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All five candidates for three Basalt Town Council positions up for election on April 2 expressed strong support Monday for the embattled Midland Avenue Streetscape project.
In a candidate forum presented by the Basalt Chamber of Commerce, the five candidates — as well as sole mayoral candidate David Knight — said they believe the project is well conceived, desperately needed and much appreciated.
The second phase of the two-year, $16.78 million project is underway. The work will replace underground utilities, provide a surface facelift and make the town more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. A contingent of project opponents collected enough signatures on an initiative petition to force a public vote on the project. The foes want the expense reduced and the amount of downtown core parking increased. The council likely will set an election date this month.
The current council has unanimously stood by the work and now it has the support of whoever takes over three vacant council seats.
Candidate Rick Stevens, a former Basalt mayor, said he signed the initiative petition. “It is going to go to a vote and everybody can vote how they want to,” he said. “I signed the petition, always in favor of more public dialogue, and if we can have some more and solve this thing, it’s OK with me.”
He made it clear he supports the project, noting that it is fully funded.
“There’s been a pretty exhaustive look at Midland Avenue for a long time and we’ve known forever that the infrastructure below Midland Avenue had to be replaced and that’s been accomplished,” Stevens said. The council took the opportunity to pursue surface improvements while the street is dug up.
“The one thing I’m impressed with right now is the town has got the project fully funded,” he said. “There’s no further impact to the citizens or the taxpayers that I’m aware of and I confirmed this a little earlier. The numbers that we talked about to go forward with these improvements, the money’s in the bank. I think that’s one of the things that needs to be dispelled a little bit, that the [$9.5 million in proceeds from a bond election] are secure and the community can rest assured that we’re not going to go out and hit you all up for a few million dollars.”
Hannah Berman said the public process worked well with the Midland project.
“You had a big public outreach effort and people of Basalt overwhelmingly supported the Midland Streetscape and it went to ballot and it passed, and the town has done what it said it would do,” she said. “They’ve been incredibly transparent about the financing and they’ve also done an incredible job getting grants from federal opportunities and CDOT, and given construction costs, I think it’s good to not try to cover all those ourselves.”
Berman, Angele Dupre-Butchart and Kaja Rumney all said the project will greatly enhance the downtown core for people using wheelchairs, walkers and those pushing strollers.
Dupre-Butchart said the aesthetics of the surface improvements could be debated “endlessly” because different people have different visions. Public discourse leads to better projects, she suggested.
“At the end of the day, decisions and progress had to be made and they were made through a vigorous public outreach process,” she said. “The community weighed in, they had an opportunity to weigh in and the council and mayor took those considerations. The decisions weren’t made in a vacuum.
“Ultimately I applaud those changes. I feel it was necessary,” she added.
Dupre-Butchart and Rumney stressed that the town should help promote business for the downtown core this summer to make sure restaurants and shops survive a lengthy construction season, which coincides with the summer tourist season. The town provided discounts to shop and dine in the core last summer when the first phase of the project focused mostly on Midland Spur.
Rumney said the project is necessary to make sure the town infrastructure is keeping pace with the growing population and evolving needs.
“I know there’s been a lot of criticism about the parking but at the end of the day we’re increasing the amount of parking that we have in the downtown area,” Rumney said. “We’re going to have a good outcome with this project.”
Chris Mullen agreed that skepticism is healthy and the town council and staff should always be held accountable. He believes the projects and the town government’s actions stand up well to scrutiny.
“When I take a look at things and take a look at the website, take a look at the numbers, they’re all up there,” Mullen said. “It’s very transparent. The money is there. It’s been allocated for.”
He noted that Basalt was able to score outside grants to help pay for the project. It would be unwise for town government to reject those grants.
“I think we need to move forward. I think it’s a great plan. I think it’s been communicated well as a great plan,” Mullen said. “When opposition was raised, the town went through a whole value engineering process and cut costs. This is within budget. It’s very well needed. It’s going to move the town forward.”
