At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, the Council approved, by a 3-2 vote, to expend $7,850 from the Communication Fund Reserves, for the design phase of the Dispatch/Communications Center inclusion in the new County Detention Facility. The total up-front cost will be approximately $60,000 for the Communications Center portion of the new building. The advisory Communications Board unanimously support the move from their exising site in the basement of the County Courthouse to the new facility. Council then had consensus to postpone re-work of the ditch infrastructure in downtown Gunnison to allow the City to apply for State DOLA Grant funds to assist with the project. If received, the grant funds would greatly help with maintaining a fund balance in the City Ditch Fund. The Grant cycle and possible award would be this fall. Council approved the multi-day Special Events Permit for the Gunnison Arts Center's "Sundays at 7" that is held throughout the summer in Legion Park. And lastly, Council adopted the "Social Hosting" Ordinance on second and final reading. The Ordinance prohibits knowingly allowing underage possession or conumption of alcohol on private property under a person's control. Next week, on June 15th, Council will hear a presentation on the proposed Colorado Division of Wildlife Discovery Center project to be located at the east edge of the City in the newly annexed Gunnison Rising property.
This week, City Staff and employees are preparing for the annual Diamonds in the Rockies Softball Tournament to be held this coming weekend. 24 teams will be participating. The roof is going up on the new picnic shelter in Legion Park. It should be ready for use in a couple of weeks. The Finance Department continues to work with many folks on utility read-ins and read-outs as they move to new residences. Work also continues on finalizing the annual City audit. At Dispatch, the Center is once again fully staffed and three dispatchers are involved in detailed training to ensure the safety our our Valley's citizens. The recent high river run-off continues to play havoc with the water in the City ditches. The crews are constantly monitoring the situation to prevent flooding. Topsoil screening continues at the old City landfill, the long-line striping on the City streets is almost complete (and looks great!) and the contract divers are done with their maintenance/inspection work inside the City water tanks. The Clerks Department team is working on a number of special event liquor permit applications for upcoming summer non-profit fundraising events and is working on updating the City website. All of City Staff continues to very closely monitor the City budget - revenues and expenditures - to continue to provide services to the citizens within the funds available. Remember - SHOP LOCAL to help your friends and neighbor's businesses and to maintain City services for all of our citizens and visitors.
