“A good discussion to have…”

The Crested Butte Town Council held a retreat in mid-January to discuss definitive priorities they see for the town and the staff. Chief among those priorities are protecting the watershed and keeping a close eye on anything related to the potential Red Lady mine issue. Read More »

It was a period for accidents—and I got to write about them. Starting at the end of last week I felt like I was in the middle of some bad TBS reality show or something like Shark Week. Tune in and enjoy Accident Week on your cable TV station…

Let’s not even touch on the snowmobilers who were trapped in a Kebler avalanche that resulted in a young man’s untimely death. I don’t want to write about such things and I wish people wouldn’t tempt that sort of obvious bad fate. Pay attention people: Some accidents are eminently avoidable.

Then there’s an accident that hasn’t happened yet story. The town’s insurance company and some staff were concerned by an annual Crested Butte event that has snowmobiles roaring down Elk Avenue at 40 mph next to families out for a stroll as the snowmobiles drag skiers and boarders to a jump at the main intersection of town. Worry warts. The volunteer organizer rightly claimed there are not a whole lot of such events happening in the world and he’s run a pretty safe event for years. The council chose to pay a safety group $2,500 to review the event. The report said Big Air on Elk could be a tad safer and that will be the case. Of course the town will throw another $1500 for barrier placement.

The most interesting accident of the week was a plane crash…sort of. This plane came equipped with a parachute and that made all the difference. The plane was sort of wearing an avy air bag. Crested Butte Search and Rescue was called up to Reno Divide in a winter blizzard to rescue a pilot who “crashed” his plane during a brutal storm. But this plane had an emergency parachute that was successfully deployed by the pilot. His luck continued, as the plane landed in one of the few soft, flat spots around. It could have been bad but the pilot survived without any injury and ended up simply cold and waiting for the local Crested Butte SAR heroes who found their way to him. They took him out of the backcountry and into town for dinner at the Steep. I guess Reno-Flag-Bear will have to be one of my first bike rides this spring to check out a plane sitting up there. It could end up like the old-school snowmobile entrenched on the Lupine Trail.

The Irwin Backcountry Guides snowcat had an accident in a similar storm as it lost its way, off the road, and tipped over onto its side on Lake Irwin. Ouch. It was an accident that some adversaries of the company want to turn into the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Lake Irwin Coalition seems to be hoping the tipped-over Tucker turns into the smoking gun that sends Irwin, Eleven and all the other Irwin-associated businesses into the drain. Don’t count on it. Accidents do happen and it appears the regulating agencies are aware of that. There is no indication regulators are jumping to the conclusion that Irwin contaminated the town’s water supply, as happened in West Virginia’s Kanawha County. This appears to be more along the lines of some local rapscallion Irwinites roosting the lake on their snowmobiles.

A flood that started from the top of Marcellina Apartments was the accident with the most immediate and disturbing local impact. A worker tripped a fire sprinkler line and it ended up flooding 32 low-rent units. The damage was such that the tenants were told to leave the building—for good. That sucks. So now some seasonal workers are looking for a roof in the middle of the ski season. Good luck. The property owners haven’t committed to helping them out yet. Crested Butte Mountain Resort knows its business depends on workers so the ski company is searching for ways to place some of the newly homeless in a room. The new owners of the Marcellina property had expressed an interest in turning the building into condos when they bought it, so those residents were likely out of there in May anyway—but there’s a big difference between getting the notice in the spring and getting the word in February with a good luck kick in the arse. Let’s see how the owners, Blueline Properties, step up to assist some ski bums in the valley. They shouldn’t be left high and dry (or wet) because of an accident. According to the company website: “Blueline stands behind its commitment to residents. Our leasing and maintenance staff strive to provide superior service. Taking care of our residents is the company’s top priority.” We’ll see.

The other story that surfaced this week was how our local watchdogs are going to deal with a new U.S. Energy application to clean up the old Keystone mine site with a VCUP (Voluntary Cleanup Program). A VCUP might be a good idea to help clean up that site. It might not be. While talks with the U.S. Energy guys are appropriate, the local stakeholder groups should make it clear they won’t allow a mining operation to threaten our water, our environment or our economy. That would be the ultimate accident.

