Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Morning. Is your ringer on? Probably not.

Oh, I found it. Sorry, [laughter] my code. I can't I found it out that today. So, now we all set apology for now. It's not rude. All right. I'd like to call to order Town of Frasier's board meeting for January 7th, 2026 at 6:01 p.m. Could I have a roll call, please? Katie Fer, Adam Quicklin, Peggy Smith, Julie White, Katie Souls, uh, Lewis Gregory, and Brian Cirbank. Could I have an approval of the agenda?

So move. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I I. Any opposed? Okay. Could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes minutes for December 3rd, 2025, the minutes for December 10th, 2025? Resolution 2026 0101 official posting location and resolution 2026103 on-site distribution extension gas um Excel Energy. I move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I.

Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to open forum. So, this is for business not on the agenda. Um, so if it's an agenda item that you're interested in, we will give you time. Um, but if you do have something business related that is not on the agenda, you can uh approach the podium and speak for 3 minutes. And if you're online, please raise your hand if you'd like to speak during open forums. Quite a few people online and quite a few people trying to come in.

Okay. I do not see any hands raised online from the participants to speak. Okay, we will keep moving. Uh, moving on to discussion and possible action regarding a marketing update from Sarah Wick.

Hello, mayor, trustees. Sarah, marketing and communications manager for the town of Frraasier. Thanks for having me tonight for the quarterly marketing update. I'm going to wait for Antonet to pull that up for me. And we're done already. [laughter]

That was quick. I didn't even know what happened. It was that good. Is there a way I can go back or do I have to back through?

That's fine. No, we're we're good. I was looking through it just to make sure. So just a a reminder um on our agenda normally what we do we'll go through the social media stats uh website and then do the act active u marketing campaigns and events and questions after that. Okay, so this is our social media stats. We have Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And these are some definitions for your references um when you're looking through the presentation. So, um this quarter we had some growth. We always do. Facebook continues to be our strongest community platform. Our impressions were very high. Not as high as last time, but it's still growing. Um, and then engagement remains strong and consistent from month to month.

Sarah, are these stats like monthtomonth, quarter to quarter? Like what are They're quarter to quarter. Mhm. Growth quarter to quarter. So the one in the middle, so if you see um 480, that was the grow the net growth followers in Facebook this past quarter and the 299 was the previous quarter and the 179 was previous to that. Thank you.

These are top Facebook posts. Um they always tend to be wildlife community focused and just local Frasier pride. Um posts that feel more authentic seem to do well. Um, and this reinforces our community first approach. So, this is one a guessing game for you guys. Which post do you think got the most comments? So, the first one is the train ride um that the mayor took. The other one is a swag post. And the third one is we're looking for some models for our video. Models. Oh, yeah. It's got to be models. Models.

Yep. [laughter] I clipped some of the comments which were kind of funny. It's great.

All right, so this is the official um Frasier Instagram. We had uh some growth on that. Impressions continue to be up and engagements are also high too. Those are our top Instagram posts. the moose. So, you'll see some see some um fall um pictures because um this last quarter included fall stuff. So, it was the moose, the bike park obviously, and then there was um a couple new murals that went up in in town during that time as well. So, this is the Explore Frasier Colorado Instagram. We had massive net growth in this on this page. Um the impressions were good too. Not as great as the quarter before. Um but they were still good. And then the engagements were down a little bit but still still growing.

What do you see the what do you attribute that big net follower growth to? I don't know honestly. Um it's hard to say. I I the short answer is I I just don't know. Um, it could be the the posts. Um, yeah, maybe that that moose video. Who knows? [laughter] It got a lot of traction on YouTube, too. So, you know, you see it on YouTube and then you're like, "Oh, maybe I'll go to their Instagram page, too, and see what's happening." Gotcha.

These were the top posts for uh Explore Frasier, Colorado Instagram. The one is the fire and ice uh video and then another one is about some stickers and then the last one was uh a text notification that you can sign up for. So the town Fraser Frasier YouTube channel which I've been working on and it has been growing so that's good. Uh so I know it doesn't look big but that net follower growth up to 72 is really good. And then as you can see the engagements are going up too. So people are more people are watching our videos on YouTube. Um so sub subs subscriber growth is uh increased a lot. Engagement is trending upwards which is good and video is clearly working on all platforms.

Is YouTube does that include our meetings as well as the promotional? Okay. Yeah. So, we're getting greater engagement on this front as well.

Um, and this is the video views on YouTube. You can see it it goes up um 102% which is great. And these are the top videos that were viewed. Again, the moose that was that was the the big one. And then the bike park, there were two bike park videos. And Adam, this is your your thing. How do we compare um to everybody else? So, we have strong engagement compared to our peer towns. Content resonates with residents and visitors and quality over quantity approach is working. Uh we have opportunities. Um Instagram growth can be pushed further. More reels and carousels on Instagram and then continued video expansion I believe is key. So overall wins uh we saw overall growth across all platforms. Um Instagram is performing especially well YouTube is gaining traction. Engagement is up overall 11%. Video is clear the clear winner uh with 94 total video n plus 94% total video views. Um, YouTube video views more than doubled and then engagement rate improved 5% up from past period.

Are you controlling that or am I? You know, you are. Sorry, I keeping people in.

Oh, okay. [laughter] Um, and here's some opportunities that we could um lean on. Instagram impressions have room to grow in uh engagement rates can improve with more interaction focused posts. Um cross posting and promotion can exceed reach. Um and continued f focus on link clicks are important. So what does this mean for 2026? We're going to double down on video content especially reals and the YouTube shorts. uh use strong Instagram follow growth to drive higher enga engagement, not just reach. So, we're going to try to get people to share and engage more and comment more on our videos. Uh maintain our Facebook as our core community since that's our main channel. Increase Instagram posting consistency to improve visibility and impressions. Uh continue highlighting hyper local uh seasonal content, wildlife, weather, events, etc. We know those do good. Um, and then focus on content. Oh, yeah. Focus on content that supports tourism, events, and local businesses. Uh, here are websites. So, we have two websites. Frasier, Colorado is our local website for all things Frasier, like paying your utility bills, etc. And then, Explore Frasier, Colorado is more for tourism base and visitors. So, this is our town website. uh averages 9,000 monthly visitors. Average engagement time is a minute and 30 seconds, which is good. And the homepage and agenda center are the two most visited pages. And people are from Denver and Salt Lake that visit.

Can you skip ahead?

Oh, too far. There we go. This is Explore Frasier, Colorado. Um 8200 or 82 uh,000 average monthly visitors. And these people are hanging out on the website for 4 minutes, which is huge. The top pages were Find Your Flow, that was the mountain bike based one, and then the Find Your Flow on snow, which is more winter focused, um, cross-country skiing, tubing, and stuff. California, Colorado, and New York are our top audiences. These are the words that they're searching for when they get to explore Frraasier, Colorado. Um, it's always event focused or activity focused. So, things to do in Frraasier, too. These are the current ad campaigns that we have running. Um, we have a full page in Explore Grand with a QR code. We have our Fire and Ice print that's going. We also have a Fire and Ice YouTube ad that we're running. and then a Google display ad which promotes the find your flow on snow. So far, this is what we've spent. Um the print ads, that's just a one-time cost. It's hard to know what the reach is. I can track that QR code, but that's about it. I can't see how many people are actually seeing it. Um but the Google display ads and YouTube ads, this is why I like them. You can see how many people clicked on them and how many how many people saw them. For example, that display ad, uh, 12 thou almost 13,000 people clicked on it and almost a million people have seen it. So, that's huge for us. And then that drives the traffic to that website, to our websites, too. This is our Frasier podcast. Um, you can see it trending up a little bit. I've also decided to add that to our YouTube channel. So, it's on a playlist as well, so you can listen to that on YouTube,

but it's also on all of the platforms. and then they also broadcast it on KFFR. So, what's next? Uh, Fire and Ice is February 14th. Uh, going to start creating more video obviously or continue to utilize YouTube for more promo and engagements. Uh, the other Sarah and I are working on a spring event to open up the bike park. And then we are going to be putting in a new live streaming camera. That picture is going to be the view of that camera and we're going to be able to create some time lapses from that and people can download images from that and yeah, I think that'll be that'll be great because our live cameras definitely get a lot of views as well.

Is it on the building there? It's on that um Yeah, that where the local experiences. Yep. So, I've been working with the property owner and property manager. That's you go next. But that is it. Any questions, concerns, comments? Got a question from Louis. Lewis, go ahead.

Yeah. Hey, hey Sarah, thank you for this and uh I appreciate you putting the metrics around this is that's very helpful for us to track. I just wondering do we and maybe it's too early to know about, you know, how the seasonality affects your metrics. uh if you have data from last year, but just wondering if you are tracking that. Yeah, I mean I could look at that. We could do like a annual comparison if you'd like to see those metrics. I can pull those for you, Lewis.

Yeah, just I I assume seasonality does affect, you know, your metrics in terms of what people are looking for depending on what time of year, but uh that might be something to to follow in the future. But uh No, I like that idea. Yeah, great job. Thank you. Well done. Yes. Very exciting. That's it. Next questions. Okay. Thanks, Sarah. Thanks, Sarah.

Okay, moving on to Emerald Line Transit Options. Um, Michael to speak. And just to set some ground rules, we'll let everybody who wants to speak um speak. We'll limit it to three minutes um so that everybody gets a chance and then the board can discuss and if we want to open it up for another round of three minutes then we will we will do that.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Uh Michael Brack, town manager. Um this evening for this agenda item, we'll be discussing the Emerald Line um and uh some of the history behind this and why we are discussing this item today. Um, so just for a little bit of background, the Emerald Line was first established in uh 2019. Um, and uh, I came on just to really look at focusing on the service that was needed for Oldtown Frasier and then moving through uh, for service to Grant Park and through Grand Park. Um, it's uh, we've seen good writership on that on that line. Um, and it has been the uh it is the newest line that has come to the town and it is the only line that is um exclusive to Frraasier uh with the exception of the one bus stop at the Cooper Creek Shopping Center. Um and um in [clears throat] November of 2023, the Emerald Line, it did expand its service option um in November of 2023 from a standard 60-minute service to 60 minute service during the non- peak season times. and then moving to a 30 minute service during the peak season times. The peak season times are defined as the last two weeks of December uh most weekends in January and February and then throughout March for spring break. Um when we sat down with uh the town of Winter Park uh to discuss transportation costs for the 2026 budget season, um myself and Brian, we sat down with uh the transit manager and the town manager for Winter Park and just looked at what the budget was looking like for 2026. Um from there we were provided that that uh the cost for Frasier was going up um approximately 30% um compared to the 2025 costs uh which was looking at a total cost of 1,658,657

and these numbers are in the staff briefing if you would like to reference them. Um so again that was a 30% increase over the budgeted 2025 transit operational year or an increase of $377,000. Uh this increase also did follow a 22% budgeted increase from the 2024 uh to the 2025 operational year. Um, so once we had these discussions, uh, Brian and I voiced our concerns at the meeting and then asked Winter Park to help us with like looking at some different options for some cost cutting of where we where we could look first um or what the options really were for any type of reductions in service uh that could result in um uh cost savings for this this service. Um, [clears throat] this service is is provided through a 1% sales tax that is restricted to transit costs um that was approved by the voters in 2015. Um, the 1% sales tax revenues from the audited our most recent audited year of 2024 uh were about 1.24 24 million. Um for conservative budgeting practices for the 2026 budgeting year, uh we have budget of 1.2 million in revenues. Uh hopefully we'll see more of that, which is a trend, but again, it's just conservative budgeting. Um the $1.2 million would fall about $458,000 short to cover the 2026 operational year. Uh so from there again um with these increase in costs we did speak to to Winter Park and their transit uh manager and their their consultant looking at what are some options to do

