GVCA Journal for 08/21/05
Summary:
This one goes out to Vikki, with best wishes for a speedy recovery from an
emergency appendectomy, and well wishes for her daughter's wedding next
weekend.

We had another meeting where we didn't even come close to reaching the
bottom of our agenda, but we covered a lot of ground, including:

1) City of Gunnison Public Meetings

    Our big topic was trash, the city's plan to raise rates, and recycling
efforts. We also covered the city's health plan, the city's contribution
toward the Tenderfoot Children's Center, and the master plan.

2)  County Planning Commission
   
    The county is on a quick timetable to complete its comprehensive plan.
Thanks to public input from GVCA member Richard, written comments on the
final draft of the comprehensive plan will be accepted from all who submit
them, and not just commission members and focus group members as originally
planned.

3)  Farmers Market

    At about the midpoint of the season, everyone seemed to have a good
week. The GVCA discussed the possibility of selling local garden excess,
donated by the local gardeners, and donating all profits to the Food Bank.

4)  Referenda C and D

    Our official endorsement of support for these two ballot items was sent
off last week. At least three members will be attending a morning-long
meeting today for strategy planning, and a local steering committee for a
unified campaign is getting underway. Education on what happens to the state
-- including cities like Gunnison that are reliant on a state college -- if
these referenda are defeated is paramount.

5) School Supplies

    We are going to donate $500 worth of school supplies purchased from
locally-owned businesses to the Gunnison Community School. We'll make the
purchases this week so that kids can have them by the ime school starts on
Aug. 30.

6)  Everything we didn't get to

    We briefly covered the WSC fiscal impact study, although Chris had a
good article about it in the Times; and we floated a few questions -- pro
and con -- about the proposed justice center, although many of our personal
questions were on the feasibility of getting a bond question on the ballot
this November. We touched on a few other items and received donations of
green beans from Karen's garden. Then we went home.

Details:
The Gritty Details:

1) City of Gunnison Public Meetings

    Nothing raises a discussion more than trash, it seems. Ellen reported
that the city is contemplating raising trash and sewer fees. We all ignored
the sewer fee increase and glommed onto the trash.

While the city is inclined to charge a flat rate of probably about $16 per
household, much of our membership seemed in favor of something that might
offer more incentive to recycling, such as a charge by volume. The county is
contemplating moving its recycling center out to the industrial park south
of the airport, so the city is contemplating a recycle drop-off down by the
city shops. But no one seems inclined (at least so far) to offer any
incentive for recycling.

I suggested dedicated Dumpsters in the Central Business District for
recylables, particularly cardboard, and we discussed Western State's
aggressive program, although some bins have been removed because they get
used for trash rather than recycling. Richard recounted a California
university's comprehensive recycling program, which actually generated some
income -- or at least realized a substantial savings -- for the school.

We made no decisions.

After hearing a presentation on the city's health plan, which is somewhat
self-insured, Richard tracked the presenter down and quizzed him more
closely. Apparently laws in Colorado prohibit smaller employers or even an
association of employers, such as the chamber, or the contrators'
association, from forming a similar group. So a health-care co-op may not
only be more difficult than we imagined: it might be illegal in this state.

Then we lauded the city's contribution to the Tenderfoot Center, which is
going to cost more than originally budgeted due to increased costs in
construction. We discussed daycare as a factor in economic development.
Public transportation as it figures in economic development was also touched
on.

And we're still waiting to hear if anything is ever going to move forward on
the master plan.


2) County Planning Commission

Attendnce at a day-long meeting warranted an invitation from the commission
to Richard to apply for the seat being vacated by Fred Peck (news that will
distress Harvey Harriman, who relies on Fred's wife Joanne Schilling to fill
out his soprano section). But it also turned up a report on the county's
comprehensive plan for us.

On the fast track, new long-range planner Mike Peletier (I could have
spelled that wrong) is being given an entire week to revise the working
draft based on all the comments he wasn't present for into a final draft of
the document. Then -- thanks exclusively to Richard -- members of the
general public, along with more vested members of the citizenry, will have
two weeks, until Sept. 12 or so, to comment on the draft. These comments
must be made in writing; oral comments will not be accepted.

Richard was also on hand for another discussion on affordable housing, and
the planning commission appears evenly split as to whether the county should
even be involved with this, although all members have acknowledged not only
the need for such housing, but also the failure of the private sector to
provide this on its own.


3)  Farmers Market

Tonight, Lynn and I had soup made with Gunnison Valley beef, onions and
green beans (thanks, Karen!) and Western Slope potatoes and carrots,
accompanied by Gunnison-baked bread. I had to follow it up with
store-brought cookies, however: someone sold out of Gunnison-baked cookies
at the market.

While that story ends somewhat sadly, the market overall is chugging along
nicely.If you haven't heard the Knowgrass Band, a garage bluegrass band
featuring professionals from all over the city, you've been missing out..

