Good evening. Dang, that works great. Hey, listen, if it's okay, I'm going to start a little
early. We have 155 minutes to get this done. We do not have enough time. So the kindness
of the people in this room, including these people in the front, will determine whether
or not this thousand dollars goes to the shod home team. I'll explain that in a minute.
it. We don't have enough time. We have 14 candidates and you have to love that because
where in the world do you get 14 people wanting to be on the council? I am amazed. You have
these people around of applause.
So I have like three pages of introductions to show
you how incredible I am. I am not going to share that with you. I really want to
take a very short brief moment to say thank you to the Chamber, Michelle and her team,
Rhonda and the rest of the board, they put this on. You guys are guests of the
Chamber of Commerce. This is not a town function. You are here as their guest. And
very much like when I did Little League, I have benched more parents than I
have ever benched the athletes. And I have thrown people out for throwing
their bats, both the parents and the athletes. So we're going to behave. This
This is the quorum like you've never seen.
Government in this community is different than Washington.
We do believe in compromise, but we will never compromise our principles.
So I want you to know that as a group here, we support these people and we support the
outcome.
I want to thank Mayor Turnip Seed and his board.
I want to thank our wonderful town staff led by Larry Partee.
Thank you so much, Larry.
You guys have been amazing.
The technical team.
You guys, we could not do this without you.
There is a camera up there recording this live stream to everybody at home.
The ones that couldn't be in the room tonight.
Chief Kerry and her team, thank you so much for taking care of us tonight.
And I appreciate, as I said, the 14 candidates.
I won't go over their names.
They're going to introduce themselves here in a minute.
And really thank you guys.
Thank the audience.
Thank you guys at home.
I sincerely appreciate your belief in democracy.
It's a very fragile thing.
Without participation, without votes, without your involvement, this stuff doesn't happen.
It goes away.
I would tell you about a gentleman at this point in history in Russia that would invent
the nuclear bomb, the atomic bomb.
I won't go into details, but he sacrificed his career for democracy.
He looked back on what he had done.
He got the Nobel Peace Prize on this date in 75.
And I would tell you his name, it's hard.
Andrea Dmitriev Sakovac.
But anyway, this good man was in Gorky for a lot of years until finally Gorbachev let
him out.
But he wrote a piece that described democracy and pluralism and free speech and intolerance
and dogmatism just can't happen in their country.
We're facing that stuff today.
And also, this is John Lennon's birthday, so give peace of chance.
So what we're going to do, and we are right on time, is start with three minute introductions
and then it's going to go left to right, or right to left a bit and you're looking at
it, but they'll start in that corner over there with these candidates.
They will introduce themselves and we're going to follow up in the opposite direction
with two and a half minutes for just two questions.
I wish we had more time.
and then they'll have two minutes for their closing remarks.
Are we clear?
Clear.
Good.
Go.
What's that?
Timer.
Oh, you got the timer?
Okay, everybody can hear me testing, testing.
Casey Glowacky, hi everybody.
Thanks for coming out.
This is amazing.
I know I'm a little bit nervous,
which means that I care,
that I really, really want this position,
in this job, if you will.
I am an entrepreneur.
I own Wild Sage, capital public house
and cut meat and seafood here in Eagle.
I live with my wife of 21 years today.
So, my wife's here.
And I'm a Colorado native that was a transplant
in Charleston for 20 years.
We started a family, opened up some restaurants,
got involved in the restaurant business,
and then Colorado started calling, the mountains started calling and we came here, I wanted
to show my wife around and she said let's move here. So that was coming up on seven
years ago. My strength is building relationships, fostering trust, leading by example and figuring
out problems. I am a greedy little guy that gets things done. I'm not afraid to admit when I don't
understand things, and I'll find out positions to do it, or the how to do it. I think there's
so many businesses. When you look up and down Broadway and on Capitol Street, you see a lot
of closed doors. It's sad to me. I have businesses. When I talk to other businesses, business
owners around here, everybody is saying they need more traffic. They need more competition.
They need, you know, retail stores. We need more retail. A rising tide lifts all ships.
steps. Studies have shown that a town thrives in a certain area of population. I'm running
on green lighting projects that will get us to that thriving nature. Whatever that is,
sustainable growth, however you want to call it, we need more traffic, which is going
to ultimately how businesses thrive and there's going to be a snowball effect.
More people are going to make money in businesses, restaurants, retail.
They're going to start dreaming.
I've seen this in Charleston.
I've lived through it and it works.
I have a unique situation.
I also own a restaurant in Edwards.
Edwards has massive spikes in business.
We don't get that down here.
I've got 13 more seconds. So I will finish with if you so vote for me. I appreciate it. Thank you
very much.
Thank you very much because he real quick before you say anything. Shaw at home. $1,000.
Nate Borgetsky, amazing comedian had this idea during the Emmys. If you guys go over your
time limit. I subtract money off of this. If you go under, I add money to it. Now, this
is my personal money, so don't spend it. Please spend lots of it.
Good evening, everybody. My name is Scott Davison. I'm running for Eagle Town Council,
and I am so honored and blessed and just so grateful for the opportunity to be able
to throw my hat in the ring with all of these wonderful folks. They're all representatives
and we together is what makes Eagle Eagle.
So what my focus is, is to collaborate
and to bring people in for more discussions,
more transparency, finding ways to streamline
local businesses, permitting to getting, you know,
anything that they need done and communication-wise,
and this is something that I personally attend to
as well in my own business, is to make sure
that you have somebody you can rely on
that you can account with,
And having that in the town when you're trying to build and develop, sustain or have a business
in general or even just to live there, it's nice to know that you can depend on people
and that you can count on them.
And so I want to really focus on number one is transparency.
I think it's just so important that people know what's going on in their community
and the town has done a great job of having communications go out and I want to expand
on that and look to have council in the community meetups where it's a very
casual environment, but instead of me being behind a pulpit with other folks, it's going
to be lax. It's going to be out and where you can have a conversation, you can express
your concerns. And the most important part is we get to collaborate. I will be your
advocate every single day when I'm a town council member, and I can't wait to represent
you and understand that you have a voice for the next four years.
Another object that is important to me as I was already leading into is local
businesses and streamlining that if we can increase the amount of business that we have by volume
we're going to succeed together not only by the business ship but we're going to have local
residents wanting to work locally instead of transiting to the Vale Valley like upper area
they want to go to Vale Beaver Creek all these and we have a lot of congestion on six
we need to bring more opportunity to the local area and we have two commercial districts
just as Casey touched on that there's probably eight to 10 percent of our
commercial buildings are running vacant right now and I think that it's so
important that we get these buildings filled in with wonderful business
owners that are here locally and want to support locally and that will also
entail to supporting the other local businesses because who doesn't love
local Colorado is all about it and that's what I'm going to make sure
that it is upheld every single day and I already love to be local I've been
here in Eagle for about three years and I've been in the valley since 2017 and I can't think
of another place I would rather be and that's why I've thrown my hat in the ring and I'm
so excited to share how I can help you most importantly as we continue this journey to
make an Eagle more vibrant, sustain the entrepreneurship that we have that is so vital and to grow
together and share that success.
Thank you.
You just added money for the shod home team. Thank you so much. I also have a gavel if things
get out of control. Oh shoot, there's the water. Wonderful. All right, Brian, three minutes.
Thank you, sir.
Hi, my name is Brian Conkel. Many of you already know me. I've lived here for most
of my life. I was born and raised here. I own two businesses in town. My family owns
a plot in the cemetery. This is where I plan to be laid to rest. Eagle isn't just where
I live. This is my forever home. Now, like many of you, there are things that I would
like to improve about Eagle. But there's not a lot of things I'd like to change. We
We are the heart of the valley.
We are a community.
Unlike other areas, the faces you see next door are the same neighbors that you're going
to have for years, and sometimes even generations.
But in a certain way, that's starting to shift.
The medium home price here is above a million and a half dollars.
It's pricing out to working class families, literally the backbone of Eagle.
The teachers, the tradesmen, the bartenders, the small business owners, all the people
who make this place cool and help it thrive are slowly being taken out.
While we will welcome everyone in this community, including those with deep pockets, we have
to make sure that Eagle remains a place where everyone can be.
Saving the working class isn't just an economic need.
it's preserving the soul of EGLE.
It's the place we all call home.
We also need to be a more business-minded approach,
one focused on long-term, strategic financial growth.
For too long, EGLE has had a pattern
of making short-sighted financial decisions.
We've passed on opportunities like Costco,
lost revenue from the airport,
and adopted policies
without fully understanding how they impact or restrict our local businesses.
A recent example is the local ban on flavored tobacco.
I'll be the first to
say flavored tobacco is harmful. It causes conditions like popcorn lung and
there are national ban I'd support it. But a local ban does not solve this
problem. With gypsum just five minutes down the road and most flavored
tobacco products easily purchased online, that ban doesn't actually keep
these products out of our community. What it does do is harm local businesses. It drives
customers and their gas money down the road. It takes revenue out of the eagle at a time
when our five-year financial projections look grim. If we want a strong future, we have
to make decisions that balance both public health with economic reality. Decisions
that protect both our people and our prosperity. Thank you so much.
You're just bobbing 10 more seconds so thank you. Good evening. You're ready to add a bit more
on there because I believe in being short and sweet. My name is Tanya Jordette. This evening
I'm coming to you as a mother. I'm coming to you as a veteran, as a member of our community,
as a member of our community that cares deeply for how things are done here. I
moved here in 2021 with my daughter. She was 15 years old. She was going to
Eagle Valley High School transplant as a military child coming up here. She
graduated from there and is heading to CU Boulder this year as a freshman. My
son he's 23 he's in the Navy serving our country in Washington State very proud
of both of them and they had thank you they spent you know the last four years
here in Eagle and it helped to frame them for who they are as
I'm really proud of them. I'd like to share with you why I'm running for Eagle Town Council.
I want you to know that I operate on principles and not profit. There is no financial incentive
for me in filling this seat on the council. I'm running because I think the people of
Eagle need to be heard. I have listened to voters. I have read through the 100 pages
of the community survey that was done in 2024 and many town projects reviewed as quote-unquote
expensive and non-essential. 75% of the constituents are unhappy with the current leadership per
the survey. Constituents are concerned with a balanced budget, repairing and maintaining
our current infrastructure, affordable housing, and civic amenities. I'm listening. I look forward
to hearing what your concerns are tonight and over the next couple weeks as it leads up to the
election. Thank you. Thank you so much, Tonya.
Great. Thank you. Mark, you guys are spending a
of my money.
I don't like to stand with my back to people. I'm Mark Bergman. I was raised in a
family that valued community service. I volunteered as a paramedic and a ski patroller for over 20
years. My local government experience includes serving on a planning board where we tackled
issues that are relevant here today, attainable housing growth, and balancing the needs of
long-time families with those of newcomers and part-time residents.
One of my proudest accomplishments was chairing a special planning commission that successfully
rewrote a 30-year-old comprehensive plan and land use program.
Despite years of failure, failed attempts by others, our team achieved approval from
one of the nation's most powerful and restrictive regional planning agencies.
processes.
We're able to streamline and transfer jurisdiction to our small town. I've immersed
myself in Eagle County. I've served on the Eagle County Health Services District Board.
That's the paramedic service for short. I chair the Eagle County Zoning Board of Adjustment
And I serve on the Eagle County Land Use Rewrite Advisory Committee and the Board of Equalization.
I've experienced.
Experience doesn't mean knowing the answers or finding the problems necessarily.
It means knowing the right questions to ask to make informed decisions.
I think experience matters.
I don't think town councils should be at training grounds where because they make
such serious and impactful decisions. I've done my homework. I've been attending town
council meetings for over six months. I've read every town meeting agenda for the last
year. Those are documents that are over 100 pages long. They're complex. They're tedious
to read. It's a big commitment for a town council member. It's a lot of preparation.
And to cost Kevin a little bit more money. I'll just close saying Eagles at a crossroads. There are exciting projects, but we face real challenges with limited resources.
And I think we should balance smart economic growth with a strong sense of community that makes Eagles special. Pay up Kevin.
Thank you, Mark. Okay, I got 34. Hey, I did fail to mention.
with this kind of a crowd. Here's an exit. Obviously, there's an exit. We need to point
those out to you. Okay. Next, we have Tim. Thank you, sir.
Hello, everyone. I'm Timothy Haley. And I'm going to say things that most of you probably
aren't expecting, and most of the candidates won't. I don't really care about getting
elected. I care about seeing eagle thrive. That's my number one goal for being here.
and a group of people not related to each other
had approached me and said, would you consider this?
And I at first said, no, I'm not interested.
And then more people came and said, with your skill set,
I think you can do good things for the town of Eagle.
So I stepped in and I started listening first
and that's what you can count on me to do most.
But here's some of the stuff that I'm thinking about.
What's most important for you to understand here
is the how.
Everyone's gonna tell you a ton of what they want to do
but it's important for you
and you online to understand how they're going to get it done.
Because that's what actually is going to impact you and matter
four years from now, three years from now.
So a little bit about myself.
I moved to Eagle County in 2002 full time.
I came in 2001.
I've worked for Alpine Bank since 2014.
And I've got a unique job where
I work exclusively with business, the private sector,
the public sector, and nonprofit.
I primarily work right now with Summit Eagle
and route counties, but I've worked from Aspen to Glenwood to Rango to Junction, and my job is
walking into businesses, municipalities, and nonprofits and figuring out how they thrive.
So I spend all day with business owners, and I know that in order for a town to thrive,
tax revenue is king. Tax revenue is a lifeblood of a town. And when you start to squeeze that,
as you look down Main Street, you wonder, where's all the businesses? That's what's
impacting the town. You can't get art done. You can't get the river park done. You can't
get more trails done without tax revenue.
