GVCA Journal for 05/08/05
Summary:
This is actually Take 2 of today's journal, which means information will
likley be shortened or neglected because my patience is gone. Read on at
your own risk:

1) Election update
    City Clerk Gail Davidson is expecting about 1200 ballots to be cast,
although the last count we heard was about half that. You have until 7 p.m.
Tuesday to get your ballot in, and to encourage your friends and neighbors
to get their in. Remember, you don't have to vote for four if you don't
want. You should only vote for candidates you believe in, even if that's
only one person. But do be sure to vote, because the design standards
discussion certainly pointed out the need for forward-thinking,
community-health-oriented council members.

2) Design Standards
    They passed on first reading with a less than ringing endorsement, so we
still have work ahead of us.

3) Farmers' Market
    We are hosting a meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday the 17th (not tomorrow) at
Vikki's office (322 N. Wisconsin) to solicit volunteers to research the
possibilities of a market this summer.

4) Wal-mart Update
    This is where my computer froze up: Don has provided a link on our
website to a New York Times article on Wal-mart's marketing woes and the
plans the chain is making to try to re-invent itself. The link is under
'What's New" at gunnisonvalley.org, and Don suggests you read it by the
15th. All I could get to was the first sentence, since I'm not registered
with the NY Times. And I couldn't even get there, because my computer
doesn't have enough memory (like the operator), so good luck.

5) Future of the GVCA
    Rather than reacting, as we have done in our first nine months, we are
hoping to start proacting (I don't think that's a word).

Here are your details:

Details:


2) Design Standards
    We spent much of yesterday trying to formulate strategies, but the
possibilities are so varied that we're in a holding pattern for a week. We
did determine nothing can be done immediately by the new council, regardless
of who gets on, because of the 15-day requirement between publication of the
ordinance and the second reading.

Some of us seem to think another public hearing is required; some of think
the city kind of makes up its own rules as it goes along, and want that to
be a thrust of future GVCA actions. Under Roberts Rules of Order, a new
council would have to conduct both readings and the hearing, because items
can't be carried across a council transition.

Many of us were disheartened by particularly Jesse and Don's hostile
response to the standards they proclaimed to have championed throughout the
process. Arguing that because the city is already ugly on the west end,
therefore we don't need design standards, contains fallible logic at best
and a complete disregard for this city at worst.

Just bear in mind that you'll be asked to attend at least one more meeting
on the standards. We'll have a more specific charge after the election.


3) Farmers' Market

Although it's very late, and possibly too late, some of us (maybe just one
of me) have expressed the concern that if something isn't done this summer,
the entire market concept could easily die away.

What we really need from the GVCA membership is someone to step forward and
take point on this project. We have an outline, which needs revision based
on yesterday's input, of topics that need to be investigated prior to
attempting to stage any sort of market. Those topics include city
regulations, state health department regulations, insurance requirements
from both the market and the vendors, and the difficulty of attracting
produce vendors at this late date.

We also need enough volunteers to do the necessary research in an
expeditious manner, because we don't have much time, even with a target date
of July.

We are hoping some of last year's vendors will get involved, so that they
will understand why costs and regulations are being imposed on them.

If few people show up for the meeting or express a willingness to help out
-- if you can't make the meeting but want to help, leave a message for
Margaret at 641-3141 -- then we'll cancel the discussion for at least this
year.

I've heard several people on the street making the assumption that there
will be a market this summer, but it's certainly not a given at this point.


5) Future of the GVCA
   
    We are making preliminary plans to begin a visioning process that isn't
unlike the city's master plan process. We want to focus on community
healthiness and how that might be measured (through performance indicators
such as sales tax, the number of citizens with health insurance and access
to health care, crime rates). Once we've determined what -- in our group
view -- makes for a healthy community, then we look to see what areas might
be shored up that the GVCA can lend its membership's expertise to.

Obviously, this is not an overnight process. Richard will have some
preliminary information on beginning the process, and then at some point not
too far away, we'll be aiming for a broader meeting and input process from
all our members and people who might like to become members.

What all of us can do now -- and some of us did it for the city's master
plan meetings -- is start thinking about why we choose to live in Gunnison,
and what would make living here even better.

We'll be in touch with more concrete details in a week or two, but this is
your chance, if you have some area of community interest, to bring it up to
the general membership to see if it's a project the GVCA would like to
pursue.

And that's this week's on-time, twice-done, report.

TL