{"id":2454735,"date":"2020-02-19T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=321145"},"modified":"2020-02-19T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T12:00:00","slug":"state-of-the-village-looks-past-town-focuses-on-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/state-of-the-village-looks-past-town-focuses-on-county\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018State of the Village\u2019 looks past town, focuses on county"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Bob Fike of the Snowmass Part-Time Resident Advisory Board asks Pitkin County Commissioner Greg Poschman a question during the winter “State of the Village” address on Feb. 13, 2020. (Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun)<\/strong>
Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

About 20 people gathered in Snowmass Town Hall on Feb. 13 to hear the winter \u201cState of the Village\u201d address, which focused on how the village fits into the larger Roaring Fork Valley community.<\/p>\n

Hosted by the Part-Time Resident Advisory Board, the nearly two-hour meeting featured presentations from Greg Poschman of the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners, Hugh Zuker of Mountain Rescue Aspen and Snowmass Mayor Markey Butler.<\/p>\n

The three officials covered everything from growth in valley visitor traffic and Snowmass tax revenue, to backcountry safety and the importance of wildfire mitigation for area homeowners, working to give attendees an all-encompassing overview of what\u2019s happening in and around Snowmass Village.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re part of a really exciting community that we all know as the Roaring Fork Valley,\u201d said Charles Hess, Part-Time Residents Advisory Board member. \u201cAnd so gaining a little bit of perspective as to what is our role, what is our position within the Roaring Fork Valley and what is the future of Snowmass as a member of the valley is something I thought would be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

To kick the meeting off, Poschman talked with attendees about his longtime ties to Snowmass, reminiscing of growing up visiting the village when it was more of a ranching community and having the opportunity to interview some of the longtime Snowmass locals as part of creating the 40th and 50th town anniversary videos.<\/p>\n

He then talked briefly on topics like resident growth and visitor traffic; county road maintenance, public transportation and wildfire mitigation efforts, noting wildfire is big threat in the Pitkin County area; openings on county community advisory boards for interested attendees; and open space and wildlife protection efforts, specifically recent discussions led by Forest Service officials on keeping Snowmass\u2019 Burnt Mountain area, namely the Government Trail and Anaerobic Nightmare trail, closed a week longer to help protect elk populations.<\/p>\n

Poschman also touched on the collaboration between Pitkin County and the town of Snowmass Village, noting how important it is for all of the county\u2019s governing bodies to communicate, collaborate and work together when making decisions.<\/p>\n

He said this collaboration is something that\u2019s especially important when addressing pressing issues such as mental health, and is something that can always be improved upon among all county stakeholders and organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking together with the other municipalities is super important,\u201d Poschman said, noting that happens through groups like the Elected Officials Transportation Committee. \u201cWe need to think about valley-wide solutions. \u2026 It\u2019s about what\u2019s beyond our communities because we share a constituency and work with everyone, and I\u2019m proud to say we\u2019re working on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of hearing about countywide stats, projects and focus areas for elected officials, \u201cState of the Village\u201d attendees also received a brief crash course on Mountain Rescue Aspen\u2019s operations and search-and-rescue tactics in Pitkin County.<\/p>\n

Zuker, a longtime Mountain Rescue Aspen field team member, walked through each step of a search-and-rescue mission \u2014 locate, access, stabilize and transport \u2014and how MRA members execute them in the field, along with how the nonprofit couldn\u2019t operate without the dedication of its volunteers and support of its community partners.<\/p>\n

Zuker also said MRA field team volunteers average over 67,972 hours of service, including 20,000 training hours, and 66 missions a year.<\/p>\n

Although the winter \u201cState of the Village\u201d address was geared toward \u201clooking outside Snowmass Village,\u201d Mayor Butler also touched on some of the town\u2019s big projects and recent news.<\/p>\n

Butler highlighted The Collective, the town-owned community building in Base Village that was completed earlier this winter; the groundbreaking of the Coffey Place housing project, a new neighborhood of deed-restricted homes set to house locals by early 2021; and the handful of town redevelopment and renovation projects being reviewed by Snowmass Town Council, including the proposed Snowmass Center project, village transit center project and Town Park redesign.<\/p>\n

She also said that with all of the proposed redevelopment within the village, it\u2019s important for town officials to be critical of each project\u2019s short-term and long-term impact, weighing things like construction effects on locals and development effects on natural resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard sitting in council seats and having to say no,\u201d Butler said, referring to being critical of proposed development projects. \u201cBut we have a great council; it\u2019s one of the best councils we\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butler also noted that the town saw a 13.2% increase in its sales tax revenue from 2018 to 2019, and record occupancy rates for nine out of 12 months in 2019.<\/p>\n

Aligning with the \u201cState of the Village\u201d address theme, Butler also noted that each Town Council member serves on at least one countywide advisory board and that collaboration is important for town success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all work really closely together, we are in constant communication with Pitkin County and Aspen,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Fike of the Snowmass Part-Time Resident Advisory Board asks Pitkin County Commissioner Greg Poschman a question during the winter “State of the Village” address on Feb. 13, 2020. (Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun)Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun About 20 people gathered in Snowmass Town Hall on Feb. 13 to hear the winter \u201cState of the Village\u201d address, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 14:48:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}