Mark Reaman

The initial voter results for Gunnison County are in with 73% of the 12,897 ballots sent out counted.

A situational tsunami has put the continued free television signal broadcast in the county through the Gunnison Metropolitan Recreation District (MetRec) in jeopardy. The North Valley is particularly likely to lose its access to broadcast television but the outlier communities like Pitkin and Powderhorn are also in danger of not having access to a signal. Everyone in the district who uses the free MetRec television system will likely lose four of the most popular stations, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox this coming summer.

A majority of the Crested Butte town council have made it clear they don’t want to see a proliferation of holiday lights in town. When approached by local resident and business owner Kim Raines along with Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce director Heather Leonard at the Monday, November 4 council meeting about budgeting a bit more money to spruce up the holiday decorations in town between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there was a pretty clear reluctance to do so.

Well, I guess we are going back. The question now is how far and how much.

Crested Butte town councilmember Jason MacMillan has given official notice he will be stepping down from the council next month. He and his family will soon be moving out of town so he would no longer qualify to be on council. The town is advertising for his replacement that would be chosen at the first meeting in December while starting on the council at the second meeting of the month.

The official presentation of the Gunnison County MetRec district conceptual master plan was brought to the public in a work session on Wednesday, October 30 and as expected the emphasis was on a potential recreation center for the North Valley. Other items in the plan written by consultant Norris Design included an expansion of the current Gunnison Rec Center, providing connections between recreation paths and trails throughout the valley, adding more multi-use field spaces and consideration of an outdoor amphitheater.

Taking a little walk the other day there was a loud gaggle of geese heading north. North in November?! Maybe they came from a front range golf course that got buried in snow during last week’s storm that grazed us leaving the Skyland fairways without much white but providing opportunity for an early winter goose buffet. Those geese aren’t the only things that seem a little inside out confused in their time of transition…

While noting that the council had received more letters and public comment over the town council’s position on holiday lighting than it had received on the Whetstone community housing project, Crested Butte mayor Ian Billick returned to the holiday lighting issue at the November 18 meeting. He said he was open to allocating some money for increased town holiday lighting, but he did not get much council support.

It is less than a week until the lifts start spinning at CBMR and here’s a shout out to spirit. The spirit of light, the spirit of a new season, the spirit of being blessed, and cursed, to be living in interesting times.

Air service into the Gunnison-Crested Butte airport appears to be bucking the ski industry trend for this coming winter and early reservations to GUC are up compared to this time last year.