Mayor Earle Bidez wasn’t surprised to see large crowds Tuesday at the Minturn Town Council meeting as citizens protested recent changes along Highway 24, commonly known as Main Street in Minturn.

Last week, the town installed something it called “bulb-outs” on Main Street by placing poles alongside the street and eliminating parking spots to calm traffic and create longer sight lines for motorists. In total, 32 parking spots were eliminated, some in front of popular businesses like Kirby Cosmo’s and Rocky Mountain Taco.

A standing-room-only crowd showed up on Tuesday to participate in a discussion about the bulb-outs.

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“It works every time — when we piss off the community, they show up,” Bidez said with a laugh.

After listening to numerous complaints about the bulb-outs, Bidez and the council voted in favor of removing the poles and reducing the amount of new “no parking” areas that had been delineated with diagonal lines and yellow curbs. The council also asked town staff to enlist the help of an engineer who could continue to study the issue.

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The bulb-out idea began about a year ago with the adoption of the 2023 Imagine Minturn Community Plan, which sets the course for the town over the next 10-15 years.

“Residents, through the community plan, identified that one of the things that they were struggling with was the safe ability to turn onto Main Street from side streets,” said Town Manager Michelle Metteer. “So through that, the community plan was created, and one of the items in the community plan … identifies the value of an action step of creating more crosswalks and bulb-outs at certain key intersections in town.”

Jeff Spanel, the town’s contracted engineer, said the intended purpose of the bulb-outs was twofold, allowing drivers at a stop sign to have a clear view, and allowing cars on the highway to have time to stop when vehicles pull out onto Main Street.

But the town was also forced to work within the regulations of the Colorado Department of Transportation because Highway 24 is a federal highway.

“CDOT’s primary goal is to move traffic,” Metteer said.

That means things like speed bumps and stop signs, which require special approval from the department, aren’t likely to be approved despite requests from the town. One thing CDOT does allow is bulb-outs, however, so the town decided to try those, Metteer said.

It didn’t go over well.

“It’s not slowing the traffic down,” said Mark Tamberino, owner of Kirby Cosmo’s BBQ Bar. “I still am jumping out in front of 18-wheelers driving 40 miles an hour down the Main Street, over the yellow line.”

Tamberino said his business and the neighbors in the area have lost four parking spots, his business is losing money and the neighbors have lost a valuable spot to park near their houses.

“It’s detrimental to community living,” he said.

Dan Purtell with Rocky Mountain Taco said his business is down to three parking spots total.

“We would have never moved into Minturn if we only had three parking spots to work with,” he said. “I get the safety part, but let’s compromise.”

Purtell said it started affecting his business immediately, recounting a typical conversation that started happening once the bulb-outs were installed.

“Hey, you can’t park here … OK where do I park … I don’t know, there are three spots on the right there, check it out,” Purtell said. “They look, there’s no parking, they drive off. There’s money out the door; we’re losing thousands of dollars a day. If we don’t get some of those parking spots back, we won’t be here in a year.”

In responding to the comments, Council member Lynn Feiger said the bulb-outs aren’t working as intended.

“The cure is way worse than the disease,” she said. “My sight line isn’t much better and it’s been a disaster for our businesses, it’s been a disaster for the town, and they’re dangerous and ugly.”

But, Feiger added, that doesn’t mean the town should not abandon its work on Highway 24.

“We need to keep working on this problem and put more pressure on our state representatives and maybe put together a committee to force CDOT to do what we need to do to protect our town,” she said.

The rest of the council agreed.

“If I had known how this would pan out, I wouldn’t have voted for it,” said Council member Gusty Kanakis. “I think we can minimize the no-parking zone, but it’s gonna have to come from CDOT. We need a slower speed limit.”

Eagle County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Scott Peterson, who patrols Minturn, said he can help in getting vehicles to not exceed 25 miles per hour in town.

“If the town is accepting of me adjusting the mile per hour over that I pull somebody over, I will,” he said. “Most of us probably drive, maybe five over, probably. If I pull people over at five over … the speed limit is still 25. So if I can get some support from the town, and all of you folks, that that’s acceptable in your eyes, I can adjust that.”