Briefs County

by Adam Broderick

Annual Chainless Bike Race
The Chainless World Championships will take over Kebler Pass (County Road 12) on Friday, June 26 from 3 to 6 p.m. Mark your calendars and plan on watching from the roadside or the hay-bale–lined finish area at First and Elk. Vehicles will not be allowed on the road during these hours in order to keep crazed, costumed and outta-control riders safe.

Farmers market in Marble
The town of Marble will have a farmers market this summer. “The Marble Market at The Marble Hub” is scheduled to open June 20 with a market every Saturday until October 3, plus major holidays (July 4 and Labor Day). The Marble Hub is at old Marble City State Bank, the only commercial building still upright in Marble, and the market will be held in the area immediately west of the building.

SOMA’s own waxes, oils and topicals
SOMA, the recreational marijuana retailer in Crested Butte, currently cultivates marijuana in a facility just a few miles outside of town. As of unanimous approval by county commissioners and no objections at a public hearing on Tuesday, June 16 in Gunnison, the company is now the first in the county to hold a license that allows it to create infused marijuana products in the same space. Such products will include waxes, oils and topicals, and Will Browne, who represented SOMA at Tuesday’s meeting, told the Crested Butte News that infused products should be available for purchase at the Crested Butte store by July 1 at the latest. SOMA also plans to open a new Gunnison store September 1 if licensing with the city goes smoothly, and the new marijuana infused products would be available there as well.

Gunnison County suicides
Gunnison County had seven suicides in 2014. The 2014 census says 15,385 people lived in the county last year. Several of the suicides were drug overdoses, including heroin, and many details of the incidents are unavailable but the county’s Board of Health director Carol Worrall says nurses at Gunnison Valley Hospital are being trained in suicide prevention. “In so many situations, your actions can either expedite the problem or help fix it,” she said.

County library numbers rising
The Gunnison County Library District’s 2014 usage report lists total visits by patrons up 2 percent, with 70,758 of the county’s total 160,706 visits recorded at the Crested Butte Old Rock Library. The District counted 12,672 patrons (card holders) in 2014, showing a 10 percent increase from 2013. Of those patrons, 5,118 were from Crested Butte. Total circulation, which consists of all materials including books, e-books, DVDs, etc., also increased. Up almost 5 percent from the previous year, the Gunnison library had 71,746 materials in circulation and the Crested Butte Library had 58,098.

This rise in numbers is due largely to what the District’s executive director, Nancy Barnes Trimm, called “better marketing and increased public awareness. We’ve been going gangbusters on programming in the last year—and that is reflected in our increased visits,” she said.