When one doesn't bother to write a journal for several weeks, and this week
becomes the Convergence of Meetings, it turns out there's a lot to talk
about and only finite time. We'll see how far we get.

1) Our E-List
    Sorry; we're changing once again. I know it feels like we just did this
(and we did), but it turns out that we can have one that is affiliated with
our website. I don't think anyone has to do anything, unless it's to accept
a message of welcome, but our transition should be complete in a day or two,
and then you will want to send comments to gvca-list@gunnisonvalley.org.

You WON'T want to send them to: gv_alliance@yahoogroups.com or
gvca@mail.otherwhen.com.

And if other people (those not currently receiving e-mails) would like to
sign up for the e-list, they can do so  at our website, gunnisonvalley.org.

2) Convergence of Meetings
    Involved, lengthy schedule below.
   
3) Other Happenings
    I put the Smart Growth workshop in the meetings list (see #2 below), but
tonight in Quigley Hall is a free (I think) showing of the movie "A Day
Without a Mexican." Vikki highly recommends this movie. Thursdays at 7 p.m.
at the Brushfire (converted from the old Bethany Baptist Church into a very
pleasant coffeehouse) is a Spanish conversation group open to anyone, even
those who would just like to listen.

4) Guest Activists James Johnson and Lisa Duran
    These folks, one a former Eagle County Commissioner, are traveling
across the state working to build a grassroots movement, one that is NOT
Denver-Bouldercentric, that deals with civil rights for everyone in
Colorado, including (but not limited to), the recent immigrant population.

5) City Update
    The master plan is still in progress; discussions to define standards or
guidelines for design standards and rental units were all pretty much
stillborn at the time of arrival before planning commission; the city's been
busy buying equipment, including a sewer-cam and a new snow grader;
Challenge Grant requests for summer are starting to come in.

6) Detention Facility
    I don't know if his source wants his name attached to the idea, but
Butch is putting it to paper for broader discussion: what about moving the
entire courthouse complex, including the jail, to the rodeo grounds, thus
freeing up the courthouse for -- among other things -- the public library?
Parking remains a topic of heavy discussion for any consideration of leaving
the jail where it is, but that's still on the board, as is the hunt for
other sites.

7) Housing Update
    There's no point in putting anything here, since it will ahve changed by
noon today. Perhaps someone at this morning's meeting would be so kind as to
provide the updated update.

8) CB Three-Mile Plan
    The city of Gunnison has an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the
county regarding development within three miles of the city; CB doesn't have
any such document. Yet. One may be in place soon, but opinions as to what
the IGA will say seem quite varied.

9) RTA
    Not quite at the sketch plan phase of a public bus plan, the committee
has already rejected tram and rail as being cost prohibitive. The task force
will meet again March 23.

10) Big Energy
    Hopefully you all saw local newspaper reports on US Energy's plan to
pursue moly mining on the Red Lady (opposed by both mayors at the north end;
favored by Mike Darnell, who for some reason was quoted as the only voice of
Gunnison by the Times). While that's going on, gas and oil well drilling
applications are starting to pop up in the county. The feds get to regulate
everything but the roads, so it's coming whether we want it or not.

11) RE-1J
    Funding for Fiscal Year 2007 appears to be flat, but requests for budget
increases have already exceeded $1 million. We may or may not have a new
superintendent later this week; and we may or may not have new start times
and an approved school calendar after tonight's meeting.

12) Health Fair Fund-raiser
    Another successful night! We are at $2,064 and counting, and it
certainly looked as though a Good Time Was Had By All. Butch was resplendent
as our doorman; everyone else has figured out why Patrick wears shorts to
work-- kitchen work is hot! Thanks, everyone, for participating, either as a
volunteer or a ticket purchaser. Narcissa will soon have the specific
information on how people in need go about acquiring vouchers.

13) Odds 'n' Ends
    We are looking for more volunteers to attend meetings on a rotating
basis (so, no long-term committments, never even time-exhausting ones) --
let us know if you can help out. (I have totally forgotten who our meeting
volunteer coordinator is.)

    Mill Creek Beef now has a storefront, and I'm not at all sad to say that
it's because one of our too-many check-cashing businesses went out. They are
located in the little building just south of High Mountain Liquor -- I have
no idea what their hours are, but it's only one small extra stop if you are
grocery shopping for dinner. Support local beef and eat healthier all at the
same time! (And you can always call Tomichi Creek Beef, too, and I believe a
couple of others also are licensed to sell to the general public.)

