Briefs: Gunnison County

By Katherine Nettles

Whetstone financing to close, groundbreaking April 21

Gunnison County manager Matthew Birnie said he expects to close the financials for the county’s Whetstone Community Housing project within the next week. He said he planned to approve and publicly post the preliminary official statement, “which is essentially the description of the entire deal for investors to look at,” on Tuesday, April 1. “That’s posted to all kinds of public forums that investors can see,” he said, and includes information about the project, financing, the county in general and the county’s credit load and rating. “That will allow the underwriters to start marketing the bonds,” he said. Birnie said the county got an A+ rating on the deal from the S&P, “Which is very strong for a project like this,” he said. That rating helped the county secure AA municipal bond insurance. 

“I think the important thing to note is that this helps make the project more affordable for the people when they go to rent it,” said commissioner Liz Smith of the high rating and financials. “Our conservative financial approach as an organization has a direct impact on the types of rents that we are going to be able to offer on the back end.” 

Birnie also affirmed that the $12 million the county has received in grants for the project remain intact, and the project will officially break ground later this month. “We got all the building permits this week,” he added. 

The Whetstone groundbreaking event will be onsite on April 21 at 3 p.m. The public is welcome. 

County health and human services faces potential budget cuts 

Commissioners received an update last week from assistant county manager for Health, Human and Safety services Joni Reynolds. Reynolds said it might be difficult to hold positions that support vital programs like health and human services and child welfare that are held by grants that are being removed or discontinued at the federal level.  County commissioner Liz Smith commented this week, “The cuts that are coming from the federal government are going to have impacts on our staffing potentially… More of the state’s financial responsibilities are being pushed onto counties.”