Briefs Gunnison County

Tourism Association collecting $$ for mini vacation guide
The Gunnison County Board of Commissioners, acting as the Board of the Gunnison County Local Marketing District (LMD), granted the Gunnison–Crested Butte Tourism Association (GCBTA) $25,000 last week for the production of an eight-page advertising insert in the official state tourism marketing guide.

“Everybody takes out an ad of some size in the guide, and there are nearly 400,000 guides sent out annually,” said GCBTA executive director Pamela Loughman. “Being one of more than 100 advertisers it’s easy to get lost. By creating an eight-page mini vacation planner focused just on our area, we are elevating our visibility and creating more prominence for Crested Butte and Gunnison as a destination.”
The full price tag for the guide is $96,000. Along with the LMD’s contribution, the GCBTA has contributed $46,000, and Mt. Crested Butte and the city of Gunnison have given $8,333 each toward the project, putting the balance at $87,666. The GCBTA will ask the Crested Butte Town Council for the remaining $8,333 at the October 7 meeting.

Decisions to be made on Cottonwood
The county’s effort to renovate and pave Cottonwood Pass continues to raise financial concern with the Board of County Commissioners and county administrators. The $27,115,000 federal project will cost the county an estimated $5 million in matching funds, an amount that would need to be paid back by 2018. It’s a number and timeframe that if agreed to would likely send the Department of Public Works into “maintenance mode,” said public works director Marlene Crosby.
“This would be very impactful on our road and bridge department for years and years—it could be a decade,” agreed Commissioner Paula Swenson. “We’re going to have to come out of the chute saying nothing else is going to happen.”
In an effort to continue with the project but lessen the financial stress Cottonwood would place on public works, the county commissioners and Crosby are planning to approach the Central Federal Lands Highway Division about extending the timeline for repayment of the matching funds, from four years to seven or eight.
“The first thing we need to do is find out if we reasonably could repay the amount in that extended timeframe,” said Swenson. “If it’s going to be 15 years before we could pay for this, it likely will not work, but if it’s within seven years and the highway division is willing to accept those terms, we may be able to move forward.”
Consistent housing guidelines in development
The Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA) has drafted a set of guidelines and master deed restrictions for use by the county and its municipalities. The goal of the work, which is still in preliminary phases, is to ultimately provide the valley with comprehensive, and consistent, affordable housing guidelines, said GVRHA’s executive director Karl Fulmer.
According to Fulmer there are as many as 38 different deed restrictions in Gunnison County, the majority of which are in Crested Butte.
“Crested Butte has essentially taken all their different deed restrictions, stapled them together and called them a housing plan,” Fulmer said, adding that it’s a situation that can, and often does, lead to confusion and mistakes.
The new guidelines are meant to have continuity throughout, which should make their application more straightforward.
“The greatest thing is [the creation] of one set of standards that can be applied wherever someone goes in the valley,” said Fulmer.
GVRHA will present the new guidelines to the Mt. Crested Butte and Crested Butte town councils in the next six to eight weeks.