The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Expanding services and building a library in CB South
By Katherine Nettles
The Gunnison County Library District has been greenlighted to add a ballot question this election cycle asking voters to approve a property tax increase to help increase library amenities district-wide, and fund a new library branch in the North Valley. The ballot issue will ask property owners throughout Gunnison County for a 1.1 mill increase, which would mean 59 cents per month ($7 per year) for every $100,000 of property value. That would be $63 annually for a home valued at $900,000.
With the investment, library district executive director Drew Brookhart says the local public libraries will increase access, events and activities for children, teens, adults and seniors, increase books, movies, access to technology, add additional hours of operation to meet the community needs and put a special emphasis on digital content.
“The library district will also add an additional library in CB South providing indoor and outdoor amenities, free public meeting rooms, event space, an active children library and teen space,” said Brookhart.
While the design plans are still in the early phase, the district is under contract to purchase a one-acre corner lot within the commercial center of Crested Butte South and the intention is to add a branch as a major anchor for the CB South community.
Brookhart and library district board of trustees president Sally Hays approached Gunnison County commissioners this week about the district’s request for ministerial action to refer a ballot issue for the 2024 election. “Investments in the project have already been made,” he said, including the land for the building and news that the district also recently secured a $1 million grant from the state of Colorado to help with the project’s design and engineering costs.
“We are close to contracting a design team, so we would love to come back to a work session and give you a more in-depth vision of what’s coming,” he said.
The new library will be powered by onsite geothermal and solar energy, he said.
Commissioners said they would like to hold that work session, and commissioner Liz Smith talked through the challenge that the state’s recent legislation SB24-233 imposes on special districts in local governments. The bill was signed in May 2024 and starting in 2025 will restrict property tax assessments, in part by constraining special district budget growth. This means the library district will collect fewer taxes going forward.
“I understand that your anticipated revenues as a special district have really changed given this last legislative session and the passage of 233…which really put a growth cap that hadn’t existed previously on special districts in Gunnison County,” she summarized. “This is something that as I understand had been budgeted for and would have been able to be absorbed by the library district’s regular mills,” she said. “Is that where this ask is coming from?”
“Yes,” responded Brookhart. “In our strategic planning and in our financial planning, we had hoped that the growth in the community would translate to growth of the library district. So, we were on track to have enough money in the next few years to do this without approaching voters for additional funds. The good news is from the state, property taxes are going to go down. But that means we need some additional funding to deliver an expansion at the north end of the valley and also an overall expansion of library services.”
Brookhart said about half the funding would go to expanding library services across the district, and half would go to the new capital project in CB South.
Hays said that they have been preparing this expansion for the library district and additional CB South branch for years. “It is designated in our strategic plan, as where we are failing our residents,” she said, “because they are just too far from a library. We need a library [in CB South]. We’ve been thinking about doing this for multiple years, and given [the new property tax law] that has happened, we ended up doing this accelerated plan,” she said.
Commissioners approved the ballot issue anonymously.
“It’s for the people, and so if people want more libraries and more library services, I think giving them the option to say that at the ballot box is the right way to do this,” said commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels.
County commissioner chair Jonathan Houck agreed.
“I think it’s important to allow the citizens of Gunnison County to, on the ballot, make an informed decision about what they desire,” he said.
The library district plans to kick off a public design process this fall to engage the community.
