City welcomes new public works director

At the start of December, Pete Rice took over the City of Gunnison’s Public Works Department. 

Rice will fill in the role of David Gardner, who retired in November. As the head of public works, Rice will become one of the leads on the city’s ongoing water treatment plant project — the largest, and most expensive in recent history. He will also help the city prepare to expand its electrical capacity and evaluate Gunnison’s aging town ditch system. Because of his background in engineering, and transportation and construction management, City Manager Amanda Wilson believed Rice was the right fit for the job. 

“[His experience] is huge because we have some pretty big development projects in the pipeline,” Wilson said. 

Rice, a Colorado native, worked as a consultant for an engineering firm for 18 years before he moved into municipal government. Rice worked for the City of Aspen for almost a decade, starting as a project manager in the engineering department. He later became the transportation and parking director, and oversaw projects along the Hwy. 82 corridor. Before his departure, Rice launched a parking and transportation master plan and helped the city prepare to replace the Castle Creek Bridge, which serves as the main entryway to Aspen.  

During his time with the City of Aspen, Rice said he learned to develop projects that fit the community’s needs. He said he hopes to bring that mindset to Gunnison’s ongoing projects, including the multi-million dollar water plant.  

“Rather than focusing on the specifics of the design of the plant, which is, of course, what an engineer wants to do, what I'm focused more on is the process and the community input that led up to this point … It's amazing, especially in a smaller city, the impact of these projects,” Rice said. 

Moving to Gunnison from the Roaring Fork Valley, Rice is familiar with the struggles the valley is experiencing with housing affordability. While Aspen can afford to build its own housing projects, Rice said he supported Gunnison’s recent stance on the issue: to give private developers the utility systems they need to build quickly. 

“This community is still in the ‘We need to build it phase,’ of a mountain community, and I think it's really important to support that as much as we can through utilities,” Rice said. 

When he’s not at work, Rice spends his time making oil paintings, some of which he plans to hang on the walls of his new office. He also enjoys skiing and mountain biking, and has visited the valley many times over the years to explore Hartman Rocks, and boat on Blue Mesa Reservoir. 

(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)