    I keep forgetting to forward the links Mary Burt provided on
telenovelas, but I'll try to dig that up and send it along later.

    Precinct caucuses are March 21 (which is in the middle of spring break,
alas). These are open to any registered Democrat or Republican (I don't know
for sure, but I think if you're a registered independent you can affiliate
with a party by attending). This is the most grassroots level of all
politics, and it's your chance to make a difference. It's not a secret club;
it's democracy in action, and I would encourage everyone to attend if they
can. Hopefully the newspapers will print either a list of meeting places or
phone numbers so that you can find out which precinct is yours and where you
need to go.

And then I wanted to wax philosophic about an article I read in either US
News or Newsweek about the status of the book publishing industry, and how
it's hardly just Wal-Mart changing the retail face of America, but sadly for
all of you, I am out of time.

And I am out of time, so all I am offering in the way of details (for today,
at least -- we all know I'll be back at some point) is the meeting schedule
as I know it for the week.

DETAILS:
 
2) Convergence of Meetings
     Perhaps Don has a better list at the website, but these are the
meetings I heard mentioned yesterday:
    *Essential Housing Discussion, Monday, 9-noon (that's as I'm typing this
-- doesn't do you much good, does it?)
    *School Board, possible votes on start times and next year's calendar,
Lake Admistrative Building, 5:30 p.m. Monday
    *Gunnison City Council/County Commissioners joint session on parking,
commissioners' room, 7 a.m. Tuesday
    *School Board Execuitve Session to discuss superintendent search,
Tuesday morning
    *County Commissioners and Town of CB Council -- CB Three-Mile Plan, 3
p.m. Tuesday, commissioners' room
    *Gunnison City Council, 7 p.m., council chambers
    * City Planning Commission, presentation by Eric Bergman of the Office
of Smart Growth, 6 p.m. Wednesday, council chambers
    * Smart Growth Workshop, 9-noon, 1-4-ish, Thursday, Aspinall-Wilson
Center (info from Kim at 641-8154)
    * County Clerk on voting machines, 8 a.m. (I think) Thursday, missed the
location
    * Discussion of economic growth (don't know by who or where), most of
the day Thursday in CB
    * RTA subcommittee review of sketch plan of possible public bus route,
Gunnison to Mt. CB, 4 p.m. Thursday

    I'm pretty sure I missed some, but you can't tell me there's nothing to
do around here.

 So that's it for now. Carpe' manana!

TL

This one was way down on the list, but since it's on my mind, it's getting
moved to the top.

But first, a commercial message: my friends Kym and Mark Todd have their
first novel, published by Ghost Road Press, coming out in about three weeks.
It's called _The Silverville Swindle_ and involves UFOs, small Colorad towns
and get-rich-quick plans. I mention all this because you can check it out
for yourselves at their new website,  http://www.writeinthethick.com. I
assume the book itself will be available at the Book Worm as soon as it come
out.

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled message:

10) Big Energy
    Hopefully you all saw local newspaper reports on US Energy's plan to
pursue moly mining on the Red Lady (opposed by both mayors at the north end;
favored by Mike Darnell, who for some reason was quoted as the only voice of
Gunnison by the Times). While that's going on, gas and oil well drilling
applications are starting to pop up in the county. The feds get to regulate
everything but the roads, so it's coming whether we want it or not.

I met last night with my history book group to talk about England in 1215
and the Magna Carta, and somehow we ended up on Mt. Emmons. These things
happen.

Several points were raised, including that 40% of Gunnison County's revenue
comes from the Somerset coal mines (I thought I just heard somewhere --
maybe at one of our meetings -- that some astounding percentage of the
county budget is raised through grants, but maybe the two figures aren't
mutually exclusive), and that as go the coal mines, so goes our county's
future. However, Delta County is eyeing at least a portion of our state
mineral severance money, since that's the county that deals with a majority
of the impacts from Somerset residents.

Someone also suggested that the average wage for coal miners is $60,000, and
wondered which was the better economy: a Crested Butte composed of a work
force making upwards of $50,000, or one of mostly-empty $5 million houses
and service workers making under $18,000.

One of our members is a son of Leadville and thus very much in favor of a
mine in CB, but I pointed to Leadville's current battle to stay alive
without its primary revenue stream. I also remember, just like Mike Darnell,
how depressed the Gunnison economy became in the 1980s when two relatively
small operations, AMAX's preliminary work and Homestake on Marshall Pass,
ceased. I said something about not necessarily wanting to tie our fortunes
to such a boom-and-bust industry.

