BIZCENTS: New boutique coming to Main Street, A12
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VOL. 144 NO. 11 | THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2025 | $1.00
County authorizes Whetstone bond sale $120 million project developed and owned by county Dave Pinkerton Times Staff Writer
HEY MACARENA: Gabriel Behounek, Blake Hill, Ollie Busby and Samuel Monitello danced for the crowd as their bandmates played a rendition of “Macarena” during a concert at Gunnison High School on March 4. For more, see A11. (Photo by Mariel Wiley)
On March 4, Gunnison County commissioners approved the issuance of just under $120 million in bonds, the largest ever in Gunnison County, for the income-restricted Whetstone housing project. The project is protected by a reserve fund of around $7.3 million, the amount needed to cover project payments for one year. Whetstone A3
Billions of dollars School board TODAY frozen for rural votes to keep Colorado electric early release co-ops Split decision INSIDE
OPINION: ‘We’re not helping the forests help us,’ A4
COMMUNITY: Baby on board, B1
SPORTS: Cowboys girls basketball falls in first round, B4 OBITUARIES A2 OPINION A4 CLASSIFIEDS A14-A17 SPORTS B4 ONLINE GUNNISONTIMES.COM
GCEA customers may face rate increases Bella Biondini Times Editor
Federal funding freezes are impacting Gunnison County residents in more ways than one and may show up in the form of higher electricity bills. A memorandum, signed in late January, ordered a “temporary pause” of federal financial assistance for activities related
to “foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology and the green new deal.” Financial assistance instead should be dedicated to “eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing,” it stated. “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the dayto-day lives of those we serve,” the memo reads. As a result, the flow of nearly $3.2 billion in grants and Co-op funding A6
prompts new calendar task force Dave Pinkerton Times Staff Writer
After more than a month of debate and continual dissent from parents, the Wednesday early release schedule will stay in place district-wide next year. In a three-hour meeting on March 10, the Gunnison Watershed School District board adopted a calendar that includes early
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release Wednesdays in both Gunnison and Crested Butte. School board members Tyler Martineau, Anne Brookhart and Jody Coleman voted to adopt the proposed early release calendar, while Mark VanderVeer opposed it. “Something is not working,” VanderVeer said. “If we vote for the same thing [early release Wednesday calendar] we will be in the same boat next year. I cannot accept this calendar because it does nothing to address the problems.” Early release Wednesday was first implemented four years ago as a way to give teachers time during the school day for Calendar A6