So if any of these candidates are promising you things,
you have to ask them, how are they going to do it?
My vision is East Eagle.
There's 260 buildable acres that Merv Lappin has
with Eric and Spencer Blair.
I believe that can generate tax revenue.
And the infill, the work that Turnup Seed has done
and the existing council has set a great platform.
We don't need to get rid of it.
We need to build on it and follow the plan
that's in place for Eagle.
The last part of how I would do this
is immediately figuring out how the process can be improved for the private sector to come in and
thrive in EGLE. And I will challenge anyone here tonight, go to town and buy me a pair of shoelaces
and I'll match that thousand dollars. You can't purchase a pair of shoelaces in town. How can
you have revenue if you can't tax revenue if you can't do the simple things? So that's my
promise to you is I'm going to figure out the how and the rest of it doesn't really matter.
Thank you.
Oh, God.
You guys are costing me money.
This is great.
Hey, Barbara, on your way out of here, can you swing by city market and pick me up some shoelaces?
All right, Gina.
Thank you.
Hi, everyone.
It's lovely to be here tonight.
It's an honor to be in front of a big group of people engaging in local politics.
My name is Gina McCracken, and I'm running for Eagle Town Council.
So I'm 28 years old and I'm a working class person in this community.
I was born and raised in Metro Detroit, Michigan and have been in Colorado collectively for
about a decade.
I moved out here in 2016 to get my undergraduate degree from Colorado State University in human
dimensions of natural resources.
I've always been very passionate about civic engagement and local government and policy
work and as such got very involved in my student government, served as a senator
for my college at CSU and then served as the Director of Environmental Affairs for two years at
Colorado State. After that, I moved up to Northern Utah for two years to get my master's degree in
environmental sociology from Utah State University. While that was an incredible experience, I really
missed being in Colorado and wanted to get back into the applied fields after a student in
academia. In my job search, I was fortunate to find my previous job serving as the Climate
Action Collaborative Manager at Walking Mountains and I think that's important to mention because
it was in that role that I started to forge really critical relationships with the Town of Eagle
regional communities and nonprofits. So in that role I organized and facilitated a group of over
30 stakeholders towards meeting our climate action plan goals set at the county level
and work with the Town of Eagle on a number of projects. It has been many times that I've
stood at the podium before the town council side-by-side with staff presenting on policies,
providing informative information for the community related to sustainability projects.
So a couple examples of those are that I supported the most recent Town of Eagle building code
update in partnership with the building planning and sustainability department within
the town.
I participated as a sustainability advisor in the Recode Eagle project to amend the
zoning and land use codes here and make sure
that those were done sustainably.
I wrote the EV infrastructure plan for the county
and presented that in an informational capacity
to the town of Eagle and supported
with the composting program rollout.
The list goes on and on.
So I share that because I have formed
really impactful relationships with towns
across the region, but particularly within this town
that I have lived in for about four years
and care about very much.
And as such, I have a great amount of knowledge
on how town functions work.
I understand that the town council member role
is to set the vision and give staff direction
and make decisions and the staff role in that
is to provide the town expertise and recommendations
on how to achieve this role.
I think understanding the function of government
and how things can actually be done within communities,
within budgeting and staff capacity constraints
are incredibly important.
Oh gosh, I have very little time left.
I serve on a number of boards in my personal capacity
including for New Roots, Colorado, and the Town Sustainability Advisory Committee.
The platform that I'm running on is Community, Environment, and Progress, and I'll end there.
Thank you so much.
Hey, Jim, actually, I don't need shoelaces, and I went there looking for them, and they
didn't have a very good supply.
So you're exactly right.
Okay, Scott, thank you.
Hello.
Thank you for coming.
My name is Scott Schreiner.
I was lucky enough to find Eagle in 2007.
I believe that anyone that's in this room today is very lucky to be here as well,
whether they're born here, whether they arrived here later or within the last couple weeks.
We're all very lucky to live in this special place,
and that's kind of one thing I do want to stress for everybody here.
And because of that, we do have a shared vision in the shared community
because we want to keep that special place just as special as it was when we found it.
That doesn't mean that development is a bad thing.
No, development is needed. We do need sales tax revenue.
we do need density downtown. We do need to welcome other people into our community with open arms.
In 2008, I married my wife of the Brush Creek Pavilion. Our first of two children was born
at the Vale Valley Medical Center. Yes, it was called that way back in 2009. My second child was
born in 2011. We have called Eagle Home for 18 years and I've been blessed with the opportunity
to raise both of my kids here and to have a family and to live a very complete and fulfilling
life. At its most basic, this is why I'm running for town council, so that these same opportunities
are available to my kids, to your kids, the current and future residents, to our grandkids,
to our grandparents, and to everybody that just wants to take the risk to come here and start a
life. I believe in forming partnerships with other municipalities, with nonprofits, with HOAs,
with community members and businesses, as well as other stakeholders in the community. I believe
we need to form these partnerships to both tackle the big problems and the small problems.
At its most basic, I believe in smart growth that protects and preserves
our mountain culture, our connection to the outdoors, our shared community,
and our small town character. When I'm making decisions of the town council member,
these are the four traits and values I will go back to. I'll ask myself,
how does this affect our mountain culture? How does this affect our connection to the
outdoors? What does this do? Or how does it help our shared community? And how does it
preserve our small town character.
Thanks so much Scott. Todd. Yeah. I've been in town 35 years. I'm an asshole. All right.
I need the microphone I guess. So anyway, I've been in town 35 years. I'm the type of guy you should vote for for town council. I'm a change agent. If you want something done and you want something
change, you call me. I want to hear from you people as well, all right? I run a
construction company, I've run it for 30 years, and I've run it for profit. Tonya,
sorry, I'm in the profit game, all right? I run it for profit, and I spend 20
million dollars a year in the town of Eagle, okay? The staff is too slow
with regard to plan review, the staff is too slow with regard to permit
approval. The staff is too slow with regard to major subdivision applications and they're too slow
with PUD. If you can't keep up, find new staff who can, who are capable. Okay? Because I'm telling
you, we have people on staff, we could pay half and they'd be twice as effective. Okay, enough
of my complainant. Like I said, I'm an asshole. My platform is give back to Eagle. Eagle has
been very good to me. All right. I love my life partner. I've raised three kids in this
town. I got my partner ran the local dance studio for five years and committed to tons
of moms and little girls. Pain in the ass. And she did it. All right. I am super proud
of her. All right. My platform is GIF. G is for growth. Casey, how many people
do we need to get your restaurant to where it's not closing at 8.30 at night? Give
in number. 2500, 3000. Three people per household. You're going to get ready people because we
need a thousand more units. Okay. I agree with Brian Kunkel. It's not affordable. It's a problem.
But if I build at 500 a foot and I build a 800 square foot unit, that's 400 grand.
I got to cover PITI and overhead. I got to sell it at 525. If you told the midwesterner
that yet the buying apartment for $525,000, they collapse. All right? But operating materials
are up, labor's up. Right now, Larry has us where revenues are down 33%. Expenses are up 13%. My daddy
He always wanted it the other way around.
Okay. Overall short, 40 percent, $23 million. So if you don't think this town can go broke,
you're dreaming. Towns go broke every day. I just drug a boat down to Texas, drove through
seven towns at one time. We're vibrant. They're not vibrant now. Infill development, let's
bring vitality, good operators like Casey back to town and less exchange ideas.
We should be talking to Big Steve down the street and know what Gypsum's doing.
See how we can help them and they can help us.
God bless America.
Thanks a lot, Todd.
Yeah.
Robert.
Well, good job, Todd.
But we don't have to explain anything anymore.
We got it right here.
Hi.
My name is Robert D'Agostino and I want to thank the Council for Puttiness on and the town of Eagle the people of Eagle
this is where we thrive right here and
The reason why I'm running for council is well, I played in the sandbox a lot
We're looking right now for a new captain of the ship and
I've worked with Tom olden a lot and I'll tell you what he is the salt of the earth
He's grounded and he would steer the smartest people that I've ever been
associated with behind us. So it's actually your job to pick who would work
well in the sandbox and move this town forward. For myself, I joined the Navy in
79. I was becoming a jet mechanic and along the way I saw a poster on the
wall jumping out of planes, blowing up and shooting a lot of guns. I said
said, that's what I want to do. So for the next 20 years, I went through the hardest training
of my life, Navy SEALs, got out in 89, been all over the world, talked to a lot of people
and you had to negotiate wherever you want to to get things done. People that even speak
your language. But if you look them in the eyes and you show that you cared, you
know what? They would say, they would just do the head nod. And so that's how I get
things done. I got two ears for a reason, one mouth, and I listened. I've been a very
good listener all my life and I don't know about my wife, I don't know if she would even
agree with that, but we're here to listen to you. I don't need to be the smartest person.
I can surround myself with the smartest people and then we can move the ship forward.
So I appreciate you coming out. I appreciate your vote. Thank you very much.
Robert, thank you. You just spent some more of my money.
Jeff, please.
Good evening. My name is Jeff Germer.
I'm married to my wife McKinley. We've been here since 2007.
We have two sons.
Owen is 21. He's at CU also.
And my 17-year-old is a senior at Battle Mountain.
So we're getting ready to be empty nesters.
My wife looked at me. She's like,
She's like, oh man, I'll be stuck with this guy with no one else in the house, you know.
But hopefully we can keep it forward.
I think I'll tell you what my day looked like because I think it will express the role that
I see myself playing on this council for the next four years.
I woke up in Summit County, was at a conference for two days representing the town, attended
the CAST meeting, had to be there at 8 a.m., went from 8 to 12.
We had Birch Baron from Emergency Services presenting on how as local municipalities
we intend to respond to a fire scenario. So I know I have an advantage because I'm the only one
of these 11 that's already been on the council. So they can't say what they've done for the
council. Having said that, I've tried to commit myself to really making sure that
we're not flying blind and that we have the resources and the support we need to keep
our folks safe. I have before that and currently I'm on the Northwest Council of Governments
so that's the 11 counties in Northwest Colorado and I represent the town of Eagle in that
capacity. I'm also the representative of the Colorado Municipal League which is a group
that represents all the municipalities in the state of Colorado. Each of these boards comes
with nuances. And I respect everything that's been said. I especially appreciate the comments
about the vitality of business, but we can't go about this unless we can build teams,
unless we can build bridges, unless we can build trusting relationships with other entities.
And that starts right here as the county seat.
We should be doing a little bit more to build that relationship with the county.
We have a great opportunity to leverage our position as a county seat, whether it's jobs,
whether it's housing.
These are things that are real things that have to be done to run a town.
It is popular right now to be divisive.
If it is popular at the national level to think that the loudest voice wins, I would
challenge that at a local level.
I think we need to be teammates, the seven of us who end up on this council.
We really need to function as one team.
If we can't do that, we're going to send all of you and all of us as a giant ship
of fools, we're going to send it all down in a negative direction.
and I do really worry about trying to bring federal politics to the local level.
I appreciate your vote in November. Thanks. Hold on to that microphone, sir. Hold on to that microphone.
We're going to reverse the order on the question. So right now we're going to go to two and a half
minutes per question, two questions for each candidate. So we'll start at this end.
The next set of questions we'll start at the other end. So Jeff's going to start.
These questions came, a lot of them came from chamber members.
Many of the items we're going to talk about tonight were items that the candidates themselves
answered me in a questionnaire.
We're going to touch on a lot of topics that you already know we're going to talk on,
like housing and climate change and traffic and so on.
So, Jeff, one of the things that you and Gina both have a high degree of interest in is climate.
And so this one actually, this question came from one of our chamber members.
So EGLE's net zero plan sets ambitious goals of achieving 100% energy,
I'm sorry, electric energy and sustainability across the community.
With state funding and incentives now largely unavailable,
how does the town plan to realistically fund these initiatives
without increasing costly regulations, burdens on residents and local businesses,
particularly restaurants and trades that rely on natural gas, how do you balance out sustainability
goals with a need to keep eagle affordable and business friendly? How will these businesses
rely on natural gas that rely on natural gas survive? Great questions, Kevin. Listen,
I'm the son of a naval officer, so there's a special place in my heart for oil and gas.
we won two world wars with it. I acknowledge that. You have to have your head in the sand
to think that 30 years from now we're going to be running these communities on oil and
gas. It's just not the case. Four and a half cents per kilowatt hour. Four and a half
cents is what we pay for wind. So when Holy Cross Energy is trying to decide how to
get you cheap energy, four and a half cents per kilowatt hour for wind. Five and
half cents per kilowatt hour for solar. After that, it only goes up. If you think we're
going to burn coal to create electricity in the future, I think it may be time to revisit
that idea. And so when we talk about, hey, let's get involved in how we're going to
do this, I think the term used was climate. It's a pretty loaded term, right? I think
what I'd like to do is look at it from a financial perspective and really ask tough questions
about what the actual cost of that electricity is.
If you think that cars are going to stop being electric, I think you're wrong.
I think we need to plan for the future of EGLE and not the past, right?
Now with regard to small businesses, I had a small business for six years.
It failed.
It fell apart.
It sucks.
I know what it's like to not be able to make payroll or to be on the edge
It's the worst feeling and I respect that and I think the chamber probably has a pretty good idea how that feels
So of course we need to figure out ways to do this and do it cheap
But I just think that the idea that we're going to try to go back to you know the 1930s and power everything with
with oil and gas
Is really looking backwards at a time where we need to look forward
And he cost me some money. Good man. Thank you. And we'll pass that mic on to Robert.
Thank you so much.