Luke Danielson is one of our members, and I'm mentioning him by name not
because he expected to be quoted publicly, but because he is quite versed in
the global mining picture. He did say that towns centered on played-out
mines are at the bottom of the economic rung, and that recovery doesn't seem
to have happened in other realms. (That's a terrible sentence and doesn't
make sense even to me. I'm trying to say, and not doing it nearly as
elegantly as he, that once a mine's gone, it's hard to find another source
of revenue. That's certainly been true in Leadville.)

He also talked about the future of mining, which has become extremely
global. American production has stayed flat, but production has increased
dramatically around the rest of the world, so our share of the industry has
dropped substantially. Much for the same reason manufacturing is leaving the
US, so is mining: it's very hard to compete in a global market when you have
to spend money on wages and health and safety regulations.

Unlike manufacturing T-shirts, however, where if the conditions (wages,
governmental regulation, whatever) become untenable to your bottom line you
either pack up your machines and move, or move and buy new machines, the
investment in a mine is far too substantial to do that. So mining companies
try to project the stability of a region a couple decades into the future.

This means miners are avoiding the poorest countries in the world (likely to
be unstable politically -- no one is investing in mining in Sudan, for
instance) and the richest, where production is far more costly. So the mines
are all falling into the trough of the middle, places like Chile, Peru,
Ghana and the former Soviet bloc countries in central Asia.

The other interesting/alarming thing Luke said was that the clean-up tag for
mining in the U.S. is about 10 times what the mining industry will ever
generate in revenue. Some mining is more environmentally friendly now than
it was 100 years ago, but again, that costs big money and it's easier to go
elsewhere.

Which brings us to US Energy. I'm hesitant to quote Luke here, because he
had no idea he was being interviewed for public dissemination, but actually,
he only said one thing that I hadn't figured out from reading between the
lines in the articles in the CB News and Gunnison Times. It came as news to
a couple of other members, howwever, so maybe it wasn't as obvious as I
assumed.

US Energy has the Mt. Emmons moly mine because it lost its lawsuit against
Phelps Dodge (which bought up Cypress AMAX several years ago) to keep from
having to take its mine back. Phelps had countersued: clearly, neither
company wanted this mine. The problems and expenses so far are outweighing
the attractiveness of possible income.

Luke did say Colorado has an extremely high grade of molybdenum, and that if
prices stay high, this could be a highly lucrative mine. Moly fortunes rise
and fall with military spending, since apparently that's who uses the bulk
of the mineral.

US Energy seemed to me -- and to Luke, too -- grossly undercapitalized to
take on this venture. The problem with this is the $1 million/year water
treatment plant. Apparently US Energy's website flatly states the company
doesn't have enough money to meet its obligation. It also has another, far
more expensive clean-up obligation somewhere in Utah.

So the likelihood that taxpayers somewhere are going to have to start
picking up the tab for that treatment plant is high. Luke noted that since
the ASARCO company bankrupted, the state already has an annual
million-dollar obligation near Leadville. Another clean-up obligation
somewhere in the state has been funded by the feds, but that funding ends
next year, with the result that the state is likely to end up with the bag.

So how likely is this state, which, despite the passage of C, still is not a
wealthy one in tax terms, to want to assume management of the Keystone
leavings above Crested Butte? (None of us knew how old the Keystone mine is;
Luke thought it had been a silver mine. AMAX inherited the problem because
it was on their property, I guess -- that part was rather fuzzy.) So, does
it end up on Gunnison County taxpayers?

I already figured, last year, while trying to find some source of providing
health care to un/underinsured residents, that the county raises
approximately $1 million with its 1% sales tax. That could mean a doubling
of county sales tax to pay for water treatment.

Luke also said the water treatment plant is about at the end of its useful
life, and that a repair/replacement is going to be in the $10 million range.

Sadly, he had no solutions to offer.

So on that note, we move along to gas and oil wells. Unlike US Energy, the
company that took out the first exploratory permit for methane gas (and I
don't recall its name) has a much better reputation. But the process still
sounds rather scary in terms of what could be getting flushed into the
ground. It's water mixed with some top-secret chemicals, all of which is
provided by Halliburton. The permitted company doesn't actually handle that
part, but must subcontract it out.

Other applications are also coming in, so far all on the Somerset side of
the county, although who knows which way the tunnels end up running.

