The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
From the Nordic Council to Let’s Play Marbles…
More than $15,000 was awarded in grants from the Gunnison County Metropolitan Recreation District this spring, on top of a $25,000 pledge to help put a roof over the Big Mine Ice Rink in Crested Butte.
On April 18 the board officially committed to the $40,000 in grants.
“Over the last decade the board has tried to diversify its grants,” explained Met Rec District manager Lori Patin. “Some years there has been more money for grants than others, but this year we tried to spread the money between a variety of organizations.”
The Big Mine ice rink pledge was the largest grant, at $25,000. The Crested Butte Nordic Center received $5,000 to help build a maintenance facility. The Gunnison River Festival was awarded $2,500 for improvements to the white water park. The Crested Butte Center for the Arts received $2,000 to go toward renovation of its outdoor stage, which will assist in the summer Alpenglow concerts.
Four $1,000 donations were approved. The Crested Butte Film Festival scored a grand for the 2011 event. It is earmarked for “Sneak Peak Gunnison presentations.” The city of Gunnison took in two $1,000 donations, one for baseball field improvements and another for a new skate park, while Boomers and Beyond will receive $1,000 for a new senior center.
Smaller donations went to Artists of the West Elks ($250), the Gunnison Farmers’ Market ($525), Let’s Play Marbles ($475) and Six Points ($250).
The $25,000 donation came out of the Met Rec’s conservation trust fund, while the other $15,000 came from the organization’s general fund.
“The small pot of money from which the board drew this year isn’t related to the district’s digital TV upgrade,” explained board member Paul Wayne Foreman. “The board tapped around a half million in federal grants to do that. What pinches us is that we remain under the thumb of TABOR [Tax Payer Bill of Rights]. And, just as Mr. Bruce intended, our available funds are shrinking, despite ‘cost of living’ adjustments. Most people who keep up with that sort of thing know they rarely conform to reality. The price of everything goes up, a lot, but the CPI says it’s just been 2 percent.
“Anyway, I’ve been in on the Met Rec board grant program since day one in 2001,” Foreman continued. “This year’s pot is the smallest we’ve distributed since then. Maybe next year the district will have a larger amount to spread around, maybe not.”