this. Um and uh the discussion evolved to the Emerald Line uh primarily because any changes in frequency to the Emerald Line does not affect any service to the town of Winter Park. Um and uh and then we would see acknowledge those substantial services while not changing any bus stops but really just changing the frequency. So eventually the recommendation uh for lowering those costs that was um uh with that with that cost cut of going from the the 60 minute 30 minute service to just the standard 60inut service. Um that was a placeholder in our budget. Um and then it was formally approved at the November 3rd transit advisory committee meeting uh where every year the transit advisory committee um they do uh you know make the fiscal recommendations for those approvals. Um so uh that that approval was made and this budget line item was solidified for that cost. Um and since that cut, we have had a lot of public engagement about um that that cut in service from the 30 60 minute service to just a 60 minute service. And since that cut in service, we've been working with Winter Park staff and looking at the scheduling for the Emerald Line to see if there were any other alternatives that could be cost effective um uh without reinstating the full service which uh would completely deplete our restricted revenue fund uh for revenues and the full it would it would deplete our full u unassigned fund balance for the restricted revenue fund as well. Um so we are looking at uh this this cost cut seem to makes the most sense uh with the least amount of impact to the rest of

the services that are provided to the transportation service. Um diving more deeply into the scheduling and developing an understanding of how the bus does move from its transit facility to start service. Uh we did explore the option with the town of Winter Park to explore uh what starting service 1 hour earlier starting at the holiday in express could look like. So um we had that discussion uh town of Winter Park and their transit uh department did a lot of work on this and to evaluate how you know if that could be done and if that would be feasible and what the financial impacts would be to the town to to make that change. Um so from that change uh that was that puts service starting at 7 um 37 a.m. at the Holiday in Express and then circulates through Oldtown Frasier and Grand Park uh with that first uh line of service starting uh getting to the resort by 8:00 a.m. Um so we did discuss that that was brought to the transit advisory committee that was just discussed this past Monday. So I apologize for these things not being in the packet. We knew we wanted to have this conversation timely so that we can make any changes necessary. Um so that recommendation came forward to the TAC and was ultimately approved and discussions about um that and where to start the service were discussed and um ultimately was approved as is with this with starting with one hour earlier service for the Emerald Line. Um the cost to the town for that early hourly service is $9,250 um compared to the $170,000 that otherwise would cost to reinstate uh the full 30 60 minute service. So, um, the

discussion that I just want to help facilitate for tonight, uh, to to build off, uh, the lovely presentation the Winter Park folks provided us at the last meeting, um, is just to discuss what the board would like to do. Uh, you have all received a lot of input. I know there's been a lot of discussion and we've been looking at some various options and evaluating the impacts to our budget not only for next year but also uh looking at uh a lot of the work that will take place this spring to re-evaluate transportation services those costs and ultimately getting to a a new inter intergovernmental agreement with the town of Winter Park for for bus services. Um so [clears throat] the three options for you tonight uh for discussion uh will be you know option one is looking at making no change to the existing service. Option two will be looking at starting the service one hour earlier. Um that places people at the resort um at 8 am. Uh and that brings people to the base of the village at the resort uh at 8 a.m. Um or option three is you do have the ability to um to reinstate the 30 60 minute service. It would require an allocation of about $15,000 uh from the general fund to uh provide for that cost. in addition to that would deplete our full unassigned fund balance as well for that 1% sales tax option. And just just generally from the conversations that have happened to date that 1% sales tax as you you may be or may not be aware of um as approved by the voters was anticip was was approved with the language to support transit operations trails trails maintenance and trail construction um and capital projects in general. Um over the the years it's become more and more narrow with any funding that can go towards those other items and um and especially with looking at next year uh

appropriating the majority of that unassigned fund balance to offset the transit costs um we are not looking at much of anything left over for for next year um for for 2027. So with that background, um those are the three options that we're looking at. Michael, can clarify you did you say 15,000? It would cost about 15,000 from the general fund to for in addition to the unassigned fund fund balance that we have which is about 500,000. Yeah. So let's talk about the total amount that we would have to commit to do this. That would be how much? Um, so good.

There would be about5 to $10,000 worth of administrative costs. That's that's just kind of a rough estimate from the town of Winter Park to modify the schedule and the updates digitally to their apps and to their signage. Yeah. Um, but the cost of the service is um if we reinstate the full 3060 uh was 1,658,000. So that's 157. That's for the full 60 minute service back to the emerald line. So, and we we'd have to put out how much $377 orundred I got lost in all the numbers. Um

so that that would be an increase of about $190,000 compared to what was approved on December 3rd for our budget. That's and that would require a transfer of about 15,000 from the general to offset these costs for the restricted revenue fund. Yeah. where the uh the transit operational costs are housed. Okay. It's a lot of money. Beautiful. Bottom line, we're exceeding our revenue mechanism by about I can't hear you.

We're exceeding our revenue mechanism by about $450,000 to fully fund this. We haveund 1.2 coming in and it's 1.65 give or take. it's not sustainable and it cleans us up this year rather than what we were anticipating of the next year. So really pushes these conversations forward.

And I will go ahead and for those who are attending online or here in the room, I will bring that schedule up on the screen here so that you guys can see that. Is this the current schedule? This is a schedule that's being proposed for option two. Okay.

Um that starts service at 7:37. Um right here. Oh, I see. You can see my cursor. Mhm.

Um otherwise what is currently in place is this the service starts at 8:15 and allows people to get people using the Emerald Line that first bus would allow them to get to the resort by 900 a.m. What we're proposing for option two um is just to start service here at the at the Holiday in Express um 1 hour earlier from this 837. So it maintains the hourly. It's really just starting service a little bit earlier. Um and this kind of just makes sense from uh people who utilize that stop at Paladian. Um, and then it would it would go through to the by the Amtrak station and then come through Oldtown and go through Grand Park and then head to the resort.

So, do you have any feeling about the number of people would they be mostly employees that would be riding that because they wanted to get to the resort early to work? I think you you'll hear a lot of input about that. I think a lot of uh residents and and Brian can speak to this too. I mean, the board I think you all received the emails from from the folks here. Um what the the interest was getting to the resort before uh the lift opens um at 9:00. So the 8:00 a.m. would put them at the base of the village at 8 and if you take the shuttle or if you walk you're you know maybe you're getting to the gondola by 8:10 8:15 maybe you can get some some drinks or some breakfast or something like that. um on ski rentals too if you got to do that or right

um and also for compenter center we had a lot of input about comp center um how that starts at I believe 9:00 am there in front of the balcony house and that's allows kids to get there well in advance for that um and not be late or people be waiting for people there for the golf center um and the main reason why this is possible is because now all the vans or all the the buses are starting off of Con County Road 5. So, they're literally driving through Frasier to start at Winter Park Resort as it is. So, we're just telling them, don't drive past everything and start at the resort. Just start in Frraasier um and and at that service. So,

so that 9,000 is actually cheaper than it would be if they started at Well, so what's interesting is we are charged for that dead head as it was because we're charged by the minutes through the town. And so by adding a couple stops along the way or whatever that is, 10 stops, um it only adds $9,250 to the overall budget. Um so and it helps out all those people that are trying to get to Compenter and trying to beat the the lift um the gondola um from opening. This would be every day. This is not a only on the holidays or weekends, right? the 30-minut service was only on holidays and weekends.

Okay.

As it was and it only existed for the last two winters. Um yeah, I mean obviously I I don't want to see this cut back in in um transportation and public transportation. Um if it was, you know, if it was cheaper, I would say let's do 15-minute service so you don't even have to look at a schedule. Um but it's expensive and it's gotten astronomically expensive within the last 3 years. and it now is more expensive than what our appropriated sales tax is. So, the the quick fix was to just go back to the 1-hour service. And yeah, it's again not what I want, but it's kind of what needed to be done so that we don't blow up our whole budget. Um, and then in the spring, we need to look at how we can change this so that it can be more economical or or maybe it is something that we bring to the the public to vote on another percent of sales tax. Um, I don't know. That's something I'm open to a lot of ideas, but the bottom line is the system's kind of broken right now. And so, we're doing this as a band-aid for this year, and then we need to reevaluate in the spring. When did the switch start? Has it started?

Yeah, it started this like as soon as winter. Yeah, whenever the winter schedule started. First couple weeks. I don't remember talking about it. How much your budget?

Yeah, we we talked about this in the budget. Um, you know, part of the issue was um you know, we we were given the larger amount. We asked for the administrative change. um and that was in September and then that became a placeholder throughout the rest of the budget season. Uh moving forward, we will absolutely highlight this on a much deeper level every year when we're looking at transportation, especially when we have forthcoming uh discussions about changes for an intergovernmental agreement for transit services and um and just the limitations that we have in funding. So, um it's definitely something that I will ensure that we have a better focus on uh for those discussions next year. So, I apologize if that felt like that was not discussed um for this past budget season. Um it uh yeah, it was that that that administrative change was made with the understanding that it would be approved at the future transit advisory committee meeting which was done on on November 3rd. um but uh was never able to have that in-depth conversation here at the board, but moving forward, we'll make sure that that happens in the future.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but the only number we as a board saw was 1.5 million. I I I don't believe I ever saw right 1.65, right? And we had a lot of discussions about even [clears throat] that expense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah,

and then the conversation kind of shifted to just general appropriation in the first place. So um again I you know I looking back I absolutely believe we could have had I could have directed more conversation about this topic. Um but uh we are where we are here and um we have two options that are presented to you or the three options here um just to move forward with and our understanding is once uh a decision is made tonight that this service can be brought back online I think in a week. What do you think, Chuck? Um, when we discussed it, we discussed at some point in January. Okay. Um, so,

okay. At some point in January, it depends on how long it takes for fabrication. Um, there's not much fabrication that needs to be done. However, that's not something that's that has to go through two separate companies. So that's why I give you like a further you know so as soon as it can be implemented it'll be implemented sometime in January I can get the ball roll it well next question won't take longer than so it's already I mean is so it's already changed to that to the hourly now it's been the hourly it's been that all this this whole winter all the

yeah yeah all the signs says Is that everything? Correct. So if we change it and add this additional early is that that's not as involved is Yeah. You guys want to go up to the mic? Cheaper and less time. Hi Sarah, interim town manager in Winter Park. Lovely to see you all.

Yeah, we just looked for what was the most cost-effective option for you. um we just have some hard costs that get incurred uh if you implement any changes and so uh the 9250 was the most affordable one. Uh as Chuck said, we want to implement this for you as soon as we can. Um but we have to work a little bit with Transdev and and with um a few of our vendors to to get that and as soon as we can understand their availability, we will get back to you. But we think we're very confident that it's this month and as early in the month as we can get it done. Now, if you want to go back to 30 minute service, that's a little different conversation um in terms of availability. Um and we would need to to talk a little bit more with transdev on that implementation uh timeline for that. We'd still shoot for this month, but it would definitely be a much bigger lift to to make that occur.

