Briefs: Gunnison County

By Katherine Nettles

County kudos

Gunnison County manager Matthew Birnie shared news of some recent accolades for the county in state and regional forums. He said the county was given a “Voice of the people 2024” award by the International City/County Management Association (ICCMA).  “This awards our use of citizen input from data to guide our programming. So that was a nice affirmation of our culture and our approach to our work,” he said.

Birnie also notified county commissioners of another award that came in this month when the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects recognized the county and Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport (GUC) for their recently completed airport terminal project as one of the top 15 architectural designs in the state. They also won the organization’s top interior design award in the state. 

Birnie said the award considered the embedded carbon that was saved by remodeling the facility versus a full tear-down, all the while continuing operations throughout the renovations.

GUC also received a $3.5 million grant for a new ramp.

“The airport continues to attract significant funding,” he concluded.

Sawtooth 2 finishing touches

Birnie reported that the 32 Sawtooth 2 units have arrived from their factory in Buena Vista and while the official finish date on the workforce housing project has not yet been determined, the punch list push to complete final details such as exterior insulation, drywall repairs and sprinkler system fine-tuning is underway. “We are getting late in the season to do asphalt for the parking lot,” he said, so there may have to be gravel there for the first winter. The units are expected to be occupied by winter.

Assessor’s report

Gunnison County assessor Kristy McFarland submitted a real and personal property assessment report for 2024 to commissioners as the Board of Equalization last week. McFarland summarized that there were 105 real property appeals in 2024, about half of which resulted in a lower assessment. Commissioners accepted the amended report.  

Approving NOAA fire weather observatory

After hearing a presentation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regarding a fire weather observatory structure near the Gunnison Observatory, commissioners unanimously approved leasing part of the property to NOAA for a period from September 2024 through August 2034 to construct a facility on the site. NOAA will partner with other organizations to construct four fixed-boundary-layer observation facilities and two mobile units. The idea is to help better characterize the weather environment and conduct research on the factors that contribute to adverse fire conditions.

 In addition to Gunnison, other sites NOAA has identified for ideal potential observation sites are Reynolds Creek watershed in Idaho, Blodgett Forest, California and the Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch in Arizona. The resolution authorizes county manager Matthew Birnie to execute the necessary contracts with NOAA.