One thing that's been somewhat lacking is a variety of produce. Farmers
Market organizers have put Herculean effort into trying to attract produce
vendors, but we only have one, plus Jan Scheefer, who was selling extremely
attractive onion braids this week. But we have been hearing lots of local
gardeners trying to give away surplus items from their gardens.

It's a bit late for this year, but we thought we'd try it anyway, since GVCA
members Don and Margaret are already on hand drumming up support for the
Animal Welfare League. With an extra table donated by Butch, they'll sell
any local produce (it must be raw and whole) anyone would like to donate.
All proceeds will be passed along to the Food Bank. To avoid getting left
with any surpluses ourselves, we also need to let folks who rely on the food
bank know that they are welcome to anything not sold by 12:45 p.m., just
before the market closes each Saturday.

So if you have any spare forage from your garden, or know a friend or
neighbor who does, bring it to the market Saturday mornings and leave it at
the Animal Welfare booth.

Then, for next year, we'll organize much earlier and be more with it.


4) Referenda C and D

    The problem with selling this to voters, Pat noted, is that if they
pass, nothing particularly noticeable happens -- the state conducts its
business as always. If, however, they fail, all public funding for higher
education should disappear by 2015. Corrections will be out money; highways
will go unrepaired; Medicaid could be impacted; any item in the general fund
could get clipped. Or severed. Many items already have been, as the sttae
cut and cut and cut -- and did things like pushing a payday back a day so
that it would fall on the following fiscal year rather than counting against
the existing one.

But even people who will be immediately impacted -- parents of college
students who could, in less than one year, see the state's contribution to
their children's tuition shrink to less than a third of what it currently is
(which is half of what was promised when the voucher system came into
existence) -- seem unaware of the looking crisis. Half the state's
electorate right now is planning to vote against these referenda -- and
their state's future.

The Bell Center for Public Policy (www.thebell.org), a bipartisan action
group that has tracked TABOR and its effects for several years, is providing
a lot of information on C and D, as well as on TABOR. (Although its board
includes both Democrats and Republicans, its founder is Rutt Bridges, who
recently withdrew his candidacy as a Democrat for governor.)

Closer to home, Western State College will host some folks from the Bell
Center, along with Democrat Kathleen Curry and Republican Greg Rippy, for an
informational forum on Sept. 29.

Please, take the time to become informed on this one. It matters to everyone
who lives in this state, and especially those of us who live in small
college towns.


5)  School Supplies

    I will be talking to the Houstons/Altons at the Paper Clip, as well as
checking our local hardware stores and the Circus Train, to see what we can
purchase to donate to the schools for student use. I haven't found the
supply lists-- Butch said he saw them, but I can't find them -- to make sure
we don't buy any evil Trapper Keepers, whatever they might be, but teachers
sure don't seem to like them. If there are other locally-owned stores I
should be checking for supplies like Kleenex, scissors, glue, paper, pens
and perhaps graham crackers, please let me know.

We have money in our treasury to cover this project, but some members today
expressed an interest in donating. If you'd like to make a contribution, for
this or any other project, you need to make a check out to the GVCA (I
imagine we're happy to take cash, too) and give it to our ailing treasurer.
Probably next week would be better than this.

6)  Everything Else

    We didn't really come up with anything of substance to report. We did
spend a bit of time on the justice center, and we want to make sure that our
list of questions does not lean to one side or the other, but that it can be
used for educational purposes so that people can make an informed vote.

We're wondering, however, if people really will vote on this come November.
(In a different election than the C and D issue, because that election is
mandated for Nov. 1. I believe it will be a mail ballot.) We've seen nothing
in county commissioner agenda items to indicate a public hearing or plan to
create a ballot question. We think -- we're not sure -- that the secretary
of state requires an eight-week lead time for any ballot issue. Plus, the
zoning on that site would require a variance for no on-site parking, which
will have to be pursued before anything could be built.

We also -- and we don't seem to have many members who are voicing a strong
opinion one way or the other on the issue of location -- don't expect a bond
issue to pass if placed on the ballot this November. There is strong and
vocal neighborhood opposition to the plan; people generally seem to be in an
anti-tax mode; the business community, which will bear the brunt of the tax,
is not likely to vote in favor of it; and too many people may not see this
as an issue that impacts them directly.

Hmm.  That was a lot for a short conversation, wasn't it? Perhaps that's why
we can't ever make it through our agendas.

We did touch on the college's fiscal impact study, which we helped fund.
Butch reported that the multipliers used seem consistent with other, similar
studies done for other schools. If you missed Chris' report in the Times,
Western is responsible for almost $60 million of the local economy. That's
10 percent of the county's gross; 14 % of the county's retail sales; and 16%
of the county's salaries.

And then we took our free green beans and headed for home.

I believe we're planning to meet next week, but I think that was one of the
things we didn't get to in our conversation.

TL