FoYVRTA

Draft Ballot Question and Polling Results: YVRTA Board Meeting August 17

City of Steamboat Springs

The YVRTA Board meets Monday, August 17 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Hayden Town Hall (178 West Jefferson Avenue) and online via Zoom. This is a big meeting YVRTA has been working toward this summer. The community polling results come back, and the first draft of a November ballot question is on the table.

If you have been looking for a moment to show your support for regional transit, this is a good one. The ballot resolution carries a required public comment period, so Monday's agenda has a place built in for exactly that.

Zoom: Join the meeting (Meeting ID: 879 5244 6860, passcode: 279222)

Polling Results

The board takes up a presentation of the community polling results.

This is the survey the authority spent the spring and summer setting up, from a nine-firm RFP through contract ratification in July. When the board discussed the ballot process last month, the Chair was direct that the final call on going to the ballot would come after the board had seen this data.

Monday is the first time the board, and the public, sees what residents across the six jurisdictions actually told the pollsters. Whatever the numbers say, they will shape the conversation that follows.

Draft Ballot Question

Resolution 2026-026 would refer a half-percent (0.5%) sales tax to voters on November 3, 2026, starting January 1, 2027. That works out to fifty cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable purchases.

The draft names four purposes:

Highway 40 safety. Reducing the risk of accidents and providing safer alternatives for residents and workers traveling between communities.
More transportation options for local workers, residents, seniors, and visitors across the valley.
Regional planning for future commuter rail connecting Craig, Hayden, Steamboat Springs, Oak Creek, and Yampa.
Affordable service to places transit does not reach today.

One detail worth knowing, because sales taxes get a reputation for hitting hardest at the bottom: the draft adopts the State of Colorado's sales tax exemptions and spells several of them out. Groceries and food for home consumption stay exempt. So do gasoline and diesel, prescription drugs and medical equipment, and fuel for home heat and power. The tax would apply to the same transactions the state sales tax applies to, and no more.

The draft also carries a preliminary annual revenue estimate that is expected to be refined before the language is certified, so we will wait on a firmer number rather than quote one still in flux. That should come into better focus Monday.

Worth being clear about what Monday is and is not. This is a draft. The packet is labeled version one and the resolutions are watermarked draft. Nothing is locked until ballot language is certified in early September.

The comment period on this item comes during old business, later in the meeting. If the ballot question is what you are coming for, plan to stay for that stretch.

Also on the Agenda

Accounting firm, continued. A draft resolution will be available to settle the discussion. The authority has been running on volunteer treasurer time and legal support, so this is a great piece of the operational backbone falling into place.
The board's meeting day is changing. It is proposed to move regular meetings to the second Monday of each month at 4 p.m., which would put the next one on September 14. If you have been marking last Mondays on your calendar, be ready to adjust.
Highway 40 safety. Baseline Engineering presents on Highway 40 safety improvements tied to the Steamboat II and Heritage Park area.
Marketing and branding. Twenty-two firms responded to the RFP, with logo and messaging work the board's stated near-term priority. The board gets an update Monday.
Grants. Updates on state and federal opportunities the authority became eligible to pursue after registering for federal grants this summer, plus the treasurer's report.

The Executive Director Job Is Posted

This is the one to share around.

YVRTA is hiring its first Executive Director, and the recruitment is now live. This is the authority's first employee, a founding chief executive who will build the organization's operations, finances, and approach to regional service from scratch. The position reports to the six-member board and pays $150,000 to $180,000 depending on qualifications. First review of applications is September 8, so it moves quickly.

It is a rare opportunity to build the transportation system from scratch.

If you know an experienced transit or public-sector leader who would relish that, please pass it along.

Executive Director Job Posting - Apply Here!

Worth a Read Around the Region

Routt County's wildlife planning gets national recognition, and YVRTA will be part of the story. The National Association of Counties released a report last month naming Routt one of only five county case studies in the country for planning around wildlife habitat connectivity, alongside San Diego County, Kane County in Utah, Albemarle County in Virginia, and Teton County in Wyoming. Commissioners Sonja Macys and Tim Redmond presented on a panel at the national conference in July, and both were appointed vice chairs of national policy steering committees for one-year terms.

The transit connection is not incidental. The case study closes by pointing to the county's partnership with neighboring municipalities to form the YVRTA, which aims to build wildlife mitigation into regional infrastructure and to address wildlife and vehicle collisions on U.S. 40 and other high-risk highway segments. Fewer cars making the same trips means fewer collisions, with wildlife and with each other. That is the same corridor, the same safety problem, and the same authority now drafting a ballot question with Highway 40 safety at the top of the list. Read more.

U.S. 40 survey is still open. Routt County's study of multimodal improvements between Brandon Circle and County Road 42 continues to take input through the end of the year. If Highway 40 is your daily reality, this is a second place your voice counts. Take the survey and help shape how future transit and YVRTA routes can serve these communities.

Weigh In

Public comment is welcome at every board meeting. You can join in person in Hayden, hop on Zoom, contact your jurisdiction's board members, or reply to this newsletter and we will pass your thoughts along.

Save the date: The YVRTA Board meets Monday, August 17 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Hayden Town Hall (178 West Jefferson Avenue) and online via Zoom.