So, at this point in time, do you have a preferred alternative? It sounded like adding the earlier loop would be the preferred from your end as well. Well, the the town doesn't have Winter Park does not have an opinion of what to do. This is really your line, your service, but we're praying to provide you what those options and costs are um to to aid you in your decision- making. Thanks, Sarah. Any more questions for Sarah? Do you have a hand? Oh, yeah. Louis.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Um, so I remember the December 3rd meeting when we approved the budget for this. I asked specifically if there are any changes in the schedule and the answer was no. So this is clearly a change in the schedule that caught at least caught me off guard and I think it caught a lot of people off guard. Um you know I'm not sure it's fair to change the schedule in the middle of the season when you know people are expecting a certain service from the town or from the transit authority. Um, you know, I know the the black line runs every 15 minutes. That's another main bus for Frraasier. The red line that services rendevous goes every 30 minutes. And now you've changed it for Grand Park to every 60 minutes. I'm not sure that's fair for the residents of Grand Park that pay taxes, you know, into the town and and help support it. Um, I think we should change it back to the schedule and figure it out for next year going forward. I I just don't think that's fair to the residents to change it in the middle of the season. That was not presented, you know, when we approved this back in December,

Louis, it was definitely discussed. It was discussed, but I asked I asked a specific question about this and the answer was no. There were no changes to the schedule. This is obviously as it was written in that agenda. You know, it said hourly service.

Well, I I don't think people were aware of that. I certainly wasn't. I'm not sure any of the other board members were aware that there was a change in the schedule. So, anyway, that's that's kind of my two cents. I think that this is really unfair, especially for Grand Park residents and having a earlier bus it, you know, it may help some employees, but that's not the main focus of this bus. Uh, it's it's really to service Grand Park and, you know, the bus station or the train station and others. Um, so I I think we should switch back to the the schedule that was before and then going forward we should have a, you know, a frank conversation with um the other parties including the resort and other folks within the uh within the county that are serviced by this bus. Um, that's fair to um bring that up, but weren't you the one that brought up cutting the budget even below the $ 1.5 million?

No, I'm I'm, you know, I'm very fiscally conservative. I think that, you know, we should try to, you know, leverage the other parties as best we can to get them to contribute their fair share. But, you know, this this option was not presented. I I was not aware that, you know, we were cutting service or it was going to be more to pay for this. Um I thought we were going to get the same service for that 1.4 million and change that, you know, we approved back in December.

Yeah. And Lewis, I do apologize for the confusion on that. Um I fully intended to have this as more of a a frontline conversation with the board. Um but uh this placeholder just it maintained throughout the budget season and frankly we had conversations about a variety of topics with the budget and different priorities and general appropriation. So, I apologize, Lewis. Um, you know, I'll make an effort to make sure that we have these these conversations more at the head um before budget season is actually a discussion that we've had um with uh with Winter Park to make sure that we have everything solidified and available for public comment uh before we really start budget seasons. So, um so I apologize for that lack of discussion. Um, this is really a change that uh was was presented to us and um and I I went ahead and used that placeholder for the budget uh with the understanding that um we would have uh discussion about this and uh frankly that just didn't happen uh before that budget was approved. So I apologize for that Lewis. Um but uh just

one other question I had could you know this could this feed be prrated based on the fact that you know I don't know when the peak season started back in November right we've already missed out on a month and a half or so of the season. Can it be prrated to reduce the fee?

That's peak season didn't start until mid December. So I think we've missed about two weeks. So I I don't think prorating it is plus even if we all decided tonight that we were going to move forward um it probably would not happen till the third or fourth week of January and the ski season is short. So to spend $175,000 for what is going to be probably a fairly slow ski season doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't think well could we cut the service to rendevous to every hour

Lewis? The only reason that um you know I did look at the red line it does have stops in the town of Winter Park um and rendevous portions of the town of Winter Park that would impact service to Winter Park residents. With this being a Frasier decision, um the emerald line was cutting that back uh to the 60-minute service was the only um it would only impact Frasier residents without impacting the town of Winter Park residents. Uh which we just did not have time for that type of that level of conversation with Winter Park. Um but from their perspective, they've been acknowledging these higher costs as well. Um and they they've seen it as a priority as well. and um but they didn't did not make any initiatives to look at cutting service for their residents there in Winter Park. So again, the Emerald Line is the only line specific to the town of Frraasier. Um, and when we're looking at different cuts that would make sense, uh, with the least amount of impact between the two communities, the Emerald line was was really the only line that that made sense for this to keep it within the, uh, the revenues and the unassigned fund balance that we have for the restricted revenue fund. Okay, I'll let others weigh in, but uh

just thinking about that third option, if we were to fully fund it, I I would be in favor of taking the entire amount out of the general fund and having to make cuts elsewhere because this is a budgeting process and that's what we deliberated and and and so, you know, it's about priorities and if we decide this is a priority, I don't see us eliminating our reserves funds I see us making cuts elsewhere. Where else will we make cuts? Do you I don't know, but I'm just I I think it's shortsighted to use your entire reserve fund. Yeah. Um long term.

It comes down to priorities and budgeting. Yeah. So if I if we were to go the direction of fully funding it, I would say that not just 15,000 comes out of the general fund but the whole thing. Now during the peak season um the on demand so when there is that the time and I'm sure it's not consistent but where they do have 45 people waiting on a bus and what's the capacity on the larger buses? Do you know do you know the capacity on the larger buses? Uh the seating capacity is 36. 36. That's seating.

That's seating. So standing is about 50 people. Yeah, we did about 50. Okay. Or more. Yeah. Seems like there's 200 kids. Yeah. Yeah. Busy. Anyway, just wondering if there's, you know, if there's a on demand, but by that time you guys be so busy probably wouldn't have a bus that you could just say, "Oh, we need an extra one to come through to because there's too many people waiting." No. And quite frankly, the additional costs um you have to pay the availability charge whether that bus is on the road or not. So from an economic standpoint, it would be one of the least cost effective ways, okay,

for you to address the sit the situation in my opinion. It would definitely be more than the 170,000 if we were going to go back to um having on demand additional buses because that because the bus also needs to be acquired um as part of that consideration given the the fleet and the need to turn the fleet over for its age. Okay, good. And there are drivers as well to be committed to meeting those services, right? That's what the availability charge pays for is that driver to be available and for the bus to be available. And so in the thinking about the capacity on the buses, are any of them um less than 35 sitting?

No, they're used almost daily actually. They're used for the evening service um uh for the night lift. Okay.

Um so those buses um are you know the the fleet is well utilized. That's what I is what I would say. Well, and I'm just thinking about if, you know, if there was a bus with a larger capacity that we were to put on this line because it only runs an hour once an hour to help pick the people up, you know, if they started to stack up. But it sounds like they're all consistent on seating capacity. Uh for the most part, yes, the the key iss that the the kind of things you're asking for are things you do in a much more um scoped out uh short-range transit plan, which is something that I think would be valuable to both the town of Winter Park and to the town of Frraasier to do is is to really look at that and have another review of how last mile connectivity is happening and if there's, you know, the options compared to fix route versus on demand route and and some of that study work. Um, we're doing some of that work internally right now. Um, and I'll be talking with the the new town manager for Winter Park about whether that uh should stay um within our existing resources or require additional resources. Um, typically those short-term range transit plans, in my experience and other transit I've overseen, we've done every um about 36 to 48 months. And we just haven't done that here. our services have been added incrementally and it's time to take a look for efficiencies in the entire system to the benefit of everyone who's paying into the system.

Yeah, absolutely. Good. Well, thank you for that information. I'm just not understanding. I I want to get back to before the B. I mean, not not even really talking about the bus line, but when we were doing the budget, $1.5 million, and that was everything included. And now there's this where that was the number for hourly service on the emerald line. And if you remember, the whole board was up in arms because it was such a huge increase. And that was already with the 30-inut service. Why did it even go? Why is this even an issue if we only approved it for an hour anyways?

Because the people of Grant Park are are they want 30-minut service. So, we wanted to bring it up so that we could discuss it. So, last year they had it and the year before. So, so is there I've seen many many letters. Um, did anybody get Were there letters from people in Oldtown or was it all Grant Park? I didn't see any. I didn't get in Oldtown. I got several that said that they were either a Grand Park resident or that they were a town a Frasier resident. Um it didn't really break it out more from there. It seemed like a form email. I mean when I read them they were almost verbatim saying

well I think it was a you know a concern from their HOA and their HOA sent out something and that u I mean that's pretty typical um to look for that engagement or promote that engagement. Yeah. Okay. Well, they're lining up. They're lining up at the podium.

All right. So, again, we're going to give everybody three minutes. Um, let everybody speak. Um, board will then discuss and if we want to open it up for a second round of three minutes, um, we will do so. Um, if you, uh, please don't repeat the same thing that people other people say. You can say, I concur with so and so, but don't don't, um, just, uh, try and be concise. Thank you. Um, no. Let's go within the room first. Does anyone want to approach the podium?

If you guys could find a doctor, we don't have enough.

Hello, I'm Mark Johnson. I live in the Brent Park area and uh, you know, not having the the half hour service at least at the beginning of the day and the end of the day is impactful. The buses get really crowded. Um, I would love it if uh a another option could be looked at of just adding a couple, you know, half hour, maybe two hours in the end of the day, maybe two hours at the end of the uh the day. I think that would solve a lot of the problems, you know, if that was a possibility there. Also, you know, for longer term, um, you know, a couple of stops are very close to where the black line is. And I think if you know some of the stops could be swapped between the two buses. Maybe that would help. Um like for example there's a stop near Murdoch. There's actually two stops at the Murdoch shop shopping center on both sides. If the second one um the bus already goes some of the buses already go down the little dirt road over to where kind of Bishop Cycle Brewery is. If the bus uh stop could just be moved down there. I know uh the bus stop over there is already being talked about being moved. Um so that's another option I would like to be considered there.

That's great. Thank you.

Angelo Smil. I'm also a Grant Park resident. I'm relatively new here November. So, a lot of the things that uh the other lines do, I have no idea. The only thing I do know is the Emerald Line when we first showed up the our service that you weren't aware of did show up online back in November when we were looking at it um to understand what our options were. So, thank you for that clear communication. Um, I concur with everything that Mark said about the potential of adding instead of the Murdoch stop on the black line, just take it down Tur Road to Vicious. That would solve a lot of problems for individuals that want to get to the mountain a little bit earlier, especially on powder days to be quite frank with you. Uh, I'm not an employee or anything like that, but who whoever wants to get there a little bit earlier. Um, that's really all I can add to it. based on the knowledge I have at this time, the the seasonal part of it, early on in the season, the buses were empty to be quite frank with you. During the holidays here recently, they were full. So, I don't know if those schedules could be mixed around a little bit, the hour, the the black line stop, etc., or if that's just too difficult to organize. The other thing that I had, tell me if I'm running over. Um, you had mentioned something about a 30% increase year-over-year in cost. Is that the Emerald line or is that the entire line?

That's the entire system. I gota part two. What's the 30%? Uh, I mean that was that was discussed the last board meeting too. Um, which you can reference on YouTube if you would like to see that. But it was talking about the with the new contract that's in place with our service provider transdev. Um, this is really kicking off the first year of that contract. And to meet their uh their cost of living requirements for living here for their drivers to to contract out the service that they for them driving these buses, they required a substantial increase just to meet the cost of living up here in the mountains. Uh, specifically in a was that in line with other uh cost increases?

