Briefs: Gunnison County

By Katherine Nettles

GUC gets parking fee schedule

Gunnison County commissioners approved an ordinance for a Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport (GUC) parking and fee schedule in mid January. The ordinance applies to all vehicles parked at the airport, including the runways, taxiways, aprons, terminals and terminal parking lots, and establishes a passenger drop off/pick up area in front of the terminal building. Short-term paid parking will be $10 per day with free parking for 30 minutes, long-term paid public parking will be $100 per vehicle per 30-day period and there are designated areas for handicapped parking cargo delivery and unloading bus or ground transportation parking, law enforcement, employee parking and rental car parking.

“Given all that has changed at the airport I think it’s time to have regulations that match the physical surroundings,” concluded commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels. 

Appointments

Commissioners appointed Julie Baca and Andy Tocke to one-year terms on the Gunnison County Board of Adjustments. The three county commissioners (Jonathan Houck, Liz Smith and Puckett Daniels) make up the remainder of the five-member board.

Big wave of public lands activity

Commission chair Jonathan Houck noted that there is “a big wave of public lands activity” happening. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is updating its forest plan for the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is working on an updated resource management plan that includes Gunnison sage-grouse management plan amendments, and both agencies are involved with a proposed administrative withdrawal of 224,713 acres of federal lands within the Thompson Divide including parts of Gunnison County. 

Houck reported that GMUG forest supervisor Chad Stewart is moving to the Rocky Mountain region with the USFS, and will have someone else fill his place. “He will still be involved with the forest plan,” said Houck, as he transitions to his new position.