Cripple Creek councilmen face recall after voting to allow retail gift shop in heritage center

Jan. 13—CRIPPLE CREEK — Two Cripple Creek councilmen have been named in a special recall election scheduled for late January over their votes last summer to allow retail sales at a city-owned facility.

The resident-led initiative attempts to oust Councilmen Mark Green and Charles Solomone after they voted in early July to permit a retail gift shop to operate in the Cripple Creek Heritage Center.

Councilman Tom Litherland also supported the move but was not named in the recall because he cannot run again due to term limits, said Steve Zoellner, a former Cripple Creek councilman who led the recall effort.

The all-mail special election is scheduled for Jan. 24.

Zoellner said business owners and residents protested the City Council's narrow approval of the plan to allow retail sales in the Heritage Center at its July 6 meeting. They said the decision allows the city to compete with local private businesses.

"(The Heritage Center) is the first place you drive by when you come into Cripple Creek; it's the first location you see," Zoellner said. "Vendors in town and private businesses are struggling right now. People would stop there first, buy their souvenirs, come to town and not spend their money in the city. We had an entity supported by historic preservation funds that was directly competing with the businesses in town."

Instead of competing with businesses, the center should support them, Zoellner said.

Green, Solomone and the city's director of heritage tourism, Michelle Rozell, who oversees the Heritage Center, said the gift shop does just that.

For sale there are city-branded items like T-shirts, sweaters, hats, beanies, magnets, Christmas ornaments and jewelry, Rozell said. Items with that branding aren't sold at other shops in town, she said.

"Every local shop has their own unique items and when a visitor is looking for that one specific thing, we direct them downtown without favoring one over the other," she said.

Selling city-branded items at the center "supports word-of-mouth advertising in that everywhere the name of our community travels, our great city is promoted," Solomone said. "While not measurable, this type of promotion is invaluable."

That kind of advertising, Rozell said, meets her "responsibility to market the city."

The center also provides visitors other information about the town, including maps showing where restaurants, businesses and museums are in Cripple Creek and the adjacent city of Victor, Rozell said.

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Green said the size of the retail space inside the Heritage Center is too small to compete with other businesses in town.

"It's a couple of shelves and a table in the corner of the lobby," he said. "The gifts sold there are minor."

Zoellner said a presentation on the proposed shop "did not indicate anything ... about its size or anything other than that they wanted to promote the city's brand. Vendors who sell T-shirts and stuff do the same thing."

Allowing retail sales at the Heritage Center also diversifies its revenue streams, Solomone said.

"The city is still working to recover from the pandemic and now a recession. Without multiple avenues of supporting each different function of the city, it loses money," he said.

Zoellner suggested the Heritage Center start other programs to generate funds, such as renting the building out for weddings and other large events — "things that can generate income other than competing with residents in town," he said.

Rozell, who has been running the Heritage Center for about six years, said she already does that.

"I've been hosting weddings, events, business meetings, family reunions and celebrations of life since I began there," she said.

Rozell said she plans to begin advertising the facility's availability to host large gatherings "more openly in hopes that it ... brings people in town to stay in town."

Though the city is split over the issue, both sides hope the community can reunite, they said.

"This infighting and aggravation ... is not going to work," Green said. "We have to move forward together."

Zoellner agreed.

"We hope this can all just be settled one way or another. It's definitely the hope of everyone in town that something like this won't come up ever again and we can get back to working together as citizens," he said.