipping on the lights in the Rec Room. It happens sometimes and it is great but it won’t happen this year. The message was sent via email this week when OpenSnow touted “Cold powder for the west this week & weekend.” Now, in theory that can weed out those who came here for constant paradise and are seeing the rougher side of that coin. They may decide the city with a mall and food court is okay after all.

It isn’t always easy to handle eight months of winter with a cold, muddy in-between period. In that vein, maybe everyone should remember to try to keep an extra eye on those staying here and who are having a difficult emotional time with their life and the weather—they might need some extra help to get through a tough time. Help out those friends, family and neighbors who might need an extra bit of help these days. We have seen too many tragic springs in our past.

Now, if the weather turns to blue sky and 50s, the school break week here is one of the best of the year. Quiet and dusty, it is a time to slow way down. But the slowdown this year might be better in Utah. It’s just part of the off-season choices. And it is the beauty of any off-season. Off-season offers the chance to slow down and not work so hard. It offers the chance to catch up with a dinner or a simple chat with friends and acquaintances you’ve missed in the bedlam of ski season. It offers the chance to chill on a bench or gather at a bar or around a campfire. It is the chance to again breathe deeply, reconnect with friends and nature, look around and deeply remember why you all moved here in the first place. It wasn’t to work more.

Off-seasons are certainly shorter these days—and I’ll argue again that working to turn every off-season week into a tourist time is not good for the general health of the overall community. Those living in a mountain town are fortunate to have off-seasons—despite how brutal they might be on the outside. There is a certain bonding between those who embrace a challenging off-season. So the choice is to make the best of it no matter what it looks like. That part is up to you.

Anyway, here’s a shout out to the really fun 2018-2019 winter ski season.

We’ll wait and see what the new Vail Resorts ownership group announces for improvements on the ski hill for next year. But that sounds like too much work at the moment—so grab a book or a friend and enjoy the bonus we get for living here. Take the memories of a great ski season with you wherever you are headed and accept the sweetness—no matter how harsh it seems on the surface—of the coming spring break.

Happy off-season, everyone.

—Mark Reaman

The Fabric that Binds Us

By Dawne Belloise

Audrey Anderson greets people with her bright smile that starts from her eyes and lights up her whole face as she tends to visitors coming into the Paragon Gallery, Crested Butte’s oldest coop of artists.

Many of the guests are tourists just passing through or passing time, waiting for the Mountain Express bus to shuttle them up to the mountain. Some are locals dropping by to catch the latest guest artist or just to say hi.

Above the door hang several of Audrey’s fabric art canvases, colorful composites, collages of landscapes reminiscent of The Beatles song lyrics with fantastical flowers and marmalade skies, or paisley trees and muted mountains of lavender shades—layers of colored fabrics, bits of lace and texture that present a surrealistic view of local scenery as interpreted by the artist.

Although she always dabbled in art, Audrey’s dream of dedicating her time to creating is finally manifesting, but it’s been a long journey to finally make it a reality.

Audrey was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where her parents met while working at an airplane plant during WWII. “I grew up in a tiny tract home,” Audrey says of the close quarters of employee houses individually enclosed by picket fences. “I came from a family that I always thought was German because we ate a lot of German foods, like kraut, boiled dinner, sour salad, and pork and lots of veggies that were boiled forever—but a DNA test resulted in a surprise. I’m mostly Irish and Scottish,” she says. She then immersed herself in the history and studies of her newly discovered Celtic heritage.

Audrey developed a love for the outdoors at an early age when her family would travel to Sage Lake in Michigan. “Mostly, I swam and went fishing. I grew up fishing, going with my grandparents in their little rowboat with a motor stuck on the back. I loved it up there. There was no plumbing. We had an outhouse and a bucket for nighttime. Those were good days.”

“I liked school,” she admits. “I always liked learning. I especially loved math and science. In high school, it was college prep all the way—study, study, study, from the ninth grade on. My mother pushed advancing so I could get a scholarship because I was always told there wasn’t any money for college.”

Audrey graduated from high school in 1967, and at her very young age, she was already engaged to her high school sweetheart and carrying their child when she started college as an art major. She had to leave after the first semester when their son, Brian, was born in January 1968. She worked various jobs, from hospitals to offices, doing mostly accounting. Their daughter, Jennifer, came along in 1971. Audrey’s husband became a police officer. “Cops have a lot of fun,” Audrey says and adds that they managed to go dancing every weekend. After 13 years though, they decided to dance their separate ways.

Audrey learned to ski, the love of which would take her to steep places and eventually land her in Crested Butte. “I started living the ski bum life,” she says of her post-divorce, “skiing every weekend at Crystal Mountain, a little resort area around Traverse City, hanging out with the National Ski Patrollers at the area.” Audrey began dating one of the patrollers and a year or so later she was a National Ski Patroller herself, heading west yearly to various resorts in Colorado with her patrol clan. She fell in love with the mountains.

