County supports town bid for GOCO grant

Any donations to project would likely be in-kind

The Gunnison Board of County Commissioners enthusiastically signed on to support the town of Crested Butte’s application for a Great Outdoors Colorado grant to pick up part of the cost to cover the ice rink at Big Mine Arena.

Based on the feedback in a recently completed Crested Butte Parks and Recreation Master Plan, town Parks and Recreation director Jake Jones told the commissioners people living in the north end of the Gunnison Valley have identified three recreational priorities: an aquatic center, more indoor recreation space and a lid on the existing ice rink.
“We finally reached consensus on the issue of whether to build a new rink or cover our existing rink,” Jones said. “Really what we found from the public was that covering the existing rink made the most sense. It’s a project we can really tackle and move forward on.”
Now the town is trying to take advantage of a special opportunities grant cycle offered by GOCO, which is willing to fund as much as $700,000 or 70 percent of the total cost of the $1.1 million project, as long as there is a 10 percent cash match.
“The town has pledged $200,000 out of our capital reserves for the project and last night the Met Rec board pledged $25,000 out of their slim budget toward the project.” Jones said, adding that the money would be available in 2011.
But the grant application is due next week and Jones is trying to get all the support he can, financial or otherwise. When he sends the application, he’s expecting to need an additional $200,000 to be pledged before the roof is paid for.
“Given the size of the project, we feel like that’s an attainable goal to close that gap once we get GOCO’s money,” he said. “A lot of people will only get on board after they know it’s actually going to happen. Then we can enter our bake sale of fundraising when the community can get involved and do all sorts of creative things to close the gap.”
And while he hinted that he might be back at some point if the grant is successful to ask the commissioners for an in-kind donation that would help the project get off the ground, Jones left open the option of deciding how to donate to the project after GOCO makes the award decision at a board meeting December 8.
“Striking this proposal, GOCO wants to know who the supporters are, but really what kind of support they have,” Jones said, alluding to the relationship between the town and the Crested Butte Nordic Council. “If you have any ideas [about how the county can support the project], I’m open to what those ideas might be.”
The commissioners said they would have to talk with staff about the availability of in-kind donations, like equipment or planning, but said they were happy to send a letter to GOCO. Commissioner Hap Channell thought adding the terms “year-round” and “regional” to the letter would appeal to what GOCO is trying to achieve through outdoor recreation.
Commissioner Jim Starr suggested adding a line to the letter to let GOCO know that the county intends to make an in-kind donation to the project and that the support is more than just moral.
“I would say there is a very strong spirit of cooperation in the hockey community between the cities and the organizations that are doing this stuff,” Jones said. “If we build this facility, for example, we would be buying less ice [time] from the city [of Gunnison], yet the city is very supportive of this project. It’s good for hockey in the valley.”
Jones told the commissioners, “If everything goes very smoothly from the award date through planning, BOZAR approval, bid acceptance… all that stuff, we could break ground potentially in the spring or summer of ‘11.”