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The true colors of Gunnison County and message it\u2019s sending are clear.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll take your money. We\u2019ll welcome your property tax revenue, but when things get a bit tough, we won\u2019t allow you to check in on or visit your asset and the community you\u2019ve helped build through your monetary contributions. Stay away, but sent us your money so we locals can use it to fund improvements for us. We\u2019ll let you back in when \u201cwe\u201d decide it\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n
To all those \u201clocals\u201d who want to grouse about this letter, I\u2019ll remind you that these outsiders are probably responsible for over 40% of your local funding. That beautiful school in Crested Butte that you send your precious children to and can afford so many wonderful programs is paid for in large part by those you loath and blockade.<\/p>\n
Instead of 20 kids per class, it would be 40 kids. Instead of six 4-year-old police SUVs, you\u2019d have three 8-year-old cop cars. Instead of the beautifully paved road, you\u2019d have a gravel wash boarded road. Instead of six ICU rooms with six ventilators, you\u2019d have three. Instead of the nice community center, ice rink, rec center, town hall, transportation center, fire station, you\u2019d have nothing or shacks like you had before.<\/p>\n
As an outsider in another Colorado mountain town, which instead of blocking it\u2019s second homeowners, has \u201casked\u201d them to be smart and reconsider coming to their second home only if they must.<\/p>\n
I will be visiting Crested Butte later this summer and would encourage all visitors, especially Texans, to spend their hard-earned, non-Gunnison County dollars by driving in all of the food, booze and other essentials from outside the county and spending as little as possible while in Gunnison.<\/p>\n
Use the natural and manmade resources for which much of you have paid for through taxation. A small change in your behavior won\u2019t impact your stay but cumulatively it will send a big message to the so-called locals.<\/p>\n
Instead of eating out for dinner four days a week, only go out two days. Buy only what is perishable or immediately needed within the county. Otherwise, drive it in from outside. That fishing pole you forgot in Texas, buy it from Amazon Prime or Walmart Online. The county may get some tax revenue, but the local shop owner (who probably loathes your presence in the county) won\u2019t get a nickle.<\/p>\n
When there\u2019s a charity gala or raffle, don\u2019t buy tickets. Spend your discretionary income on charities back in home at your primary resistance where they don\u2019t hate your presence.<\/p>\n
A few minor spending pattern changes will collectively send a strong message from the dirty, wretched unwelcome outsiders to the all-enlightened local Gunnison Valley community.<\/p>\n
BTW, as a reminder, Gunnison County property taxes (like most in Colorado) are due April 30. Isn\u2019t it ironic that while the second homeowner is blockaded from entering, they can\u2019t even pay their property taxes in person if they wanted to. \u201cPlease, just mail or electronically transfer your payment we need your money but stay out of the county until we tell you to return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lastly, most importantly and out of an abundance of caution, as a Gunnison County outsider, always be polite to the locals. If you see a local stuck in a snowbank, be polite. Wave as you drive by. For this is the collegial behavior that Gunnison County seems to be promoting.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jim Taggart, a Denver resident and second homeowner in the mountains<\/strong><\/p>\nvia:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Consider this a second homeowner\u2019s letter to mountain communities who want to act like Gunnison County. While the country and mountain communities try to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, I applaud the Texas attorney general for threatening to file a lawsuit against Gunnison County on behalf of second homeowners who have assets in the valley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-20 22:04:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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