The Bridge is out!

Editor:
The Bridge is out! Do you remember waking up… excited about the trip to the Montrose
Targét… only to find it would take you 8 hours to get there? Or, were you stuck on The
Far Side that day? The Middle-Bridge Highway 50 fiasco was a nightmare for us all:
from the UPS guy, to ambulance crews, to the Sapinero parent just wanting to get their
kid to school.
While many of us pitched in to keep the show alive, I will never forget the exceptional
performance of the Gunnison County Roads and Bridges Maintenance Team. Almost

overnight, men and women from Gunnison County Public Works stabilized County
Road 26, 15 miles of inhospitable backroads that gave us a way to reconnect with the
residents and economy of the west slope. I remember sitting in line at CR26, chucking a

ball to my dog into the forest, thinking, only in Gunnison could we make this work. We
must support the health of our road and bridge infrastructure. “Gunnison County’s
existing 1978 sales tax structure is legally restricted to capital projects and cannot fund
ongoing maintenance.”

For half a penny per dollar, or roughly 10 cents after the purchase of a T-bone steak and

eggs at the Dub, we take a shared step as a community supporting the 3,300 square
miles of our region’s challenging road network; this is the backbone to our homes, our
schools, access for first responders, our ranch lands and that incredible Gunnison &
Crested Butte high country that glues our community together. I acknowledge the pain
we all feel in these strange and uncertain economic times. Maintaining our roads and
bridges directly supports the continuance of our service-based economy. I am wholly
dedicated to supporting this critical infrastructure by voting for 1A.
CJ Malcolm