JOURNAL 11/06/05
I know I'm not going to have time to get very far today, but I'll start and
go from there.

Before I start, and this has absolutely nothing to do with anything, except
that I find it astounding: an anonymous patron made a $100 million donation
to the Yale School of Music. In addition to other plans for the money, the
school, starting next year, is waiving all tuition costs for all students. I
would think this has the potential to make Yale's the best music school in
the country, since I imagine it might be a popular place for applicants, and
selection could theoretically be based on nothing more than musical and
academic ability.

Moving to the germane (at least, I like to think of it thusly):

1) Introducing the Official GVCA
    Which, in actuality, looks very much like the unofficial GVCA. The same
regulars attended the meeting. My title shifted from interim chair to
president (hail to the chief!). Your new veep is Pat Venturo; Don McLeod is
the secretary; and, like me, Vikki only drops the "interim" aspect of her
title and officially becomes treasurer.

In a slightly confusing scenario, I am  the secretary of the steering
committee, because these journals will serve as the minutes of the meetings.
Don has the responsibility of taking roll (required by law) and archiving
the minutes, which he does on our website, www.gunnisonvalley.org.

Membership has also been defined. To be a member of the GVCA, dues are
EITHER $40 per year or participation in three or more activities (as
designated by the teering committee). So, if you've made a contribution of
$40 or more, your membership is paid for one year after your donation. (If
the donation was more, then the balance rolls forward. Some of you are paid
for quite a few years.) If you've attended steering committee meetings,
attended public meetings such as city council, helped out with a fund-raiser
such as our 9 Health Fair benefit and our school supply collection, or if
you've volunteered time for a project such as collecting ballots for the
recent election, those count as activities.

If you want to know whether you're considered a member or not, contact Vikki
at roach@montrose.net.

We will be sharing a copy of our by-laws with the Gunnison Farmers Market,
so that that group has a basis for starting its own by-laws so that it can
go formal too.

Other topics that I won't have time to cover in depth today, but which you
may or may not get more info on this week:

2) City Council
    Despite what you read in the newspaper, approval has not been given to
the Hartman Castle retail proposal. That is likely to happen this Tuesday,
which is a regular session and not a work session (you can't take formal
action at a work session). It apepars as thought the council is leaning
toward a yes, although some of us still think we could be setting a bad
precedent -- and cheating the city out of the sales tax dollars it uses to
operate.  The first public hearing on the budget is set for Tuesday, and two
people (I'm one of them) will be interviewed for the vacancy on planning
commission.

3) City Manager Search
    We have four finalists: Ken Coleman (already endorsed by the Gunnison
Country Times); Steve Golnar, WSC graduate and late of Livingston, MT; Aden
Hogan, recently parted from Parker, CO (and a graduate of Mesa); and Daryl
Shrum, CU graduate now managing Winter Park. Mark your calendars now for the
Nov. 17 community reception, time TBA. Tuesday, the council will also select
a committee of citizens to sit on an interview panel. Names have been put
forward by council members.

4) County Essential Housing
    Rushing things at the last minute, after putting in an overwhelmingly
full day, the county planning commission moved to create a ninth draft of
the essential housing regulation, which is likely to go forward to the
county commissioners. The last thing the commissioners did was erase the 30
percent open-space requirement and replace it with 15%. The commission did
tell developers who showed up to complain about a variety of aspects of the
draft that they had an 18-month window in which to air their concerns, and
made no adjustments to ameliorate those demands.

5) RE-1J
    It turns out there is no state law governing how school board
appointments are made, and it seems as though local rules never considered
the possibility that there might not be enough candidates for an election.
The district office does not have a list of applicants for the three open
board seats, and Jaclyn, who did apply, has not heard anything one way or
the other. The new board is scheduled to be installed on Nov. 14 -- it
should be a surprise to all of us.

Headwaters this year was about immigration, and a last-minute fill-in
speaker was a school board director from Glenwood Springs, who noted that
one elementary in Carbondale now is 80% Spanish speaking. The "solution" so
far there has been to create more schools: a Waldorf, a Montessori, a
Christian and two charters, one of them under the auspices of the school
district.

Another Headwaters participant, from Ridgway, talked briefly about the
success of the school's breakfast program, since it turns out many kids
don't get fed at home before coming to school.

Oh, I almost forgot: the schools didn't care for Mike Ritchey's printed
assertion that the only time the community sees students is during
fund-raisers. Gloria Waggoner submitted a good response; there may be more
this next week.

And modulars have been ordered to house additional elementary students in
Crested Butte.

6) Referenda C and D
    As noted, Gunnison County contributed 4.5% of the state's "yes" vote --
and we're not 4.5% of the population. We lauded Pat for all of her efforts,
and then noted that the county's turn-out was officially at 50%, but since
many ballots likely went to voters who no longer live here, it could have
been as high as 60-70% turn-out. Let's laud all of us for being so
civic-minded.

7) Wal-Mart
    Richard noted only that Wal-Mart nationally is issuing daily press
releases, and conjectured -- given the spinmeisters hired by WM -- that this
is less about actually making changes to the workplace than it is about
changing everyone's perception of the corporate giant.

Vikki's DVD is still in the mail somewhere, but it turns out the filmmaker
WANTS people to organize public showings. We may just opt to donate copies
to the libraries, although we did have a preliminary discussion about
possible venues for a community showing.

8) Detention Facility
    Butch was corralled by a county commissioner, but so far the county
hasn't indicated what direction it might want to go. The county can't hold
elections except in November, so any proposal that could go to voters is a
year away. I believe we put this one on hold at least until the
commissioners make some decisions.

9)  Economic Development
    The city council is holding a Tuesday morning (7 a.m.) meeting to
discuss a "council view" of various topics, starting with economic
development and the EDC. It turns out funding is up in the air all over the
county: Crested Butte didn't budget any money; Mt. CB contributed $5,000,
but only if everyone else does; and neither the county nor Gunnison have
made a final decision. Ken Coleman put together a meeting with the EDC and
Region 10 officials, along with Ken Medina of the council and John DeVore of
the county. Ken M. is likley to make a report on that meeting Tuesday,
either in the a.m. or perhaps during his meeting report in the evening.

I have exceeded my budgeted time limit this morning, but i think you got
most of the details, so this is probably it for this week's journal.

TL