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Eagle-Vail converts emergency services building to worker housing

EAGLE-VAIL — If every little bit of housing helps, and it does, two local governments are making room for a handful of local workers.

“We’re going to make five people really happy,” said Jill Klosterman, director of Eagle County’s housing department.

The Eagle-Vail Metro District and the county are leasing the five bedrooms in the Eagle-Vail emergency services building.



The agreement started Wednesday and goes through the winter season. If it works, Eagle-Vail will house summer workers there.

“The speed and creativity in putting this opportunity together have been incredible.”Kathy Chandler-HenryEagle County commissioner

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Jeff Layman, Eagle-Vail Metro District manager, posted the apartments online around 9 a.m. Friday. More than a dozen calls had already rolled in before the county commissioners made it official Tuesday morning.

“The speed and creativity in putting this opportunity together have been incredible,” said Kathy Chandler-Henry, county commissioner.

About the only requirement to live there is that you have to work somewhere in Eagle County. Most of those calls are from workers in Vail and Beaver Creek, Klosterman said.

For the rest of the winter the rooms will rent for $750 for a single unit with a private bathroom, and $700 for rooms with shared bathrooms. It’ll be less expensive during the summer, Layman said.

Eagle-Vail owns it. Eagle County’s housing authority will manage it.

To manage it, the county gets the princely sum of $250 a month. When county workers have to work on the building, they’ll bill Eagle-Vail by the hour.

The Eagle-Vail Metro District might make $6,000 for the year, or they might not. A couple bills have already consumed some of that.

Still, this move really isn’t about the Benjamins.

“We’re excited to be able to offer some housing, and are pleased to be part of the solution,” Layman said Jeff Layman, manager of the Eagle-Vail Metro District.

The Eagle River Fire Protection District built the building in 1973 to house firefighters as the Eagle-Vail neighborhood was developing. The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office has an Eagle-Vail office right across the parking lot.

The fire district’s agreement with Eagle-Vail says that when it no longer needs the building, the metro district gets it back.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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