The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Expecting costs to go up
By Mark Reaman and Kendra Walker
The Crested Butte council is on board with the transition of the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority to the Gunnison County Housing Authority and realizes it will likely add some cost to the town. The hope is that in a few years some sort of regional integration of an organization overseeing regional community housing will be more delineated.
The GVRHA board agreed last month to slowly dissolve the organization under executive director Melissa LaMonica’s proposed plan. She will stay on as executive director until the end of the year while transitioning to her new job as Gunnison County chief financial officer. The GVRHA will come under the umbrella of the county’s Housing Authority.
Crested Butte councilmember Gabi Prochaska sits on the GVRHA board and she told the council at the July 21 meeting that everyone is still looking at the situation from the 30,000-foot level. “Details are still being discussed and things will get hammered out closer to the end of the year,” she said.
She said all of the organization’s duties should continue like before the move to dissolve the GVRHA at least through December. “The jump into monitoring deed-restriction compliance now has some traction and it is important to not lose that traction,” she said.
Crested Butte town manager Dara MacDonald said the intention is for participating government entities to have a better idea of potential future costs before the fall budget period.
Crested Butte’s other representative on the GVRHA board, Chris Haver, said he is glad the effort is being made to retain the level of service during the transition. “There will be a lot of challenges figuring it all out but I’m very positive about it,” he said.
“I’m happy the ball’s not going to get dropped during the transition,” agreed councilmember Kent Cowherd.
Mayor Ian Billick said he hoped a more regional housing integration would emerge from the shake-up. “I would hate to see each entity evolve back and reinvent the wheel,” he said. “For me, the long-term goal is regional integration.”
“That is still very much part of the conversation,” said Prochaska. “It helps with grants for example.”
“My immediate concern lies with users who’ve gone through the GVRHA,” said councilmember Anna Fenerty.
“I hope I’m wrong, but I’d guess that it will be more expensive for the town starting next year, so we need to be ready to increase the funding,” noted Billick. “I’m not sure exactly what that will be, but we should be a generous participant going in.”
“We probably have to be willing to pay more but that still remains to be seen,” said Prochaska.
“My guess is that at first it might be more expensive,” said Haver. “But the nice thing is that the county should come with some cost savings. It might take some time to determine the actual costs. In the long-term the opportunity is there to be very good.”
“Hopefully it gets more efficient as it progresses,” added Cowherd.
Billick mentioned he hoped the future organization would keep the flexibility for various types of deed-restrictions. “That is needed as the community changes. It will add more cost to compliance, but is important.”
“The various jurisdictions have various ideas of proper deed restrictions,” said Prochaska. “A bigger piece of this might be homeowner education and giving people a refresher every couple of years about what their deed restriction is.”
During the Mt. Crested Butte town council meeting on July 15, Mt. CB representatives on the GVRHA board Valeda Scribner and Steve Morris reiterated that they would stay on the board through the end of the year during the transition. Scribner said the expectation is to make sure current services are going to be managed well before looking toward future growth.
“There will be no room for expansion yet until all those existing programs are established and stable,” she said. “During this transition with the county it’s going to be really critical to make sure we are speaking out for the desires of Mt. Crested Butte and what we want the housing authority to provide.”