They they discussed that they're seeing this increases all over the the country here. um just given the the cost increases of labor, materials, maintenance, and fuel um that it does have those impacts. Okay, fair enough. Thank you. Yeah. And just to piggyback off of that, we do want to look at bringing this inhouse because transdev is is getting too expensive. So if

transdev transdev is the company that actually facil that finds the drivers that runs the system. Yeah. Fair enough. Thank you. Uh, hi mayor, trustees. My name is Roger Black. Uh, hopefully bringing a slightly different perspective uh on it. I am an employee uh at the resort. I also live in Grand Park on the Emerald Line. Um, I'm also a public transit supporter. I'm the support staff supervisor for ski school at the resort. We put up all the signs and fences, take care of the kids throughout the day. My day unfortunately starts at 7 a.m. So any of the proposed options are not going to work for me. Um however, uh I would love to be able to take a bus to the resort, but these cuts have uh therefore made it even more impossible even on my days off. Um therefore, I have to drive and park, adding to traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Um while I realize that my situation may be different than the other Grand Park residents, these cuts are discouraging transit use. Many Emerald buses don't stop because they're already full by the time they get to our house. And the next closest bus stop is on the orange line, a 20minut walk away, whereas I can drive to the resort and park in 10 minutes. At some point, when there's no free parking at the resort, the valley is going to be dependent on a transit system that is woefully underfunded and undersched. That line from your memo uh caught my eye that the recommendation was made due to the fact that the Emerald Line was the only true transit line solely to Frraasier that wouldn't impact transit services in Winter Park. Is that because the purple line, the Meta Ridge Express stops at one stop in Winter Park at Telmark?

Purple goes all throughout unincorporated Grand County. Several several majority of their stops are up in outside of Frasier actually in that Winter Park ranch area.

Copy that. Thank you. Uh either way, I support expanding transit in Valley. These cuts only serve to discourage public transit use and push more single car users to park at the resort. Please also keep in mind the resort employees that need to get to work before those buses arrive. Even the ones that arrive at 8 don't allow us to be at our workstations at 8. Um let's be leaders here in Frraasier by getting cars off the road and working with the various authorities to increase transit options as our population grows and our parking at the resort shrinks. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else here in the audience? Okay. Hearing Brandon Jung for the record. Um, I just have some points of clarification. Really, some more questions because as you guys know, I've been sitting in every one of your budget hearings. Tracked all this. I have the October 15th transit cost challenges discussion here in front of me. So, this was definitely discussed. Definitely what I'm kind of unclear about. So basically just point of clarifications for you guys and thanks Michael for apologies and stuff. I appreciate that. I'm not here to beat you up, you know. I'm not that guy. But the question is basically this decision was made you guys made the decision sometime in December after the budget was approved. Is that accurate?

This is before before the budget was approved. So even before Okay. Yeah. So, um, that was the the meeting where they approved like really locked that in as far as that change to the emerald line was took place on November 3rd.

Got it. Got it. Okay. Um, and yeah, basically in October 15th, the transit cost challenges discussion, there were actually four different options uh that were presented then and uh obviously service level and cost for you to keep service costs within the limits of the 1% restricted revenue fund was one of those options. So it wasn't as if this came out of nowhere for sure. But I'm just a little confused as to why, you know, and again, thanks for apolog. Um, okay. And then the other question, and I I clarified with Chuck uh on this, uh basically that transdev uh uh contract, do you guys remember when that was signed and when that came into effect?

What was it? October or something? June of 2024? No. No. When was it?

Uh yeah, the contract was a negotiated in 2024. I'm sorry, I don't recall off the top of my head what month the Wonder Park Town Council reviewed it, but it had an effective date of uh July 1st, 2025. So, in the 2024 budget process, there was that there was knowledge going into 2025 that these escalations were coming. And right, the conversations you're having, we're having the same conversations in Winter Park, right? So, this is not just a Fraser issue. It truly is a system issue on the the financial costs. I apologize for taking part of your time. Thank you. Thank you. Uh but still the point very salient. If this was discussed in 24 then ratified in eight months ago in July, what are we doing? We knew these costs were coming. We're in a budget year. We're talking about it and then all of a sudden it sort of blindsided us and what are we going to do? And now we're making decisions, you know, not including town public hearings and stuff. And not this isn't a dig, it's just kind of what happened and not a dig. just where we are. So I'm I'm just

for clarification, I would just tell you that Brian and I were not aware of these increased costs until September 4th is when that agenda was sent out for the transit advisory committee meeting that took place on September 8th with a sign a contract being written and uh discussed and with the town of Winter Park who manages the service. Yes, they they would be more aware of that with the contract, but um just those just I think it's talked about some communication improvements better. Thank you in the future. Really appreciate it. Okay, thanks guys. All right, let's open it up online.

All right. Um Jonathan, you are up first. I'm going to unmute you. Okay. Hi. Hopefully I don't get to be involved in that dramatic music at the end. Uh, hey, my name is Jonathan Khan. I'm in Grand Park. Um, I'd like to point out a couple things that I noticed. Some of the women or one of the women at the table said, "The ski season is short. It's not worth spending the money." I think that's exactly the reason to spend the money. And I can give you some salient real world things that happened. um being up there with the family, we all wanted to go out to dinner, but the kids were, hey, we can't wait an hour. Let's go eat dinner now. So, we missed going out to dinner for that. And I would say that, you know, Grand Park doesn't necessarily I mean, we do need the bus service, but it's also Winter Park businesses themselves because more often than not, the people that try to be good and want to go out to the bars and dinners and stuff like that, we will hopefully all be taking buses and not driving. And I think that limiting that will discourage that a bit. Uh something else that might be a little bit unique. It'd be one thing if the bus service was consistent, but on more than a few occasions, I've seen the bus just go straight down Old Victory Road and not even go into Grand Park. This happened most recently this weekend when when the uh they had to call Dallas, the late night driver, to come get us. So, you know, this we're not getting halfhour service and we're not even getting hourly service sometimes. So, I'd like to just point that out. And then, uh, yeah, I think just what some of the other people said, I concur with, hey, maybe it's not a binary decision of half an hour an hour. Maybe there's, you know, two hours in the morning or two hours in the afternoon. So, uh, yeah, that's about it.

Okay. Thank you, Mark Ballard, you're next.

Hi. Thanks. Yeah. Um, like I said, Mark Ballard, um, and Grand Park as well. Um, just really reiterate what everyone else has already said. Um, and that for for my young family, um, if you if you miss a bus, I don't know, it just kind of makes it makes it difficult for us. So, we're we result to to driving um, and adding more congestion. And I don't I don't know how to quantify that on the the town of Winter Park, but uh um there is a some kind of cost there, I suppose, to adding more congestion. So that that's all I've got. Thanks. Thanks, Mark.

Christopher Newman.

Thank you. My name is Chris Newman. Um I live in the Elk Creek condominiums in Grand Park. Um, and maybe somewhat uniquely, our unit and our porch face the bus stop. And we can also see vicious cycle and we can also see people walking to catch the black and purple lines. And I I just want to point out a couple things, which is that not all of these hours are equal. One of the most amazing things about living in the Frasier Valley is the Winter Park Competition Center. Many of us chose to purchase homes or to raise our children in these communities because of access to the competition center. And the competition center starts before the first Emerald Bus arrives. And that means it has become useless to us. It also leaves before the kids finish in the afternoon. it leaves now at 3:15 or you can wait till 4:15, which if you've ever had a kid who skied all day trying to get him to sit at a bus stop for an hour, it's just not going to happen. So, my main concern is that the most populous use of the bus is getting the kids in the gray jackets to the resort by 8:45. And I've talked with the mayor about this. I, you know, suggested if you have to stick with an hour, could you at least move it 30 minutes earlier? But I I really think, you know, that becomes a problem. We go to use the black line, which we do. We're now catching the 8:00 black line because all the rest of them by the time they come off the plateau are full of compenter kids and we can't get a seat on them. And so now we're, you know, leaving at 8:00 a.m. with a tired 13-year-old who's now getting there 30 minutes before he needs to. And I know that these are not the problems of people trying to survive in the valley on low-wage jobs. I get that. We're

privileged people. I'm not going to deny it. But like the comp center is one of the coolest things this valley offers. It gives kids who maybe aren't the best athletes an opportunity to really become excellent, to spend time with their friends, to really engage in an activity that lasts all winter long. But it only really works if the bus arrives by 8:45. So, as you think about all these things, I hope there's some way, even if it's just adding a single run in the morning and a single run in the afternoon to help these kids not have to bundle into a bunch of cars, get stuck in that bench lot, and really just let them take the bus, do their thing, and then go home. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Bill Becker.

Hi, everybody. Bill Becker. I'm at uh at Grand Park and Del Creek condos as well. So, um I love the town of Frasier. Thank you all for what you do there. Um the bus service is so vital to to make it uh what it is. And you know, it's it's as the gentleman said that works at the um at the resort. Um it's about traffic congestion. It's about greenhouse gases. Um when it's coming once an hour, we jump in our car. We're part of the problem. And you know, I think we all have a responsibility to uh to deal with that. And if that means more taxes, it means more taxes. But but we can't just just pretend that the problem doesn't exist. We we we need those buses. It's made Frasier a very charm Frasier is a very charming community and it makes it very practical to live there. So, um I just want to express my support for going back to the halfhour schedule. Thank you. You

Thanks, Bill. Clark.

Hello everyone. I'm sorry I can't be there tonight. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes.

Sorry, I'm out working at one of my businesses. Uh so uh again wish I could be there. Uh I I think what this discussion tonight highlights is uh you know a significant failure in communication. I attended an October uh town board hearing where Winter Parks Transit presented their stuff and I was asked specifically you know what would the Grand Park residents think about uh a reduction on the Emerald Line and I adamantly said they would go ballistic and and then this happens. Now the question that I have having attended every single budget meeting it's unbelievable with all the discussions and a lot of them around transit that this was never brought up by mayor search Benick or Michael Brack manager Brack unbelievable. This is a significant deal and this is about customer service and and and this transit system is clearly a fa failing from a customer service perspective serving the community. It affects the west side of Frasier. It affects the rec center, the medical center, the foundry. All affected by this route not running what really frankly when it needs to run and then running when it doesn't need to run. To me, it's a bad business model. It's been a bad m business model from the day it was implemented with sales tax. And Peggy Smith knows exactly what I'm talking about because she was mayor and you implemented it with the wrong funding mechanism despite a lot of advice from other smart people that have been involved in transit authorities and now you're short of money and we're taking the brunt of it without being notified. And the biggest issue is no notice to anybody. None including your board. That's a real problem and I think a real communication issue that your staff has with the board and the mayor has with the board because it it to me this is something that is relevant enough that it should have come up in all these prior discussions and

shouldn't be an issue over Christmas break where we start getting flooded with calls and hearing what's going on with this. It's also an impact to Frasier Cell Saxs and Frasier's business environment, which a lot of businesses reside in the Grand Park Village area. And I don't think any of that was weighed in on this. I think this was a bad decision that needs to be revisited. And there's plenty, to Adam's point, I agree completely. There's plenty of frivolous things that are unnecessary and not town responsibilities that got approved in that budget that could easily come out. And we can start with daycare. That's not a town responsibility, guys. That's an easy one. Let's get rid of that. Um, I mean, you know, guys, this is about being responsible and providing equal services throughout the community and doing it in a reasonable business fashion that provides good customer service. And I'm going to leave with you're failing with your customer service. And I think you know you know that I have a proposal that I sent to the town several months ago for an alternative funding mechanism.

