Gunnison Met Rec district appoints Crested Butte advisory board

High priority is continuation of grants

The Gunnison County Metropolitan Recreation District has appointed a Crested Butte advisory subcommittee. That sub-district board will meet monthly to advise the main board about issues in the north end of the valley concerning arts and recreation.

Serving on the Crested Butte board will be town of Crested Butte parks and recreation director Jake Jones, Crested Butte South manager Chris Behan, Crested Butte Nordic Center director Keith Bauer, Center for the Arts director Jenny Birnie and Marilynn Krill of the Crested Butte Music Festival. Subcommittee alternates are Alison Kuhne of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and Dom Eymere of Crested Butte South.
The group met last week to outline a list of goals for the subcommittee. One priority is to encourage the Met-Rec District to continue its funding cycle. The district collects a small property tax on county residents and most of the money is used to provide over-the-air signals for television. But in recent years, there has been enough money to help fund arts and recreation projects throughout the valley. The Crested Butte subcommittee feels keeping funds available for grants is important because other revenue sources are dwindling.
Other general ideas of the subcommittee include finding ways to grow the trail system in the area, improve access to the performing arts, offer more arts education to both local kids and adults, explore the options of building a recreation center or swimming pool in the north end of the valley, and generally looking for ways to provide more arts and recreation opportunities.
Members of the main board were all in favor of the Crested Butte sub-district and gave the go-ahead for the district at the meeting Monday night.