The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Lots going on
by Mark Reaman
Gunnison County commissioner Roland Mason visited with the Crested Butte Town Council over Zoom on Monday, July 6 to update them on county happenings. He touched on a number of issues ranging from fire danger and coronavirus regulations to the construction crew working on an affordable housing project in Gunnison and the upcoming Little Blue Canyon project that is slated to start next summer on Highway 50.
The major road realignment work scheduled to start next spring on the highway between Gunnison and Montrose will make Highway 50 a slow going road. Thus, he said, the Kebler Pass Road could see an enormous increase in traffic volume in 2021. “That project has been funded and it will go,” he said. “Kebler will be crazy when it starts happening. On the good side, it could provide some jobs for people in the county. The diversion will direct more people to Crested Butte so it probably means more business for town.”
Council member Mona Merrill asked if any mitigation to control that traffic volume had been discussed. She indicated that at a minimum, signs on the road leading to Whiterock Avenue should be installed. Mason said that had not yet been discussed.
Mason said he spent some of the Fourth of July holiday in Crested Butte and felt, “Crested Butte was doing a really good job with masks and social distancing. It is important to create a culture of being safe throughout the county and I felt good about it up here. From two weeks ago to this weekend it feels like there is more compliance with masks from people and businesses.”
Mason said he appreciated the efforts of the town and wanted to send out a “common message” for people to practice things like social distancing, increased hygiene and mask wearing. “It looks like our summer has been somewhat okay so far. The next goal is to think about what we can do to keep that message going to keep fall and early winter open for things like the schools and the ski area.”
He said the Paintbrush affordable housing project being led by Gary Gates in Gunnison is moving along and foundations should begin shortly. The project is a partnership between Gates and the county and will provide 77 affordable units located near the Gunnison Rec Center.
Crested Butte mayor Jim Schmidt asked if it was still the intention for Gates to bring up the primary construction crews from Texas. He said because of the COVID-19 outbreaks in places like Houston, that could be problematic. Mason agreed that could be an issue, since Texas was a current hot spot for the virus; he said he would look into it. He did say that Gates has to use at least 50 percent local labor on the project but wasn’t sure how that was set up.
While the county had a fire danger rating of “high,” Mason said the county emergency team was keeping a close eye on the fire situation. “It is being monitored daily and we all want to be pretty cautious this year. Other nearby counties have fire bans and we aren’t there yet. But we don’t want to have to deal with wildfires on top of a pandemic,” he said.
In fact, the county commissioners last week instituted Stage 1 fire ban for the county.