County attorney David Baumgarten has advised his officials that all oil and
gas well permitting is handled and regulated at the federal level. The only
control the local government has is through roads, their placement, access,
safety, etc.

Kathleen Curry introduced legislation at the state level to try to help
protect the rights of surface owners, but I read in the paper where she lost
a lot of support for her bill after someone else attached an amendment. I
think Lewis Entz (maybe it was somene else) was introducing a similar bill
in the senate.

And once again, I'm out of time. But while we keep suggesting to the city to
keep a closer eye on the city's water quality, and the city hasn't responded
so enthusiastically, it seems the potential threats to everyone's water
supply just keeps growing.

On the other hand, the Magna Carta, while not so successful in its original
intent, begat the United States of America in its present imperfect yet
still pretty darn good form. There. A positive note to end on.

TL

Added later:

6) Detention Facility
    I don't know if his source wants his name attached to the idea, but
Butch is putting it to paper for broader discussion: what about moving the
entire courthouse complex, including the jail, to the rodeo grounds, thus
freeing up the courthouse for -- among other things -- the public library?
Parking remains a topic of heavy discussion for any consideration of leaving
the jail where it is, but that's still on the board, as is the hunt for
other sites.
****

Others should have more current information, since the city and county
discussed parking yesterday. I believe one of the issues was the parking
requirement itself, which I gather is set for the maxiumum: say, all the
people you would expect at your church for Easter Sunday.

I believe one detention facility committee person was charged with looking
into land acquisition costs (which like as not go up if the owner perceives
an interest from the county), and the architect was charged with drawing up
ground-up designs for other locations.

In the meantime, however, Butch took someone's suggestion and ran with it,
drawing up a sketch plan for moving the courtrooms and offices to the Fred
Fieldhouse, and plunking an expandable jail right in the middle of the
current rodeo arena. There would be plenty of space for a park-n-ride for
upvalley bus transportation, too, Butch says.

This leaves space at the courthouse available for the much-needed public
library expansion, and Butch seemed to think the city might want to rent
some of that space for government offices as well.

The rodeo grounds, he thought, could move to the Van Tuyl Recharge Area (I'm
calling it that because there is constant confusion as to what Van Tuyl
parcel is what. This is the space bounded by Slaughterhouse Road --the north
extension of Vulcan -- and Tincup Drive.

He is not the only one to think this, but I -- as a semi-retired steer
stripper (let your imaginations go where they will on that one) would like
to try to disabuse this thought before it gets really started.

A rodeo arena consists not of pleasant grasses that suck up and hold water,
but dirt. Lots of it. Parking for the arena would need to consider that
Easter-Sunday crowd in the form of Cattlemen's Days traffic.

Which is one of the reasons the Cattlemen's Days Committee occasionally
discusses moving the rodeo grounds. The city sold its nearby property that
was unneeded -- except for one weekend in July. Last year new owner Mike
Cole allowed the committee to park cars on his property in exchange for
getting his weeds mowed, but I think Mike is either already or preparing to
build on those lots.

So you might not have to pave parking in the Van Tuyl Recharge Area, but you
would have to make provision for a large amount. And I'll bet most of you
would be surprised at the amount of traffic the rodeo grounds generates.

Additionally, there is a definite need for a facility like the Fieldhouse.
It's one of the few spaces large enough to accomodate wedding receptions and
fund-raisers. It gets used for square dances and barbecue dinners as well.

None of which is a reason not to contemplate moving the rodeo grounds,
although if that's a serious consideration, maybe we shouldn't put the money
into renovating the grandstands, unless they could be moved, in all their
rickety glory, to a new site.

And the arena wouldn't need to be as large as it is now: it's one of the
largest in the U.S., which maybe means the world. The Thomas and Mack Arena
in Las Vegas that hosts the National Finals Rodeo is less than half the size
of Gunnison's.

Gunnison is also (as of last year) one of only three places left in the
country that still stages a horse race meet in conjunction with its rodeo.
The race track takes up a lot of space. Is it still needed? I would say the
Cattlemen's Committee is split about evenly on that issue.

The rodeo grounds don't only get used by cowboy types, however: for the last
two or three years mud races and demolition derbies have been staged there.
It's not the most compatible use, since it leaves giant stones that endanger
horses and people, but it offers entertainment to a different crowd.

Oh, which is my chance to offer a commercial for the "Tough Enough to Wear
Pink" fund-raiser being staged at the Thursday rodeo of Cattlemen's. Any
funds raised through this will go to support local efforts at breast-cancer
awareness and treatment.

