NEWS: Rural Health Day spotlight, A10
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Whetstone rents could improve with time Public protected in bond issuance, staff says Abby Harrison Times Staff Writer
Most renters in Gunnison find housing in an “if you know, you know” world made of amassed Facebook messages and word of mouth. But this reality could change with time and the opening of Gunnison County’s housing project Whetstone, the 252-unit, 15-acre income-restricted housing project just south of Crested Butte. And since Whetstone A6
INSIDE
TODAY BIZCENTS: Mall on Tomichi under new ownership, B10 COMMUNITY: Younglife resurrected at GHS, B1
TAYLOR’S VERSION: Fans swarmed into the Crested Butte Center for the Arts for a Taylor Swift tribute concert on Nov. 15. For more, see A18. (Photo by Mariel Wiley)
Sapinero: The road to nowhere Cut off from the valley, residents turn to each other for aid during bridge closures Bella Biondini Times Editor
SPORTS: GHS volleyball eliminated at state, B6
OBITUARIES A3 OPINION A4 CLASSIFIEDS A15-A17 SPORTS B6 ONLINE GUNNISONTIMES.COM
As the sun rose over Blue Mesa Reservoir, a jet ski arced around a bend in the lake, sending a series of ripples across its glassy surface. Once Chandra Proffitt arrived at the shore, she tethered the jet ski to a rock. Her 5-year-old son Atlas clung to the handles with mittened hands, and only his eyes were visible from beneath his beanie and neck gaiter. It was September and Atlas had returned to the classroom barely two weeks before. Proffitt,
standing in the water in flip flops, lifted him from the jet ski so he wouldn't get his tennis shoes wet before school. The pair then clambered up the hill that ascended from the shoreline to the railings of Hwy. 50, Proffitt’s gold Land Cruiser parked on the other side. The ensuing drive would commence the second leg of their morning commute to Gunnison. Proffitt lives in the unincorporated town of Sapinero, located along a portion of Hwy. 50 that overlooks Blue Mesa. The small community on the hill along Cove Road consists of roughly 30 homes, but only a small portion are full-time residences. These few families work in town and send their children to school in Gunnison, requiring them to make the 30-minute drive frequently. The trip winds around the reservoir’s edge and crosses over the water twice. But what once was a simple commute turned into a nightmare in mid-April. The Colorado
Sapinero resident Chandra Proffitt secures a jet ski to a rock in September after bypassing both Blue Mesa bridge closures. (Photos by Bella Biondini)
Department of Transportation (CDOT) shut down the Blue Mesa middle bridge after discovering cracks in its steel frame and found similar issues on the Lake Fork bridge, directly to the west. The bridges are now open (with the exception of limited restrictions at the Lake Fork), but for months the closures turned
the daily routines of Sapinero and nearby Arrowhead residents inside out. In the days immediately following the shutdown, drivers were forced to take a series of tedious detours, some as long as six to seven hours. Later, the Sapinero A8