Welcome to Council member Rick Miller. Council member Ken Medina has not yet been added, because we had a question about his e-mail address. Richard is researching it, and I'll add him as soon as we get a correct address.

Topics for this week:

1) Planning and Zoning
        We heard of the council's aggressive timeline for the master plan and land development code. More meetings for us to attend!

2) Farmers' Market
         Folks in the market group are still rounding up numbers and information, but there's definitely interest from both vendors and the public. The research has turned up an interesting anecdote about Wal-Mart as well. See below for details. The GVCA voted to not be in charge of the market, but to offer start-up capital and additional sponsorship through volunteers.

3) Future GVCA Projects
    Because Richard was busy helping get the immigrant integration grant ready to go, he didn't have time to work on our strategic planning process. He'll have a report next week. He is, however, very optimistic about the integration group's chances for getting the grant.

4) Western State College
    I am sending an invitation today to Jay Helman to attend a GVCA meeting at his convenience. He'll have some ideas to share, and it sounds like GVCA members have a few thoughts for him as well. 

5)  HCCA
    We received an invitation to meet with the High Country Citizens' Alliance steering committee -- Richard is particularly interested in a community indicators study put together by HCCA in 2001 (which the county was supposed to take over but never did) -- but the date doesn't work well for interested GVCA members. Richard will contact Sue Navy to see about rescheduling.

6) Health Insurance Issues
    Richard -- who apparently wins Volunteer of the Week honors -- is going to talk to his neighbor Terry Bonney to see what assistance we might lend to her anti-monopoly crusada against Blue Cross. Karen mentioned a former Gunnison resident who is working with DElta County on a larger insurance pool, and Ellen talked about the League of Women Voters' state study project.

7) Assorted Issues
   We also talked about substandard housing in Gunnison, the Economic Recovery referenda, WSC economic impacts, mechanisms for reusing furniture and appliances, transportation, and the movie _A Day Without a Mexican_. See what happens when we take a week off?

1) Planning and Zoning
    The city council has targeted the end of August as the date it would like the master plan presented, with the Land Development Code revised by the end of September. The master plan is the city's vision of what it wants for its future, and the LDC is the set of regulations by which that vision is hopefully achieved.
  
Some preliminary work was done on this late last summer, but then it mostly went on hiatus due to big-box design standards. Hopefully the hired consultants were contiuing their work on these projects; otherwise, it sounds like a summer full of meetings, just like this winter. However, those of us who have been attending P&Z meetings have decided it's the best show in town, far better than Alibi.

At last week's P&Z meeting, the commission learned of the county's plans for expansion of the airport terminal and relocation of the county shops to the new industrial park south of the runway and the recycling center to near the city shops. The county is also interested in having the city annex the airport, but there are a lot of issues that ought to be considered carefully.

Dan McKenna graciously acquiesed to an avigation easment (Harvey Harriman found it in a dictionary, so it must be a real word) to allow the medical helicopters to be able to access the hospital's helipad from above his new development behind City Market. The hospital had been sent three registered letters, but their attorney was not informed of the situation until a few days before the P&Z meeting.

A would-be hotdog vendor, who also appeared in front of city council on Tuesday, made his pitch to commission. Really, when you think about it, much of what actually impacts citizens and informs Gunnison takes place at the planning level. We should all attend these meetings -- or watch them on TV at home -- rather than absorbing fantasy as Hollywood prepares it. Just my editorial for your morning.


2) Farmers' Market
     A group of about 10, most of them GVCA members, met for a second week, but without enough concrete detail to decide whether to push forward or not. A potential market director has emerged in the form of Mike Avery, at least on an interim basis (I think that means "for life"), and two of the produce vendors from last year are very interested in returning this year. Potential new vendors have been identified, but they want more details the group doesn't yet have.

The group was supposed to be joined by a representative from another group that is supposedly working independently on a market, but no representative showed up.

