Gunnison County Briefs

Town, school district could sign IGA April 6
Gunnison School District superintendent Jon Nelson told the RE1J school board on Monday, March 16 that the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the district and the town of Crested Butte could be ready to sign at the April 6 meeting. The IGA outlines in some detail conditions for the town to donate land to the school for expansion.
Nelson said if possible, the school board would sign the agreement at its meeting in Crested Butte and then walk to the Crested Butte Town Council meeting on the same night to watch the council sign the document. “And then we could all just walk away,” he said.
There will be an element of the IGA that allows a land survey to take place in June before the land for the school expansion would be officially conveyed from the town.

Garland gets land back
The Gunnison Board of County Commissioners agreed to release two lots in the Larkspur subdivision from their “essential housing” status. In return, developer Gary Garland offered to immediately donate another “essential housing” lot to the county.
The two lots requested by Garland will become free market lots and the county will own a total of two essential housing lots. None of the lots are currently developed. The arrangement would secure two affordable housing properties in Larkspur for the county: a previously held lot meant for a duplex and the current lot, which is entitled to a four-plex.
Of Garland’s 46 total lots in Larkspur, 11 are set aside for essential housing. Those lots have deed restrictions limiting the amount buyers can pay for the property. But three years after putting the lots on the market, nearly half the deed-restricted lots are still for sale. The decision was part of a larger effort to find a process for amending, updating or terminating existing deed restrictions that aren’t addressing the affordable housing needs.
Housing Authority director KT Gazunis said that Garland’s proposal made sense because it provided the county with a duplex-ready lot at no cost while giving the developer relief in an uncertain economy.
“I wouldn’t normally take affordable housing lots out of the pool, but since they aren’t developed and the lots that are there aren’t selling, I see no problem with doing this,” said commissioner Hap Channell.

GVH gets green light for survey
Gunnison Valley Hospital chief executive Randy Phelps asked the Board of County Commissioners for their blessing to move ahead with a survey looking into community support for a tax increase to support the hospital.
The hospital’s board of trustees had suggested that they could ask the commissioners for a ballot initiative that would raise taxes to improve the hospital’s economic standing, which has been hurt by declining revenues and increased costs.
Although it was seen as a formality, the commissioners gave their approval for the survey to move forward with the help of Utah-based Dan Jones and Associates.

Commissioners stay neutral on elk licensing
Despite widespread agreement that there are too many elk in the surrounding Game Management Units, at a regular meeting Tuesday, March 17 the Board of County Commissioners refused to give their support to an effort by the Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association, and others, to limit the number of elk licenses issued by the state.
The stockgrowers’ argument, which has been supported by some statistical data, is that fewer licenses mean fewer hunters to scare elk into backcountry haunts, leaving the elk more accessible to hunters who get an elk tag in the lottery.
“There is no doubt that we have too many elk in GMU 54, 55 and 551, but there are a lot of ideas about how we can deal with the problem. Considering the complexity of the issue, I feel like I shouldn’t commit one way or the other on how to handle it until I have gotten some more information,” said county commissioner Jim Starr.
However, the commissioners agreed to review, and possibly sign, a letter presented by the stockgrowers acknowledging that there is a problem with elk density that needs to be addressed. The stockgrowers’ representative, Sandy Guerrieri, said they were hoping to secure the commissioners’ support by the time the nomination application period ends May 1.

Housing Authority covers Crested Butte with surveys
Housing Authority director KT Gazunis said she spent extra time sending a County Housing Needs Assessment Survey to nearly every resident of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte in an effort to gain an understanding of housing needs in the north end of the Gunnison Valley.
She asks that residents complete the survey and return it to the county or BBC Research and Consulting—both addresses are provided on the survey—by the end of the day on Tuesday, March 31. Residents may also complete the survey online at www.gunnisoncounty.org.