Carbondale’s Board of Trustees (BOT) met with the three Garfield Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on June 18 for their annual check-in. All Carbondale trustees were present with the exception of Erica Sparhawk.
The meeting began with a review of the first two rodeos at the Carbondale-owned Gus Darien Arena. Carbondale Parks and Rec director Eric Brendlinger was glad to report that illegal parking along County Road 100 has been successfully mitigated, so far. The Carbondale Wild West Rodeo (CWWR) is paying a tow company to be visibly stationed along the road, ready for deployment.
“I think we’ve made an awful lot of success,” said CWWR board director Mike Kennedy. “We’re doing the best we can.”
BOCC commissioner Tom Jankovsky brought up concerns that neighbors have with parking on county roads Rose, Daisy and Willow Lane. “At some point, we gotta get cars out of that neighborhood,” he said, suggesting barricades letting only local traffic through. Several people in the audience applauded.
Carbondale Mayor Ben Bohmfalk responded that it’s “ultimately a county decision.”
On the topic of housing, BOT trustee Colin Laird talked about the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition’s new buydown program. With support from multiple towns and counties, not including Garfield County, the initiative has a pool of $2 million to help locals purchase homes between Aspen and Parachute in exchange for a deed restriction on the property.
Jankovsky explained that most of what Garfield County has done to create affordable housing has been through codes — allowing accessory dwelling units to properties owned by businesses as a use by right, for example.
Bohmfalk segued to transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness, a need that was highlighted by the sudden arrival of many Venezuelan migrants last fall. Carbondale’s Third Street Center, Town Hall and the First United Methodist Church were made emergency shelters with a lack of other options.
The BOCC then welcomed Sharon Longhurst-Pritt, director of Garfield County Human Services, to comment on a $35,000 grant given to the West Mountain Regional Health Alliance toward funding its 2024 operations including the Valley Alliance to End Homelessness initiative.
The annual check-in concluded with talk of development, transportation and clean energy. Laird spoke about the geothermal project being explored with federal grant money. This would heat and cool a district that includes the Third Street Center, library, town homes, teacher housing, Bridges High School and the Roaring Fork School District administration building — all using ambient underground temperatures and heat pumps. Eighty to 90 holes would be bored up to 500 feet deep beneath the Third Street Center parking lot.
After a quick break, the meeting resumed sans BOCC with an update from Rob Stein and Carbondale Police Chief Kirk Wilson regarding unhoused migrants. Stein commended the Town and its residents for supporting the Venezuelans through “a very difficult moment in their lives.” He pointed out that county governments are mandated to provide certain human services. “Keep in mind there are existing infrastructure resources,” he said.
Chief Wilson stated that a group of tents has congregated beneath the Veterans Memorial Bridge and it’s suspected there is a child in the group. “My feel in speaking with officers is that the group of eight that just recently showed up heard what happened over the last winter and their plan is they’d like to be first in line for that,” he said.
Mayor Ben Bohmfalk then asked trustees to consider the role Carbondale should play going forward. “We don’t want to find ourselves in the same situation,” he said. “I don’t want to see our Town staff directed toward this work again and to the degree we had to direct them last year.”
Each trustee had a nuanced take on how to proceed. Christina Montemayor suggested focusing on helping nonprofits work together on solutions. Ross Kribbs expressed “a fear we could do too good of a job” and subsequently attract more people. He also suggested “talking to the folks who are profiting well on that labor,” referring to employers. Laird stated elected officials need to be part of the solution, putting money forward. Jess Robison said, “If nobody else is willing to lead, that’s what we’re elected to do.” Lastly, Chris Hassig suggested formalizing the Third Street Center as an emergency shelter and doing what’s necessary to make it more tenable.
In other news, the Town of Carbondale was awarded a $600,000 grant from Colorado’s Energy Office toward the electrification of Town Hall and the new pool facility. These funds will go toward high-efficiency heat pumps to make both buildings net-zero.
BOT and BOCC talk rodeo, housing, energy and more