Thank you. That's three manager will not I'm going to cut you off. Thank you. Thanks. Uh moving on. We are next. Hi thank you. Yeah, I wanted to start out by one just complimenting the transit as long as we've been here. A you keep cutting out, cutting in and out.

Um I wanted to compliment the transit system as it has existed [clears throat] um for the last 25 years. Um it's been a a key part in why we are here. Um we recently or 10 years ago relocated from Winter Park to uh Grand Park and our one key requirement in um finding a new place was that it had to be on the bus line. Um and and the Emerald Line did that for us. Um but the uh uh the reason I'm raising my hand now is I want to take exception to the fact that this is a Frasier Grand Park only bus. Um, we stop at Cooper Creek and uh both both coming and going to the mountain and I have never seen people not getting on and off at both of those stops. Um, usually there's quite a large crowd um that's getting on the bus at the mountain to come home and uh and queries the the bus driver on what's the closest stop that they can get to in Winter Park that'll get them to X Y or Z business. So, this is most definitely also a Winter Park concern. um the businesses will suffer and I think if Winter Park isn't chipping in um we need to cut out that stop.

Thanks. That's all I've got. Yeah. DK from Texas.

Hey guys. Um this is Britney. I'm mortified that I can't figure out how to change my profile name. Um, I've been a resident for a long time, over a decade. Uh, my family and I, uh, spend a lot of time and money in both Frasier and Winter Park. I I would like to concur with the person that spoke before me and just echo a couple thoughts. Um, we spend a lot of money in Winter Park when the bus takes us there and I can tell you more and more we're discouraged by um, staying because it's hard to get home. We've had to try to call Ubers to get home with our family because the bus is either so full and again with little kids you can't just sit there but there's no Uber that runs. Um so we've stopped staying and spending money in the town of Winter Park. Uh we try to leave as early as we can to make sure there's spots on a bus. We've also from Grand Park um had to catch buses going the wrong way just to have a seat on the bus or to have space on the bus. Um, and that was last ski season when there was a 30 minute schedule. So, I think we're very concerned um around moving to an hour as the snow picks up and the and the traffic picks up going in into town. So, I do think um in addition to that, the communication around this was really poor. Like this is my first board meeting. Maybe I should join more. I feel like I'm watching a soap opera, but everybody seems really confused. Um, I remember this summer my family, we received a survey about trying to improve um, parking options, places to park, ways to get to the resort. Um, it would have been helpful to know that things were actually going to be scaled back um, not beefed up. So, I think we're all kind of caught off guard that um yeah, I think our choices are do we just spend less time in general in Frraasier and Winter Park and spend our money in other resorts that maybe are are better funded to get us to a mountain.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Rillis.

Yes. Hi, thank you for the time. Thank you for this evening. Um, we just recently [snorts] bought in Grant Park and you know, bus systems, transit are very important to us. We have three daughters and and that was a a big amenity for us. I think you guys have a tough challenge in front of you. I know costs have been going up uh across the nation in many respects. I think it sounds like 50% over two years might might be some mismanagement on one end or the other, but um nevertheless, there's a shortfall. So, I don't envy that. I do think based on what everyone has said here, I I would encourage everyone at the town and working with the town of Winter Park to come up with a solution. It sounds like it's it's an issue across the valley. So, you know, not sure what you can do this year. It's kind of a tough spot to be in, but going forward, I think whether it's people paying more for these services and making it fair across across the different neighborhoods in Frraasier, but I think it's important to focus on that going forward. It it seemed like it was a bit of a surprise in some ways in this budget, but going, you know, into next year's planning and the long-term short-term planning for the town, I think it's important to put this out of focus. So, uh, I know you guys are doing all you can and you've got some tough decisions, but just wanted to just encourage you to to make this a priority.

Thank you, Dennis Mlullen.

Hi, my name is actually Denise Mlen and I'm a resident of Grand Park. Um, thank you [clears throat] for including us in tonight's meeting. Um, I want to agree with some of the previous speakers and um, and just reiterate some of the things that they've said, but my main focus is is there a way we can work together to find these solutions. Some of them have been mentioned um, like not dropping off on I40 or just those peak times. We really just want to work together that if we can't restore what we had last year, can we meet in the middle somewhere and what that might look like and how we can help get to that point. Um, so that's that's kind of my point. I don't I don't want to reiterate everything that's been said, but if there's something we can do to meet in that middle, that would be really great. And

thank you. That is the end of all the hands online. Okay. Board thoughts. WTO.

Um I think it's a challenging problem. I'd like to remind people that 10 years ago we had what were the equivalent of p prison buses that uh didn't come into town really. They just stayed at the resort. So, this is a new relatively new system. Um, it's grown exponentially over the last 10 years. The funding sources were inadequate. Um, and I think Winter Park has done a yman's job. Um, because they've backfilled a lot of the county's responsibility, some of the resorts responsibility. And, you know, we chose to take the 1% path. They chose the 2% path. The 2% path puts them at the highest sales tax in the state. And so they have taken a yman's job with this thing. And I don't know, I mean, everybody thinks that this should be a free bus system because all the other resorts have free bus systems, but um the economic models might have to change. Maybe we have to charge if you want to ride the bus. Um, there's other options besides just going back and getting more tax revenue. Um, I think I think we need to have an a realistic conversation with all the players and see what makes sense, but I don't think that we're probably going to solve this problem between now and April 15th. So, at one time.

Chuck and Sarah, maybe you can speak to this. What would it look like if we were to move that black line stop this year? Like, is that even a possibility? We'd be extremely reluctant to do that mid-season. Um, for sure. And secondly, the reason the Brack line works is because it's primarily just on 40. every time you take that bus off of 40, what it does to to these um what we call core routes uh um becomes a greater concern in the timing. So it's not impossible. Well, um, you know, the other immediate question I had in my mind is is is there the ability to have um park and ride option that down in this area as an interim solution, which is how most transit systems do is we'll use the park and ride concept to get folks to those main trunk lines. Um, so it's just another possible uh solution looking into next year as well. um that could provide people with multiple times so they're not incurring the traffic um but it is bringing them so to speak down the hill.

Thank you. Thank you.

I mean this might not be popular but I think a hub and spoke model is is a good option. We could have a circular running through Grand Park, a circular running through Oldtown um bringing people to 40 and then they transfer to the black line that runs every 15 minutes. And maybe that means the black line runs every 5 minutes. Um, but I think that could be a solution that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and and it makes the service faster. Um, I know people don't like to transfer, but I also like to get to the resort in 20 minutes instead of 45. So, could be an option, but this is the kind of thing that we need to take some time and explore. And you know, I plan to work a lot with Chuck on this uh this spring to really dive into it and see how how we can save money and make it more efficient.

Does Emerald Line service the mill apartments? Who services the mill apartments? Yeah, I I find it curious. We've only had comments from Yeah. from apartments people nobody else. They get on first. So, wonder what they think about this. No apartments or Oldtown. No comments from Oldtown. I don't see anyone on the bus in Oldtown. There's over Christmas break there's generally like I don't know 10 or so people out there in the morning waiting. Yeah, I see a lot of Well, in Oldtown too, we have the black line that comes by the Amtrak station.

Yeah, you can. Yeah. So, in Oldtown you got that option. An easy option.

Yeah. That's part of it. Well, I think I think we should definitely add that early run. Just getting that early run and getting the kids up there. Um folks have might have to come and pick them up. Um behind this all too, I'm I'm a little worried about what's going to happen to our tax revenue this year. I don't have a crystal ball, but we all know what's happening with our ski season and the lack of snow. If we get more cancellations and our um we rely on sales tax income and from the safe way and people start stop coming in, uh we're going to have a serious hole to look at in our funding for next year and in the future. So at this stage I can't I can't justify spending 100 to 300,000 on bus service that's for a relatively short period of time and for I hate to say it a relatively small number of people and pretty much everybody in Grand Park does have access to a car. if you're forced into using it, you can. Transit, public transit would be much more um preferable. But I those are my concerns. So I I'm definitely for adding that I found in the morning getting the kids up there and the skiers up the comp center kids up there early and in the morning they have no trouble except for keeping themselves out of trouble once they're up on the mountain.

Yeah. And I I I want to reference back to the budget um uh that we approved. We we're forecasting $4.8 million in sales tax revenue. Now, if we would have approved the budget with no changes or for for the lift, that would have been over $1.6 million. I mean, it's supposed to be less than 20% of the overall budget. And of that 20%, we're supposed to be spending some on trails and and capital projects as well. and it's now over 25% of the whole sales tax budget for the entire town. Like it's it's out of whack. So I don't see that we can like Katie said that we can go back to 30 minute service now. I think the quick fixes, get that extra hour in the morning so we can get the comp center kids and the people who are uh chasing powder up to the to the hill before the gondola opens. And then we really re-evaluate what the system looks like for next year and and probably revamp the whole thing.

Done with that. I'm done with the morning line. Mhm. I said next year. Yeah. I'd really like to hear about some somebody from the mill though. What's that Katie? I'd really like to hear someone from the mill apartments in here. I just want to feel how is that I mean are they using the emerald line too? It's weird. Yeah. What's the closest stop to the goes down right cap entrance basically. They walk down what we're call what is that 72

that's going to be basically it's right there. So they still have to walk. Yeah, but they can doesn't go down mill. They can come down into they can cross over mill and pick it up right on Eisenhower. Yeah. Would say most down the sidewalk. Yeah. I love they take the black line anyways. I'm just curious, you know, how they're getting approved. I haven't heard from them. Okay. Do we want to open up for more public comments or do is is the board feeling like they do the early morning and then we got to revamp the whole thing next year. That's what we do. But it was budgeted this year for every 60 minutes. Agree. That's the bottom line. Okay.

I concur. Do you need a resolution or I just need a motion? I move to in expand the emerald line the what what the early morning stop for the $9,000 second option two I guess option two right further discussion all in favor I I any opposed uh no that's an opponent opposition Yes. Okay. All righty.

All right. Motion carries. Thanks for everyone's input and we will be looking for your input on the spring as well as we did this revamp. Yeah. And don't bring your groceries from Denver. Buy them here. Sales tax pays for our bus. Okay.

All right. Resolution 2026102 certificates of participation for public works facility Butler snow engagement letter Sarah C. Maddie Dalton to present mayor uh board of trustees Sarah Katanite assistant town manager. Um we have with us Maddie Rodenovic from Hilltop Securities and Dalton Kelly from Butler Snow. We are going to start with an overview and just kind of a refresh of what the certificate of participations would look like um pursuing those for the public works facility. Um so they've prepared a presentation to give an overview and then we do have a resolution for an engagement letter specifically with Butler Snow if we want to use them as our council for that COP process. Okay,

welcome back. Y and if you really don't want to stay, you don't have to. the people that are in the back or we'd love to have you stay [laughter] either way or transit guy. Go ahead. I think while we're pulling that up, I just want to, you know, they're about to say we're this there's an action item here or consideration um as it relates to the engagement for Butler Snow, but we aren't asking you to make any decisions about the coops this evening. So, I do just want to make that clear. that um wasn't quite clear in our

Yes. So, I just want to make that clear. The presentation is really kind of rehashing what we spoke about at your retreat this past summer um and providing a bit of an update there and then also some additional concepts around like the timing of it if you know the the decision is to continue to move forward with that and the town would like to proceed with cops for the financing based on some conversations that we've had with Michael and Sarah. So, that's the presentation. The resolution and action item is is as Sarah mentioned to retain Butler Snow to serve as your councils for the issuance of the coops similar to their role in housing authority as it relates to revenue bonds for landing. So I just wanted to make that

okay clear up front. Okay. Means that we're we're not you're not approving an ordinance.

