Special message from the Gunnison County Commissioners

Dear Citizens of Gunnison County:

This is a message to our community. The people, the families, the individuals, the businesses and organizations, the soul of this special place we call home. We will overcome this. We know that people are scared, we are all scared. But we cannot let that fear overwhelm us. We cannot let that fear cause inaction. We cannot let that fear make us lose compassion and caring.

Together we have strength and together we have power. We cannot express enough how impressed we are with the work that has been done up to this point in addressing this crisis. How the community has come together to act, to make the hard decisions in understanding the severity of the situation. These actions make more of a difference than we think you know. We are not done.

There are many strong leaders, from across the county and the state, professionals in their field, who are guiding us through this situation. They are putting in unbelievable hours, unified in their structure and dedicated to executing plans of operation to minimize and mitigate the situation, to flatten the curve of impact and to provide the services necessary to support our citizens.

But the responsibility does not lie solely with them. The responsibility also lies with us. We, as a community, need to unwaveringly and diligently follow their guidance, utilize the resources provided to keep ourselves informed and to take the steps together to implement the developed strategies.

These strategies are based on the best available information and are developed with the best intentions to ensure we meet this challenge head on and overcome it. These are not suggestions and it is imperative that we follow these directions. There has been a call center developed if you have questions as to what to do.

There will be times when we stumble, there will be times we make mistakes. We will learn from those mistakes and make adjustments as necessary. This is not a time for criticism or for finding fault. This is a time for digging deep, working together and taking care of one another. This will not be a sprint; it will be a marathon. In understanding that we need to prepare ourselves for the challenges we will face in the next coming weeks and months ahead. This community is strong and together we will overcome. We understand the impacts and burdens of the actions that have been taken. The decisions to take these actions have not been taken lightly. The decisions made are to protect the residents of Gunnison County and our visitors to the best of our ability ensure we continue to have the services and treatments necessary to mitigate and minimize the impacts of this virus. We continue to reach out to our federal and state partners to develop additional resources. Those resources include equipment, medical supplies, testing kits, emergency aid, personnel and economic support for workers and businesses. We have strong lines of communication with our federal and state partners and will continue to advocate for support. There will continue to be regular and up to date information on both the Gunnison County website and the Gunnison County Health and Human Services Facebook page and we encourage you to keep yourself informed and follow the guidance provided. We, your commissioners, are in this with you, we are in this together. This may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better. It will get better because we are Gunnison County. A county and a community that knows how to work together in times of crisis, to take care of one another and to take the steps necessary to meet this challenge head on. Together we will push through to the other side of this. We have done it in the past and we will do it now.

Jonathan Houck, Chairperson; John Messner, Vice Chairperson; Roland Mason, Commissioner