NEWS | COMMUNITY | SPORTS | CULTURE | OPINION Crested Butte News the News never sleeps | www.crestedbuttenews.com VOL.60 | NO.4 | JANUARY 24, 2020 | 50¢ Housing committee talks North Valley projects North Village, Slate River Annexation, and needs assessment in the works [ BY KENDRA WALKER ] Representatives of Mt. Crested Butte, Crested Butte, the Gunnison Valley Housing Fund, the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA) and the Board of County Commissions (BOCC) huddled together on January 9 to discuss coordination opportunities for potential affordable housing projects taking shape in the north end of the valley. Additional folks in attendance represented the North Vil- lage, the Rocky Mountain Biological Laborato- ry (RMBL) and Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR). HIGH IN THE MOUNTAINS: Dean Dillon again led the Mountain High Music Festival last weekend in Mt. Crested Butte. Dillon The group discussed the North Village and his cadre of friends entertained and raised funds for local charities. photo by Robby Lloyd parcel, the Slate River Annexation and possible funding opportunities for those projects and future affordable housing projects. The com- mittee plans to hold these meetings every other Skier triggered A fellowship of month and will meet next on February 27 at 3 Red Lady slide unrepresented p.m. in the Mt. Crested Butte council chambers. North Village collaboration Mt. Crested Butte is collaborating with early Sunday voices North Village Associates, LLC and RMBL to ex- Arvin Ramgoolam awarded plore a partnership in the development of the Lucky solo skier loses a ski the prestigious Adina North Village parcel. but not his life Town will spend the next four months in Talve-Goodman Fellowship a due diligence period determining their goals, [ BY MARK REAMAN ] [ BY DAWNE BELLOISE ] needs and wants for how to incorporate the 17 acres they own that’s included in the parcel. Red Lady Bowl is probably one of the “You live in a story when If they wish to proceed with the partnership, highest profile backcountry ski runs in Colo- you live in this town.” town will work with owners the Alvarez fam- rado. Sitting above Crested Butte, the access —Arvin Ramgoolam ily and RMBL to put together a Planned Unit is easy and powder tracks are a constant Development (PUD) that best fits all parties’ presence from fall until late spring. It is not Local writer and Townie Books store objectives for the site plan. unusual for people to watch skiers descend co-owner Arvin Ramgoolam was notified Housing, especially rental housing, has the bowl from the top ridgeline. been listed as a top priority for the Mt. Crest- last week that he had been awarded the photo by Nolan Blunck It was just such a scenario last weekend ed Butte Town Council. With RMBL as one of prestigious Adina Talve-Goodman Fel- ibeth Batcha, in memory of an editor at the that set Crested Butte Search and Rescue’s the partners, there is also a desire for seasonal lowship for his fictional short story, “A Ski publication. One Story is a literary maga- Mountain Rescue Team into action Sunday employee housing built into the PUD. Repre- Lesson for Geeta.” He was chosen from the zine founded in 2002 and publishes 12 morning. According to Search and Rescue’s sentatives from RMBL and CBMR mentioned many worldwide applicants, he says rather times a year, each issue containing a single Rob Weisbaum, a man living in Crested Butte possibly joining forces on seasonal housing, humbly, “Because they liked my story, art- short story. The magazine prides itself on caught the winter crud so was home sick and with RMBL solving their housing need during ist statement and they interviewed my two discovering talented new writers like J.D. scoping the bowl from his couch when he their summer programming months and Vail references.” Salinger. watched a skier start down looker’s right of serving their housing needs during the winter The fellowship will allow Ramgoolam The fellowship is awarded yearly to the bowl. He watched as the skier triggered a months. the opportunity to work on his submit- a single writer. Ramgoolam is the second slide, saw an airbag deploy but then lost site Town also plans to hold a series of open ted story, and others he’s written, with the recipient of the award. “All entries are of the skier. He called 911 at about 10:45 a.m. houses to invite community involvement and awarding editors from One Story maga- short fiction and meant for literary writ- “The Mountain Rescue team deployed feedback over the next several months prior to zine. Part of the fellowship is also to help ers; in other words, not science fiction or a hasty team right away,” said Weisbaum. a PUD application. “The hope is that the appli- improve story writing skills through