{"id":2455375,"date":"2020-03-04T23:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=322065"},"modified":"2020-03-04T23:10:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T06:10:00","slug":"basalt-council-candidate-talk-priorities-how-to-fund-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/basalt-council-candidate-talk-priorities-how-to-fund-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Basalt council candidate talk priorities, how to fund them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Basalt Town Council candidates listen to a question Monday night at a forum. From left, the candidates are Dieter Schindler, David Knight, Elyse Hottell, Tiffany Haddad and Glenn Drummond.<\/strong>
Scott Condon\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The candidates for Basalt Town Council easily defined at a forum Monday what projects they would pursue once in office, but identifying funding sources to complete them proved more difficult.<\/p>\n

The candidates were asked what would be their immediate and long-term priorities if they were on council. Next they were asked what new sources of funding they would explore to fund those projects and the town\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Glenn Drummond was the only candidate to suggest that a tax hike might be required to pursue the town\u2019s wish list. For example, he said, if the town government decides to pursue a shuttle that connects the various sections of town, then it might have to seek a tax hike.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the connector shuttle, I think we all have to be honest with one another \u2014 maybe that needs to be put out to a vote to see if citizens want to do it,\u201d Drummond said. \u201cI know the chamber did a study on it in 2015 and the cost was $600,000 to $1 million (annually), so it\u2019s not a small chunk of change and it\u2019s going to take a new revenue stream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other high priority projects also may require new revenue, he suggested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t get them done. It just means we have to communicate this message appropriately to the community,\u201d Drummond said.<\/p>\n

The town has a general fund budget of $7.8 million for 2020. When restricted funds are added, the town\u2019s total revenue is about $12 million. Drummond said seeing the Basalt River Park project completed on the former Pan and Fork Mobile Home Park property would be his immediate priority. The project will add about 56,000 square feet of commercial and residential development and allow expansion of a riverside park. The sitting council approved it last month.<\/p>\n

As a long-term priority, Drummond said, \u201cI think we have to create a sustainable environment and community where everybody in this room wants to live and be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dieter Schindler said improving early-childhood care and development would be his immediate priority along with fostering redevelopment of the former Clark\u2019s Market proposal in downtown as a long-term goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was to just throw a dart and tell you how I would fund early-development child care, I think we would have to make it an affordable option for people to actually pay and run this as a business, but maybe we look at pre-existing locations where the rent ceiling isn\u2019t so high and we can actually make it work,\u201d Schindler said. \u201cMaybe there\u2019s churches or community centers that have vacant space so we could have a small space (for child care). I think that\u2019s an example of just trying to get creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiffany Haddad also said that child care would be her immediate priority and addition of affordable housing a long-term goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, I would love for my children to be able to live here if they choose after they graduate high school or attend college,\u201d she said. \u201cAs of right now, I don\u2019t know that that would be feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for funding, she would seek additional sources outside of town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think all funding necessarily has to come straight out of Basalt,\u201d Haddad said. \u201cWe can also look at other avenues and resources in Pitkin and Eagle counties, to take advantage of program even across the state of Colorado to help fund locally what we\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Knight identified the redevelopment of the Clark\u2019s parcel among his immediate priorities \u201cand we also have to keep our eye on the ball with climate change. That is existentially the most important thing that\u2019s out there right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the long-term, providing a youth center for kids that are older than elementary school but too young to be on their own is a priority for Knight.<\/p>\n

He wants to raise funds for the town\u2019s projects by nurturing a stronger economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelping to grow our economy would help to grow our tax base,\u201d Knight said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elyse Hottell said affordable housing would be her immediate concern in office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t have the housing we need to house the workers, that\u2019s going to be a big hit to our economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Redevelopment of Clark\u2019s is a long-term priority since it is in the heart of the town, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have good revenue streams in place,\u201d Hottell said. We have sales taxes that are earmarked for specific funds, there are tax credits available for affordable housing. There are methods out there that we haven\u2019t completely tapped into. I\u2019m not going to profess to know everything about those methods but a lot of research can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Riffle, the only incumbent in the field, is traveling abroad and didn\u2019t attend the forum. The election for three council seats is at-large, meaning the three candidates that get the most votes are the winners. The election is April 7. Ballots will be mailed in mid-March.<\/p>\n

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

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

The Basalt Town Council candidates listen to a question Monday night at a forum. From left, the candidates are Dieter Schindler, David Knight, Elyse Hottell, Tiffany Haddad and Glenn Drummond.Scott Condon\/The Aspen Times The candidates for Basalt Town Council easily defined at a forum Monday what projects they would pursue once in office, but identifying […]<\/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-2455375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 12:14:52","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\/2455375","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=2455375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}