Meanwhile Audrey went back to Eastern Michigan University (EMU) to finish her degree in accounting. When her ski patrol boyfriend, who was also working for Ford Motor Company, was transferred to Phoenix, Audrey went with him, enrolling at Arizona State University. However, he was transferred again to Toronto, Canada, and Audrey went along, commuting the five hours to EMU and staying the week in Ypsilanti. She went directly from her undergraduate program into a master’s degree program, earning her MB in accounting and finance in 1988.

Once again single and free, Audrey was living in Ann Arbor and back on ski patrol where she met and eventually married another ski patroller in 1991. The couple moved to Crested Butte in 1998, having visited a few times beginning in 1989. “Every year I came to Colorado to ski, I’d grab newspapers to start looking through the employment ads for work. In summer of 1998, my husband got a job with CBMR.”

They sold their house in Michigan and moved to Crested Butte that September. Audrey also started working as an accountant for CBMR. The following winter, she started her own accounting business, Butte Books, and remained in town for a couple of years after she and her hubby split in 2002. Even though she loved it here, her thoughts turned to making a decent living wage, which she imagined she could do in Denver.

Packing up in 2005, she moved there and then Dillon the following year, commuting from Dillon to Golden for work for Intrawest, doing their books for the Winter Park ski resort. But the commute was tiring, so Audrey took a job in Frisco as a controller for a construction company.

She was still visiting Crested Butte on weekends and had made friends here. In the fall of 2006, she decided to move back to Crested Butte because her Butte Books accounting business was making more money than working for someone else in Frisco and it’s where she wanted to be. Among her many clients was the Crested Butte Center for the Arts (CBCA), and she enjoyed the work. “I like operational accounting where you help a business look at where their revenue comes from, where their expenses come from, and how they can improve their bottom line,” Audrey says, “as opposed to income tax accounting that’s constantly changing because of laws in the government.”

Audrey grins, “And all this time I was skiing like crazy. I love skiing.” It was love of the outdoors that put her together with long-time local Eric Davis, aka E.D., in 2008. “I already knew E.D. from meeting him in 2000,” she says, but once they were together, the couple began exploring together. “We just started living a life filled with adventure. We went to Nepal, Mexico, and we’ve traveled around the southwest,” she says of road tripping in their 16-foot trailer RV with a big Irish setter and a golden retriever in tow.

“E.D.’s an avid skier and adventurer nut,” she laughs. “He takes me to the top of peaks. We hike and ski a lot—we ski until we can’t ski anymore. I could easily live someplace where I could ski all year. I prefer it to hiking because it’s easier on your body.” The two live in the tiny and infamous “air conditioned house, 420 square feet!” Audrey grins.

Audrey says, “I’ve dabbled in art throughout my life. There was a time in the 1990s that I was making my own paper, 3D masks and painting. I had taken a watercolor class but never did anything with it,” but she laughs, “I love ordering all the supplies. I wanted to be an art teacher and make art. I had an art teacher in high school who really inspired me and was a real supporter of mine.”

Her almost-full-time foray back into creating the art she loves began with Vinotok. Her first art show was at the Crested Butte Heritage Museum in 2013, where her Vinotok-inspired “Spirit Dolls” intrigued visitors with their primal and colorful aspects and stemmed from her role as costumer coordinator for the beloved local event.

Having made costumes for some of the principal Vinotok players, Audrey had another revelation. “I had all these scraps and didn’t know what to do with them. It dawned on me that I could paint landscapes that I love with the scrapes of fabric,” which was the beginning of her fabric art creations.

“The nature aspect of Vinotok is very important to me because it’s my church,” Audrey smiles. “The church of the great outdoors, the change of the seasons, how we’re spinning around the black hole in the center of our galaxy, moving through the universe. I try to put into my paintings the feelings I have when I look into this amazing world around us, the wilderness around us.” She expresses the importance of her Vinotok tribe, where she gets to live out her role and Vinotok character every day as the Elf Witch: “She is a being from the Other World, sent here to remind humanity that the world is our Mother.”

Audrey made full use of the multitude of classes offered by the Crested Butte Center for the Arts, from watercolor technique to drawing and jewelry design classes. Last August, her art was featured in her own show at the Piper Gallery in the Crested Butte Center for the Arts. “That really got me going. It gave me the courage to apply at Paragon Gallery.”

