ASPEN – — A traffic study will be the first step as Pitkin County considers what it should do with the historic Emma Store property it acquired in 2008.
The Pitkin County Open Space and Trails board of trustees committed to holding a meaningful discussion this year about the future of the property, the site of several buildings that date back to the late 1880s. It is located next to Highway 82 just downvalley from Basalt.
The old Emma Store building, the most prominent of the structures, was the focus of a restabilization effort in 2010 to keep it from collapse. The county spent more than $600,000 (including nearly $244,000 in state grant money) stabilizing and rehabilitating the store structure, which is actually two side-by-side buildings.
This year, a similar effort will be undertaken on a smaller, crumbling structure known as the powder house behind the store. The county has allocated close to $47,000 for the latter project; the State Historic Fund will provide almost $95,000.
In all, the county has spent more than $3 million on the property, including on the acquisition and restoration of the store.
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