Like the rest of the country, local governments and businesses are tightening their budgetary belts as
2009 begins.

The most noticeable indicators of the economic downtown has been the rapid cooling of the real estate market and the subsequent cutbacks and reorganization at Colorado Mountain News Media, which owns many local and weekly newspapers in the region, and relies on advertising dollars.

The weakening economy has also hit natural gas companies, which have scaled back on their revenue projections and their investments.

Most local governments have also scaled back on their budgets or taken a conservative approach, with the exception of Garfield County, which has a number of significant capital expenditures it is moving forward on.
 

Read Pete Fowler's article in the Post Independent
 

The Basalt government plans to add 200 units of deed-restricted affordable housing in the town by the end of 2012 even though recession has temporarily eased demand.

An assessment prepared by a consultant concluded in December that the town needs about 1,000 units for all income levels just to "catch up" to existing demands and "keep up" with future growth. Another 400 units will be needed on the town's fringes, like in El Jebel, the report said. 

The national economic crisis has flooded the midvalley market with vacant rental housing and paralyzed sales, but town officials want to get new rules in place for when prevailing conditions return.

Basalt has a general fund budget of less than $5 million so it cannot afford to tackle the demand by itself.

Read the Aspen Times article by Scott Condon
 

The Pitkin County commissioners committed  to spend $3 million to buy or help develop some employee rental units.

The county has $8.6 million in a dedicated housing fund that it has been saving since 2004 when it completed the 13-unit Stillwater project east of Aspen.

Of that $8.6 million, $4.4 million is from a housing impact fee and another $4.2 million is from mitigation payments made by developers in lieu of building physical housing units.

One hurdle previously in the county's way of committing to housing was not being able to decide whether to fulfill the urgent need for housing for its own employees, or the responsibility the commissioners feel to build housing for the general community.

The board solved its dilemma and clarified that it will seek to build a 50/50 mix of staff and community housing over the long run.

It also agreed that the county will not act as sole developer of housing but instead as a funding partner with other entities and developers, that they are fine with buying down free-market units and placing a deed restriction on them, and that the county should place a priority on acquiring or helping to develop rental units.

The board also agreed that any housing needs to be inside the county's urban growth boundary. On the other hand, the board also agreed that securing housing as far downvalley as Carbondale would be OK.

Read Brent Gardner-Smith's full article in Aspen Daily News
 

Newly sworn-in Garfield County Commissioner Mike Samson wasted no time in addressing one of his main concerns of uniting county administration with that of the county municipalities at his first meeting as a county commissioner.

Samson proposed organizing a Garfield County Forum to develop a better working relationship between the county and its municipalities. In his proposal Samson stated that the purpose of this forum is to "coordinate among all parties issues of mutual interest. Hopefully doing so would foster better communication and understanding between all."

Read the Post Independent article by John Gardner
 

The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority expects to have its bus rapid transit (BRT) project fine-tuned and in place by 2011 instead of 2012.

The Federal Transit Administration is speeding BRT along by giving RFTA initial approval for its application for $21 million for the project. Now the bus agency is preparing a detailed project management plan for the FTA, which will include more information about the proposed construction schedule and how the $50 million project will be managed.

Regional voters in November approved a sales tax increase to fund RFTA, which gives the agency the ability to spend about $40 million on BRT and other improvements, including buying 15 new buses.

Read the Aspen Daily News Article by BG Smith
 

Third Street Center plans for a positive new year

2009 is shaping up to be a big year for The Third Street Center.

With the completion of a land swap between the Roaring Fork School District and the Town of Carbondale, and the creation of a master lease between the Town and the newly formed 501c3 nonprofit organization, the Third Street Center begins construction on the old Carbondale Elementary School this month.

HMC's Colin Laird is working on the Center through the Roaring Fork Community Development Corp., which HMC created with The Manaus Fund.

Visit www.thirdstreetcenter.net for more information on the Center.

Read Jeremy Heiman's article in the Sopris Sun.
 

When Carbondale lost its weekly newspaper to what its owner blamed on the economy, former town Trustee Russ Criswell said he "missed out on a couple of things."

"A bunch of us decided we needed a newspaper in our town, just to keep up on the issues," Criswell said. "So that's what we did."

Community activists launched The Sopris Sun less than two months after Colorado Mountain News Media suspended publication of The Valley Journal on Dec. 25. The Sun's debut on Feb. 12 came as The E.W. Scripps Co. was mulling the future of the nearly 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News in Denver. As losses mounted, the News shut down last week.

The Sopris Sun has published the fourth issues of a free weekly started largely by volunteers and run as a nonprofit organization. Issues are typically 16 pages, in color, with a run of 3,000 copies.

The Town of Basalt's search for a replacement for Town Manager Bill Efting recently finished with the hiring of Bill Kane. 

Bill Kane is well know in the region.  He was most recently a principal with Design Workshop in Aspen. He has held high-profile planning positions as planning director for the city of Aspen and Pitkin County from 1974 to 1978 and as vice president of planning for the Aspen Skiing Co. from 1996 to 2005.

Efting has accepted the city administrator post in the Front Range town of Dacano

We will both Bill's all the best.
 

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