Kremmling voters are getting ready to elect their new trustees and mayor by April 7. The Kremmling Chamber welcomed the candidates at their March 30 Pizza and Politics Mixer. The event, held at Kremmling House of Pizza, gave the public a chance to talk with trustee and mayor candidates. 

About the April 7 election

The Kremmling election will be by mail ballot. Incumbent Wes Howell is the only mayoral candidate, running unopposed. Five candidates are seeking three trustee seats: Madeline Roller, Tawna Tonneson, Brad Perry, Brady Mathis and Leo Pesch.

Also at the event, Andy Borek, outdoor recreation planner for the BLM Kremmling Field Office, and Rick Reliford of the West Grand Recreation Foundation, told the attendees about a new opportunity for mountain biking trails in the Wolford Mountain Recreation Area. 

Benefits to redesigning the trail system

Borek and Reliford are excited to invite a professional trail design company to Kremmling this summer. They will restructure the vast trail system with community input. This benefits not only mountain bikers, but also ATV enthusiasts, dirt bike riders, hikers and wildlife through environmentally conscious trails.

Once the new design plan is completed, hopefully next fall, there “will be a place for everybody to play,” Borek said. Having designated areas for different types of recreators, such as OHV trails and mountain biking trails, will improve the experience for everyone. 

Borek applied for a grant to help with the trail design, and the BLM was awarded $111,000 through Colorado Parks and Wildlife Division’s Trails Program. He’s also applied for a second grant and is waiting to hear back. The project is estimated to be $2 million for 30 miles of trails. This includes rehabilitating existing trails and creating new ones in the Kremmling cliffs area.

Above and below the cliffs, known as Zone 3 in Wolford’s recreation area, is an ideal location since nesting raptors live in the cliffs and the non-motorized recreation causes less disruption. Borek added that the sanctioned trails will have another benefit for the environment. Currently, bikers are cutting their own trails through fragile big game habitats, since the available routes aren’t ideal.

“That’s just the natural thing that happens. So when you have unsanctioned routes, you have a lot of habitat degradation,” Borek explained. 

The new design will allow for animals like deer and elk to have large swaths of land that aren’t disturbed by bikers. Reliford said that some trails will be rerouted in the Muddy Creek area below the cliffs to improve the watershed there and make it more sustainable. 

He added that the new design won’t take away OHV trails and turn them into biking trails, which is a mistake other communities have made. 

“That pushes out the motorized users and we don’t want to do that; we want to make sure that we’re creating opportunities for everybody,” Reliford said.