online romance, but fiction that would be con- “We started watching the bowl and we saw cation process is more streamlined,” said Mt. classes and a week-long summer confer- sidered mainstream artistic,” he explains. the skier come out by the slide. The guy who Crested Butte community development direc- ence in New York City. The award and magazine are built on the called it in also said he saw the skier exit the tor Carlos Velado. “We’ll spend more time on The Adina Talve-Goodman Fellow- premise of providing opportunity for un- slide.” the front end with the community in the hopes ship was created by One Story magazine represented voices. Weisbaum said the team also initiated founding editors Hannah Tinti and Mar- CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 that it shortens that procedure.” the Rapid Avalanche Deployment (RAD) CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 team response for the first time this year when the call came in. The specialty RAD team immediately calls in a couple of ski pa- trollers, an avalanche rescue dog and a rescue [ Overheard ] helicopter when there is notification of a local avalanche with people possibly being bur- “For as crappy as the ied. Given Sunday’s weather conditions, the snow is it’s skiing really helicopter was called in from Rifle but was sent back before arriving after it was deter- 15 20 well on the steeps.” mined there was not a burial. Profile: John Polzin Flag ceremony CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 2 | January 24, 2020 EDITORIAL Crested Butte News WORLD NEWS WORLD First U.S. case of potentially deadly Chinese coronavirus confirmed A Washington state man has been diagnosed with the mysterious vi- rus that broke out last month in China, becoming the first confirmed case in the United States of an illness that has killed at least six peo- ple and sickened close to 300 people in China and others in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, according to U.S. officials. The man returned to the U.S last week from a trip to visit relatives in Wuhan, where the outbreak began, before federal health officials began screen- ing travelers at Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York’s John F. Kennedy international airports, the first such effort since the 2014 Ebola outbreak.—information compiled from The Washington Post Six-year-old raises over $240,000 for Australia’s bushfires Six-year-old Owen Colley from Hingham, Mass., is making clay koa- las to help animals affected by the Australian bushfires, and has al- ready raised over $240,000 Australian. Owen’s mother, Caitlin, told photo by Nolan Blunck CNN her son had been upset when he learnt of Australia’s bushfires, and particularly their impact upon the country’s wildlife. Owen want- Power of the mountains and a unicorn ed to help, so he and his family came up with the idea of making clay There’s a big ol’ world out there beyond High- skiing and had an airbag that very likely kept him koalas. Initially, they were to be gifts for friends and family who do- ways 135 and 50. I popped in there last week and it’s from serious injury or even death. And people need to nated $50 or more to Australian volunteer group Wildlife Rescue South sort of different. There are a lot of people in that world: remember that despite the perception that Red Lady Coast. However, the Colleys quickly surpassed their initial fundrais- sophisticated business types walking downtown Lon- is the second Crested Butte ski area with so many ing goal of $1,000 and the family then launched a GoFundMe with a don, a dozen languages being spoken at the Munich people hitting the bowl all the time, it is actually a big revised goal of $5,000 Australian. Instead, it has raised over $240,000 in airport, everyone carrying skis around Kitzbühel. After backcountry run. Sunday’s slide was at least the third just one week—and is still going. —information compiled from Mashable a quick trip across the pond filled with hiccups (Travel significant slide in the bowl in three years. Alert: Make sure your passport doesn’t expire in less The solo skier who had skied the bowl dozens NATION SpaceX completes key safety test of spacecraft for astronauts than three months if you go to Continental Europe), of times before admitted he got a bit complacent and SpaceX on Sunday successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket and destroyed I realized most of those people are pretty nice and skipped some safety measures, which resulted in his it after jettisoning a Crew Dragon capsule into the Atlantic Ocean. The willing to help out a country bumpkin from a small situation. He ultimately skied back to the bottom on mission was a key test of the emergency abort system for the spacecraft mountain town in Colorado.