It’s a rare feat to have mayors from seven towns in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys in the same room at the same time. But, the CoWest Noticias Collaborative and Colorado Mountain College’s Center for Civics Education and Engagement managed to accomplish that on Thursday, March 19, hosting a panel discussion with the local elected officials about affordability, working with bilingual communities and more.
Mayors on-hand at Morgridge Commons in Glenwood Springs included Rachael Richards of Aspen, Alyssa Shenk of Snowmass Village, Basalt’s David Knight, Carbondale’s Ben Bohmfalk, Art Riddle of New Castle and Clint Hostettler of Rifle. Mayor Pro-Tem Derek Hanrahan represented Silt, filling in for Mayor Keith Richel. Glenwood Springs Mayor Marco Dehm was not present, due to a City Council meeting taking place at the same time. About 50 people attended.
Dr. Matt Gianneschi, president and CEO of Colorado Mountain College, was the moderator for the evening. His opening remarks invoked 19th century French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, perhaps most famous for his book “Democracy in America.” De Tocqueville exalts the practice of democracy in the U.S. “What he admired most about America was not just its sense of liberty, but its duty of participation.”
Of course, housing of the affordable kind popped up. Knight, of Basalt, mentioned how the Town is “chipping away” at it by building more units. He also mentioned the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition’s work with the Aspen/Basalt Mobile Home Park and the Mountain Valley Mobile Home Park. “It was beautiful in the sense that private businesses, government donors, nonprofits all came together with the residents in the lead to help them purchase their mobile home park,” he said, adding that he would like to see this happen on a broader scale.
Richards cautioned about trying to replenish dwellings that disappear into the second-home market. “Part of it is an acknowledgement and a realization that you’re never going to replace all the housing,” she explained. “We’re going to lose affordability and you can’t just keep re-creating a new 20,000 units every 10 years because the other ones have become second homes or unaffordable.”
Riddle said that it’s too expensive for New Castle to build its own affordable housing. “We are negotiating with developers because we don’t have the money to really get into affordable housing,” he explained. “Coalition after coalition has been trying and it’s just too difficult, so we’re going in through the back door with the developer.”
Snowmass is approaching the issue through a new childcare facility and apartments. The sole existing childcare facility serves about 30 children, Shenk said. So, the Town is building a new one at double the size that will include infant care. The village is also building a 62-unit affordable apartment complex. “We’re trying to figure out ways in which we can ease burdens on people so that they can thrive, not just survive, in Snowmass Village,” she explained.
Silt’s new wastewater treatment plant will open the door to more housing. “We’ve got over a thousand units in the pipeline that are going to be built over the next 10 to 15 years,” Hanrahan said. “It’s infrastructure supporting development, which then transitions into supporting affordable, attainable workforce housing.” He added that the issue is best addressed collectively.
“It’s so critical that we have not just public forums like this, but we have the mayor’s meeting that the county commissioners put on where we can kind of detail how the sausage gets made,” he said.
Questions from the audience included how officials are working with Latino and bilingual communities and encouraging participation in local government.
Riddle gave a shout- out to Crystal Mariscal, the first Latina to serve on New Castle’s City Council. Riddle said he has tried to “embrace the Latino community” through town events over the past decade but it has been difficult to attract attendance. “We haven’t reaped what we have sown but we’ll keep trying,” he said, acknowledging that Latinos make up close to 50% of enrollment in two local school districts and the areas surrounding New Castle.
Bohmfalk added that the immigrant community is diverse, a mix of recent immigrants, multiple generations of longtime residents and those who were born in the US. “Where you came from might not welcome people coming to the mayor and talking to them about local issues,” he said. “So I think we have a role to play in civic education and outreach.”
He explained that Carbondale’s Latino Advisory Board has not seen much success. “It’s not a simple thing,” he said, encouraging everyone to pick an issue and get involved, which could spark a chain reaction. “People will tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘Hey, I want to run for council’. And then they’ll say, ‘Hey, I want to run for mayor,’” he said. “And then, I think, we’ll have a more representative government.”