Thank you. Well, and we we could start talking through it a little bit as we work through the technology. Hopefully, we can get the pictures once we kind of get to the structure because it makes it a little easier. But I'm Daltton Kelly with Butler Snow. Um we're currently serving as um bond council in connection with the St. Louis revenue bonds. As Maddie mentioned, this is really the overview of certificates of participation and as it would um go go towards funding the public works facility. That decision on actually doing that would come later. um the action items, just the engagement letter so that um if you want to start work on this, you have your council, your legal counsel lined up and can get going on this. And so as far as the presentation, we'll we'll cover tonight. We'll review just kind of the basic structure of what um certificates of participation or coops, how how that's set up, how it works, the legal structure. We'll talk a little bit a lot about the lease property um considerations because that'll go into how we set up the transaction and kind of um ultimately how you decide if there's preferences on that. And then we'll talk a little bit about the financing, what the timing would be, what is the issuance process look like and some of this is then what are those future decision points if you um want to start um getting the ball rolling on anything. Um and so just kind of start from the top and I know you guys had your um a discussion about this at the budget retreat but really what is a certificate of participation and so at a very high level it is a way to finance capital projects. That is kind of the the baseline. Um the way it works is it's set up with a lease lease back uh structure. And so that's why we talk about a lease property. um what you're doing at the town is you lease a piece of property to a trustee who then pays all of their rent um upfront under that lease. And so it's for a term of yours. Um and that that getting that money up front is then how you fund the capital project. They then lease that same facility back to you subject to annual

appropriation. And so each year you make a decision whether or not to appropriate your base rentals that um if you do make that appropriation that makes a lease payment which then makes the payment on the certificate of participation. And so

There we go.

Perfect. Um, excellent. Um, and so, um, I know we we verbally walk through the structure, but here's a here's a nice, um, a nice diagram of really what's going on. So, you have the town facility that's leased. the um town leases the facility to the trustee um pursuant to the site lease. Trustee pays all of their rent upfront. That's where you take the money to do the capital project and then they lease it back to the town um pursuant to the lease purchase agreement subject to annual appropriation. We'll get into this on the next slide, but you can use either existing town facilities or the 2B constructed facility. And so we'll start talking about kind of the um the ability to do that, but this is this is the basic structure. So you can kind of follow what's going on. The certificates of participation um are sold by the trustee to the market is is the way this one would be um set up. And so those just represent a proportionate interest in your lease payment. So if your lease payment is a million dollars, that's paid to the trustee and then depending on what the how many certificates they sold, they get their proportionate interest. And so if I have a half million dollar certificate, I get my interest on that. If somebody else has a half million dollar certificate, they then get their interest off that based off your lease payment. Scroll to the next one. Perfect. Um, so we'll start talking a little bit here on just the lease property. As I mentioned, you can use an existing facility. So you you could lease, you know, for instance, town hall rather than the 2B constructed facility. The one thing we have to have when we're doing a cop is we start having we need to line up value here. Um, so because this is a lease lease back situation for the COP holders, um, what they're looking to is the insured replacement value of the building. So if the facility they're leasing um, burns down or something, they just need to know you have enough insured um, insurance proceeds to put the building

back up so they still have their collateral or you could instead of putting the building back up, pay them off. And so that's that's where this sizing to insured replacement value goes. Um, as far as a newly constructed facility, that basically gets equated with with what the value of the building is that you are constructing. And so that's kind of where you get that value. I'll let Maddie chime in as far as it doesn't necessarily have to be one for one, 100%, but I'll let her talk about market tolerance.

Yeah. No, I think, you know, we've seen for some other entities that we've been able to go down as low as like 85% I would say on the that valuation. That said, for a tob constructed facility, the bigger question, which will come up in the later slides that I'm going to talk about, is making sure that that valuation um is sufficient from a perspective of funding the entire building, right? Because their lease property is the 2B constructed facility. So, they want to make sure that you are borrowing enough money to fully complete that project. Um, particularly for an entity the size of the town of Frraasier where you are not going to necessarily have $5 million ready at the whim. um if for whatever reason costs increase materially to fund the remaining portion of the project, that's really going to be the bigger credit consideration in this instance, particularly because we are going to be using the 2B constructed facility because of the cost and size given other town assets.

And that value not needing to be 100% I'll just kind of segue into that. That's important because we understand there's also some desire to do some road improvements and maybe some other improvements that need to go with this. And so anything that we're looking at doing in addition to the building, we start looking at how much above the value of the building are we talking about and is there enough tolerance then for investors on that um credit ratings next.

Credit rating side. So um you know to coops are typically rated one to two notches below what would be the general obligation bond rating or an issuer credit rating for an entity. The town does not have a credit rating currently. You don't have any debt outstanding. So that is something that we would need to go through for this process. Um in this instance uh we would likely go the two notches really comes from the distinction of which rating agency you're using. um S&P, Moody's and Fitch are the three primary rating agencies that that are rate municipal bonds as well as other you know obligations. Um the S&P and Moody's are the most common that we work with here in Colorado. Moody's has a distinction on the rating notching depending on the essenti their perceived essentiality of the leased property. So, as an example, they do not view a recreation center as as essential as a town hall, as an example. Um, and so they have a distinction in the rating that they assign. Um, in this instance, public works facilities are considered essential by them. So, it's really a one- notch distinction either way depending on which agency we would go with. And that'll be a conversation that we will have um assuming that you would still like to move forward with this as we actually kick off the financing for this. Um I will note we are expecting something hopefully in the single A rating category for this. Um just given uh so AAA is obviously your highest double A there are three kind of notches within that double A category similarly within the single A category and then you get below there as well. Um there's one more category below single A before you go to non-investment grade rated. Um we're targeting hoping for something in that single A rating. Um just based on some conversations we've had with rating agencies for similarsized communities as a town of Frraasier. You are um knocked a bit from a rating perspective because of your reliance on tourism um as you were mentioning at sales tax and ski

season um as well as just your general size. Right. So you're you are just a bit limited in the amount of revenue that you can take in just because of your geographical and population size. Um with St. St. Louis Landing are we not is because of Fraser Housing Authorities taking

So they are actually those are project finance bonds essentially what we call those. So those are backed solely by the revenues from that housing development. We really can't get that rated um it wouldn't get an investment grade rating even if it were to get rated um because of the development nature of that financing. That is something that potentially in the future once it's up and running and has stabilized and we have you know five or 10 years of operating performance there and debt service coverage and things like that to show that potentially through a refinancing we would maybe be able to get like a low investment grade rating on that. The more important piece is we could potentially get it insured from a municipal bond insurance company. Um but we are not actually getting a rating for that transaction. So that will be a non-rated financing. with our coop rating is that dynamic after a few years can

correct. So those agencies um will review the credit annually bas basically whenever you publish your audit and then every once in a while they'll come and have kind of a check-in with you to just give it get a sense of what's happening in the community and and the valley and all those types of things to see if there's some a material change both positively or negatively that that would impact how they rate that. So that is dynamic. um investors when they are purchasing the certificates are purchasing it for what the rating is that day, right? They're taking the potential risk that it could go down or they're taking the benefit that it would go up and they could potentially trade it for, you know, a better price essentially if that were to happen. Um but that will be dynamic throughout the entire term of that cop financing.

Any other questions on that piece? Otherwise, we're going to jump into the actual financing portion of this. Um, so you'll go two slides down. Um, there we go. Okay. So, when do you need funds? And I think we talked about this maybe a little bit in the summer around like what is the right timing to actually go and issue the cops depending on when you are developing the project. Um, our biggest advice is to wait until you actually need the money. Um, you know, we get questions a lot about should we issue earlier to try to earn investment earnings or things like that. Um, and Belton will tell you that you cannot create positive arbitrage on these financing. So, it's not really worth doing that anyways. Um, but the other piece that I would say is there's no real need to incur borrowing costs until you actually are sure that you need the funds. The other piece that I mentioned earlier that's really critical for this project specifically is we want to make sure that you are really certain of what those project costs are before we actually go and borrow that money. And the reason for that is if we think it's $30 million but it actually ends up being 32 or $33 million. It's really hard and inefficient from a financing perspective to go get that additional two or additional $3 million. These coops because of the size and I think we talked about this in the summer. the size as well as the term of the financing. These are going to go be sold in the public market. So, this is not like a bank loan where you can just go back and say, "Hey, actually, can I have another couple million bucks to finish this project?" And they're willing to lend it to you. These certificates are being sold to investors in the public market. So, your standard buyers of municipal bonds are going to be purchasing these coops. Those transactions, similar to the revenue bonds, but different from a credit perspective that we're talking about for St. Louis landing are very complicated to put together. It takes a long time. Uh it also you benefit from selling things in larger dollar denominations

and so having to go find an additional $2 or $3 million from a financing is really challenging. Uh the other piece with that then is you would have to be willing to contribute$ two or $3 million of available town funds to be able to complete the project if we can't borrow for it which is obviously something that we would like to avoid. So, um, because of that, in conversations with Michael and Sarah, our recommendation has been to wait until you actually have that GMP in place, the guaranteed maximum price contract to actually before you go sell the cops. That said, we can be working on these things in tandem. We can start the financing process while the town is working through final design and working through that GMP so that we are ready to go and can try and issue the certificates as soon thereafter that you have that in place. Um the other piece that I will mention is you can reimburse yourselves for funds spent with coop proceeds. Um soft costs are a little bit more flexible in that regard. So your design architecture engineering once you start moving dirt uh and D can speak to this uh if there are questions there is a limited look back period of 60 days from when that cost is incurred from a reimbursement perspective. So if you started digging on June 1, the longest you could go before getting reimbured with COP proceeds would be August one as just a general example. Not exactly July 31st because there's 31 days in that month. Um but that's something that we would want to look at. Uh particularly in this instance because I know there's some road work that would like to be started in April. So that would I would presume be moving some dirt. Um and so that's something that we would typically recommend putting what's called a reimbursement resolution in place. you did adopt one similarly for the St. Louis landing project um which would allow the town to be reimbursed with COP proceeds upon issuance for any costs that are expended related to the projects that would be essentially covered by uh those coops.

The the only thing I'd add on the reimbursement resolution is once you've uh adopt it, that's what locks in your 60-day look back period. So if you adopted it, let's say um in March, it's going to give you a look back to January and then you could issue like in September or August and you still get to go back to January. So just to be clear, once you adopt that official intent, it basically tells the IRS, hey, we're going to spend money right now and we're going to reimburse ourselves with tax exempt proceeds. Here's the project. Here's what we plan to do. And so if if ultimately you got to start on on part of the project and we're working through the GMP to value engineer, it's okay. you don't have to say, "Oh, we have to go right now because we already started on the road." So long as you do that reimbursement resolution. So, I just want to um highlight that piece.