The GVCA is interested in helping sponsor the market, at least this year, and so will provide the funds necessary to incorporate as a non-profit, along with the expertise to do so. Several GVCA members are interested in serving as volunteers for the market, and I assume -- although it wasn't discussed yesterday -- that we would still be interested in helping with the PR. But the market group appears to be fairly self-sustaining, so it didn't seem as though it needs to be a GVCA project. This will be more like our contribution to the 9 Health Fair, which we neither organize nor run.

The next market meeting will be Thursday at 7 p.m. at Vikki's office, for anyone interested.

Jaci McCune brought with her to the last market meeting the name of a farmer in the La Junta area. When Sandra Karas called him to assess his interest in our market, the gentleman, whose name I didn't catch, of his own volition warned her to keep the market away from a Wal-Mart if we had one, because they've made trouble for LaJunta's market efforts. He then went on to say that La Junta had a small Wal-Mart, like ours, and that it ran a few businesses out, but then things stabilized. However, within the last year or two, that Wal-Mart supersized, and apparently it's driven off many of the remaning businesses. I gathered a Safeway is still there, barely hanging on. Three months after supersizing with its promises of low prices, however, Wal-Mart raised prices by 30%. At least, that's what one farmer from the area tells us.

In a note that may or may not be related, Butch informs us that Wilson's field just east of town (north side of the highway) is not being irrigated yet.


6) Health Insurance Issues
   This is obviously, based on the lively discussion of yesterday, an area that holds a lot of interest for GVCA members. Terry Bonney, as you may have read in the Times last week, is pushing forward with her quest to form a larger group that might attract companies beyond Blue Cross. Andy Proctor appears to be doing something similar for Delta County, and Karen thought he might be willing to come talk to us. 

The state League of Women Voters has authorized three studies this year, on higher education, the Economic Recovery Act, and health care issues from Larimer County, where a group (maybe that League?) has already been doing some research into single-payer insurance that has the state League -- and others -- intrigued. The League is interested in bringing this information to other communities, but is looking for local groups to provide ingress (egress?) into the communities.

David Broder had a column in Sunday's Denver Post about a Nationao Coalition on Health Care. A prominent economist has provided numbers on four different scenarios, one of them a single-payer model, that would save businesses and the country a lot of money versus the way health insurance is or isn't working now.


7)  Assorted Issues
     We decided, I think, that while substandard housing is a concern, it's one that doesn't seem to be quite on the community's radar yet. I'm guessing this will not be a cause the GVCA will be taking up in the near future, although a community member -- who has also had to slow down his own efforts -- had asked us to consider taking this on.

The Economic Recovery Act, two referenda headed for the November ballot, was touched on, particularly in its relation to higher education. Western State still has no particularly good numbers generated by an outside source to show how much of an impact the college is on our local economy. It sounds like Richard and Butch are going to undertake such a study, using numbers they already have, in many cases, and a model provided by the National Park Service.

While not coming up with anything definitive, we discussed the possibility of having the city set aside a day whereby free items -- things people are looking to get rid of -- would be set out for anyone who wanted to come along and claim them. Many people already do something similar on their own --PK Appliance always sets out older but working appliances for freepick-up, for instance. We also discussed perhaps having a location where freebies could be put. Again, mostly discussion; nothing definitive.

There was a general sentiment of resentment that all Rural Transportation Authority funds go to air traffic and not public transportation, not only between Gunnison and Crested Butte, but possibly up Ohio Creek as well, since many of our immigrant laborers are working in construction up that road. (Remember, Joe Puchek told me a few months back that the largest project in the county -- including CBMR -- was taking place on the former Stratman Ranch.) Stu Ferguson was designated the council's rep to the RTA -- we need to make sure he carries this concern to that board. Richard said the integration group might also be looking for advocates who would speak on its behalf to boards such as the RTA.

Along those lines, several members recommended the movie _A Day Without a Mexican_. Apparently it's available at one video rental in town (I don't remember which, sorry), and Vikki should have her own copy soon that might be available.

Whether or not that covers everything we talked about Sunday, I'm not sure, but my butt's growing numb and I need to get to work. So there you have it.

TL