08/11/2026
Last month, SNC asked Councilman Kennedy what the city could do to help support residents during the 6 week heat wave that had seen unprecedented numbers of visits by residents to the ER for heat related illness. He responded, "The city provides significant funding to community partners that provide housing assistance, behavioral health services, addiction recovery programs, shelters, and other services for vulnerable populations but the operation of cooling centers is not a City function."
At the most recent City of GJ workshop, they turned a deaf ear to the largest shelter in western Colorado that is looking for financial support due to higher competition for foundation funds, reduced availability of federal funds, higher needs, and lower donations from private individuals who are also feeling the pain of our current material conditions (i.e. inflation, high fuel costs, ever rising food costs, and an out of control housing market). Now, it seems, not only is it Not the city's job to directly act to reduce suffering of our local residents, it is also not the city's job to support our local shelter?? They were quoted as saying, "For me it's a non-starter," said Council Member Cody Kennedy. "It concerns me greatly to think that we would have this ongoing commitment, just to say we're going to pay 20% of some percentage of that, of your budget, versus us being very strategic, deploying capital in a way that meets our needs, instead of just saying, 'This is discretionary, use it on your employees, do whatever you want to do.'" "Mayor Laurel Lutz called the proposal "a very high ask," while Mayor Pro Tem Ben Van D**e questioned the group's decision to request funding only from Mesa County Governments. Council Member Robert Ballard suggested the city wasn't prepared to offer more funds to HBGV after contributing $185,000 to the organization in 2025 and 2026." (Daily Sentinel August 11, 2026). Make it make sense.