Robert, growth. This is something I think concerns a lot of people
here in our community. You responded to my questions. It hit a nerve that I think we
all share in this community, which is how do we manage or not manage growth?
You
that is intentional and not reactive thoughtful development that respects our small-town culture.
Please share with us your ideas of what that looks like and what type of growth we should
avoid to protect our small-town culture. Good question. Since that's,
if we're going to thrive as a community, we need to provide for business owners,
which is sitting behind us, a way that they can get in business for themselves without
cost an arm and a leg. Now, how's that done? That's done through communication and working
with the people of the town of Eagle because Casey's got the polls, Todd's got the polls.
So that's not my area expertise, but I'm a quick learner to figure out what to do because
when I was building my own house, everything tapped fees, everything was so expensive.
So, how do we make it where people can actually afford to be in business here because that
is the generation, a generator for money for this town.
So, that is a great question and we have a lot of work to do about that.
And personally myself, I'm all ears.
I love to learn something brand new.
This is new to me and I'm all in.
I'm all in.
Thank you.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
Tell
you what, you guys are wonderful.
I was about to ask the wrong question for the wrong person.
So sorry.
For you they are.
The dice are definitely loaded.
All right.
That is definitely not the question either.
Hold on a second.
I'm going to go back.
Here we go.
Gotcha, Todd.
Let's talk about housing, Todd.
Your vision for EGLE is financial stability,
sustainability, reasonable growth, infill development with density, vitality, progressive
business, exchange of ideas with constituents and surrounding towns.
Since housing is a cornerstone of our community, I would like to hear a few more on this issue
and what works and what does not work and how do we go forward and really support attainable
housing for our community.
Thank you.
Yeah. Affordable housing is a very difficult topic. I don't even like the word. I rather
have it be reasonable housing. Okay. And it has to be reasonable, reasonable region to
region. All right. The building costs are fixed. I don't care if you bring in Turner.
I don't care if you bring in Hazeldon, who you bring in. Okay. A sheet of plywood
would cost them as much as it costs me. And the man hour cost them as much as it costs
me. All right. That doesn't change much. We're going to have to build smaller units. All
right. It's the only way you're going to get the price down. All right. And we want to
be bringing in young vital people because nothing disappoints me more than going and
driving by Casey's restaurant and it's closed in Eagle Ranch at 8 30. And I know he's
not happy about it either. All right. The other benefit to building more units that are smaller
and reasonable is we get more tax. Right now, and again, this is somewhere where I'm not
sure how this is calculated, but there are $224 million worth of assets valued in Eagle
County. We get 2.301 mills worth of taxes that goes into our general fund. And that's
down now. That's down to $586,000. I don't know who sets that mill levy. All right? I
don't know how that's audited. And I don't know if that's based on population or value
of the assets in EGLE but I'm going to find out because that line item has to
go up. All right if we don't bring in revenue we are going to be boarded up.
Everything store goes down. We should have units over there. That's CMU commercial
mixed use and that should be retail with regional or very solid local
operators and there could be 12 to 16 more units over there. Reasonable. $500,000 for an apartment
is never going to sound normal to a person in Cleveland. It's never going to sound normal to
somebody in Hamilton, Ohio. Ever. I mean ever. So that is just the reality. We need smaller,
more efficient units and we need to infill. Instead of sprawl, those units should be
downtown.
Thanks, Todd.
Scott,
we're going to talk about small business events. You have an interest
in supporting small businesses and local events to bring people to our downtown. This question
actually comes from our MIAC committee, which is our Marketing and Events Advisory Committee.
In the face of many significant needs and decisions about the infrastructure issues
and investments within our town, this question is about how can we attract more widely beneficial
economic activities here. And what do you believe sets EGLE apart in its destination compared to
its destination competitors? Any suggestions for improvement?
Thank you for that question.
Because what sets us apart is also what makes us unique and wanting to live here. I'll talk
about both Scott Schreiner. I'm sorry. I'm going to talk about both big and small events.
Small events and what I would call micro events are things that can bring people
the downtown both community members and up and down the valley. These are things like
the art walks, the craft fairs, the pop-ups, maybe like a little mini October Fest, closed
down Second Street, closed down a couple of side streets, and just kind of have a nice
small, intimate event and eagle rather than the big, large events that pack them in up
valley. I think people are definitely looking for something that's a little bit more
unique and not veil. In that way, we can actually showcase our very walkable downtown,
our small town character and again some of our mountain culture that makes us
unique and you know in demand. So those are some of the kind of small events you
want. I do believe that we do need to work with community partners and
businesses. When they have an idea we should listen to it and we should
think about well how can we help this idea come to fruition and then we can
look at how many people we brought in, look at some sales tax revenues and
differentiations on those days and say okay well was this event
beneficial? How is this event beneficial? I think it's all right to lose 500 bucks to
close down the street as long as we're bringing people in to Eagle and having a good time.
$500 is a small little price to pay to showcase our town and its unique livability.
As far as kind of a bigger issue or a bigger event, we have the Colorado High School races
come here twice a year. We have the town of Eagle actually owns 12 acres right at the
very base of Haymedow Trail, okay, or the Haymaker Trail, sorry, between Haymedow Development,
you know, why can't we kind of embrace our outdoor connection as well as, you know, our
wonderful world-class trails and our access to wild places right here in the heart of
Eagle by putting on a big outdoor signature event right there, very much like the high
school races, but with less high schoolers and more beer perhaps, okay?
We can bring in vendors, we can bring in food trucks,
we can get the Eagle River Brewing Company
come on out and serve draft beer.
Okay, we can have informational tents,
we can have trail ambassadors bringing people
to our riding locations throughout town.
I'm sure I know Jeff's a big Strava guy,
I'm sure he can figure out something on Strava
where people can pull up stats
and just kind of mark all the trails they're doing
throughout the week or throughout the long weekend
and make it kind of a fun
but semi-competitive little event, okay?
Maybe have a little bay in there.
but close down at five o'clock, let everyone go home, get out of their tights and their Lycra,
and then hit the town later on for dinner in the downtown eagle area or downtown itself.
Wonderful.
Thanks so much, Scott. Gina, you are the only one that brought this up, so I want to thank you
for this. Childcare. Well, I listed child care as a serious concern for our citizens
in our questionnaire to each candidate. You are the only one who addressed it head on.
as an issue we need to solve. You said you were passionately supportive of the
town using tax dollars to provide necessary social services such as
childcare. Have you able, have you been able to flesh out what the town can do
to make this statewide, countywide, federal issue, municipal issue, how can
we solve it? Yeah great question and I will preface by saying I am not an
expert in how small communities like ours bring essential services like childcare to the community.
Gina McCracken. You know, I think the point of my response to your question was that in order
to provide social services that are so needed in rural communities like ours, we need to have the
tax dollars to do so. And so I very much support the town, utilizing the expertise within the
town staff and innovative ideas from neighboring communities to understand how we can look to
our state tax policies and what local municipalities are able to do and find innovative tax policies,
be it through bringing in other businesses and getting sales tax revenue or other mechanisms
to make sure that we can raise the funds to solve issues related to a lack of social
services such as child care.
I know a lot of young parents in this community and I know that we are a community of
young families and real year-round residents, and I hear about how difficult it is to get
a service like childcare in our community, and so to me it just reads as we need an injection
of funds in social services. Governments are not run like businesses. They should not be
thought of as profiteering agencies. When there are tax dollars raised in a community,
the intention is that those are reinvested in the community for social services for
needs of our people, and so I, you know, in my relationship with community members,
Whereas I think that's an incredibly important priority for the town to make.
Thank you.
Timothy, let's talk a little bit about East Eagle.
You have described to me as this is a top issue facing our town.
The activity of East Eagle parcel, or I'm sorry, the activation of the East Eagle parcel,
that Eagle needs to step into this opportunity to embrace smart growth.
A little feedback on me.
I was the chairman of the town planning the zoning the last time this got approved
So this is something that I know a little bit about we filled that room many a times talking about it
What is your vision for the site and what do you see as the pros and cons of its development?
Thank you. I'm Timothy Haley. It's controversial like not everybody wants to see it developed
But when I look around I
I understand that municipalities thrive when they invite other agencies and
entities in. We have a landowner with 260 buildable acres that encompasses south
of the river, north of the river, south of 70, north of 70. It's basically the
barren land that you see as you drive out. You wonder how has that not been
developed? I got first introduced to that land through my children. They play
They travel hockey.
And with Dobson going down, Shawna Topper and I were in Telluride, mentioning the fact
how much we spend when we travel and that none of our children were going to be able
to play home games in town because the rink was going to go down in Eagle.
We were going to be traveling the entire time.
She mentioned that none of her daughters doesn't get to play volleyball tournaments
in town either.
They have to travel every weekend.
And through that conversation, we met Eric Eves.
Eric Eves is partnered with Merv Lapin and Merv Lapin came in and said I'll donate five
acres of that East Eagle parcel if you guys can do something with it.
Can you use it to bring sports tourism to Eagle?
And I met Jason Coles through that process and we sat down and started to pencil this
out and say, well, our entire valley is based on tourism.
That's how our home value's got to be a million dollars plus.
So what is Eagle's value for tourism?
There's a water park that needs some work.
There's the mountain bike trails that continue to expand.
But sport tours and this climate control that could happen 365 days a year the basketball the volleyball and the hockey
Clubs are very strong and a lot of those
Parents live in Eagle. So as we started to explore this Merv and Eric came in and laid out their vision for what their plan
Looks like and what they're trying to do is have a public-private partnership on that land
That's where the larger development can go the tax revenue dollars
70% of our tax revenue comes from one source in that city market
So as Gypsum grows, how long will Ridley's supply their daily grocery needs?
Like at some point, we will lose that access.
The other piece is that the Koolimesa interchange goes in 2029, I think they're slating.
50% of the traffic that drives down Highway 6 currently originates or terminates in Gypsum.
So all of a sudden in the next four years or so, we could see a potential where the traffic count is half.
So what are we going to do to get people off I-70 to spend money in the town?
Because that's how you generate sales tax revenue.
The 7,500 of us in this – I'm about to run out of time – 7,500 people in this community can't support it.
So working with that private landowner or public-private partnership, I believe, is where the big development goes.
You guys are amazing. Thank you for staying on track.
Mark, I want to talk to you a little bit about economic resilience.
You say that in your vision for EGLE is economic resiliency or resilient community, retaining
a sense of community and belonging for all of our residents who choose to participate.
In 2009 recession, the town was not economically resilient.
To be fair, not many businesses or towns actually were adequately prepared for that
economic decline.
Is the town adequately economically resilient?
If not, what do you propose to implement to realize your vision?
I don't know.
That's a really...
If you're asking about how the town as town government is going to be resilient,
that's done with smart financial planning and maintaining the reserves.
I sat through what it was at four or five hours of budget workshops over the last month.
And I heard a lot of dedicated, smart planning going on in terms of the town's finances.
I can't recite the formulas that go into these calculations.
That's why the town hires, employs a CPA and people like Larry and Melissa who've
been doing this way longer than me.
Yes.
I think the town is resilient.
For now, I don't think this town is anywhere near bankruptcy, but to be resilient, we need
to continue to find new sources of revenue.
In this town, that mostly means sales tax.
So now we have to balance that with people's desires or opposition to any sort of growth.
And I'm probably going off topic here, but my concept of how we develop the economy is first infill.
I think we need to be looking at East Eagle for sure.
I think we need to be planning ahead and nudging it forward, if you will,
because I don't think the town should pay for all the infrastructure, you know, the tens of millions
of dollars that would be required there, but I think we need to look at ways to incentivize
bringing Broadway back and making those businesses affordable, not affordable,
making them successful and helping attract business here.
That's sort of basic economic development.
I'm not sure if that's where you were headed, but that's where I went.
No, it's perfect.
Hey, when you're bringing Broadway back, I'm going to jump in.
And this is a real quick response.
Do we incentivize these, since we are now a home rule town,
do we incentivize businesses to locate in certain commercial districts?
That's kind of a yes or no.
The answer is yes. And I really do like pilots, payments, and lieu of taxes. Some
breaks for the first year or two to bootstrap up that new business that comes
into our town. Wonderful. Thank you. Now, I just used up some of my own money, so I
apologize for that. Okay, Tanya, protecting open space and wildlife.
life. Thank you so much for your response to my questionnaires. You mentioned that protecting
open space is critical. While surveys show this is a top concern of our citizens, you
feel this priority has been largely overlooked by our town. Reviewing the 25 budget for the
town and I'm sure you found that we have spent or at least budgeted $682,000 to manage
1,300 open space, open acres of open space. As a member of the town council, would you
advocate the town change something to protect this open space and wildlife? Do you recommend
additional resources and where do you think these resources will be generated?
Great question. Yeah, the open space is near and dear to my heart. Most importantly,
the L-Curds which I think define EGLE. They're on photos all over town showing what EGLE is all about.
Oh, I was just trying to make sure that everyone can see me. I think what's really important
in the open space is maintaining the trails that we have out there and keeping an eye on
the use of the trails and how they're managed. There's been proposal of officers
managing them, but they've only put forth one day a week, which really does not
make sense. People are out there all week long, most importantly, on the
weekends. Our elk herds, they don't keep track of a calendar, so when the
trails are closed, that doesn't necessarily coincide to when they come and go.
The growth of the trails and the addition of more miles, I don't think it takes into account
where the herds prefer to migrate through in the town.
and largely the mountain bike clubs in town, in my opinion, have
It's been given free will to whatever they want is what they get and it's largely voted
in without concern for what's happening with our wildlife.
Thank you so much, Tanya.
Brian,
you operate two businesses in the town and several employees.