Putting USE back on the agenda
Town manager Todd Crossett told the council at the February 3 meeting that he and town attorney John Belkin had a brief conversation with U.S. Energy (USE) president Mark Larsen. “U.S. Energy told us they were interested in a proposal from the community to buy them out, take over the VCUP and take over the water treatment plant,“ he said. Read More »

Starr as conduit?

While no new application has yet been submitted by U.S. Energy to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to implement a VCUP (Voluntary Clean Up Plan) at the old Keystone mine, one is expected. Read More »

It is natural in this day and age to want what you want – now. Just do it. Why wait? Git ‘er done. While that might feel good in the short term, it doesn’t always work in the long run. Two examples of how not thinking things through in a deliberate manner might end up in a train wreck – one national and one on the state and local level.

On the national stage, people are talking about how former Defense Secretary Robert Gates preferred the style of George W. Bush to Barack Obama. Gates apparently preferred the Bush warm passion for a project as opposed to the cool deliberation of Obama. Now of course that Bush passion led to some disastrous decisions that put this country into a war that didn’t have anything to do with the pretenses of his rational to invade a country that did nothing to us. It cost us thousands of American and foreign lives along with billions and billions of dollars in wasted money that could have been spent on productive things in this country. But at least he was passionate. Obama on the other hand took his time and debated various strategies for an Afghanistan policy and basically came down on the side of Gates but he didn’t show a visceral passion for his decision. Maybe for some people, making decisions about war is chilling. They should be. Anyway, the point being that right decisions are usually made better with time and deliberation.

On the state and local scene, I’m looking at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s initial approval of the application for the U.S. Energy VCUP (Voluntary Clean Up Plan) for the old Keystone mine that was submitted last fall. The approval came relatively quickly and quietly with no public notice or debate. It too came under some questionable pretenses that were included in the U.S. Energy application. Somewhat strangely, the application was made during a time when lines of communication between the mining company and the town were supposedly as open and congenial as ever. Hmmm.
So when the “public” stumbled upon the approval at the end of last year, the state agency did the responsible thing. At the request of several local groups, it took a step back and suspended the approval while it looked at the circumstances as seen by the community. Last week, it made the bold decision to revoke the original application approval. That step forward could not have been an easy decision.
The local stakeholders that led this charge – HCCA, the Red Lady Coalition and the town of Crested Butte – all indicated that there might be a place for a VCUP in an eventual clean-up of the old Keystone mine site, but a lot more information needed to be compiled before anything like that begins.
The initial approval came quickly in part because the U.S. Energy application looked sound and appeared to have buy-in from other stakeholders like the Forest Service. It didn’t. Hmmm. So the state took a bold step and didn’t pussyfoot around in its revocation of the original approval. The notice to the mining company was sent by the Attorney General’s office. It laid out specific parameters for a possible re-application.
There seem to be obvious conflicting goals in this process between the community and U.S. Energy. It appears that the primary goal of U.S. Energy is to get out from under the expensive burden of operating the wastewater treatment plant on Mt. Emmons. The primary goal of the community is to protect its water and make sure that contaminated water isn’t allowed to poison the local creeks and watersheds.
The state’s most recent decision makes it clear that U.S. Energy can pursue a legitimate application for a mine clean-up but it has to involve the public, look ahead to ramifications of shutting down the treatment plant in favor of a passive water treatment program, monitor that program for years and have a contingency plan in place in case it doesn’t work. Those are all smart things. They won’t be quick and easy things but it imposes a seriousness to the process that was missing last fall.

Any new process will be based not on the passion and simple idea of basically cleaning up a contaminated mine site, but on taking the time to consider the consequences of how it is done and the long-term impacts it will have on this community. Ultimately a VCUP might be part of a long-term solution. Maybe. But this recent decision by the state is the right thing to do for this valley and this community. Taking the time to be deliberate and thorough is important to everyone and the right way to proceed.
Thank you.

