BASALT — Basalt Vista, an affordable housing project in Basalt, 18 miles down-valley from Aspen and Snowmass, will bring 27 new units to the area. The developer is Habitat for Humanity, working in a partnership with the Roaring Fork School District and many others on land above Basalt High School provided by the school district.
The school district had 61 rental units, but 14 houses being built on the hillside above Basalt High School will be available for purchase by teachers and other school district employees at well below market costs. The school district serving the Basalt, El Jebel and Glenwood Springs area previously had obtained housing for rent to employees. With this, the employees can buy into Basalt Vista with the small two-bedroom units starting at $250,000 and four-bedroom units at $350,000, each discounted $25,000 if the purchasers had sweat equity.
Another 13 units will be reserved for Pitkin County employees, who will be determined on a lottery basis. The county waived $3 million in road and other infrastructure fees.
Market prices for comparable units would be northward of $700,000, according to Scott Gilbert, president of Habitat for the Roaring Fork Valley, the developer of the projects.
At the dedication, Paul Freeman, a high school principal, pointed out that housing in Basalt costs $15,000 more than even in a Denver suburb, and the school district pays $15,000 less. This, he said, will help attract and retain good teachers.
But Basalt Vista may be even more important as an effort in what is called beneficial electrification. No natural gas pipelines were laid into the subdivision. The homes and the hot water the residents use will be heated entirely by air-source heat pumps powered by electricity.
Holy Cross Energy, the electricity provider, has taken concrete steps to dramatically reduce the carbon intensity of its electricity during the coming decade. It’s now at 39% renewables but last year adopted a goal of 70% by 2030. However, directors of the electrical co-operative think they can exceed that goal far sooner and set an even higher decarbonization goal.
The houses at Basalt Vista will still be connected to the electrical grid, but the duplexes and triplexes will produce as much energy in a year as they consume. That will make them net-zero, all-electric units. Utility bills for the homes are expected to be 85% less than houses of comparable size. All homes are well insulated, to minimize heating and cooling needs.
The first four units have lithium-ion batteries that can store electricity generated during the day by rooftop solar panels for use at night. But the storage also could be useful if electrical transmission from outside sources gets disrupted. Last summer, on a fire that began July 3, it very nearly was. Across the valley from Basalt Vista, charred trees from the Lake Christine Fire were visible above the town. The fire severed three of the four transmission lines that delivered electricity to Basalt. The power loss also affected Snowmass and portions of Aspen.
Talk of new tobacco tax, but ‘parenting’ dissent
CRESTED BUTTE — Crested Butte has started talking about levying $3 per pack tax on cigarettes and a 40 percent tax on all other nicotine products. The town financial director, Rob Zillioux, estimates the tax could generate $150,000 to $200,000 for the town’s coffers.
Aspen, Avon and Basalt have levied similar taxes, and they have produced more revenue than was estimated.
The goal is to discourage use of tobacco in Crested Butte while increasing revenue, but the Crested Butte News reports dissent to this so-called “sin tax” by at least one member of the town council.
“I’m not sure that doing this in our little town will have the impact we hope. I’m the parent to a child. I’m not interested in being a parent to a neighbor.”
Betty Sue Gurk, of the Gunnison County Substance Abuse Prevention Project, said higher costs discourage teenagers from starting to smoke or use nicotine products.
Fatalities on high-running rivers and creeks mount
SILVERTON — Creeks and rivers swollen with runoff of melted snow and now rain — splashing and dashing, chattering and roaring day and night — are delightful when seen from a bridge or an embankment but have taken their toll in Colorado among those who have gotten too close.
At least four people have drowned in the San Juan Mountains, the most improbable case being on Stony Pass, a high-clearance four-wheel-drive road between Silverton and Creede. The Durango Herald reported that a Jeep stalled while crossing Pole Creek, a relatively small but fast stream, and one of the occupants was swept away.
“Pole Creek is not huge, but it’s very fast and (at this time of year) very high,” said Sandy Hines, public information officer for Hinsdale County. “And of course, everything this year is above what it normally is.”