Back to my big finish: there's been some discussion of moving the rodeo
grounds east, which is a better thought than use of a recharge area,
particularly one without great traffic access. If the county wants to
consider Butch's sketch plan, it ought to look elsewhere for a new location
for the rodeo grounds-- and don't forget the Fieldhouse.

And now I've exceeded my self-allotted time by at least 15 minutes.

TL
 
Later still addition:

I'm hoping to get to two more topics this week, because I'd like to fit in a
report on the school budget. But that will be tomorrow.

As a total aside to either topic, I hope several people are able to
participate in today's Smart Growth workshop. I, alas, will be working,
since everyone around me at both jobs is either sick or wounded. It's been a
hectic week.

But I did get to hear Eric Berger last night. He actually didn't say much
that hasn't been already discussed by your planning commission/community
development staff. Steve Westbay found it "reaffirming." I was a little more
pessimistic, because it seemed to me that most of what has been brought up
has been discarded as too expensive or onerous for developers.

Okay, that was starting to bring up another point and another, and soon I'll
be talking exclusively about that and not about our guest speakers. Another
day, perhaps. But it would be worth sticking your nose into some of the
workshop today if you get the chance.


4) Guest Activists James Johnson and Lisa Duran
    These folks, one a former Eagle County Commissioner, are traveling
across the state working to build a grassroots movement, one that is NOT
Denver-Bouldercentric, that deals with civil rights for everyone in
Colorado, including (but not limited to), the recent immigrant population.
*****

Okay, so I have to confess that after the airport Sunday, I fell asleep,
which means I was late to our meeting and missed the introductions. So I
have no idea what SEIU stands for.

But that's the group James Johnson and Lisa Duran are with, and we were one
of their stops Sunday.

James, a former Eagle County commissioner, seems particularly interested in
building a true statewide coalition, rather than making this primarily a
Denver-Boulder issue.

As to "this," well, it's still a bit nebulous, because nothing's actually on
a ballot yet. But their primary target is anti-immigrant legislation, and
the item most likely to end up on your state ballot this November, which
says the state and its subdivisions will not provide any services to those
not lawfully in the state other than emergencies or what is mandated by the
federal government.

Initially, maybe that sounds like a good idea, but voters need to think
about this and all its ramifications carefully. "State" includes public
libraries, parks, public transit, possibly even water and sewer districts.
So does this mean that if you want to buy a house in Colorado you will have
to offer proof of American citizenship? And bear in mind that a driver's
license is not proof of citizenship. You would need to carry a passport or
birth certificate with you.

James suggested too that such legislation could lead to unintended
consequences. Because it would be impossible and far too costly in both time
and personnel to check every park user's ID, you would have to conduct
random spot checks. Think of your time spent in an airport, and extrapolate
that out to your everyday existence.

Farfetched? So, on Sept. 10, 2001, would the notion of armed National
Guardsmen in every airport have seemed -- to say nothing of the government's
right to deny you boarding on an aircraft because your name is similar to
someone's on a mysterious "suspicious persons" list. Which has happened at
the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport.

Okay, but so far legislation isn't actually officially on a ballot, although
our statehouse is wrestling with several bills, as are the feds.

Both James and Lisa were aghast at HR 4437, supported by both Mark Udall and
John Salazar, among others. This national resolution would make being
illegally in the country a felony, including children, and those who give
aid/support to undocumented workers could be charged with abetting criminal
activity. This could include emergency workers, law enforcement, our
literacy program, all kinds of things.

James and Lisa are urging support instead for McCain-Kennedy, which Lisa
called "an actual solution." It offers undocumented workers already here a
path to citizenship, and increases the number of work visas available in
needed unskilled categories.

I believe I mentioned on this list earlier that I read somewhere that 20
percent of Wyoming's workforce comes from out of the country (no idea what
percentage of that is here legally).

Mary Burt on Sunday reported that 5 percent of our community, including the
school population, is composed of immigrants. Our multicultural office has
40 volunteers who help over 200 families annually, both documented and not.

Okay, I'm running out of time, so I have to wrap this up. What James and
Lisa are hoping to do, long before a ballot issue campaign, is to foster
dialogue on the issues surrounding immigration -- and they want to do so
across the state. They want the conversations to come from within the
communities, not from without. They have a list of resources, but they are
hoping these will be utilized by people who live here. "We want people
within the community to engage the community," James said, adding that he
would like to see "a consistent message" that makes sense to each individual
community.