Any questions on on that? So currently in tandem um our uh our public works team with our engineering consultant are conducting interviews for responses to an RFP for a general contractor to come on board and work with us uh for the public works facility to better tailor design to uh the realization of construction so that we don't have a disconnect between finished plans and construction feasibility. Um so that is anticipated to come to the board I believe at the next meeting um once they vet those uh general contractors and have a recommendation on who to move forward with. And uh that would allow us to partner with a uh general contractor uh firm uh these these larger general contractor firms here locally um to be able to look at the completion of plans and provided an updated estimate of cost as we get closer to 100% completed plans and be able to have a GMP in place through a contract that would be contingent um on the issuance of coops to construct the facility. So you will have uh that coming forward to you here very shortly um for a general contractor and we've gotten some great responses from that. So uh we'll be able to be getting estimates of cost and ultimately a a guaranteed maximum price that they need for when they go to issue the coops. So we'll have that contract ready and available um before we go to to do the coops to construct the facility.

Yeah. And I think um s if you want to go to the back to the presentation in the next slide. No worries. Um, so we built out just a very preliminary financing timeline just so you can see what that would look like and also I think just high help helps to highlight as you've obviously seen already for the St. Louis landing project but specific to the coops how long these financings take to put in place. Um, so it's usually about you know four months of work or so we say start to finish to to get one of these. So from kind of kick kickoff call to closing funds in hand. Um, go to the next slide. Uh we built this schedule around um assuming a a GMP that would be in place by June 12th. Um again, this is definitely not set in stone. Um if you guys decide not to move forward with this project, this all just goes in the trash and that is totally fine. Um uh but I did just want to highlight what this looks like. And so as we mentioned at the very beginning, we will have we will come back if you decide to proceed with the project and and with the coops to fund the project. uh we're targeting May 6th, but that date again can move uh depending on actual timing for construction and and when you need funds in hand to approve that authorizing ordinance. So, that actually is going to look um there's there's going to be some more legal documents supporting it that I'll let Dalton talk about uh that go into the actual cop that he kind of gave an overview of the various documents that kind of create that diagram that was on that slide. um those are approved as a form along with that authorizing ordinance, but the the context of it is the same. We create a parameters ordinance similar to the parameters resolution that we had for the housing authority for St. Louis for those revenue bonds that creates that box that we have to fit in. So sort of a maximum borrowing amount, a maximum interest rate, maximum annual payment, etc. That's what will come back in May based on this schedule. And then we would essentially be working uh through the overall financing process as the town is

finalizing those project costs. Once we have that GM GMP in place in June 12th, we're pretty much turning around as quickly as we can uh to then notify the market of that cop sale and then pricing um and closing in uh June and then July. Have a question. Yes. [clears throat] Um so say we move forward with all this stuff. Um, does it make us more likely to do another big project where we require a cop or less likely? Um, you mean like in the future if there's another large project, right?

That is really going to be dependent on revenues, right? So, I think in the conversations that we've had over the last year regarding this project, the dollar amount has obviously increased. I think that when we were talking in the summer, I think it was more in the mid20sish range. Now we're you know in the low30s and obviously as that increases that increases the annual payment which you know puts the potential pressure on the budget on an ongoing basis right to appropriate those payments. The ability to borrow in the future for additional coops is really going to be dependent on two things. One is are are there more funds available on an annual basis that the town is comfortable sort of setting aside to appropriate those payments. They are subject to annual appropriation. So in legally you could choose not to appropriate. That said, from a credit and market perspective, they are counting on you to appropriate those funds. And if you were to not do so, that would be problematic from a market access in the future for the town of Frraasier and not just the town of Frraasier. Candly, it would be for really all of the local governments in Colorado. Um the city of Sheridan did that in the '9s and we still reference it in the disclosure document for any cop that is done in the state of Colorado. So, um would not recommend that. [laughter] Uh and then the other piece is lease property. So, um you know, the town doesn't have a ton of large value assets to use. Um and so in that instance, if you were constructing something or purchasing a building that can similar to this project where you could have um a building already in place or you're building one that can serve as a lease property, then that provides that capacity. if you're doing something else which like we've seen some other entities do coops for road improvements as an example well we can't lease a road so in that instance we have to go find another municipal building to serve as the lease property for folks that have ample facilities to lease then that's not a problem but obviously right so it kind of it would be dependent on the project but also just on the comfort level of appropriating revenues on an

ongoing bas basis for another large project and if that answer is no that kind of goes back to what I was um saying earlier which is that that is when a lot of communities then turn to going to voters either for a tax increase to just increase revenues and you can issue coops utilizing some of that revenue for repayment or for a debt and revenue question. So as you're paying off the cops are you building equity? Yes. So typically we would write the the and we actually talked about this given some of the other projects that are happening or considered to be happening in the next probably 5 to 10 years here. Um, we can structure the legal documents that would essentially allow you to borrow off of that equity. That's where in the future

public lease in my head.

Exactly. Yes. But we call them additional certificates. So there, you know, but um but that is we we would intentionally put that in place in this instance to try to try and provide that flexibility as you are paying down principal. Okay. The next slide I'm going to let Daltton speak to No, I'm sorry. I have one more and then Donald D's going to speak. [laughter] So, um, where we are sitting today slash December, but rates really haven't moved in the last six to eight weeks or so, um, is that we would anticipate a borrowing rate of like 5%ish if we were to go issue COP for the town today. That is obviously very dependent on what that uh, rating ends up being. So, we're saying conservatively 5%. The hope is obviously that it's lower. If rates go up, obviously that that ends up being higher. Based on an assumed project fund of about $32 million, that results in an annual payment of just above 2 million. Um that assumes equal annual payments over a 30-year period. Um we do have a little bit of flexibility in the structuring of the repayment structure. So we can do a period of interest only. We can do kind of slightly stepped up payments on the front end till you kind of reach that plateau payment. Um, that said, I will just note particularly similar to like a mortgage, you're not necessarily advertising a ton of principal in those earlier years. So, doing interest only as an example is not saving you a million dollars. It's saving you, you know, maybe a half a million, right? Depending on the structure. So, um, it it's helpful, but not it's not going to move the needle a ton. Um, as I just mentioned, we are aware that the town has some other potential capital projects to evaluate. Um, in talking with Michael and Sarah, um, one of the conversations we've had of is if the town is already going through the process to do this financing, are there any projects that are worth adding on to this to sort of create some economies of scale from an overall financing perspective? That obviously is much more subject from a

budgetary, you know, basis of being able to afford the payment. Um, and so what we've just very quickly for basically every $5 million that the town is borrowing, you've your annual payment increases by about $400,000. So you can kind of do that math if there's some other projects um that are being targeted. As I mentioned, we are going to try and create some flexibility if you proceed with this financing uh to to be able to leverage the equity from this building um in the future for other projects. And then I'm gonna let Daltton speak to the top of the next slide.

And so, um, we'll cover kind of the legal documents. And so, um, if if you decide to that you you at least want to get engaged and start the process to do, um, the legal documents. I'll start with kind of the engagement. Our engagement letter is for contingent fee. So, we only get paid if it closes. So, ultimately, this is wrapped up into the cost of the borrowing. It's just one of those cost of the borrowing. um pretty much everything pretty close to everything that's associated with the financing cost is wrapped up into the cost of the borrowing. So you're not coming out of your general fund or another fund to pay fees on this. Um most everything is contingent. That's how our fee is structured. Um but if you did want to start the process, then we would start preparing the legal documents and then it would come back before you for approval kind of based off the timing that was appropriate. There will be several legal documents and a lot of them are similar to um what you guys saw for St. Louis landing. Um there there's an offering document here. It's called a preliminary official statement because this is a rated deal. This is a different type of borrowing but it's the same purpose. That's the offering document. Tells the story of the town structure of the transaction kind of things going on your sales tax, revenue, property tax, other things. And that's what's used to actually go market the certificates of participation. So that's kind of the beefy document that comes through. Um what would come before the town for consideration is really the same thing that you saw as the housing authority board. There you had the authorizing resolution. Here would be an authorizing ordinance sets the parameters and then approves the necessary documents. Here um you know in St. Louis it was a resolution with a mortgage and deed of trust or indenture of trust. Um here it's that uh ordinance with the site lease so you can lease the property to the trustee. the lease, so you can lease the property back from the trustee and a couple collateral documents. Um, authorizes closing documents, but then functions the same way. It has delegation to certain individuals to then make the pricing decisions on pricing day subject to

certain parameters. And so that would be your actual decision point on we want to proceed. If you can price the cops within these parameters, you can go ahead and do so. The lease property will be X and then you can proceed. And so that's your actual decision point. And so just wanted to highlight really tonight we're talking about yeah go forward and start doing the legal documents and then your actual decision point to do the coops would come here in a few months when you have the the ordinance

and then the credit rating piece here. I kind of already highlighted this um but uh again we will we anticipate getting one rating for this transaction um and that process would coincide with um the calendar that I previously presented. I will also note um that the fee there is a fee for that um it does come out of cost of as well and all of those assumed costs. So um if you were to proceed so legal counsel our fee um an underwriter uh rating fee all of those are factored into those numbers that I talked through on the prior side. So slide. So that was a $32 million project fund. There's assumed to be a slight additional borrowing for um those issuance costs similar to to what we're doing for St. Louis. Um but again there's no um decision- making as it relates to proceeding with coops at this point other than you know for you all to make sure that you have legal representation in place for uh when the decision is made to to move forward. Um that said I'm happy to ask answer any questions about cop specifically and Daltton as well. Um but we are not asking you to you know authorize those at this point in time. Well board. So again, this is just to sign a letter of engagement. At this point,

I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution 2026102. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I good hands with Butler Snow. Thanks, Cassie. Thank you. Thank you. And yeah, you guys are going to hang out. Um, all right. So, at this point, we are going to suspend the board of trustees meeting and open up the Frasier housing authority. So, could I have a motion to suspend the board of trustees meeting and open the Frasier housing? So moved. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor?

I. Okay. We are now in the Frasier Housing Authority meeting. Um the first topic is FHA resolution 2026101. Uh Prop 123 equity recipient Sarah Dalton and Maddie.

Hello once again. Sarah Katanzite, assistant town manager. Um so I'm gonna have Dalton Kelly from Butler Snow come back up. Um as well as Aaron Nave is with us from Holland and Hart. She's our special counsel for the overall kind of financing capital stack for the um St. Louis landing housing partnership. Um they've been part of the team along with Maddie and Steeple that have been working on the bond underwriting process as well as Prop 123 um and our other sources of funding. So we did at long last get a commitment letter from Prop 123 on Christmas Eve, December 24th. Um, so this resolution that Dalton can walk through and Aaron can talk about, um, just kind of lays out the start the terms for for that funding from the Prop 123.

Nice Christmas present. Yes. Oh, that.

