The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Failure to make improvements could jeopardize amenity, water right
The Gunnison Board of County Commissioners is committing as much as $100,000 over two years to help bring about much-needed repairs at the Gunnison Whitewater Park, where scouring and loose rocks have caused concerns about public safety and the long-term viability of the park.
The money will enable the county to pursue a much larger grant from Great Outdoors Colorado that could partially cover the $616,000 cost of the project. However, the commissioners raised concerns about where the county’s share of the total cost might come from and what future projects might go unfunded as a result.
Gunnison County Public Works director Marlene Crosby explained to the commissioners at a special meeting on Tuesday, August 26 that she generally likes to present them with options that include a no-action alternative, but that neglecting the repairs needed on the farthest feature downstream at the whitewater park could endanger other parts of the park.
“If we don’t take action and the first structure goes, then the second structure goes and then we have nothing,” Crosby said.
In order to submit a grant application to Great Outdoors Colorado for consideration, the county must show it has the required 30 percent in matching funds. While some of those matching funds could be made up through in-kind donations, some of it has to be cash and for that Crosby and Gunnison Whitewater Festival coordinator John Messner turned to the commissioners.
Messner and Crosby told the commissioners they didn’t think the county, which had previously committed $35,000 to whitewater park improvements, would have to come up with the entire $100,000 in matching money.
“If we can fundraise between now and when the shovel hits the ground, that dollar amount can come down,” Messner said. “But we’ll have to commit that.”
Crosby added, “We have a little bit of an advantage with fund raising this year because last year when we went out, the college and the towns and everybody was already in their budget cycles and didn’t have any money left to give.”
The county has done some pretty extensive work on the whitewater park to address problems with the structure and with how water and sediment move through the park. In 2008, the feature currently in need of repairs, known as Feature #3, got some major repairs that have since succumbed to time and the elements.
Not only is the whitewater park an important recreational amenity for the county and city of Gunnison, but the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District would lose the water right that maintains flows through the park if it’s no longer being used. That right cost about $600,000 to acquire, Messner said.
Last year the county retained McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group to provide an assessment of the park and provide recommendations on how to improve it. The company’s report says, “The County may want to consider temporary repairs to shore up the feature. Currently Feature #3 is in poor condition and will continue to degrade over time.”
If the county is successful in getting the GOCO grant in December, it would have two years to come up with its portion of the matching funds, which, county finance director Linda Nienheuser suggested, could come from the Conservation Trust Fund that brings in $50,000 a year.
So, as Commissioner Phil Chamberland put it, the commissioners found themselves “between a rock and a water space,” and agreed to commit to the $100,000 match.