In your response to my questionnaire, you stated that housing of our workforce is one
of the biggest issues facing our community and local businesses.
As an employer and elected official for the town of Eagle, what solutions do you propose
to mitigate this critical gap in attainable housing?
Well, I really believe, Brian Kunkel, by the way, we really have to lean in on deed-restricted
housing.
And I know that a lot of people are really against deed-restricted housing because they
don't see it as an investment property.
But for a lot of people, it's not about an investment, it's about a forever home.
There's people here that we are sick of doing what they call the valley shuffle every year.
And this is how we are constantly losing employees because there's nowhere for them to go.
And this has literally been a problem in our town and in our valley since I was a kid here.
So it's not something that we've really been really able to tackle.
So it's something that we really need to look at, because at this point, no one in the working
class can buy a house here at a million and a half dollars.
I own two successful businesses.
I would be no more close to being able to afford to be able to buy a house here.
So if we want to have a community where we have working class, where we are able
to have our kids come back to our community, we need to be able to have houses that
are affordable and the only way to really do that up here is deed restricted because in truth on
the open a marketplace it's not going to go down. We do live in a magical place. Everyone wants to be
here. It's beautiful here and that's why it's just artificially the housing prices are never going
to drop. We have to protect our working class. Investment firms are coming in literally buying
up our stock right now. Our rental prices are about to skyrocket because of it. So if
you actually want to have a community, we have businesses, we have thriving businesses,
we have young people. These are the kind of things that we have to do. Or we're just
going to be a community of old rich people. So it really depends on what you guys want.
thank you I'm starting to feel a little bit a little bit attacked here old rich
people that's
okay I have very thick skin Scott
yeah Scott D Scott Davidson
Scott Davidson you discussed with me the conflict between our citizens desire
for housing affordability, not to do this twice but we will, while lamenting over development.
How do you personally and professionally reconcile that on the surface it appears to be in direct
conflict? Do you believe that we are overdeveloped? Great question Kevin and thank you guys.
So with housing it's always going to be a fluctuating market and the affordable housing
you know, we'll always be a tool in the toolkit.
The most important thing that's ever gonna sustain
our businesses, sustain the housing
and help people all be successful together
is by making good decisions at the base levels
across all boards to ensure that people
not only are successful in their own personal wealth
to where they can eventually buy a home
regardless if it's gonna be de-restricted or not.
I fully support de-restriction
and I love the programs.
I work with a lot of them.
Obviously I'm in a title company, so I do so.
But by having people be successful in their own personal interest in an individual capacity and as a business owner, that's what's truly going to drive great housing.
It's going to fill up local places that have not been filled or, you know, these types of things.
And with local housing, you know, I've been in the, you know, the ballgame of having to have multiple roommates, having to work two, three jobs just to survive.
and I get that it's realistic.
Mountain towns and mountain construction
is historically super expensive.
It's not gonna get any cheaper
and as Todd mentioned it's just only going up
and hopefully some point we'll plateau
and we'll have that ability to grow more
but if we're not supporting our local businesses
that can support our local residents
to where they could be more successful
then we'll never have a chance
regardless of how many deed restrictions
and how many of those we can do
and we'll never have the tax dollars
to fund all those, we'll run out.
So, we need to be mindful and we need to be practical on all of these decisions that
we make from a local level, starting at the municipality.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Getting almost through the first question.
You guys are doing amazing.
Casey, I'm going to change gears a little bit here.
Your vision for EGLE is to make EGLE a place for my college-aged kids to move back
to.
Well, I was lucky.
I've got one to move back here and one I'm trying to coerce.
So we've already talked about some of the impediments to moving back here, housing and
sustainable job opportunities, and that kind of describes North Dakota.
But ultimately people live in thriving communities where they themselves feel that there is
a sense of place, provide amenities that they desire and support their values.
So this really gets down to values.
So my question is, does it matter to them if we electrify our communities? Are we good environmental
stewards? If we support and subsidize early child care education? If we have cutting-edge
broadband as a public utility, does our community currently have the amenities and values for that
generation to move back to our community? Well, I appreciate you asking the question,
in case you go lucky. Yeah, I mean, that's near and dear to my heart. I mean, that's
our hope, our dreams that our kids want to move back here. I got one son who just squeezes
this valley as hard as he possibly can. He is on a snowboard. He's on a dirt bike.
He's hiking. He's river surfing. He's learning how to fly fish. There's nothing he won't
do. The other son is a little more one-dimensional and he's like soccer. Soccer, soccer, soccer.
That's all he cares about is soccer. So to answer your question, they don't know that
they're going to be interested in childcare because they just turned 20, three days ago.
They haven't even thought about that. They're in college brain right now. I'm sure they're
chasing girls and that will come next. But I could see one of my sons wanting to open
a business following in his dad's shoes and being an entrepreneur. I could easily see him
doing that. I could see my other son wanting to run a soccer program and teach kids the
next generation how to play soccer. They both have silently whispered to us that we
We were right. This place is awesome. They're both in California. They're feeling the pressure
of thorns honking outside their house. One's in Santa Barbara. That's not so much. He kind
of likes it there. But they, you know, I have a yes mentality to moving forward with
all projects to make Eagle more sustainable for young people to thrive here, whether
whether it's deed restriction, opening a business, anything that comes across my desk is going
to have a yes mentality to moving forward and making for the next generation and we
don't fall backwards.
Marvelous.
Thank you.
So since everybody's giving back so much wonderful time, there are three by five cards
back there.
If anybody has some questions, I can't guarantee we'll get to them.
If we don't get to them, they'll be posed, they'll actually be dealt with through the Chamber of Commerce and they'll post those answers.
But it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask a couple of questions. If we can squeeze them in from the audience, I'd love to do that.
And just as a conflict of interest, just to let you know, I do have a beer mug at Casey's establishment.
I know. Okay. Casey, I'm going to just do this right over again. I'm going to go right back this way again.
So, I'm going to ask you this, basically the same kind of question I asked Brian, because
it really impacts your business.
You operate several labor intensive businesses in our valley in response, was it affordable
housing is one of the top issues facing our community?
If that's the top issue, I want to hear from you on what you as a town official
will do and what solutions will you have to mitigate this critical gap for attainable
housing?
Well, first off, just personally speaking in the restaurant business, I have a couple
servers that pass my businesses here in Eagle because they've gotten in at Drunken Goat.
Everybody knows that all my servers make better money at Drunken Goat.
It's just busier up there.
They're thriving.
My servers down here wish they could work at Drunken Goat, even though they'd rather
live down here and they're already working down here.
So, I need, once they, the restaurants start filling up, and again, this is not personal,
this is not why I'm running this, but this, you ask the question.
So, when my servers start making more money, then they will start thinking about that apartment
or that investment.
They'll start putting money in the stock market.
They'll fill up their Roth IRA or whatever they do that's responsible
they'll start making steps forward. And then once they do that, then they can start looking at a
down payment on an apartment. I agree with the small homes. Who was it? Tim? Who was it said?
Small homes. Like that's, I mean, when we moved here from Charleston, we left a huge house on the
beach and we bought a two-bedroom, 600 square foot house above Main Street Grill
for like $400,000.
We upgraded to a townhouse,
a little bit better down the street.
And then we upgraded to our house here.
So we took a huge step backwards.
My kids were like, what?
This is our house, little two bedroom.
So everybody's got to sacrifice a little bit to get ahead.
But if you start, if you get your foot in the door here
in a small apartment,
that's why I try to tell all these young people,
like, you know, if you don't want to,
if you want to live in Wild Ridge, start in Gypsum.
Just buy a house that's less and then work your way up valley, if that's your dream.
If you want to live in Eagle Ranch in the Highlands, start with a small house in a deed
restricted area that we're going to green light.
Thank you.
You did a really good job.
Just real quick.
So deed restriction, one of the problems I see periodically is I can't move to that
next level or that next level doesn't exist. Do you see that? That's kind of yes or no.
Do you see that as a challenge for housing stock?
I have two or three servers that live,
that work at Drunken Go and live in Miller Ranch and they're perfectly happy. It's a
great place. I would like to live in Miller Ranch. It's awesome. Get on the waiting
list. Get on the waiting list? I mean, you know, I mean, it's the best place
in the valley to trick-or-treat. It's gorgeous. My neighborhood is the best. Some people don't want,
some people, those communities seem pretty, pretty cool. And like, I can't remember who it was. I think,
I think you said it, that they, they, they don't see it as, as an investment. Some of us, I,
I haven't invested in the brain, but some people just want a home. They're, they're,
they're chipping away at the principal and they get to come home and build a little garden in
backyard. There's nothing wrong with that. Thanks, Casey.
Scott, infrastructure, the
Chamber member asked this question, much of EGLE's core infrastructure from roads to
utilities and public buildings are aging. Scott, what is your plan to address long-term
maintenance and upgrades without burning taxpayers with new debt or higher taxes?
That is an excellent question and infrastructure is honestly one of the most important things
that we'll ever do on the town councils ensuring proper infrastructure and critical infrastructure
for new development and all of the, you know, supporting areas that we have within EGLE.
So my understanding is in Denver, they actually had a, you know, you'd call it like kind of green
or that type of nature, but they ran a new program where they used new ideas to help alleviate
infrastructure demand, especially like storm and sew water. So you'll find that there are
creative ideas that you can research, that you can collaborate with other towns and other
folks of all across the nation and even here locally.
We have so many wonderful entrepreneurs and wonderful folk that are just happy to help
if you're just willing to ask.
So we can utilize these new ideas and I'll have it be known that they reduce the stormwater
drain by 40 to 60 percent in Denver in critical areas where it was unmanageable.
They didn't know what to do and all they did was line some porous roads.
They have some beautiful garden grass that would just help fill the aquifers underneath
the ground.
And these are the types of developments that are not only smart, but they're cost friendly.
So not only are we going to be able to develop our infrastructure and help what we already
have until we can get the financials to back that and to restore it to a proper nature,
but we'll be able to handle it now in the short term for the long term.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Holy cow, one minute and five seconds and, um, God almighty.
Hey, Pins, just to let you know, I am definitely nonpartisan.
I've got George McGovern over here, 68 on that side.
Hubert Humphrey on this side and the very first earth pen, which I'm going to give right
here. You can have it.
We're going to talk. All right. You're welcome. Yeah, that is from
the very first earth day in Washington, D.C. So, Brian, I'm picking on you again. It's
coming quick. You've been really good about struggling through the process of opening
of business.
Fun. Yes. There may have been challenges. Is there a way that we as a community
are planning a zoning, our staff, our council can make this a better process for new businesses
coming in? I think there's a few things that we can do to make it easier for new businesses
is coming in. Along with making the whole process a little bit easier for everybody,
when I started going through the process myself, I found that there was conflicting information
between what I found on the website and from what I was hearing from the town staff.
I'm hearing that there's still those issues going on, that there's these conflictions
between what is being put out in public and what you're hearing from the staff. That needs
to be dealt with immediately. It's really hard for any investor to want to come into our community
and spend money if they don't know how much money they're going to spend, especially if they're
looking on a website and tells them they're doing this code. And then you go in, you find that
that is not actually what the deal is at all. And you've now designed an entire project
off of something that actually has nothing to do with what the town wants you to do.
So, a lot of it has, I think, to do, communication is a big part to start with.
Another thing is tap and water fees.
I ran into this issue as well.
Tap fees for a lot of small businesses can be upwards of $30, $50, $100,000 when you're
starting a business upfront.
That is almost impossible.
A lot of people are walking away not wanting to start businesses in Eagle right now
because of those tap fees.
That's something that we should try and learn to do like as a schedule payment after a business
is opened over years.
Another idea that we've – when I was working with the Chamber, another idea we've been
trying to come up with is having kind of a primer or a check sheet for any business that
wants to come into town so they can literally see exactly who they need to go to and
what they need to do to open up a business, almost like a dummy's guide for any business
owner or even having a business advocate who works with the business owner going through
with them, going through the town's process and making sure these processes are actually
working for us and they're not hampering businesses.
Again, I don't think that the town itself or the town staff in any way doesn't want
businesses the work they do. It's just there's a lot of work that needs to go
in to just our communication to fix in these kind of situations. I guess I'll
leave it at that. Thank you, sir.
Tony, it's a little bit like what Brian just
talked about. You've presented it a little differently. Economic vitality
and really high tax rates.
And you've heard from many of our citizens that
they worry about eagles high tax rates and fees like water tap fees, discouraged businesses
from staying or opening here. Well, I've never found anybody likes to pay taxes. So just to
tell you that, you know, the town is nothing more than a path through that you represent
the community. And how do we collect money? How do we spend it? So to help me understand
And what is economic vitality to you?
And what taxes do you propose we eliminate?
And this tax source when it's reduced,
how do we correspondingly reduce our budget
or what revenues replace the reduction in taxes?
Tell me how this works.
Great question.
Tonya Dorda, we have the highest tax rate in the valley.
And I hear it from business owners.
I hear it from consumers that it's a concern that our high tax rate discourages people
from shopping in EGLE because they're going to be taxed higher.
So they're going to go to Edwards, they're going to go to Gypsum, they're going to go
to Avon versus staying here in EGLE.