Waters tend to rise in the evening, after the day’s snowmelt, which may have played a role, said DeAnne Gallegos, a spokeswoman for the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management.
Closer to Silverton, a man driving along a county road appeared to have allowed his tire to get over the edge of a steep embankment, resulting in his pickup sliding into the Animas River. The driver’s body was recovered about a mile downstream from where he went off the road. Investigators said alcohol was believed to have been a factor.
A hiker vanished after tumbling into the South Fork of the Rio Grande. Across Wolf Creek Pass, a family was thrown overboard when a raft hit a wave in Class 4/5 waters on the San Juan River near Pagosa Springs. The mother died.
Should rafting companies be prevented from offering trips in such unusually high water? Archuleta County Sheriff Richard Valdez had decided against that.
“It’s difficult for the government to step in and say, ‘You can’t do that,’” undersheriff Derek Woodman said. “And there should be a certain amount of individual responsibility. Everyone knew what the water flow was, what the rapids were like, and it ended up being an unfortunate situation.”
All the family members were wearing personal flotation devices, helmets and either a wet suit or a dry suit.
Drownings, mostly associated with rafting trips, also have occurred on the Gunnison River, one on the Eagle River near Beaver Creek and another on the Arkansas River near the Royal Gorge. Two more occurred in rivers along the Front Range bringing Colorado’s water-related death total to eight drowned and three missing, The Denver Post reports.
The pushback on Aspen Skiing’s affordable housing
BASALT — Aspen Skiing Co. wants to build 148 bedrooms of affordable housing in Basalt, close to Starbucks, a couple of grocery stories and a block or two away from a bus stop that zips riders the 18 miles to Snowmass and Aspen. What’s not to like?
The Aspen Times reports deep division on the Basalt Town Council, which tentatively has approved the project in a 4-2 vote.
Instead of building affordable housing, why not pay people more? Jim Laing, who oversees human resources for the company, told council members that it’s a tried-and-failed approach.
“Paying people more we know is not the answer,” he said at meeting covered by the Times’ Scott Condon. “We’ve done that. We also know of doctors, lawyers, town staff, etc. — everyone struggles with housing. Simply paying people more isn’t the answer. If you do that, you’re just going to drive up rental rates further and landlords are just going to get richer.”
The only way to make a difference in the Roaring Fork Valley, he added, is to “build new housing and charge a reasonable and fair level of rent.”
Laing said the company has housing inventory for 723 people, and it charges roughly half the market rate. If the project goes forward, it will have 871 beds. The company has a goal of 1,200 beds.
Why does the company need more housing? It mostly has to do with the aging workforce. Older employees often have their housing secured. Workers who cannot afford to purchase housing replace them.
Some in Basalt, where 500 of the Aspen Skiing Co. employees live, said they thought the company should be required to have community housing, not company housing.
Another argument was that the plan called for too little structured parking. Mike Kaplan, the company’s chief executive, dismissed that argument for a parking garage as “Stone Age thinking and Stone Age planning.”
Teton Valley talking about the Redskin school mascot
DRIGGS, Idaho — Idaho’s Teton Valley has become engaged in a debate about whether to change the name of the school mascot, the Redskins. The valley is on the west side of the Teton Range from Jackson Hole.
A July 8 meeting is scheduled for the auditorium of Teton High School to parse the merits. The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports the debate was triggered in March by a mother of students at the school. The name, said the mother, is inappropriate.
The News & Guide reports five native American speakers recently assembled generally agreed in their dislike of the mascot by the school. They said the intention of the mascot may be honorable, but the impact is otherwise, as it perpetuates stereotypes of Native Americans and produces psychological trauma in indigenous children.
Although they opposed use of the Redskins mascot, panelists spoke of the desire to have a healthy dialogue with people of the Teton Valley and of ways Native American history could be better integrated into the valley’s schools.
Allen Best’s regional news roundup “Mountain Town News” publishes Sundays in the Summit Daily News. Best never strayed far from mountain towns in his journalism career. His first newspaper job was in 1977 in a town hard along the banks of the Colorado River. Best now lives in Arvada. More of his writing can be found at mountaintownnews.net. Contact him at allen.best@comcast.net.