The appointment of Mayor Pro Tem Marie Cenac as a second Town Board trustee to serve on the Visit Este Park Board, presentations by local students on recent activities, a robust workforce housing and childcare report, and an overview of 2024 Estes Park Watershed Coalition activities were the highlights of Tuesday night’s Town of Estes Park Board.
Although trustees Bill Brown and Mark Igel were absent, the business of the Town was completed as the board members agreed unanimously on all the action items.
A presentation and proposal for the Encore! performance facility to be included with the Stanley Park Master Plan was postponed to a later date, as was the Transportation Advisory Board committee appointments, the latter because Igel was to present that report.
The Environmental Resilience Team of Estes Park Middle School presented an urgent call to action to the Town Board: private drainage systems throughout the Town are not being adequately maintained and thus will contribute to any flooding in the future.
The students presented a comprehensive report, including pictures, of seven stormwater drainage systems that were required to be installed by the building department at the time of the property’s construction.
However, they said many of these are not being maintained by their private owners and have fallen into disrepair. The team requested that the Town include stormwater drainage maintenance as a requirement in its development code.
A small contingent of Estes Park High School students reported on a recent trip to Monteverde, Costa Rica, the Town of Estes Park’s Sister City. High school students and their sponsors traveled to Monteverde over spring break and visited the Cloud Forest and other natural resources in the tourism-based community.
They also went to class at the local high school and were housed by host families, who fed them traditional Costa Rican food. In July, a contingent of students from Monteverde will travel to Estes Park and be hosted by local families. This outreach is designed to spread awareness between the two cultures and promote peace through citizen diplomacy.
2024 was a busy year spending 6E funds, the local lodging tax, dedicated to developing workforce housing and supporting childcare. Presented by the Town’s housing and childcare manager, Carly Bangs and Scott Moulton, executive director for the Estes Park Housing Authority, the 2024 impact report of 6E funds included the final number raised last year, a whopping $5.6 million.
That year, 88% was distributed to EPHA for workforce housing and 12% for childcare. Next year, the split will be 80/20 workforce housing/childcare, and the team is predicting another six percent increase in funds, as was seen between 2023 and 2024. The full report can be viewed here.
Based on their rate study’s conclusions, the electric rate hike will probably be closer to 3.5% every year for three years, said Joe Lockhart, the line superintendent for the Town of Estes Park Power and Communications.
Public hearings will be included with the Town Board’s regular meeting, which are set for June 10 and June 24. At that time, the public will be able to make comments on the proposed plan. Comments can also be emailed to the Town directly.
The Trustees voted to give the town administrator, Travis Machalek a 3.5% merit increase, instead of the standard 2% across the board for Town employees. Machalek is an exemplary employee, said Mayor Gary Hall.
The Elkhorn Phase 2 development has substantially met all the requirements for annexation, said senior planner Paul Hornbeck, so the Trustees accepted the project to be heard for the annexation eligibility hearing, tentatively set for June 24. At that meeting, Trustees will determine if the project is eligible for annexation, and then the annexation hearing will be the final step in the process.
A letter from the Estes Valley Recreation and Parks District trail committee urged the Trustees to require a public trail easement through the property.
“For 125 years the existing trails that pass through the Elkhorn Lodge Phase II property have provided a route from downtown Estes Park to Deer Mountain, and as of 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park,” read the letter signed by the committee’s chairperson, Amy Plummer.
This development has garnered a lot of public opposition from neighbors, but a letter of support was received on May 13 from the Visit Estes Park Board of Directors. “We feel the particular benefits of this single applicant annexation request more broadly benefits the wider Estes Park community,” the letter said. It was signed by the VEP board chair, Sean Jurgens.
There are two new liquor licenses in the downtown corridor as of Tuesday night. Inkwell and Brew was granted a beer and wine license, and a new establishment, located where the Twisted Griffin once made its home, will serve craft cocktails in a speakeasy-type establishment called the Park Tavern, with a new hotel and restaurant liquor license.
The Estes Valley Watershed Coalition had a productive year in 2024, reported Bob Leavitt, president of “the only nonprofit in Estes Park that protects water, forests, and wildlife.”
Last year, the watershed coalition and its partners collected 124 tons of woody biomass, removed 50 pounds of trash and debris from waterways, and completed fire mitigation on 250+ acres. They have more than 75 volunteers and, since 2023, completed forest thinning on about 70 acres of land.
Derek Fortini, director of the Estes Park Museum, presented an annual report on museum activities, acquisitions, and preservation. The museum collected four new oral histories in 2024, to add to the 40 already in its collection. Twenty-eight volunteers contributed 1,408 hours to the museum, and 38 donors contributed 204 artifacts to the museum’s collection last year.
The month of May 2025 has been designated Mental Health Awareness month by Larimer County, reported Hall. David Greear was introduced as the Town’s new Public Works Director.
The next Town of Estes Park board meeting, which will include the first public hearing on electric rate hikes, will be on June 10 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall, 170 MacGregor Ave.