And it makes sense because times are tight, costs are high, everybody has a finite amount
a money that's coming into their account and taxes keep going up and things keep getting proposed
about, you know, well, let's develop this and we could just add more taxes. At what point is it too
much? And we do need to pay for the programs that are in place. We do need to maintain our
sidewalks. We need to fill those potholes. We need to take care of what we have as a
community already. And I think it takes a much deeper dive into the economics of the town
than I have here in two minutes to be able to address, well, exactly how would that look
when we reduce that down? And will it encourage the businesses to come here when that rate
goes down? I had a friend that tried to open a hair salon here, and she was so discouraged
by the water tap fees that the owner of the property had already paid and then
the town wanted to to make her pay them as well so that's that's like a double
tax but that doesn't make any sense so she was discouraged she did not open a
business and she left and got work elsewhere and that that's what we want
to prevent we don't want businesses leaving us we don't want people
entrepreneurs that are trying to grow to leave us. We want them to stay here and we
want them to help build our community. Wonderful. Thank you, Tanya.
Mark, and we're
going to keep touching on this because it's important, but our vision for EGLE and you
talk about smart growth. I'm interested in your vision of expansion of the town footprint.
What does that look like and how do we achieve that goal?
Mark Bergman, the only
mark on the ballot, if you forgot my last name, it's fine.
Expansion of the town footprint
doesn't necessarily mean economic stability or economic growth by any means. Tremendous
expenses go with that expansion. So it's a lot like you asked me a few minutes ago,
I think, or maybe with somebody else, sorry. I think we need to look at expansion very
strategically and know who's going to pay for it. You know, I've been going door to door.
I've met quite a few residents who I didn't know previously. And there's the contingent that doesn't
want any growth that wants to keep the town the way it has been.
We've just heard people saying
the taxes are too high. They don't want to pay any more. Who's going to pay for expansion of
of the town. Expansion of the town with people, yeah. We get our population up to about 10,000.
We can afford to be a town a lot better. We're in a challenging position. We've shrunk. This
town has shrunk about the same percentage, I think. Don't blast me if I got it wrong.
But Colorado is a state of shrinking. We dropped 2% 2.6 or 2.5% on the last census.
So what are we expanding to?
Is there a business that's coming to us?
Is there another Costco opportunity that's going to subsidize that expansion?
Then great.
Let's go annex it.
Let's go east and let's fill it up if we have a revenue generator that's going to do it.
But why would we expand as for sake of expansion?
Do I have a few seconds left?
Only three?
Never mind.
30. Can I go off and touch back on affordable housing with a couple of ideas? You'll hear
this idea from somebody else a little bit later and know I didn't steal it. I have a similar
idea. Doing affordable housing, attainable housing in a town or our size, we can't do
it alone. We need to develop a regional partnership. One of the things that I bring
is some relationships both with the county and even with gypsum. Yes, people from
Eagle can have a represent relationship with the Eagle Town Council marvelous
thank you thank you sorry yeah and oh another conflict of interest
bonfire that's where Second Street Tavern is right now but I do need to support
my good friend it's gone at bonfire didn't spill your beer did I know the
The beer is definitely, the vodka is gone, but okay, sorry.
Timothy, we have Grand Avenue traffic is an issue.
I think everybody in the community has experienced that
as if you're going in the morning or in the evening.
A lot of folks are looking forward to having
an I-70 interchange if that ever happens
in partnership with the regional airport
and the other communities, the state.
What are your steps to make sure that EGLE supports this critical infrastructure and could
ease traffic burdens and enhance safety and strengthen local economic vitality?
I believe those were your words.
Also in contrast, there are other people in the community would not like to see that
because they have businesses along Grand Avenue.
What are your thoughts?
Well, Timothy Haley first off, and I think this is a very controversial topic in town
If you ask five people, you're getting five different answers.
I traveled on Highway 6 every day to go home.
I'm over in Bull Pasture, and I have a 16-year-old, well, 17-year-old driver and a 15-year-old
permanent driver, and I can tell you that that's my biggest fear when they have to
make a left out of one of the side streets onto Highway 6.
It's terrifying to think about.
We have almost had one little fender bender, but it was avoided.
But I will be the first one to tell you I don't have the answers.
I don't know that anyone in this room has the answers and it's going to take a collaborative
effort to figure it out.
There's an opportunity for enhancement.
There needs to be a turn lane, a middle lane.
We got to figure that out.
I don't know that it makes sense with the imminent domain issues.
Larry, you might know there's 40-minute domain issues along that corridor.
I think it's a very complex topic.
I think it's going to take roundtable discussions to get us there, but something
has to change.
I do believe that the Cooley-Mesa interchange will reduce traffic on highway 6.
Can we wait that long as a question?
And do we put the tens of millions of dollars into it knowing that 50% of the traffic will
be alleviated, up to 50% of the traffic will be alleviated once Cooley-Mesa interchange
goes in.
Can we wait that long?
I don't know.
And I think that's going to be a topic around town for a long time until it either
moves forward or it doesn't.
And I'm not an expert on it, and I'm interested to learn from everyone that
has a stake in that. Thank you so much, Timothy.
Sheena, I'm going to ask you a question that was already asked, but not of you. So the same
one I talked with Jeff Grimmer about is really your area of expertise is climate and the
impacts on the earth. What are your thoughts about EGLE's net zero plan and the effects
on the businesses in our community? Yeah, I will say I think the net zero
goals that the town of Eagle has adopted are ambitious. I would assume some of the most
ambitious in the state. And I think that puts a great responsibility on the town, town council
members and staff to try to figure this out. And I don't think that those goals were adopted
out of thin air or randomly. They were adopted in the honor of great people that
have done this work before us and rooted in the science that tells us what we need
to do now. Certainly addressing infrastructure is going to be a challenge. And when we talk
about climate predominantly, what we're talking about is infrastructure. Most all CO2 emissions
that occur within the town of Eagle, within the county, within the region, wherever
you look are going to come from buildings and transportation. So what does that tell
us? We need to decarbonize the building stock and decarbonize the transportation
as well as creating more pathways for multimodal walking and biking paths and things like that.
There are other ways to do it. I think the question of affordability, Jeff,
answered really well. We know that renewable energy is competing tremendously against oil
and gas currently as the cheapest form of energy to purchase. So that work is already done
and the market's already driving in that direction, whether or not the federal
government will recognize and attend to that reality. Another thing I want to point to
is work that has actually been done here in our community. Many of the affordable multi-family
housing infrastructure that has been put into our community is being built net zero and
all electric today. Adam's way did it. The seven hermit's redevelopment or development
I should say. Deed restricted affordable housing developments are being built all electric.
They're highly efficient. So we know that we can build this way and it doesn't have
to be astronomically priced. I think the next big hurdles are how do we build
the luxury homes that we know folks in our community really want to that same standard
of efficiency and electrification.
So I think we need to stop talking about this problem as a challenge of cost versus environment.
I think that things go hand in hand and there are some really smart minds that know how
to make this work.
We need to rally around those goals as a community and whether or not we achieve
them by the dates we say we will, we need to continue working towards them because
the reality is we will not have clean air, clean water.
we will not have a stable climate to exist.
And
you just hit it the wire. I love that. Scott, I'm going to do this one more time. Housing,
housing. You zeroed in on housing affordability, attainability as a critical foundational issue
for our community. We know all the issues. What are the solutions? What do you see here
the critical elements we need to do as a community to help alleviate this problem?
Thank you for asking that question Scott Triner. So I'm going to touch on a couple things. A couple
things Brian has already said. What some people don't really stress or realize is that housing
actually is economic vitality and sustainability. If we can't have affordable housing to house our
workers then we won't have businesses be successful. Okay so basically right now we're at the
precipice of where the people that actually run the town, our firefighters, our policemen,
our retail, our restaurant, our hotel workers, our educators, and even our
construction workers can actually afford to live in the town that they sustain
and maintain, okay? Our maintenance people on our streets, our road and bridge, okay?
Sooner or later those people find another town to go to and they will not
come back and therefore businesses cannot survive. So how do we fix this?
Obviously it's a big challenge. Right now our LERP codes require 35% of new
development builds over 10 or more to be a resident-occupied unit. It's also referred to
a workforce unit. The problem with that right now is that there's so many jobs and so few houses
that these units are actually going for market rates. Okay, so a two-bedroom, two-bath,
resident-occupied or workforce unit with a deed restriction on it at Hey Meadow,
it's currently $800,000. Two-bedroom, two-bath. Okay, so if we have two teachers living in
that unit, on average making $65,000 a year, that's $130,000 before pre-tax income,
pre-tax income. Now we have those two teachers paying a $4,500 mortgage on that $800,000
house and that's if they can afford a 20% down payment. So that's almost $60,000 those
people are paying towards housing costs that only make $130,000. After taxes, they're
significantly cost burden for housing at 50% of their after tax income going towards
housing. Rentals are not much better, a little better. So we have the units over
of the Pike Apartment Complex, $2,700 for a one-bedroom apartment, okay? So again, we have the
one teacher living there, $65,000, about $33,000 a year, immediately they are cost burdened 50%
of their income at that housing unit. We need to relook at what that program for the resident
occupied units is actually doing and how it's actually supporting our workforce today.
I would suggest actually moving the affordable housing requirement of 10 or more units and
developments from 15% to at least 20%.
I would like to actually decrease that RO
from 35% significantly downward
and either have a second tier of affordability
at perhaps 140 to 160% AMI.
I'd also like to stress,
oh, I thought you turned the mic off on me.
I have a couple seconds.
I'd also like to use 50% of our Rita funds
to basically fund an affordable housing fund
that we can then use to use mortgage buy downs
so we can actually do something this year
And every year moving forward we can partner with the county and their partner community home programs
They'll do 15% will do 15% and then we'll basically have affordable housing two to three units a year. Thank you
For you Todd I have the easiest one forever
You stated that council needs to be more transparent
With constituents and let them know what's really going on behind the curtain the true health of the town
So work in the cat. What are we doing? Are we failing? What's going on here?
What are the mechanisms for us to communicate better
and be more accountable and more transparent?
Yeah.
And I was hoping I could be nice.
I actually can be a fairly happy guy.
Honey, I'm trying.
Let me tell you.
I own the acre and a half over here.
I wanted to put 171 units on it.
I know that was high density,
but we'd be willing to negotiate that density down
to something reasonable. Just to be clear, AMI's 15% and resident occupied is 35%. So
if you're a developer, you're literally starting out with 50% of your project being controlled
by the town. Okay? I want to go over here and spend $70 million. I'm willing to pay
for $12 million for a parking structure underground so I could park my own. All right?
My special use tax alone would be $2 million, which is 20% of the existing
general fund that the town could raise in one transaction. Jake is trying to
develop in town. He's getting diddled around. Scott is trying to develop in
town. He gets diddled around. We've knocked the everything store down, okay?
Okay. They do put put on it. Whatever that is. All right. No revenue. That guy was going
to put an application in. Forgive me. I don't know exactly where he's at, but here's the
problem. He's not going back up. Right. So no revenue. None. And I wanted to say it
all you people, you handsome devils that I've really enjoyed this. Okay. Last night
Michael and Jess's event was great. All right, I'll get back to housing and the fact that
the staff, Larry Partee has been the town manager. I want to spend $70 million over there.
He's never reached out to me. He's never called me. And again, my fees, I just
did a house in Eagle Ranch. My fees were $95,000. Special use, tap fees, plan review,
and permit before you move a spoonful of dirt and that doesn't include
architecture and engineering and you don't hear from these people. Peyton
Heitzman hasn't called me once. All right? I'm a livid constituent right now and
again I'm a change agent and if you if you hire me to do this job I'm gonna
be pounding on these people and we are gonna prove Brian the communication
between the private sector and the public sector and I have the skills to communicate with the private sector.
Thank you, Todd.
Robert, we're going to change this up a little bit and bring the temperature down just a notch.
You are my only retired candidate.
Thank you. I love you.
But you also have an amazing amount of experience too in life.
So my question, no citizen or organization or candidate has brought this up.
I'm bringing it up because I'm old.
So do we as a community need to do anything to improve our ability to serve our citizens
in their later years of life?
In other words, so we can age in place.
Things that come to my mind include accessible housing.
Once again, recreation, fitness, cultural activities, healthcare, integrative activities
between the generations. Transportation, behavioral health. I don't want to answer your question,
but please stand up and let us know what your thoughts are.
Thank you for that, Robert D'Agostino. Being retired, but before that I worked at United
down at the airport, so I got a kind of feel of what happens at an airport. I was a volunteer
here at the Redcoats in Beaver Creek. So talked to a lot of people greeting them and all that.
And then as far as retirement is concerned, when I first got here in 2017, my mortgage
has gone up $600 a month. But my pay didn't go up $600 a month. So I had to tap into
my reserves. So how long is that going to last? Well, got smart with my money and
When I put it away, electricity, we talked about solar.
When I had my house built, I put solar on my roof.
So for the last eight years, my electrical bill has been $14 a month.
So I think everybody should look into solar.
I don't know if there's any incentive anymore from Colorado, but it is paid off tremendously.
I paid off a $35,000 unit in two years.
Whereas 20 years ago, it would take 20 years to pay off solar.
So, I think Colorado should somehow, I don't know how the town can help with that, put
solar on the roof, but as far as being retired here, there's no other place in the world
to be here.
I look out my back window and I see New York Mountain Range, I mean, biking trails
and I got a motorcycle, I ride up there, I mean it is,
actually I built a victory
plot to be buried in.
So I cleared some sage.
I started growing things. Well, you can't grow up there due to the fact that the wind blows everything over
But it's a nice plot. So sorry. I'm not going to the plot wherever you are. Anyway, but
It's a great place to be here. I have wonderful neighbors. I
Could talk to anybody town. Everybody in town is friendly
Got a garden plot down at the garden. We we grow things. So I wouldn't want to go anywhere else and
And I appreciate it. Thank you.
Robert, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks for putting up with the question.
But it is important and you just earned back 19 seconds. Mr. Grimmer.
Here we are. Your vision states that we can solve many of the problems we've discussed today by executing the strategic plan.