This past September 2018, Audrey was invited to be one of the permanent artists in the Paragon coop. She says, “I’m so honored to be a part of that group.” She’s also now the full-time accountant for the Crested Butte Center for the Arts and takes pride that in the past three years she implemented a cost accounting system. She explains, “Instead of simply having an income statement that tells what your income is, I designed a system that tracks profitability by event.”

Audrey feels that she doesn’t want to be anywhere else. “I can’t live anyplace else. I’m rooted here in this wild country. This place is so much more than a couple of towns, a Nordic and downhill ski area, or a plethora of single track. This place is still small enough that I feel connected to many folks I see on the streets and in the wilderness. There is a Tribe here, a Tribe with many members. All are welcome. All contribute. All have respect and love for one another. We are family. That’s why I’m here. Plus, I LOVE winter. It is long and phenomenal. I also love the challenges of living here, of finding good healthy food, canning and freezing, making almost everything from scratch, even corned beef, learning to repair or reinvent things, gardening, even shoveling roofs. At 69 years old, I feel so alive, so free to live a life filled with challenge, excitement, peace and contentment.”

By Dawne Belloise

Barb Peters essentially grew up a Southern California girl in Manhattan Beach, which she fondly compares to the earlier eclectic days of Crested Butte. “It used to be just like Crested Butte, run-down with a lot of characters. There were hippies, beach bums, and surfers, beachcomber homes and VWs. Now it’s gentrified,” she says.

But during those childhood years, Barb spent her time practically living at the beach, swimming and surfing and engaging in the era’s hip fashion and music. She qualified to become a junior lifeguard at only eight years old.

“We had to swim a mile in an Olympic pool to qualify to get in, and run down the beach, pier to pier, which was a half mile or more, then swim, do sit-ups afterwards and do another jog for the final qualification. It taught us good skills. We were constantly around water so it was like teaching your kid through an avalanche safety course here.”

Barb’s mom, Bonnie McNaughton, who had discovered Crested Butte on a previous ski trip, moved her here in 1980. “Here’s this California surfer girl showing up in a rugged mountain town where it was dirty and muddy and not the beach,” Barb recalls with a smile. “I liked going to new places as a kid and was always an adventurous soul. Crested Butte was a new adventure and completely opposite from what I had just left. I was excited.”

Barb quickly fell into the Crested Butte kid lifestyle of freedom and fun, as her mom signed her up for the Ski Club junior racers.

“We were called the Crested Butte Cyclones. I had learned to ski in Bear Valley Ski resort, just south of Lake Tahoe,” Barb recalls of the extended family trips. “We’d load up our old wood-panel station wagon, dogs, cousins and parents, and we’d do a caravan up to our cabin there. It was the family hangout. We’d go during summer vacations, winter breaks, and holidays.”

Once in Crested Butte, Barb felt, “The Cyclones were the core group of Crested Butte kids who I really attached to. Me and Annie Clair were constantly getting kicked off the T-bar for fooling around, yanking the T-Bar out from each other. We were all athletes.”

In fact, later, in the winter of 1991 that saw the Extremes competition come to town, Barb signed up to participate and competed for the next decade. “In 1999, I was World Tour Champ in points.” She continued to place throughout her 10 years competing.

“What didn’t we do as kids here?” Barb grins. “We had to be outside because we weren’t allowed to stay inside. We just had to come home when the street-lights came on. We’d build snow caves in the winter and when I was ten, I started working at Fantasy Ranch, the horse stables that were out by Skyland back then, up Brush Creek. I would help clean the hooves, brush the horses, and go get the horses for guest rides. As we got older I was able to guide half-day or quarter-day trips.” Barb worked there until she was 12.

She remembers mountain biking back when those bikes had no shocks, and break dancing in front of the Company Store (now the Secret Stash) because it was the only area that was paved. “Everything else was mud or snow banks. We went sledding on Warming House Hill on inner tubes. Later when I worked at Paradise Warming House we used food trays, or the picnic benches with the metal rails.”

It was the 1980s, during that era of Flock of Seagull androgynous hair and makeup. that Barb moved back to live with her dad in Manhattan Beach. “I was living in Guess jeans, scrunched-up socks with Asics high-tops, laced-up wrestling shoes with Dolphin shorts and frosted pink lipstick, hanging out at Denny’s late-night with my friends, trying to get tickets to Depeche Mode concerts,” she laughs at her 12-year-old self. “I was bummed to leave my new Crested Butte friends. It was an upheaval but it was a familiar place. I was excited for SoCal living again. I played a lot of soccer and I was really good at it.”

But in her sophomore year, Barb headed back to Crested Butte, transferring from a Catholic school and trading in her uniform for the halls of Gunnison High School. “I had missed Crested Butte. California was a concrete jungle, so I wanted to move back here. I loved some of my classes and teachers but I felt that school was a waste of my time, so I got my GED and went to work.”

