NEWS: Ranchers work around bridge closure, A5
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VOL. 143 NO. 19 | THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2024 | $1.00
County Road 26 opening for trailers More travel time slots could be added after May 15 Abby Harrison Times Staff Writer
Gunnison County announced that County Road 26, or the Lake City cutoff, is opening on Thursday, May 9 for all vehicles under the state’s legal load limit of 85,000 pounds — allowing livestock trailers, campers and other heavier vehicles. The county opened the road with restrictions weeks ago as a detour around the closure of the Hwy. 50 “middle bridge” on April 18. The county is also considering additional time windows for travel on CR 26, but will wait to see how much damage the trailers and heavy Bridge A6
INSIDE
TODAY NEWS: New fraud alert service for property owners, A3 COMMUNITY: Gunnison Pioneer Museum turns 60, B1
HELPING HANDS: Gunnison Habitat for Humanity board member Kevin Donovan moves construction materials from a build site during the nonprofit’s first volunteer event of the season on May 4. Habitat Executive Director Julie Robinson recognized Gunnison resident Steve Schechter, who passed away at the end of 2023, as the recipient of the Volunteer of the Year award. For more, see A16. (Photo by Abby Harrison)
City cuts down Lives on the line dispatchers water plant size 911 handle valley’s Decision could save roughly $10 million Bella Biondini Times Editor
SPORTS: GHS baseball defeats Bruins, B4
OBITUARIES, BIRTHS A2 OPINION A4 CLASSIFIEDS A15-A18 SPORTS B4 ONLINE GUNNISONTIMES.COM
In an attempt to reduce the cost of construction, the City of Gunnison is scaling down the capacity of its new water treatment plant, which is still under design. When choosing the size of the plant and the pipes that will move water, the project team — led by JVA Consulting Engineers and Gunnison Public Works Director David Gardner — considered the city’s daily water demand, future population growth, the overall cost and the impacts of the town’s domestic irrigation ditch system. At a regu-
hardest moments
lar meeting on Tuesday, April 23, city councilors chose to downsize, a decision they hoped would save money. The city abandoned its previous water treatment plant in the 1960s due to high amounts of sediment and clogged and freezing pipes. Today, Gunnison’s drinking water treatment system is decentralized and made up of nine, shallow groundwater wells scattered throughout the city. The outdated system is no longer permitted by the state and is vulnerable to contamination. The construction of a new water treatment plant is the largest project the city has taken on in recent history. Estimates for the first three parts of the multiphase project near $50 million. As the city prepares to work through the design phase, project leaders are seeking grants
Bella Biondini Times Editor
The ringtone, the shriek of a police siren, cut through the silence in the room, and Bel Bowen’s eyes darted to one of her five computer screens. “911, what is your emergency?” she said into her headset, voice steady. Her fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard as she entered a stream of information into the computer. “Is it around mile marker 196 and about half the size of a Volkswagen? Does that sound about right?” Bowen said. Over the course of the hour, the Gunnison Regional 911 Communications Center had received numerous reports of
Water plant A6
a large boulder that had rolled into the road on Monarch Pass. Minutes later, the flurry of calls lapsed and dispatchers awaited the next incident. The team of first responders at the call center are the immediate lifeline for anyone in Gunnison and Hinsdale counties who dials 911. They typically work in twos and threes with shifts that stretch into the wee hours of the morning, long after much of the Gunnison Valley workforce has gone home for the day. After a phone call is answered, the team’s first priority is to send help. But it can take hours for first responders to reach the more remote parts of the county. In the meantime, dispatchers walk panicked callers through CPR, or how to stop a serious bleed. They are tasked with keeping patients stable after an accident even though they are not physically present at the scene. Dispatch A8 {N}POWER® MEMBERS ONLY
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