The economic development plan and other long range plans that were developed through the stakeholder process.
And are the town's current plans enough to deal with the issues we discussed today, or do we need to do more?
And what changes do you recommend?
Great questions. I think one thing that happens to people is they're like, well, I'm going to run for council,
because I got these great things I'm going to bring, and here's what I want to do.
but a lot of times, you know, the plan that we all need to look at is the one
that's been driven by stakeholders, right? So looking at those long-term plans,
something like Grand Avenue Corridor, who I know Kim's on that group, looking at
plans like the sustainability, our Net Zero 2030 goal, which I know Gina is a
part of, those long-term plans that have had 40, 50, 60 people all show up
to give their best input. Our goal should be just to execute those plans. If you come
in and kind of lone wolf style, I think what happens is in the long run, the town scratches
their head after 10 or 20 years because we didn't reach any of our goals. So I think
like the number one thing we can do is really look closely at the strategic plan. There's
nine things on there, nine big buckets. Let's attack those. Let's make sure that when
And we're up here sitting here trying to decide what to spend money on, your money, that it's
well aligned with the strategic plan, the economic development plan, which we adopted
in 2023.
There's not really a reason in my mind to reinvent those, or if we see that we don't
like it, there's something about it we need to adjust, then let's get the stakeholder
group back together and go forward from there.
So, I think the second part of your question, Kevin, is, are there other long-term plans
that we need to initiate?
You know, I can't think of any.
We have an East Eagle plan, I think is excellent.
I think it sets the framework for some of the great ideas that I'm hearing from Timothy.
I think we've got a Grand Avenue corridor plan that is really sharp, and it's coming
more to you guys in the public here.
It starts by saying, hey, let's close second and fourth street so that our children aren't trying to turn on there.
It also creates a plaza. So it starts to shape kind of a walkability thing and a downtown corridor that allows for a little more safety for pedestrians.
All of these plans exist. Now, if I were to put everybody on the spot as to whether you've read all those plans,
I think we'd probably fall a little bit short in terms of what we know about them
But I would say let's stick to the plan. It's just like good football coach
You're not going in there and changing it all the time
You've got a plan run the offense and then we'll get somewhere good.
Thanks. Yeah
You actually hold on to that and take a breather because you're going to be talking next and closing comments
So is it true that there is an after event at the collective?
Good. Okay. So when we run out of time completely here, there is an opportunity to visit with
the candidates that choose to show up over at the collective. Now keep in mind Edgar
Allen Poe died after drinking on election night. So he passed away in October 7th of 1847.
They actually kind of kidnapped him so he could vote more than once. But that's not
a problem today. We can afford a beer. Even if they give it to us, it's not a problem.
So it's not a conflict of interest to go over to this place of business. Is that true, everybody?
All right, thank you. Now, that gave Jeff a chance to breathe. Everybody gets two minutes
to have a closing comment, and then we'll get on to the mayors, but we'll have a five
minute break after their closing comments so we can get everybody moved and changed.
Yes.
Thanks. I think we're in good hands. I think the town is our best days are ahead
of us, seeing everybody that's here, we're getting all kinds of good ideas that are coming
from you guys and then just sitting here and watching and listening to so many different
fresh ideas as someone who's been doing this since 2015 is super important and I am super,
I didn't know coming into this night where we're going to end up but I just got to
say this is an incredible group so I'm going to just pause and say please give this
group right here, a big hand. This is
not easy to do. I started doing this in
In 2015 with Kevin, Luis Benitez got pulled up to the state of Colorado and I filled an appointment
then. And then in 2021, we lost three town leaders in an avalanche. And so I got back
involved and sat in the seat and thought, well, I got to do what I can. Someone's got
to get into this thing. And since then, man, it is just such a heart driven initiative.
It's a really strong team concept.
I'm frustrated sometimes too.
I see things that I don't like.
I see things that I want to make better and I have a problem.
My wife tells me all the time that I see stuff all the time that I don't like
and I sometimes forget to see the stuff that I really do like.
And I think that's a challenge to all of us as we head out of here.
You're in the greatest small town in America right now
and we do have problems,
but we're going to get through that and we're going to get through it as a team.
We're going to work as a team. We're going to work together. And I think the role I hope to have
in the next four years on this board is to work closely with Jamie, is to work closely with
whoever the mayor is next. So far in the past, it's been Brian. Either way, we'll have Brian, right?
And then the next four folks, obviously there is a ton of talent, lots of reasons to be optimistic. Appreciate your vote.
Thank you very much.
Thanks so much, Jeff. Robert, you are the man.
Thank you, Jeff. I think what you heard tonight, when everybody
stood up, they're actually closing. So, their ideas is what they believe in how to
better the town of Eagle. As far as I'm concerned, the 20 years in the military I had, I came
a very good listener, but also took instructions very well. If you're going to conquer the hill,
we're really going to drill through it, go over it, or blow it up. One of the two. And in some cases,
the blowing up is sometimes good, because when you put the pieces back together,
you get a different perspective of the town and the people, how resilient they are.
So, as far as the talent, just like Jeff says, it's your job for the people to pick who can
work in the sandbox the best.
We need to pick a mayor that's Tom Owen, and we need to get the rest of them in order,
and then we can go from there.
So, I appreciate you coming out, listening to me, and thanks for your vote.
Thank you.
Thanks so much, Robert.
Todd.
Yeah.
Thank you for your time. I hope people don't mistake my passion for anything else other
than what it is. All right? I'm a passionate guy. I've been running this business in this
town for 30 years. Okay? I feed a lot of families and those families have fed me. The best part
about Eagle is the community. All right? Shawna, Fritzler, you know, come on. All
All right, Michael, thank you.
Scott, Jamie, thanks for the call, right?
I mean, it's nice to get a call
from people that are in the town
to say, how are you doing and how's that going?
So I appreciate that.
You, I met you last night in the hat, all right?
Tom, didn't know you.
Hey, Brian didn't know you.
Where'd, what's his bucket go?
Jason, is he still here?
Is he stepped out?
All right, I didn't know any of you well Brian. I knew you case that you know
I didn't even introduce myself the other day Tim you got some great ideas Mark. I met Robert great Scott
I didn't meet you today. Jeffery. I've known you from around town, and I had girls go to the school
It's community that's what keeps me here, but
We have to have a healthy community
All right, there has to be a bridge between the public and private sector
We have to have the communication.
Kate, I didn't know you.
I'm a judge.
Forgive me.
You're interesting.
All right.
So anyway, I know how to apologize.
I've gotten a lot better at it through life.
And I'm just happy to be part of this community.
Plan on sticking around and being part of the growth and the change.
Thank you, Scott.
So, Todd, now, Scott.
Scott Reiner, thank you.
I just want to make one quick comment.
I do believe the appropriate density in the downtown
core is huge.
It actually has an intersection of commercial growth
and adding commercial spaces where business owners
and potential entrepreneurs can get into a brand new building
with some nice plate glass windows and good sunlight
and start a business for themselves.
It also creates growth in the downtown core
for our downtown businesses.
Okay, more people equals more customers equals more sales tax revenue equals a thriving quarter and at the same time believe it or not it actually helps affordable housing because through our alert guidelines the denser housing development we can get the more affordable housing that will be built there at that 15 or 20% rate.
Okay, so it actually is the intersection of many many different things we've been talking about tonight. And of course, it also helps the employees of those restaurants so that we can generate those sales tax revenues.
And I don't mean to leave Eagle Ranch out, I think Eagle Ranch is an awesome little
thriving little community too, and they deserve a little street closure and a little fun as
well.
So in closing, I am not a naturally born politician nor do I really want to be, but
I will be a very good town council member.
I committed early to my candidacy and have been following town council meetings and
work sessions since July.
I attended via remote the operations work budget sessions.
I also attended in person the capital of work budget session for 2026. I did that because it's very important
I need to know what I might be dealing with what are our challenges moving forward and what are our opportunities
Okay, I'm glad that Jeff brought up some of those plans because I actually have read the Elevate Eagle comprehensive plan the
comprehensive as housing assessment plan the net zero action plan the strategic plan the economic growth plan the
demographers report on EGLE from the state demographers and also the community EGLE report
on demographics. I've read both the parking studies. One says we have 500 spots downtown.
One says we can have 800. It's probably somewhere in the middle. I've read the 2021 and the 2023
community surveys. That's incredibly important because we need to know what you, the community
members, want and need and what your vision is for the future because ultimately I represent
you. You are above me in the flow chart.
Thank you so much Scott. Gina. Awesome. Thanks everybody. Gina
McCracken. I just want to say thank you all for coming out tonight. I think it's incredibly important
that we have an engaged voting body. Even though I've only been in this community for about four
years, I have invested an incredible amount of time and energy into participating productively
within this community. And I think that's what really matters most. If I'm elected to be a
that thinks thoughtfully and strategically and refers back to those plans that we're talking about.
It takes a lot of work to prop plans up off the ground and I think the real action can happen when we start to look forward into how we take steps towards those plans.
I will cooperate with staff. I already have been and I will continue to do so. I think it's incredibly important to have strong relationships with staff and empower them to do the good work that they are hired to do.
This town is quite frankly unaffordable for people like myself. I of course
aspire for homeownership and I would love to see myself living in this
community 30, 40, 50 years from now. It is damn near impossible for me to do that
as has been harped on a ton tonight and so it will be a big goal of mine to
focused on affordability of this community especially for our young
workforce that often live here year-round while serving the other
areas of our Valley's economy. And I want to say a few words for the folks
that maybe don't always see themselves represented on council. If you are a young
person in this community, if you are a renter in this community, if you are a
working-class person in this community, if you are an immigrant or a Latino in
this community, if you are queer in this community, if you are a small business
owner in this community, I promise to defend you and listen to you and vote
with you in mind. Thanks.
Thank you so much, Gina. Timothy. Timothy Haley. I believe one thing to be
true in that closing remarks should be brief. So the reality is if the issues that are facing
Eagle in particular were easy to solve, they would already be solved. So while we have to work
together in collaboration, and I think you'll hear a lot of this in the mayoral conversation,
What can the town council do to bring collaboration into the town?
I know when I bought a condemned home in 2020 and the process to rehab,
that was very, very, very tedious through a lot of the stuff that you've heard tonight.
I believe in a clear system to move through the town's process to get your goals achieved
when our private sector can thrive, our town thrives, and we all thrive.
So that's it for me. I appreciate it.
I'm really looking forward to the next chapter of what EGLE has.
We know what the past has been and now we get to offer the future.
Thank you so much, Timothy.
Mark, please.
Hi, Mark Bergman again.
First, I want to thank you folks for just having the dedication and enthusiasm to come
out and listen to the diverse opinions up here.
I love the sense of community here.
I think earlier I probably just sounded like a policy wonk because I've been
a local government nerd for a long time and I understand the workings and the ins and outs.
I've made some really good friends here. One of my favorite things are the Thursday night concerts.
I get down there early with my dog and camp out and just have a blast. I wasn't born here,
but I've integrated into the community. And now I'm losing my train of thought because I
hate selling myself. I'll go for the hard close in a minute.
If I can retain my
thing in front of thought, if
you elect me to Town Council, I promise to play well
with others. We've heard people talking about big changes, big sweeping changes,
changing the way staff works. One of the most critical relationships we have is
between your elected officials and the town staff.
I don't think either side is perfect,
but they have to work together
and there was a system for communication
and working together.
I mentioned I wasn't born here,
but I've built connections throughout the county
that I consider to be resources,
which can be drawn in as we try to solve problems.
I'm really grateful to have the endorsement of one of your most respected citizens in Kathy Chandler Henry.
So if you don't know me well and you know Kathy, you should know she's not going to endorse someone lightly. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mark. Tanya.
Tanya, Jordanette. First of all, I would like to thank the Chamber of Commerce for putting
this on this evening and giving us all a voice. Thank you very much. Additionally, I'd like
to thank all of you for taking time away from your families to come out here and listen to us.
I think it's super important. And I think it says a lot about a community
that so many people are this much engaged. I'd like to quote the late, great General
Colonel Colin Powell. Leadership is solving problems. And it's not knowing where to go.
I'm sorry. It is also knowing where to go to find those solutions, who to talk to, who to meet,
what to look up. It's being adaptable, empathetic, accountable. And most importantly,
family, having integrity. This word is near and dear to my heart. During my time in the
Air Force, integrity was ingrained in us. We heard it all the time, doing what's right
when no one's looking. Just because you know in your heart, it's the right thing to do.
It's having that moral compass. This is who I am, and this is how I would represent
at you.
I'll close with an iconic quote from Abraham Lincoln, that government of the people
by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth. Our founders intended for citizens
of this nation to lead this nation, not career politicians, that it's you and it's me and
And it's her and it's him that should be leading this town, that should be leading this country.
And it's what's most important.
And it's great when everybody on the council can get along and work together.
But I think it's equally important that different ideas come to that table.
And that they discuss those ideas because not everybody necessarily has the same perspective.
And in closing, I'm sorry, on November 4th, I'm asking that you vote for me for Eagle
Town Council.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Tanya.
Brian.
Thank you.
Well, I just have to say that I feel very blessed to live in Eagle.
I think we should all feel very blessed to live in Eagle.
For one, we have a very amazing place to be.
It's beautiful here.
