briefs gunnison county

Back to normal
The Gunnison County appraiser’s office received 1,557 protests for real property valuations and 19 for personal property. And that makes it a normal year.

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“Both 2007 and 2009 were pretty high, about 2,200 appeals at our level,” said county assessor Kristy McFarland. “But prior to that it was about 1,500. One year it was 1,000, which was pretty low.”
According to McFarland, most of the property owners who protested thought their values were too high. McFarland presented a report of the protests to the Gunnison County Board of Equalization (CBOE), or the Board of County Commissioners wearing a different hat, on Monday, July 12. Of the protests, 794 were adjusted, and 701 were denied. Property owners have until July 15 to notify the County if they plan to appeal the property valuations at public hearings. Hearings will begin July 21-22 with the CBOE and August 1 and August 3 with an independent hearing officer.

Good deeds aren’t always easy deeds
Gunnison residents Butch and Judy Clark having been trying to donate land to Gunnison County for two and a half years. The original vision was a land swap: trade 960 acres in the Fossil Ridge Recreation Acre to the National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in exchange for land that the Clarks could donate to the county for affordable housing.
But it might make more sense to sell that land to the Forest Service or BLM and use that money to purchase affordable housing for the county. A decision was to be made by the end of June as part of a contract with the Trust for Public Lands (TPL), which is holding the Clarks’ land. According to Butch Clark, an agreement was entered into with the Trust for Public Land last year to hold the land with the understanding that a decision would be made by the end of June to swap the land.
“There’s potential for a land exchange, but a lot of the land that might be exchanged is also influenced by the Gunnison sage grouse, and that at this point is still up in the air in terms of identifying sites that are critical or not as critical,” Butch Clark told the county commissioners during an update on Tuesday, July 12. “Also, Washington is going through economic and budgetary constraints and so forth. One of the difficulties is that the Forest Service may not have funding for a while or different priorities for funding, and it’s the same for the BLM.”
Sale of the land may prove to be the most effective option. The Gunnison Valley Housing Foundation, formed to help facilitate the process, just received nonprofit status. The board plans to ask the TPL for an extension on the decision but hopes keep things moving as efficiently as possible.

Clean apron for the airport
The Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport will be getting a new commercial apron—new concrete will be poured on the air side of the airport (where the planes park). The southern fence line, which has been elevated anywhere from three to four inches by frost, will also be repaired, and runway signs will be replaced to be brought up to code.
The total cost of the project, which will be completed in 2011, is roughly $2,067,867 and will be covered primarily by two grants: one from the Federal Aviation Administration and a Colorado Division of Aeronautics grant. The contract has been awarded to Interstate Highway Construction, Inc. of Englewood, Colo.