Snowmass mayoral candidates go head-to-head at Snowmass Squirm Night

A Squirm Night was hosted for Snowmass and Pitkin County candidates on Wednesday evening at the Snowmass Town Hall.

The evening was split into three sections, with mayoral candidates, incumbent Bill Madsen and council member Alyssa Shenk, facing off first. The second and third sections included four candidates vying for two other seats on Snowmass Town Council, as well Pitkin County Commission candidates, take centerstage.

The candidates were asked which county ballot questions they supported with a show of hands. Both Madsen and Shenk supported questions 1A and 1C and opposed question 200. 

For their first questions, Madsen and Shenk were asked about Snowmass ballot question 2D, which would authorize the town to spend up to $86 million on 79 affordable housing units at the Draw Site.

Shenk, who was a part of the council that approved the resolution of support for the Draw Site housing project and worked on the project for five years, supports 2D. She said it aligns with the town’s housing master plan, and the question itself is a spending question, not one about density or the makeup of the units.

She did address community feedback that had concerns about density.

“I think we really need to be responsible with our growth,” Shenk said. “We only have a set amount of land left here in Snowmass to build, and whatever we build, we want to be extremely thoughtful about it. So if it passes, great. It means we got the spending question out of the way. If it doesn’t, it’s back to the drawing board.”

Madsen also supports 2D, saying that workforce housing is a critical issue for the community, as well as all mountain resort communities.

He said there are 270 people on the waiting list for rental housing, and this needs to start being tackled. Another concern among the Snowmass community is hiring employees at local businesses.

“They can’t hire someone unless they have a place to live,” Madsen said. “I’m a firm believer that we need to invest in our community, and the best way to do that is to invest in the characters of our community. That’s how we build community character. … That’s how we create this really beautiful mix of people that live in Snowmass village.”

In addition to addressing housing and infrastructure needs, the candidates were asked about maintaining community character, as well as developing Snowmass in a way that’s “just big enough.”

An example that Madsen said will ensure both of these things is making sure Snowmass is a pedestrian-friendly place to live through the development of trail and bike path systems, particularly the Donny White Curve and the path that goes along Highline Road.

Shenk said she would like to see the Snowmass Mall rehabilitated. It has a different feel than Base Village, and it needs a pick-me-up on the outside but also opportunities on the inside for people to want to go there and gather. She thinks this is a way to mix community character with infrastructure projects that Snowmass needs.

Regarding Snowmass Mall transit depots, Snowmass Town Council has revealed ways to address this for months. This includes making gradual improvements to the existing depots, as well as developing a new transit center completely.

This transit center has been on the books since 1990, and there is $6 million in the bank, Madsen said. Gradually, federal money was lined up, and when a plan was presented to the planning commission, they said it was too big and outside of community character.

He said that a two-level design is in the works that eliminates the parking and would improve both the Roaring Fork Valley Transportation and shuttle stops.

“And I think at this point, that’s the best way forward because anything that we do that’s a large-scale, two-level or single-level structure at the mall is going to take about 40 months to build,” he said. “And I’m not ready to put our mall businesses in a position where they’re going to be inconvenienced and disrupted for three and a half years.”

Shenk echoed Madsen’s sentiments. She said it was hard to sit through the planning of the transit center and receive the federal funding and then have to give it back because they were not able to move forward with the project. She did see this as helpful, however.

She has been a mountain ambassador for 17 years, and every Sunday, she stands out where the buses are. She has had experiences there that showed her it is icy, not friendly to people with disabilities, and it can be scary crossing in front of buses and cars.

“So I think one of the concerns that came out of the last proposal was the safety and the density and the time of the project,” Shenk said. “I am really confident that we can work together with the mall owners, with the mall businesses, with our community. It has been on the books for a really long time. And I think it’s really important to get to that point where we can get a project that goes.”

Both mayoral candidates were also asked about a consensus-building among council members and the community when making decisions. 

Shenk brought up something that happened on Monday night with Madsen. Snowmass Town Council members discussed a resolution of support for the airport that night. Shenk said none of the fellow council members were willing to support ballot question 1C due to lack of communication beforehand from Madsen.

She said that Madsen did not call her or any of the other council members, and if he had, then maybe the resolution would have had a different outcome.

In rebuttal, Madsen said that he talked to both Tom Fridstein and Shenk, and they both said that they support a resolution for the airport. He said that when they got into council chambers, they decided to play “politics and not support the resolution.”

Shenk disagreed. 

“That is 100% not true. When we sat in here on October 14th and had a presentation from both sides of the airport, we all said that we were not ready to support a resolution,” she said. “When I saw you Wednesday of that week … I said, ‘I lean towards (ballot question 1C), but I’m not there yet because I have a lot of conversations to still have between now and Monday.’ Never once did you follow up with me or any other member of council before. That is on you.”

When given an opportunity to ask one another one question, Madsen asked Shenk why she switched up her stance on the airport.

She said that when a resolution is put out to the community, the town council is saying that they are advocating for community members to vote a certain way. She also said in the last two months campaigning around Snowmass, people are conflicted about the airport — more so than any other topic.

She feels the right choice is 1C, but she wanted the community to feel comfortable approaching town council members and talking to them about the issues. She thinks sending out a resolution regarding the airport about where the town council stands pushes the community too far in one direction.

When given the opportunity to ask her own question of Madsen, Shenk asked why in the media he felt there was a need to tell Shenk that she should wait for two years to take this role.

Madsen said he was surprised when Shenk told him she was running for mayor because he appointed her mayor pro tem during her time in council due to a cordial relationship they have experienced for the last ten years. He also said they align on several issues, so he wondered how she was going to be different from him as mayor.

Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.