While the anti-immigration forces have done a good job of dehumanizing
people, calling them illegals and aliens, James and Lisa are seeking to put
a face on the issue, to get people to realize that we are talking about
fellow human beings, who are usually here working jobs not wanted by others,
paying Social Security and income taxes (and not always getting their
refunds or benefits they paid for).

One of the strategies we didn't discuss at all on Sunday would be to look at
our own area, to which we are all immigrants (some as long ago as 140 years,
but still). You have to look harder to find them these days, but Crested
Butte was once peopled with Slavs, Croatians, Italians -- all kinds of
Europeans who were not particularly welcome or accepted at the time, who
were treated very badly by the companies they worked for (notably CCI, later
CF&I).

To borrow from a rum commercial, isn't there a little immigrant in all of
us? It wouldn't hurt to remember that an epithet for Italians comes from the
acronym WithOut Papers, which means those south of the border are hardly our
first case of undocumented workers coming to our country. And while it's
very hip and cool to be Irish these days, once -- not so long ago-- it
wasn't such a caveat. In fact, just being Catholic was a reason to be
disliked.

I'm still out of time, so I need to climb down off my soapbox and move
along, but you'll be hearing from me again, I feel pretty sure.

TL

One more addition:

Okay, today was looking iffy, but this one should also be pretty quick (or
so we'd all like to think).

11) RE-1J
    Funding for Fiscal Year 2007 appears to be flat, but requests for budget
increases have already exceeded $1 million. We may or may not have a new
superintendent later this week; and we may or may not have new start times
and an approved school calendar after tonight's meeting.
****

Well, I've only had time to skim the Times, but the school start time is
changing.  Bill Chambliss noted that the school day started at 8:30 back in
the days when I was in school, although I don't recall that. (Then again,
there's a lot I don't recall anymore, and I've never even smoked pot.
Believe it or not.)

But the other issue, which maybe is/was in the paper too, and I just missed
it, is the budget, which is in the preliminary stages for Fiscal Year (FY)
2007, although it starts midway through 2006.

As you may recall, our district was in rather dire financial straits. Voters
overwhelmingly passed a measure (was it a bond?) to get more money to our
schools, but this has not resulted in any great largesse.

In fact, we're losing money on some fronts. The per-pupil operating revenue
from the state is figured every four years, and because our numbers were
down, the district will lose about $100,000 of state funding. On the plus,
our mining severance contribution is up, although there are rumblings around
the state that the money should go not necessarily to the county/school
district the mines happen to be in, but the ones where the miners and their
families live and/or utilize services.

In Gunnison County's case, the mines are all over the Pass of the Elves (my
favorite postcard referred to it as "Keebler Pass"), and the miners draw on
Delta County.

In this instance, we might be inclined to say the money should stay in the
county of origin, but this is kind of like Gunnison wondering if there isn't
some way to get some financial assistance from the Crested Butte area to
help mitigate the impacts from CB's workforce, which increasingly lives down
here.

At any rate, that's still in discussion stages, so for now the school
district gets an upswing of mineral money.

The cost of utilities is up, as is fuel, so some fixed expenses are climbing
for the district 9as for everyone else). Essentially this is going to result
in a flat funding year.

However, before the schools even weigh in with their funding increase
requests, the requests exceed the FY 2006 budget by $1million. They're not
frivolous expenses, and many of them are trying to restore funding that was
cut during the uber-lean years. For instance, the requests include $12,000
for staff development, and $150,000 for language arts textbooks. The books
currently in use are 10-15 years old.

The other problem with state funding is that the politicos and bureaucrats
who make these decisions all live in Denver and look at flat maps while
making decisions. (I could go off on a lengthy tangential essay about the
Colorado High School ctivities Association and the wisdom of putting Aspen
and Gunnison in the same league "because look how close they are," but I'll
try to resist.)

The Department of Education figures it costs the same to live in Gunnison as
it does in Montrose, and figures that per-pupil cost accordingly. If nothing
else (even factoring in summer heat and air conditioning requirements),
Montrose doesn't require as much in the way of heating costs. This might be
something to work on getting the department to address, although you'll note
Gunnison still is in the same sports league as teams from the I-70 corridor,
all of them four hours away.

And there you have it. It took all week, and I'm sure I left out many
things, but now you can feel informed until Monday, when I have to start all
over again.

TL