Meet the Candidates Part 3

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Meet the candidates for Kremmling Town Council

Erik C. Woog

Erik C. Woog

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

Most people know that I am a business advocate, and that I would welcome almost any new business to the community. Retail Commerce is the backbone of the municipal budget as I have mentioned in previous answers. I would prefer that the new businesses be of the type that generate retail sales tax as either a primary result of sales or ancillary to the service they provide. I’m certain there are schools of thought that would favor bringing manufacturing or service businesses in for employment opportunities, however this type of thing will not solve any immediate budgeting concerns and will only add further stress to the lack of housing issue. With regard to incentives for potential business ventures seeking to move into the Kremmling area, I can only say it would need to be handled on a case-bycase basis but frankly, we do not have much room to give. Not to sound cliche but we need to put Kremmling first, and offering huge retail sales tax refunds as done in the recent past should not even be a consideration. Additionally, I think we would do well to stop granting zoning variances for non sales tax revenue generating endeavors inside of our zoned central business district, at some point we will grow to regret that. There is more to creating a business friendly environment than monetary based incentives, good communications between businesses and town government are essential to foster good relations, the Town can most certainly improve on this issue. I believe prospective businesses would take comfort in knowing the Kremmling Town Government truly appreciates them and their efforts to help pull the cart

 


David Sammons
David Sammons

David Sammons

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

It is not local government’s responsibility to pick and choose or dictate the success or failure of businesses. It is our responsibility to change or add codes and policies to make all businesses successful. If we are not willing to give a tax break to a local mom and pop business, we should not give one to a large corporate entity. As far as supporting existing business, we don’t create more codes that cost them more money.

 

 

 


Holly Martinson
Holly Martinson

Holly Martinson

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more food choices in Kremmling, and by that I don’t mean corporate chains, but something unique and locally owned. However, I do believe we currently have a good variety of businesses and I’d like to see them continue to succeed and grow.

I believe incentives too should be on a case by case basis. There are so many forms of incentives that it would depend on the type of business and what that business can offer the Town of Kremmling.

 

It shouldn’t be the Town’s responsibility to support the businesses, but if asked for help or assistance it would be considered on a case by case basis.

 


Richard Terwilliger
Richard Terwilliger

Richard Terwilliger

We need to do research to see what will work in our town like maybe a recycling center. A major question would be where the businesses should be located.

To support local business, Kremmling should do a shop local campaign.

 

 

 

 


Wes Howell
Wes Howell

Wes Howell

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

I personally don’t have a preference on what type of business should set up shop in Kremmling. We are known for being the “Sportsman’s Paradise” but we don’t have a sportman’s store? I believe that any business or small industry needs a workforce, we need to have housing for any future industry that would consider Kremmling as their destination. So my first incentive would be to the housing development.

 

 

 


Grace Bohall
Grace Bohall

Grace Bohall

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

I would like to see a place that would provide entertainment to kids, whether that be a bowling alley or something else. If we can keep the families in town on the weekends that will encourage them to spend money in town rather than going elsewhere for their other shopping. I would also like to see a fast food restaurant. I think it would catch a lot of the traffic between Summit County and Steamboat. It also gives people another option who may have a short lunch break. As far as incentives go- I think we should work with new businesses, maybe by deferring fees. The town in going to have to encourage building or repurposing commercial infrastructure so there are places for business to move into, whether they are new or current business wishing to relocate.

To support new business the town needs to make sure it looks inviting to visitors and to support the chamber of commerce.

 

 


Scott Crandall
Scott Crandall

Scott Crandall

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

I think a hotel would be a good thing. People that usually stay at a hotel use other business in town also. We fill all rooms on a lot of our big events in town. Any business would need to be able to pay employees to cover the rising housing cost. Incentive would be as little as possible. I think it hard on business that had to work through the tough times of starting a business. The town needs to come along side current business when they need us. The town supports the chamber and they do a great job supporting and working with current business. We need to work the best we can for the best interests of the town.

 

 

 

 


Leo Pesch III
Leo Pesch III

Leo Pesch III

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

This was a tough couple of questions, it really made me think about what we need in the community I had a hard time coming up with specific types of business, but I thought about competition. It is good for the community and consumer. Active competition between businesses drives prices down and in turn, gives us as consumers, more options.

I would think that bringing in more housing and or apartments would strengthen our economy. More people would help out restaurants, gas stations, schools, hospitals, just about every business.

As far as incentives go, that is part of what I hope to learn being a council member, if elected. I would like to know within our own town policies what we have to offer, as well as, work together on that council to come up with inventive ways to draw new business.