But we have some of the best citizens I've ever met and anywhere in the world. I've been blessed to be able to travel a lot
I spent a lot of time in different cities and to be honest
I've there's something about here where we really do care about each other's locals take care of locals and that's
That's something that I hope no matter what happens in this election, that's what we need
to keep focusing on, is that the better we, the tire we are as a community, the better
we are. As you were saying, it doesn't matter who gets elected up, it matters that we all
listen to each other and whoever gets elected, we're being elected for everyone. It's not
just one voice or one group, it's for everybody. And so as long as we start listening to
each other and work together, I think it will be great. And if I get elected or don't
elected. I promise I'm still going to work on trying to make Eagle a better place and I hope we
all feel that way because it's a place we all love and we all want to make it better. So elect me
or not elect me, I'm going to make Eagle a better place because that is the place I love and I
hope we all love it. Brian, my God, stop making me cry, man. Come on up, Scott. Good evening,
everybody. It's been a long journey throughout this entire evening. It may have felt like
a full year, but thank you so much. Thank you to Kevin. Thank you to Michelle, the Eagle
Chamber of Commerce. We got the lovely staff. We got everybody that is tuned in here live
and on the camera there as well. Wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you do,
whatever sounds good, we need to hear about it. We need ideas. We need creative solutions.
We need to work together just says pretty much everybody understands here, so I don't need a lecture on that part.
But we need to cut the red tape. We need to streamline services to our businesses to our entrepreneurs.
That is the core structure of any giving community and any capacity is our core businesses.
And that's leading by the people for the people and always will be by the people and that's what we plan to do here.
So when we work together as a community and we set up time outside or at the pulpit or wherever
Find us out in the grocery store
Just know that you can count on me to be your advocate. I will hear you out
I am open to creative ideas. Nobody has all the answers
But together we will have all the right answers that work best for us in our local community
And that's what I guarantee for you when you submit your vote via mail
It's a very important decision, but I guarantee you for the next four years, you will be assured
that your voice will be heard.
So thank you so much to everybody.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
That was Scott Davidson without a D.
Yes, sir.
You got it right.
Thank you.
There's concern sitting next, right?
Very interesting.
Casey.
Okay.
Bring it home.
Thanks again, everybody, for coming out.
I want to personally thank Kim Fritzler and her team over at K2 for throwing me into this
race and being a champion for the community, not just selling real estate.
Thank you to Mayor Turnip Seed for endorsing me.
I've got to know him.
I'm so excited for this opportunity.
I had no idea that the excitement would build so much.
As I'm hearing these closing statements, I'm thinking of the moment I walked into a
boneyard, a tired old restaurant that was mismanaged for years.
I'm not going to go into the kitchen and how it looked, but I rolled up my sleeves.
I got a team.
I think we built a beautiful restaurant.
I've heard some compliments.
Thank you for that.
So that's my MO.
Oh, and I'm gonna roll up my sleeves and get a team.
I love to hear what Gina's saying.
Timothy's a brilliant mind.
I've gotten to know Jason Cole who's running for mayor.
You're gonna hear from him later.
And there's just some amazing people.
I know it keeps saying it,
but I think we all have warm and fuzzies
for a lot of great ideas.
And last thing I'll say is if you've,
anybody that's ever worked in a restaurant
knows the contentious relationships between chefs and front-of-the-house managers and
servers and how many times have I been a therapist in the office because so-and-so doesn't do this
and I know how to work relationships through. That's kind of like what I do.
So I appreciate the opportunity and put me to work.
Casey, thank you so much.
You're all amazing.
Now I've got two mics.
I'm really in trouble.
That one turned off good.
Okay.
This is how this is going to work.
We're going to have a short of break as possible because we're a little over budget, not because
of these good people.
It's because of me.
I keep talking.
So we're going to have a little break.
But first thing I want you to do is thank the veterans in our community right now.
Thank you.
And the other thing is to just thank these wonderful people for being here today.
We've done it a couple of times.
We deserve one more round of applause.
Thank you.
In seats, those who want to go, I do not blame you.
So the main show starts here in about four and a half seconds.
If I could get Tom up here, that would be magnificent.
Okay, folks.
It's a great opportunity to be quiet.
And those folks at home, I really appreciate you being here. It's hard to
hang in there but at least you have a beer near you and I don't. But I really
want to thank these people that are running for the mayoral seat. For those
that aren't aware in our home rule community, oh apparently I'm talking
too long,
the mayor has exactly the same vote count as everybody else. So
they are virtually no more important than anybody else.
That's not true.
They set the agenda.
And you guys set the agenda with them and the staff.
So keep in mind, this still is a community
that's run by the people for the people.
And they are the ones that get called
if the driveway gets plowed under.
The Mayor Pro Tem, nobody even knows what that is.
It's such a great job.
And I apologize if nobody likes the way I run the meeting, but it's my meeting.
Brian, I would like you to start with opening comments.
You've got three minutes to describe how wonderful you are.
No, you can have a microphone.
Okay.
All right, for those that don't know me, I'm Brian Woods.
I've been on Town Council for a couple of years now.
I've gotten to see many of you around the community.
You guys call me every time you're happy.
me. It's really great to hear from you.
In addition to council, I serve on the board
of the downtown development authority and the eagle valley transportation authority which
you would know is core transit. Before I served on council, I was on the board of the downtown
business alliance. If you ever saw the guy in the bright orange jacket at Christmas on
Broadway running around trying to figure what was on fire, that was me. So, you
know, when I think about why am I running for council, like the big question everyone
when asked, they go, well, you're already on console,
why are you running for mayor?
I'm like, well, really it's about maintaining
some level of continuity of leadership
and keeping this capacity moving forward.
Because what the mayor does that the council doesn't have
to do, they are your single point of contact.
Every time you guys are happy and you call me,
I have to know who to talk to to give them praise.
All right?
And so that's a really important point.
If you want effective leadership and effective service,
you need to know somebody who knows the people
in the government to help you. It's very easy for a mayoral candidate or a council candidate to
say what they're going to do, but the reality of the matter is they don't do it. They set the vision,
they set the policy. It is town staff whose job it is to go out and execute. The first thing
we're going to have to do with this new council is sit down and it's been five years since our
strategic plan. We're going to rewrite it. We're going to start from the ground up
and figure out what are the town's priorities.
They have changed in the past half a decade
and those priorities are really gonna be set
by those people that you elect the council today.
And the mayor is gonna have a very important job
with potentially five new faces on that council
that haven't done this before.
Most of them haven't served on planning and zoning
or any other government entities.
They're gonna have to be taught.
How does government work?
What is an enterprise fund?
Who is that guy in public work?
So I call the L about the planning.
So as you guys start to think about that,
Think about who you want as an effective leader who can teach this new body and help us move
evil any direction.
Thank you so much. You are the next one, Jason. Thank you so much, Jason Cole.
Hello.
I'm
Jason, running for mayor. Moved to the valley in 2005, like many of us. It was supposed to
be for one year.
And decided to stay. Fell in love. Came for the winter. Stayed for
the summers. I grew up in a small town in Kansas, moved here with my now wife Kelsey and we
have two kids, moved to Eagle in 2011. Proud parents of two Brush Creek Elementary graduates
and now Eagle Valley middle school pirates. Why I'm running for mayor, you know, I was
approached. I was interested, I've always been interested in local government and what
means to a community like ours but ultimately it comes down to creating that collaboration with
council. Why I think mayors in an interesting position is because they really do work for council
and work for the staff. So it is it's driving collaboration and continuity with that council
but then it's really being a champion for the town staff. We've got great people.
We've
transparency to our citizens listen and ultimately the goal is community sustainability and that goes to
economics environment and social and that's what I'm all about and that's what I'm here to do.
Barbra's thank you Jason. Tom Olden thank you.
Good evening. Tom Olden and it's a pleasure to
be here tonight and before we get going too far I'm going to make my daughter stand up in the
back because she's an endangered species in this town. It's a 22 year old daughter that lives here
and works here in the valley so it can be done.
Why do I want to be mayor? I think the real reason
is is my wife. We moved here in 2001. We live right up the street. This building was a town park.
Next door was a liquor store. So I'm pretty familiar with downtown look like and what it
is today. On top of it, my wife was a huge proponent of trying to get this
town to be business-friendly. I understand what it takes to run a business. I
also don't understand what type of community I want to live in. Unique is a
very... Eagle is a very unique community. It's not duplicatable in very many
places in this country, little in the world. So what we have here, we need
to protect and it isn't just a growth for the sake of growth. That's the thought process
of a cancer cell. But if we're going to do smart growth, we need to maintain our businesses
first and foremost. And that's what Selena fought for. Every single day she would come
down to City Hall and bang on the door about why is it so difficult to do business
in Eagle? I own two properties on Grand Avenue. I own a lot in the Highlands. I lived
on Capitol Street. I've lived in village homes. I'm very familiar with everything in town because
that's where I've lived for the last 24 years. I've known Roxy Dean, John Stamney, Yuri Kostik,
you know, Scott Turnip Seed. I've seen a tremendous amount. Kevin Brubeck on the council,
we've spent years trying to develop things. I have drawings that we started in 2014 to
redevelop a property on Grand Avenue.
It's impossible to get direction
because every two years the town changes.
As a mayor, the first and foremost important thing I can do
is listen to my residents.
I represent you, not the town staff, but you.
I'm here to bring businesses in, to bring residents in
so that I can stand up for you
and get the staff to perform what needs to be done
so our town can be first on the list. You pay a tremendous amount of money to live here and I
do believe that we need something for money or money in return because it's hard and I understand
what it's like. I do forestry, we get up and go to work and I've seen the sound what it looks
like at four o'clock in the morning and I see it when I used to return at home at nine o'clock
at night. It's dark. How are we going to develop pull through to get people to come in
pass the railroad bridge? That's the huge question. Most people that come to Eagle turn
around at loaf and jug and leave. So as a community, I would reach out to you each and every one
of the business owners and say, bring us ideas because we need it. You're smarter than
I am, but I'm here to listen and I'm a facilitator of getting things done. And logging we're
producers and if we don't produce, we don't need. So that's what I would do for
the town is I would produce. And if I didn't, I would ask you to fire me. Thank
Thank you.
Thanks, Tom.
Over the years, I want you to breathe a minute because you're going to talk next.
Over the years, I'd stop by and visit with Tom and his wife and kind of go over what
we talked about the night before and always insightful.
So thank you.
Tom, I want to talk a little bit about economic vitality.
You touched it on already, but according to your comments, you're clearly in support
to the small business community. You stated that you will promote business development that
will not require residents to drive up valley every day. You would encourage taxes to be lowered.
You would convert town hall into a boutique hotel. So I'm hoping you're not talking about
this particular town hall right here. You're talking about the one down the street? Okay.
Please flesh out your economic vision for the town and please explain what taxes you hope
lower for our citizens in the business community. It's pretty simple. I would turn this building
into a hotel. It would make a nice one. Yeah, it would be really nice. And the reason being is
since it's been built, businesses have left. To have businesses like bars, thrive, restaurants,
you have to have visitors that come to town that have money that they want to spend.
And I heard last night from Jake Roach, they bring in clients. And the very first thing they
do similar to my brother when they came to Eagle is turn around and go back to
Vale to eat dinner. And then he's staying a hotel there. We have nothing to
offer people that actually perform business and business travelers obviously
fly in and out of our airport and over two million come up our street every
day. How do we get them to stop and spend money in Eagle? It would be great
if the airport's closed obviously the hotel would be full but I would turn
this building into a hotel. This was, as my wife pointed out in 2012, this is critical
tax-generating real estate. Why would you put a non-tax-producing building right in the
commercial district? And that's what's happened in Eagle. I've lived here when they built
the county building. These streets used to be full of businesses. They've all left.
And it's because a lack of people that actually stay here and pay to be here and then
pay these exorbitant taxes that we have on hotel beds that pay for outdoor, you know,
open space, all these things. The hotel's American Inn. They're gone. We just don't have
any beds. And so there's very little reason to retain customers in our town. But yet millions
come to this valley every year. It seems clear as day to me that, yeah, we need a hotel
downtown and if Jake can build it, that'd be great. But if not, we got an existing
building that is a huge liability to the town coffers. You're maintaining it, but it's not
generating anything. Thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate it, Tom.
And I'll proceed this way,
so that way the mic doesn't go too far. Jason, in addressing our town's challenges with housing,
population growth, economic vitality, traffic in the cost of child care, you stated that
But East Eagle would do a lot to address these concerns.
What do you envision for that parcel of land and describe how our citizens will benefit
by that?
I think East Eagle is the single, I mean the only parcel in Eagle County that could
really go, or addressing all those things.
I mean, the plan that they have proposed now, you know, sports tourism, daycare, another
Miller Ranch.
I mean, think about what they have in Edwards with Freedom Park, Miller Ranch, CMC.
That is the only place in the valley left that you could do that on.
And what's amazing about that parcel is there was also an article that the, or
a question that the bill daily sent out is how do you do the things we need to do to
really push EGLE forward without losing that small-town term? It's only used to be EGLE.
We want them to get off, we want them to spend money, and if they want to go, they
go. If they come into town, go to Brian's, Casey's, Establishments, that's awesome.
But it doesn't affect the core of our town. It's a perfectly positioned piece of land
that could go so far in bringing in the sales tax that we need because our sales tax is high
and that's been I feel like the approach for far too long. It's like we don't have enough sales tax
so let's raise sales tax. No, it's all about generating more opportunity for sales tax.
Wonderful. Thank you so much. God, you just gave me a minute back. That's going to cost me.
Grand Avenue Corridor Plan. What do you think about that? Hey, first I want to mention the
Vail Daily did a great job a few weeks ago of talking about that. It stirred up some
interest. Thank you very much, Nate. And this discussion has been going on for years
and you've been deeply involved in it. Tell me what your thoughts are about the
current plan, possible revisions. Where are we going with that?
The current plan was written many years ago, right, that this has been going on for six
years at least, that we would have this widening of highway six that would happen all the way
from the Eberkeek roundabout to the Gypsum line.
