North Valley starts to think about how to deal with federal cuts

Looking for broader countywide integration

By Mark Reaman and Kendra Walker 

As might be expected, the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte are starting to receive requests from local nonprofit organizations to come before the board and detail ramifications of federal budget cuts. Those groups will most likely also make a request for some sort of stopgap funding to help mitigate some of those budget ramifications. Councilmembers say they understand the move but expressed a desire to be part of a valley-wide plan addressing the issue.

During their May 6 meeting, the Mt. Crested Butte town council agreed to contribute $13,500 for the Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) Committee’s initiative to fundraise $60,000 for four backcountry crew members this summer to help alleviate federal workforce cuts in the USFS Gunnison Ranger District. 

Several entities in the north valley have contributed funding and Mt. CB’s funds brought STOR up to its $60K finish line.

Mt. CB recently turned its community grant process over to the Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley, which manages requests from local nonprofits and allocates the town’s budgeted funds accordingly once a year. The council collectively agreed the STOR request fell under extenuating circumstances and was necessary at this time, but it also sparked deeper discussion about how to handle similar anticipated requests moving forward.

“At budgeting time we couldn’t have foreseen this,” said town manager Carlos Velado. “This is probably not the last similar request. A lot of our nonprofit organizations are seeing funding cuts.”

“Do you anticipate a lot of other nonprofits coming?” asked council member Bobbie Sferra.

“Yes I do. How many, I don’t know,” said Velado. “Crested Butte is already starting to see it and I think it’s going to start to trickle down, (or up),” he said.

Town council member Valeda Scriber suggested the town take a proactive position rather than reactionary moving forward. “Maybe as a takeaway item we assess our most critical organizations that get funding from federal sources that may be at risk…in anticipation of who out there might need our help.”

“How do you determine critical?” asked council member Steve Morris. 

“There’s hundreds (of local nonprofits). That’s a huge list,” said Velado, stating he was not comfortable openly asking organizations to come to the town to request money.

“I hate that we’re filling gaps,” said Morris. “I do fear this could become a case point for certain movements or certain legislative strategies.”

In CB….

In Crested Butte, the town council had received a letter from Gunnison Country Food Pantry executive director Jodi Payne asking for some time in front of the council at an upcoming council meeting this month. Payne said that she, along with Holly Conn of the Mountain Roots Food Project, would “like to raise awareness of this growing challenge and invite the Town Council into thought partnership as we look for sustainable solutions.”

“With ongoing federal funding cuts, critical community programs—such as Healthy Futures AmeriCorps—are at serious risk. Just this week, GCFP lost funding for a service member through the AmeriCorps Public Health program due to these cuts,” she wrote.

 “How do we handle this?” councilmember Gabi Prochaska asked. 

“I’m not sure where to go with an integrated plan to address this,” commented mayor Ian Billick. “Gunnison County said they were preparing to deal with and focus on impacts through Health and Human Services and that’s why they didn’t participate in the STOR committee request to help fund more backcountry rangers on nearby public lands. This (Mountain Roots and the Food Pantry) sure sounds like health and human services.”

“How many requests will we get as there are more and more cuts to the federal government?” asked councilmember Mallika Magner.

“Maybe we reach out to the Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley and they can report to us what they are seeing,” Billick suggested. “I don’t know our ability of what we can absorb, and it certainly won’t be sustainable to fund all the cuts in the long-term. We need to manage expectations.” 

Town manager Dara MacDonald did tell the Crested Butte council that the town’s CivicSpark fellow associated with AmeriCorps, Alexa Luger, had not yet officially been cut through the state organization that handles the funding for her position. Luger is working primarily in the Crested Butte Sustainability department while department head Dannah Leeman Gore is on maternity leave this summer. “Alexa is still on board and functioning in her position,” she said. “If it doesn’t work out through the grant funding, our plan is to hire her as a full-time seasonal employee.” 

The Mt. Crested Butte and Crested Butte councils discussed the topic of potential future funding asks during a joint work session dinner on Wednesday, May 14. The meeting occurred after this week’s News deadline, so stay tuned for additional coverage in the coming weeks. 

Additionally, MacDonald said a countywide intergovernmental dinner and meeting of elected and staff representatives from across the county was scheduled for June 30. The council asked her to touch base with the other representatives and have the topic of handling the impacts of federal budget cuts be the major topic of discussion.