As far as our current business it’s pretty simple, please use them. One argument is that it’s cheaper elsewhere, but is it really? By the time you travel or pay shipping you are paying as much, if not more. Being committed to a community also means shopping local when at all possible. If we want our local economy to thrive, we must be the ones investing first. Those of you that know me, know that I am team oriented. We will only get where we want to go as a team, we are all in this together.


Peter L. Moschonas
Peter L. Moschonas

Peter L. Moschonas

Kremmling is changing. We still have some staples such as railroad and agriculture, but we should also try to appeal to tourism – hunting, fishing, hiking, ATV, snowmobiling, etc. We need more restaurants and lodging.

Incentives can cover a lot of different things. I think this an area more for the Chamber. The Chamber and Town should collaborate together to market Kremmling statewide and nationwide. We need to have more exposure to make ourselves attractive to new business. The Town can support local business by making our Town more appealing to those passing through – we should clean it up. We have a long ways to go, and I hope to get some things done.

 


Meet the Mayor Candidates

 

Grover Pryor
Grover Pryor

Grover Pryor

What businesses would you like to see in Kremmling? What incentives, if any, would you offer to them? How should the Town support current business?

I would love to see some older successful businesses return to our community. I would like to see a return of our local entrepreneurs opening a business to fill the gap for a healthy business community. Small businesses that maximize our community strength. What do the people travel out of town for? It’s hard in a small town to support all businesses, especially with the economic challenges unique to us. Supporting current businesses to fill the gap and support a broad range of goods and services. Support local new business to open with that economic plan in place. Bring the community together to form a vision (built off of Kremmling’s Sportsman’s Paradise) to set goals for improvement.

Working with the chamber to market the community for the benefit of owners. Keep local business in the news. Incentives that would help would be fee reductions and property tax breaks.

 

 

 

 


Thomas Clark
Thomas Clark

Thomas Clark

I have no preferences for types of business that can operate in Kremmling, however our town code does have some limitations, some businesses are use by right, some businesses are use by special review, and some businesses have to be reviewed by the Town Board. As far as incentives; First, A small town like Kremmling has neither money no resources to offer new business incentives, nor do I believe it is fair to the existing businesses to offer any incentive to new businesses. The town does need to have adequate infrastructure so that a new business can begin operation. A few years ago two breweries (15+ employees each) tried to come to Kremmling, but the sewer tap fee and the monthly sewer charges were so high that these businesses could not afford to operate here. The town has plenty of water, but the sewer is under the control of the Sanitation District. The town is currently working on street repairs, but this takes a long time as there are no grants for roads, also, the town is working on additional and redundant Broadband.

Second, There are very few open buildings that could be used for a business, and land to build on is very expensive

Last but not least, there is no available housing for employees. If the right business comes to Kremmling that offer full-time employment with benefits, I’m sure the existing employees that are living here now would not drive to the resort areas for work but would work here instead.

The Town has been supporting businesses as much as the Town can. The town cannot support individual businesses but must support the business Community as a whole. The proof is the sales tax which has been a record for the last several years. Since 2011, the Town has broke the previous years sales tax total. The total sales tax collected for 2017 was $832,516.00. The majority of the credit for the increased sales tax must go to the businesses themselves. Organizations such as Grand County Economic Development, Grand Initiatives, and the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments Economic Development District have greatly supported the needs of the individual businesses to help them get started and improve sales.

Economic Development is a complex and multifaceted endeavor, and the town only plays a small part in this, but what we have been doing for the past 10 years has certainly been paying off. I have spent a lot of my own time working on the County, Regional, State, and National level to help promote Economic Development, this is outside the normal duties of myself being the mayor. Thank you to the businesses for doing such a great job, you are the real heroes here. Town should move forward so this does not happen again.

A smaller issue is housing, there needs to be some more housing built. We need to see builders and property owners come before the town board with their ideas and plans.

Another thing that I would like to see is some more small industries, like the pellet mill, come to town which could offer our workers full-time employment with benefits. If I am reelected I will work with the various entities (Local, Regional, State, National) to try to attract these industries to Kremmling. Personally, I would also like to see the pellet mill running again, but I’m not quite sure how to do that yet Kremmling has come a long ways in the 16 years that I have been the Mayor and I want to see this momentum continue. There is always room for improvement.


The Grand Gazette will be introducing candidates for mayor and town council over the next few weeks. Ballots will be mailed before March 19 and this should give early voters a chance to get to know the candidates before then. Ballots need to be returned to the Town Hall in person or by mail by April 3. If you would like to see a question for all the candidates answered here, please email to grandgazette@gmail.com.