Friday at noon is preliminary deadline

Preliminary talks about significant talks are going on between local environmental group the High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA) and U.S. Energy (USE), the developer of molybdenum mining rights on Mt. Emmons. Proposals from the two entities have been bandied back and forth in an effort to find a way for the traditional opponents to sit down and begin negotiations about a possible solution to both a proposed clean-up of the old Keystone Mine site and a permanent resolution to mining on Mt. Emmons. Read More »

Town thinking watershed permit

Friday, December 13 is the new deadline set by the state to accept comments on the proposed VCUP (Voluntary Cleanup Program) application filed by U.S. Energy in conjunction with the old Keystone Mine site. Read More »

Council moves into retreat mode

After a somewhat contentious election with tension evident even among sitting council members, the newest version of the Crested Butte Town Council is ready to retreat. Literally. Read More »

Town of Crested Butte, HCCA and Red Lady Coalition on the same page

The three primary local “stakeholders” in the potential Mt. Emmons molybdenum mine issue are asking the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to give the groups until December 15 to submit new information in its re-evaluation of the Voluntary Clean Up Program (VCUP) application submitted by U.S. Energy. Read More »

The rhythm of this valley makes it clear it is time to transition…

Believe it or not, the ski area opens this Wednesday. It was just a few days ago I was riding my mountain bike on the sweet trails of Hartman Rocks. But then came the shift. Boom. Winter storm warnings were blasted on the forecast sites. Kebler Pass was closed after a storm dropped a foot and a half of snow. Irwin was deep and the Upper Loop buried. The time is now to shift gears and move into ski mode. And we will do that Wednesday with a day of Free Skiing, compliments of Crested Butte Mountain Resort to start the great 2013-2014 season.

Speaking of CBMR: Did you hear the resort sold? Okay, not sold, but may be selling. There is truth to part of the rumor (see page 1). Now, anyone who has done a business deal knows that this “sale” is a long way off. There isn’t even a signed sales contract. But there are real talks going on. We are in the realm where two parties have sort of agreed that for the right price they should and can strike a deal. There are numbers to run, negotiations to hold and contracts to sign. Suits are taking tours and going over the books. Selling a ski area (or at least the management contract and a boatload of property) is probably more complicated than selling a set of tires, so while a ski area transition in management has started, nothing is guaranteed.
All the standard names of the potential new owners are circulating across the bars in town. Names like Intrawest (preparing a $100 million public stock offering to raise money for potential acquisitions), a mysterious local conglomerate (locals with $) and executives of the Staubach real estate group (second-home owners with $). Even Vail (just over the divide and with $) and Irwin (just up the road and with $) and Monsanto (an evil corporation but with $) are being tossed around as potential new neighbors. There may be some truth to part of those rumors as well, but the ski area has been impressive with keeping the name of the potential buyer under wraps. We’ll know soon enough—or it won’t matter and the Muellers will continue to pray for a huge snow year.

So pop out of sales mode for a second and look at the metrics of the early season. There are more air seats sold for the winter than at this time last year, and that’s with fewer seats coming into our regional airport. That’s a good thing. There is more snow on the ground this year in November than in the last several years. That too is a good thing. Reservations are looking good, the mountain is looking pretty and the resort executives are optimistic we will have a good season. As we transition into winter season it is the most optimistic time of year for any ski town. So be happy and look forward to a great five months.
The lifts will start turning Wednesday at 9 a.m. and in typical Crested Butte tradition, we can count on some local kids who will freeze their butts off all night to snag the first chair of the season.

Speaking of chairs: Chris Ladoulis transitioned into a chair Monday night at the Crested Butte Town Council table. Outgoing Councilman John Wirsing vacated the seat when he chose not to run for reelection. Thanks go out to Wirsing for oftentimes bringing in a different perspective to council discussions.
Ladoulis comes to the council during what the Chinese might term “interesting times.” The town is dealing with a blow-up with U.S. Energy over a proposal to clean up the old Keystone mine site. The council is being asked to change zoning to accommodate a large affordable housing project between Clark’s Market and the True Value. The council members themselves are pretty up-front about having a need to sit down in a retreat to lay out ground rules and parameters about how to deal with each other, their partners in the mine issue, and the community in general. Welcome to the hot seat, Mr. Ladoulis.

So here we are at the beginning of the next ski season. Change is a constant but sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same in the valley. Rhythm is part of this place and the rhythm says it is time to put away the bike and strap on the boards. We even get to keep enjoying another regular thing it seems we experience every year at this time—talking about who is buying the ski area.
Have fun, everyone. It is the start of a new season.