David Knight, who is finishing a four-year council term, is running uncontested for mayor. He will succeed Bill Kane, who is leaving after one four-year term.
Knight has consistently spoken in favor of the Midland project and repeated that strong support Monday night. “This is an investment in ourselves. I’ve been supportive of this since the beginning,” he said. “I’m excited to see this project complete(d) this year. Obviously I feel we should just go forward as planned. The town staff has done an amazing job with execution.”
The council race started with six candidates but Courtney Sheeley Wyckoff informed town officials prior to the forum that she was bowing out. No incumbents are running for council. Knight is running for mayor, Elyse Hottel declined to run for re-election and Glenn Drummond resigned his seat. The three positions are for four years.
The election is April 2, with ballots being mailed the week of March 11. The three council positions are at-large, meaning the top three vote-getters among the five candidates take a seat.
In another part of Monday’s forum, the candidates were asked what they felt would be the biggest challenges during their four years in office. They weren’t allowed to say affordable housing because at various times during the forum, they all expressed the importance of helping local residents during the housing squeeze.
Dupre-Butchart noted that the candidate forum four years ago focused on pros and cons of a development project where Clark’s Market, and City Market before that, was located. It hasn’t advanced since earning town approval but she said she heard the developer is preparing to apply for a building permit.
“I think we really need to keep an eye on that ball and make sure it moves forward with expediency because our town, speaking of vitality, could really, really use that,” she said.
Dupre-Butcart also identified unifying three distinct parts of Basalt — Old Town, Southside and Willits — through the trail network, signage and maps.
Rumney said one of the biggest challenges in the next four years will be for town government to keep pace with growth.
“I think one of the biggest challenges we’re going to be facing in the next four years is the amount of growth we’re going to be experiencing,” she said.
“How do we have to grow our police force? How do we have to grow our parks and look at every aspect of our town, and as it’s increasing in population, we are growing all parts of our town as well.”
Knight and Berman stressed that climate change and its impacts will be the biggest challenge.
“Hands down, climate is the other top priority,” Knight said. “Housing is existential but climate is existential.”
The town needs to maintain the most efficient energy code on construction and work to retrofit older buildings, according to Knight. “I would love to see us looking at how to electrify existing buildings,” he said.
Berman agreed that climate change not only threatens to alter how people live, but also their livelihoods in an area dependent on outdoor recreation.
“Aspen has lost one month of its winter since 1980,” Berman said. “That is 31 days that no longer get below freezing and Basalt isn’t that far down the road. And to fix climate, you need to do two things. You need to make sure everything runs on electricity instead of fossil fuels and you need to make sure that power comes from clean sources.”
She credited Holy Cross Energy, the power provider for much of the valley, for advancing on its promise to be relying on 100% renewable energy by 2030.
“So our role as a town is in the electrification piece, making sure we can convert buildings and the transit piece so we can be climate friendly,” Berman said.
Mullen said the connectivity between the various portions of the town were the biggest challenge over the next four years. He said transit and “how we tackle workers going up and down the valley” was another big issue.
Stevens suggested that regional cooperation on issues was the biggest challenge, though his proposed solution was vague.
“It’s important to recognize that Basalt is no longer a support town to the core resort,” he said. “It’s economically stable, it’s culturally diverse, it’s socially fun, it’s solid. And we have to stand up and insist that we get what we need as a community and cooperate with the adjacent governments to make sure we’re not stepping on each other’s toes.
“I’m not saying that they are, but I’m saying that the external pressures on Basalt are significant and we need to be able to address those and do it quickly. So I would be in favor of pursuing that type of strategy with our adjacent municipalities and counties.”
As with every candidate in every election in the Roaring Fork Valley, the Basalt hopefuls spoke of the glaring need for more affordable housing. Knight offered the most concrete proposal for addressing at least a small portion of the need. He said he wants to look at the existing rugby field in the Willits residential development as a potential site for a multi-family affordable housing site.
The candidates submitted biographies that are posted on the Basalt town government’s website at basalt.net/Directory.aspx?DID=18.