Yes. It was a very nice Christmas present because it was exactly what we what we asked for when we wrote our letter to to Chaffa. So, um, so they they delivered, um, on that. So, um, Dalton Kelly with Butler Snow, we're serving as bond counsel. Um, Aaron Naves, um, here as well, and and she's been serving as as counsel, special counsel to kind of help oversee the transaction. And so, um, um, Aaron and and Matt were really instrumental in working with Chaffa to get this commitment through. And so, really thanks to them to uh, for for getting that pushed through. Um, and so like I like I said a little jokingly at the beginning, but we did get what what we were hoping for in the commitment. It is for the amount of $12,900,000, which was what was requested, what was in the proforma. And so that's really good news. Um, structurally, it's set up um the way that is expected. So, as we talked about um last fall, the bonds will be senior um and so you issue your your bonds. They're secured by the mortgage and indenture of trust that um was authorized this fall and then um Chaffa and what the resolution before you denied would approve is a subordinate deed of trust that then um uh secures their interest. So if there's a foreclosure, bond holders kind of get paid. Well, don't kind of bond holders get paid first. Uh Chaffa gets paid second, but that um secures their interest on that. And so that's really the big document that's authorized by the resolution is the subordinate deed of trust. And there'll be a promisory note. Um, as a refresher, um, really the terms of the commitment and the way this operates is really driven by statute and the program guidelines, but the way CHAFA really gets their their payment on this is they give you $12,900 today. Here we have a 40-year term, which they actually worked with us on that. Usually, they only do a 30 um due to the efforts of the team. They are willing to do a 40-year term to line up with the bonds here for us. But in year 40, that

12,900 becomes due. So the way um they get paid, the way this is anticipated is there's either either an event, a capital event where the facility gets sold and they get paid or really it gets paid with refinancing. And so really the plan for this for long-term affordability of a town asset is you'll issue the bonds and you'll pay down the bond sort of what we're talking about with the cops to some extent. You'll build that equity to where then you can refinance and pay off Chaffa's piece on this. And so that's what's really beneficial about this program. There's no standard principle or interest due on this. It's really just a balloon at the end. Now, where Chaffa does get money throughout the process here is they anticipate and it's modeled in the proforma to return at least a 1% return to what we call the bottom of the waterfall here. And when money hits the bottom of the waterfall, it gets split 50/50 between Chaffa and between the town. The money that Chaffa receives goes back into the program. So 1% is to operate and then there's 49% that goes into this tenant equity vehicle that benefits the project. And so there's some agreements around that, but that's really as the money gets down the waterfall how that gets split. But just wanted to be clear that this is really um there's no standard principle, no standard interest. They sit at the bottom and then really you just need to refinance this in the future and that that's the plan.

You said that's a 40-year term.

40-year term. Yep. 40-year on this. Um, and so the regulatory agreement follows suit with the the 40-year term. The regulatory agreement is what sets forth um the AMI restrictions for this project. The project has to be in line with the Prop 123 equity, which is um which is income averaging of 90%. There's some prescription in the the um commitment about which units have to be at which um AMIs and it escalates to get to that average. um that stays in place really for the life of the financing. And so there's a 2 and a half year construction period. And so really it's a 37 and a half year regulatory agreement that regulates the affordability on this project. Um that is a senior affordability covenant. So that comes before everyone. It's also a requirement of Chaffa that that stays in place even if there's a foreclosure. And so that affordability is really baked into this facility. And so that's just something ultimately that that lives with this facility. There's some market implications, but investors who invest in these things are used to seeing that. Um the only um other piece I think I'll highlight as a highle piece is there's certain post construction requirements. And so once it's done, they check architectural plans and make sure it's insured. Um your management contract has to be satisfactory to Chaffa. Um and there's just some some oversight there. So, as you would expect from from Chaffa, there's just some annual oversight and some um um some requirements for them to come and check and make sure um that um there's insurance, the cost certification, you spent the money like you're supposed to, they check your management agreement, make sure it's satisfactory. And so, that's kind of the next piece there. Um, I guess the other piece that's a little unique about this, they um know the Mitech is out there um because usually there's a transfer restriction on um them basically getting consent to transfer. For us to set up the Mitech,

we have to do um set that up for the My Tech investor. They know that they know what's going on. They're okay with that. And so that's been worked through as well. And so I think at this point with the way um things were set up, we are anticipating to issue um your um housing authority revenue bonds as senior. That's set up to be structured to have standard uh principal payments with um a feature to try to advertise principal sooner, which will be something that um will help you guys start building some room to do the refinance of this Chaffa equity sometime in the future. And Maddie can speak to that a lot better than I can. Um, we have the Mitech that um, Erin's been working with trying to get um, that um, the terms locked in with the investors so that we can get that source finalized. And then with this Chaffa commitment, we know there's 129 that's available there. We're basically working through closing documents, but um, in really good shape. So now we're really ready to um, go forward over the next couple months to get it closed, targeting hopefully a late uh, February closing for both Prop 123 and uh, the bonds. And then of course the Mitech closes um when construction's done like we talked about this fall. Um Erin, I don't know if you have anything to add on that. Okay.

Well, we'll take questions. Um I know that's a lot. Make sure you guys are okay. Got it. Middle income income housing tax credit. Oh yeah. Sorry. We we've been living in the world too much. It's just all acronyms and lingo. So yeah, the the middle income housing tax credits is the Mitech um just for for um everyone. And so that that's the new state program and I think this might be the first Mitech um project. I don't know if if any other ones have been done. Yeah, we are definitely um we may we may well be the first certainly the first I think to be a municipal. So we're leading the way.

Great. It's awesome.

Yeah. Okay to this and so ju so that was really sorry just a that was a lot of terms on what's in the commitment and so just taking one step back to the resolution really what that's authorizing is the necessary documents those are the terms of the commitment it authorizes Michael as the executive director of the housing authority to execute the documents um and so those documents will be um reviewed by your attorneys and we'll work through the terms, make sure they work with the bond financing and and get everything lined up for closing. And so that's really the big piece of the the resolution. It authorizes the commitment to be signed and it authorizes those closing documents to be signed. So it's really just the delegation to get those documents signed. Okay.

Anyone want to make a motion? I'll make another resolution. Let's get that those one, two, three funds. Uh approve FHA resolution 2026101 prop 123 equity recipient funds. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I I think that's everybody. Okay. Thanks. Great. All right. Thank you for all your work. Yes. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Moving on to FHA resolution from 2026 0102 supporting housing development grant funding application and signatory authority. Sarah content.

Thank you. Um so in addition to the Prop 123, the Mitech, the bonds and all the other grants, we are also pursuing $1 million from the housing development grant funds. Um this is a fund created by the Colorado State Treasury and administered by the Colorado Division of Housing. Um, it's known as gap financing. So, it tends to be the last piece of funding that comes in for a project once everything else is lined up to close any remaining funding gaps. So, we are requesting $1 million toward towards building D, um, which has some of our lower area median income and rents. Um, so this resolution simply provides support for that application and once again confirms that Michael Breck as town manager serves as the executive director of the housing authority and has signatory powers.

Any questions about that? I'd like to make a resolution to approve 2026102 supporting the H DG funding application and signatory authority. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I already thanks. Um, okay. Moving on to FHA resolution 2026103 first amendment to FRVHP grant agreement valley there again partnership.

Yeah. So this is in regards to a grant agreement that we have with the Frasier Valley Housing Partnership. Um we previously entered into a grant agreement with them for $4.75 million with um 1 million of that paid upfront and then um payments made each year for 15 years. Um we the agreement states that we had to close on all our bond financing by the end of 2025 or they had the option to terminate the agreement. So, they did approve this back in December just to extend that deadline for the bond financing to June to give us more time to wrap that up and ensure that we would continue to get this funding from the Frasier Housing Authority towards the project. Um, and then it also changes some of the dates for the different bond dispersements amounts um in line with pushing back that deadline. And really the key for the underwriters and our team that's working on this is to have this agreement in place is especially when it has a large uh impact on the capital stack for our sources. Definitely a key to to closing on bonds is the underwriters want to see this agreement in place and that is not expired for 2025. So

uh thank you Sarah for working with the housing partnership on getting this done and bringing it forward here. Okay. You want me to make a motion? Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the Fraser Housing Authority resolution number 2026103. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I make a motion to close the Fraser Housing Authority and resume the board of testing. And resume the board. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I

thank you all for coming. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. All right. We are back in board of trustees meeting. Um moving on to updates. Pretty good. Got a couple for you. You want to kick it off? Sure. Um so for the workshop today, we did meet at the new transit uh the future transit facility at 360 railroad, the old buyers uh vet clinic there. And I'll be looking at some great opportunities when we close that property this Friday. And um and we'll be looking for a lot of public input on how to best provide that for local transit services and some different concepts for how to best utilize that space for the town.

Tagging on to that, I'd like to um recognize our gratitude to Dr. Shauna Omi Sutton for her four plus decades of her work as a veterinarian for the town of Frraasier. She's done a fabulous job, a lot of compassion, fabulous skills, and um was a great ride. We are glad that she's we were able to buy her building for this future transit hub and um wish her well in all of her future endeavors. Thank you, Sean. Thank you. Well,

we'll talk about area soon. Oh, yeah. Um Peggy and Michael and I had the opportunity to tour the Spring Hill Suites that is being built. Bye. Drive careful. Um it's pretty exciting and and the the um developers are are open to having the rest of you guys check it out as well um if if you want to check it out. But it's uh it's coming along great. Um they've said they're looking at a November opening date. Um, and they say, you know, once once you say it, you have to have to do it. So, um, they so fast. Yeah. It's super fast. Benefiting from the lack of smell. Yeah. Yeah.

Weird. Do you think would they be willing to put a sign up that says what it's going to be? I've had a ton of people ask me. They think it's going to be like condos or a rec center. I mean, that's that's a great great point. Yeah. Maybe even a picture of it so people dumpster enclosure. Yeah. [laughter] Um my my number one question was I'm assuming you're going to have elevators, but I didn't see elevator shafts go in first and they actually don't need to. So they'll basically drop the elevator in and it'll be like on steel instead of concrete. Yeah. Sweet. There is no bad in the place. They all have

the views are incredible. No, and really big windows. The windows are nice. Going to be And then they they have the bar that opens off into the pool deck, which will be big doors and then probably triple the size of a normal uh workout space with doors that will also open onto the swim pool deck. I didn't realize they were that far. Yeah, it's really pretty neat. Wonderful. Cool. Right. We'll wait till they have stairs and then we'll have a next door with everybody ladders. Not Florida. So, thinking about signs, can we put one up at St. Louis Crossing?

St. Louis. So, everybody knows it's called St. Louis. The fence that just says future workforce housing town of Frasier workforce housing because people don't know what it is. That's a great They look at they think, "Oh my god, that's Katie." No, people drive and don't know. I still don't know what it is. It's a rather large building every day. So anyway, see, I think just something, you know, nothing huge expensive, but just something that staple it to it. Yeah. And they do have some trusses going up on the first building, uh, which is building C. Um, and once that that roof is sealed in, they would like for, uh, the board, um, to come through for a tour. So, looks like they got all the trusses.

They can't do it. So, do they do now? Yeah. Looks like they got all the way and the lights are on the first two levels. Yeah, they got the first floor going up right now for building E, the childcare facility. Exciting. It's exciting. Great. Okay. Any other updates?

Got a quick reminder. Business enhancement grant applications, the priority consideration deadline this year is February 1st. Um, so please help spread the word. The application's on our website. I'm happy to answer any questions if you want to send people my way. Um, but yeah, I'd love for you to encourage businesses to apply if you know of any that have possible improvements on their radar or if you want to make friendly suggestions, they might want to have them on their radar. Is it being advertised or Yeah, it's on our website. We pushed it out a couple times through social media. Um, I've asked the DDA to help spread the word and then I'll send an email to all of our business license holders. Any radio or

I actually I asked KFFR back in November, December to promote it as well. Can we put it on the chamber like internal email? Yes. Yeah. Thank you for that reminder. I will send that to Katherine Ross um tomorrow and get that out through them. Yeah, Katie's gonna advertise. Sounds like it. I'll tell her. [laughter] one group text. Group text. Just joking. I just don't It's just easier, you know, that way. Yeah. I think hitting people in different ways is good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. KFR. Okay. Okay. Any other updates? No. Okay. I move to adjourn. Second

discussion. All in favor? I I Okay. Anything adjourned.