And over time, you have seen a decrease of this plan as costs increase and we get a
better handle on it.
You should think of it now as more of an aspirational plan and a guideline over
time because it was developed with the idea that we would get federal funding
that simply isn't going to appear.
Let's start with that right it's a 70 million dollar price tag and people say how are we going to pay for 70 million dollar roundabout?
It's like our $70 project. It is
$10,000 per man woman and child. Well, the short answer is we were never going to the plan was always we were going to put down this much
And then we would get federal infrastructure funding for that much right and because it was us highway because it's multimodal
It has a bus route because it services in airport
And the CDOT gave us $10 million to start when we took that over which was most of what we would have needed originally now
we're not even keeping pace with inflation, right? So let's just start there. We're going to have a
right size version and chip it off as we can go. We're going to probably have to start at this end
or that end. You're not going to start in the middle, right? And Broadway becomes the obvious
place. And we're going to need to make that Broadway roundabout happen first to get the
bus traffic in to get everyone making those left turns to get across Grand Ave. And then we're
going to have to go from there. Like the bottom line is we have money to do some things.
we don't have money to do the 70 million dollars. And that's what this new council is going to
need guidance on. They're going to have to be taught the history of how we got to where we are
and really, really make some difficult choices to prioritize how we spend the money. Because the
problem with taking it in the piecemeal approach is if there is a change in federal
funding structure, let's say we have the next great recession and the infrastructure bill
comes out and suddenly there's money for shovel ready products, projects. Well, now we've
spent our matching funds because these federal grants require them. So this is
going to be an issue for the Council saw, but it's not a policy decision that I
will be making alone, but it's going to be one of the biggest challenges the new
Council faces. Wonderful, thank you. And then off to Jason.
Jason, I love your
slogan, make eagle happen. It's a little bit of like a friend of mine, they
used to sit next to me up on the Council and he said make eagle
strange. No, I'm just kidding. It's not the similar at all. But that was a great
slogan he had. But you've had many successful years of business within our
community. Please describe your collaborative process that you'll use
or you envision as the mayor.
I have. When we decided to stay, I was
lucky enough to find a job as an administrative assistant with Slypher
Smith and Frampton have spent almost 19 years with them, phasing out right now to hopefully
take a new job with all of you.
But what's amazing about my experience there is seeing what that company and the sister
companies with East-West and East-West partners and hospitality have done for all of our
communities.
It's a community-first company.
We know that our success is completely tied to the success of our communities.
And that can't be done by evil alone.
I mean, I heard candidates for a town council talking about the collaboration with County, but not just County.
It's gypsum.
It's Avon.
It's Vail.
It's the Vail Valley Partnership.
It's the VVF.
It's Vail Health.
It's Vail Resorts.
It's the airport.
The only way we're going to accomplish big things like East Eagle or West Eagle or any
of the things that we need to get done is going to be through collaboration.
Unfortunately, we know we can't pay for everything.
So it's like Casey said, it's finding a way to yes, start, if it makes sense again,
it goes back to community sustainability, economic, environmental, social.
If those all make sense, start with yes, bring in the partners to make it happen.
I'm sorry.
I'm costing you a lot of money.
No, I know it, but it's for good cause.
Oh, goodness, Tom.
I couldn't avoid this one just simply because you are so, oh, wait a minute.
Which one?
I just went.
You just went.
Yeah.
Tom.
Thank you.
Yeah, we could let Brian talk again, but I want Tom to talk. You are so deeply involved
in the Grand Avenue. I want your input on this as well. You stated that the public format is
not engaging the people that live on the street there on Grand Avenue. What are your thoughts?
It's pretty simple. I own two properties, the little yellow house next to Moe's and
and then also where pickups pizza is, and there was a reason why I bought those properties
with my wife.
It was to invest in the town and look forward to hopefully doing some commercial development.
But the way it's been for me right now is that 25 individual property owners are going
to be either eminent domain or have a significant amount of their property taken.
Virtually all the properties that I own are key intersections and they will be destroyed.
My son will lose the house he lives in because they want to put a road right through the living room.
At Pickup's Pizza, the door is going to be about 10 feet from where the new road is going to be
so that they can have additional parking lots for businesses that are going to be gone.
Today I stopped to talk to my tenants because unlike each of these people,
I actually, I have tenants. I had a business that was there at a good sport that my wife owned
and I've never worked for anyone but myself.
So I understand what it takes
and they each have told me
that if that road gets built,
those businesses will be gone.
I don't take that lightly,
but their leases are gonna soon be up
and they're looking at moving to Gypsum
or to Eaglevale or somewhere else.
And so the redevelopment of the Grand Avenue project,
there's five roundabouts,
it's gonna be 80 feet wide.
These roads are significant.
The people that have designed them
don't even live in Eagle County and they expect you to ride an electric scooter in
January on a bike path that won't even be plowed and so I just look at things
from a different perspective but I do kind of look at it I think from Larry's
perspective is what's it going to be like to run a snow plow up and down
Grand Avenue when it snows two feet and there's a center median that's three
feet high you're not going to get rid of the snow and the roads are they
going to be any better no because as soon as you leave Eagle going to
gypsum, it's still two lanes, same with the roundabout at the east end of town.
I think that the town got ahead of itself a little bit, and the letter I received in
the town on both of my properties is, hey, we'd like to buy a couple of inches off of
your land, and it's going to give you maybe a 5% return in 20 years.
My neighbor just was sold to the town for $787,000 said in the paper at the Grand
Avenue Grill.
To me, that's just the beginning of setting the real estate value for imminent domain.
So as a landowner, yeah, I'm frustrated.
The town's never once come to speak to us.
We've only had to come then, and then you get 15 minutes with somebody that's from
Denver or Florida.
It's not being solved by people that live in Eagle.
Tom, thank you.
I'm going to move over to Brian.
I think you're the last question.
And I apologize, folks, I appreciate your patience,
but the only reason we're over time
is not their fault, it's mine.
So Brian, I wanna talk about the budget.
So the top issue facing our town
is structural budget problems.
How do you, in the short time we have left,
distill the problems and the solutions
to make this go away?
All right, so let's talk about a structural budget problem.
When people may not realize
is the town underwent a lot of budget and growth.
several years ago, there was a Supreme Court case called the Wayfair Decision, so now we
get sales tax from internet sales, right? Lots of money, hired some people, we grew our payroll
dramatically in the past five years, right? Now, fast forward to where we are now, we
get sales tax. That supports almost everything in town, right? And we know that. But our
costs are being driven by cost of living, by payroll, and inflation is eating us
alive. 17% costs year-over-year on healthcare, costs like health insurance for employees.
In you project this forward five years it gets really bad. Why? Because our revenue will
continue to go up inflationary based on the cost of things you buy on Amazon, things you
buy from city market. So we're going to see cost of goods inflation in our revenue. Meanwhile,
we have cost of living that is real estate that is payroll in the money going out
the door. There is not an easy way to solve it without shifting things off of that
That fails packs based general fund revenue into enterprise funds into other places or
completely rescaling the cost of services that we have, right?
If you guys want to get some idea of how this happens to local governments, go read on the
growth Ponzi scheme.
It's a term that's used in planning.
There's a strong towns book all about it.
It's very common.
It happens to most communities 25 years after a big burst of growth because when
When you build a new development, you get all this tax revenue.
People are paying in.
They're paying sales tax.
They're paying property tax.
All the things, right?
But there's no cost because everything's brand new.
Everything's perfect.
And the balance sheets look great.
But then you get 25 years out and suddenly, oh, the road has to get repaved.
We have to replace the sidewalks.
Those costs come due.
And between me and you, in this town, we simply don't pay enough to maintain
the road simply in front of your house.
The entire town's property tax revenue for a year.
and I mean like the whole town is $600,000. That is the only revenue that we have that's
going to scale at the cost of living. Otherwise it's going to scale at the cost of your eggs
and your milk, right? It just won't work and your new council is going to have to solve this
and we're going to have to have some hard discussions and make hard choices because
the five-year time horizon is scary.
Wonderful. Thank you, Brian.
We'll come back over here
for closing comments we'll have two minutes and we push a button there there we go thanks Tom.
Two minutes here we go I've heard a lot tonight and I'm really fortunate to be able to stand up
here in front of you all and I appreciate the opportunity and the one thing I can promise you
is if you do elect me I will bust my ass every day like I have for the last 40 years of my life
I'll go to work and I'm going to solve problems.
But this town, what I just heard, is something that we've all known about.
And when I lived here in 2010, there was nobody here.
The town could barely make payroll.
So you don't have to live here very long to see the poor decisions that have been made
by the councils before us and current.
You have to plan for a rainy day and you can't just spend what you make that day.
And my business, you produce or you go out of business real quick, just like the restaurant
business, just like the construction business, it's put up or shut up.
Our town has, I would say far exceeded its financial capability.
They've been basically operating on a champagne taste with a perhaps blue ribbon budget.
It does take tightening the belt.
And if we don't start making smart decisions, the cost of infrastructure is going to eat
our lunch. To maintain the quality of life, we have to set aside money and start reinvesting
in our core areas here in town. And first and foremost, look at developing those to
the highest and best potential to support the existing businesses that are here. We
have to be aware that there's five, in a sense, competing areas in town. It's not
just the DDA, but my tenants specifically as well. We have to consider all because
Because they're all a part of the pie that this town needs.
And that's what I'd ask is if you vote for me, I promise I will work my hardest and
my door will be open to listen to everything you have to say.
And I would encourage everyone that I've seen in this room to start showing up the
town council.
I've been doing it for 24 years and it's a pretty empty building most of the time.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much, Tom.
I appreciate you being here.
Thanks for your honor.
Thank you.
Jason.
I'm not an eye guy, but I guess I promised to, part of the reason I had lunch with Jamie
and Brian and I guess what I look forward to would be working with them and Larry and
the staff here.
I think what EGLE needs is again more collaboration, more conversations and more transparency.
I don't think we can keep Eagle Eagle, I just don't think we can. I think we need to make Eagle happen.
And that's what I look forward to working on with hopefully Brian, Jamie, and four great council members.
I guess in closing, you know, I think we're in a good spot.
like it's not all doomsday like we've got great people we've got I mean the
the reason we have people coming here is because of our open spaces it's because
of our trails it's because of our Nordic skiing and our mountain biking and
all these things we've had great investment in those things we know
we've heard that the River Park while it's it's there it needs it needs
improvements and needs enhancements you know we've we've taken it as far
as we can that's kind of up to them like that's where I believe the
private sector has to get involved through partnerships and other things, but I just think we have
great things going for us. We just kind of have to get out of the way or work with groups that
can get things done, but to me it's all about making things happen. It's not about keeping things
the way they are. Thank you so much, Jason. We'll cut off the step. Appreciate it.
Brian, thank you. Bring us home. All right. Thanks for sticking around, everyone. I really
appreciate your time. I know putting at the end is like you're ready to go to sleep and go have a
drink, but let's do it. So I want to talk to you for a minute about things that I have done on
Council because if you want to know what I'm going to do, let's look at what I've done and
let's look at how we solve problems. I said on the board of the Downtown Development Authority,
we have given out $100,000 in grant funding to local businesses in downtown over the past
two years. In the first six months of this year, we've seen sales tax revenue in downtown
down, grow 21% year over year, while the rest of the town is flattered down.
It's those sort of small bets that are going to get us to where we need to be.
So next year, we're doubling that investment more than doubling.
We're going to $120,000 in funding for next year alone, and we're going to open that
up to the whole town.
If we see that same kind of return, now we're on to something because we really
have seen some new businesses move into downtown that are doing very well and starting
to drive that needle on that sales tax revenue.
I've sat on the board. I sit on the board of court transit in that time
I was my proudest moment on council was casting the vote that brought fair free transit to Eagle
We now have express service a week we extended youth fair free on the transit authority
So your kids can continue to take the bus to and from Eagle Valley High School and starting and next year
We're going to rebuild Capitol Street to enable transit service up into Eagle Ranch coming probably in 2028
We got that in the 10-year plan for the transit authority
So you can drop your kids off in Eagle Ranch and they can take the bus to go ski and you don't have to drive them
Things are looking forward. We have plans to change things the roundabout of Broadway
We'll bring that traffic downtown to reshape and get people into town
We can move the ball forward on development in this town
We just have to do it in incremental small steps that we can afford
Amazing
thanks fire
You guys are superstars all of you
All of the candidates, all the folks online that are still there, I still see you.
I think that's a lot like Romper Room.
You could see right into the...
Anyway, and you the audience, it's amazing.
Our democracy, as I said earlier, is fragile.
It takes participation.
It takes activism.
It takes voting.
It takes encouragement, being educated.
Our veiled daily is an amazing job of keeping us up to speed on a lot of things through
many years that we've dealt in this community looking for news. They published something today
about the candidates. They will have many letters to the editor. Please participate. Please be a
part of that. Thank you gentlemen. The chamber, thank you for all your hard work,
and thank you for my able-bodied assistant. And I really want to thank the collective for
having us over. Wait, wait, there we go. We're having us over there this evening.
All right. We want to thank Kevin Brubeck for moderating. That was awesome.
Thank you so much. Beautiful job. I thought it went really well. So
thank you so much for joining us. And next time, Kevin Brubeck, you'll be up for moderation.
All right. We're going to make sure we're out of here in about 10 minutes so everybody
Everybody that's working from the town can go home.
Technical staff, unbelievable.
Thank you.
They themselves so well, including the audience by God.
This Shaw number that I'm donating, I'm going to double it, so we're going to send $2,000
to the Shaw at home team.