Her first job then was cleaning condos at Three Seasons on the mountain. She recalls that her teenage summers were amazing as the kids were allowed to go into bars and see the bands at the Eldo. She also tried her skills at acting. “I attempted acting with a group, doing a production of Lysistrata. I also did Dancesummers and Dancewinters, which we performed in the Mallardi Cabaret. And we’d do dance performances at the Depot, back when it was in an open field. We all kept busy doing stuff.”

Barb relished her return to Crested Butte, washing dishes at the Forest Queen and at night she’d work at Jimmy’s Fish and Grill (where Lil’s Sushi is now). And for many years she was a prep cook at the then-new Idle Spur. “I was a working maniac. From 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., five days a week. I was living in the converted shack in the yard I used to play in as a kid.”

At 19, in 1990, Barb became a raft guide during the short two-month season on Arizona’s Upper Salt River. “They are the early season in March and April and by the time our snow melts up here, our commercial rafting season starts on the Arkansas River in Canon City.” This is where she guided every summer.

For the past few years, Barb has been running the Mountain Man Rendezvous, the raunchy, raucous, historical reenactment of the Wild West’s fur trapping days held yearly up Washington Gulch during the first weekend of August.

“My first introduction to Mountain Man was at Billy Creek, out toward Fairplay. Even though I knew Tuck, Smokey, and Rat, they never mentioned the Rendezvous up Washington Gulch. I was instantly hooked, campfire, cannons, booze, good storytelling and really fun folk. It was like a family and I fell in love with it. Ever since then, I’ve slowly built my gear up and my camp.”

Barb points out that since the event is strictly historical, no modern equipment or clothing is allowed. “All I had was modern camping gear and that didn’t cut it but over the years I picked up pieces, anything that I needed for camp, like cast-iron cooking ware, Dutch ovens, wooden utensils, and clothing.”

In 2001 she moved to Broomfield, and as she puts it, “I retired from extreme skiing with knee injuries and I had to start thinking about getting a real job because being a raft guide and ski bum wasn’t cutting it anymore.”

She enrolled at the Cooking School of the Rockies. She had been working in kitchens throughout her life and felt that culinary school was the next logical choice, because, “I could make money doing what I loved. I had to unlearn everything I learned in Crested Butte kitchens. I finished my education at the Greenbriar Inn in Boulder,” she says of a swanky restaurant at the mouth of Lefthand Canyon. She returned to Crested Butte with her husband and was pregnant with her son, Hawk.

“After Hawk was born, I began cooking at the Crested Butte Academy, bringing Hawk in his playpen. When they went under, I worked at Reuben’s in Crested Butte South, which was convenient because Hawk was at the Little Red School House across the street and I could drop him off and go to work. It was perfect,” she says. So perfect that she stayed at Reuben’s for 10 years. “My dream had been to return to Crested Butte and make a restaurant that locals could afford—nothing fancy just good cooking. When Reuben’s closed, I ended up working at the Nordic Inn, setting up breakfast with Kim and Ken Stone.”

Barb then discovered that she loved landscaping and went to work for Colorado Native Gardening. “I was outdoors and I got paid more than if I was cooking,” although she admits that in the future she’d like to return to the culinary arts.

This summer Barb plans to enjoy the many Rendezvous meets across Colorado. “The Rocky Mountain Nationals will be outside of Gunnison this year in July with 800 camps and 1,000 people in historic dress from all over the United States. Mountain Man Rendezvous will still be up Washington Gulch during Art Festival weekend. It’s been on this site for 34 years but the modern world is encroaching with their Spandex and those sparkly ball caps… and black powder and leather fringe collide with perfume and sequins and don’t mix,” she justifiably smirks.

“Hawk has been going to Rendezvous since he was a baby and now we have a teepee.” She took over the Crested Butte event four years ago.

When she and her hubby parted ways, Barb decided to stay in Crested Butte because she realized, “This is where I grew up. This is where my community is. And I have a place to live,” she says of the foresight of being able to purchase a condo back in the 1990s when real estate was more affordable for locals.

“My home is across the alley from the house I grew up in,” Barb says. “I maintain this home for my son, who’s at Colorado Timberline Academy in Durango. I’m at a crossroads in my life at the moment. I really want to live in this town and work but it’s less and less affordable. There’s more and more demand with less and less compensation. Prices of everything have gone up and you can’t live in this town anymore for less than $25 an hour. I have four jobs and a culinary degree and I can’t find a job that can support me here doing what I love. It’s the first time ever in my life that I have thought about living anywhere else but for now, I’ll just landscape. And I look forward to rafting and getting together with good friends, doing more stuff and chilling with my boy. At this point, the sky’s the limit.”