To All GCEA Members:

I am running for re-election and would like your vote! If your name is on the power bill you can vote and not just within your district.

I am a 40 year resident of Gunnison County. My wife Kathy and I have owned and operated PR Property Management since 1986. Our two sons graduated from Crested Butte Community School. I know the county and I know the electric business.

If you like what GCEA has been doing and what we will be doing in the future to provide excellence in service, reduce carbon emissions, get Taylor Hydro producing, and all the while at a fair price, I would like your vote.

If you think the GCEA Board needs change, vote for my opponent who has moved from Boulder.

GCEA is one of the best run CO-OP's in the state and I would like to help keep it that way.

Get out and vote. Ballots will be available starting May 22 and the annual meeting on June 20.

Best to you all! Greg Wiggins ious floral designs and somehow, not yet dirtied. And just inside the fence line was a temporary bed where, in no more than 20 square feet, over 1,000 tulips will spring up in the coming months.

In the intervening time, Amrich completed her masters in exercise physiology and traveled the world as an athletic trainer with USA Track and Field. But the athletic trainer’s salary wasn’t going to cut it long term, Amrich said, so she shifted to medical sales — where she would stay for 16 years, selling oxygen and CPAP medical devices. But the industry changed over the years, she said, and she wanted out.

“I got online, and I started thinking and googling jobs where my hands are in the dirt, because I loved being outside and planting and doing all those kinds of things,” she said.

After taking a class from Washington-based flower grower Erin Benzakein, Amrich started talking to local florists and, in 2019, established her own company. Janniebird is a hybrid of her name and her husband’s nickname, “J-Bird.” When the pandemic arrived, the business thrived. With farmers markets shut down and contactless delivery established, she delivered flowers to families, friends and frontline workers in Louisville, Colorado.

“I love when people tell me they're flower people or flowers bring them happiness. I mean, who doesn't get a bundle of flowers and think, ‘oh my god, thank you!’” she said.

When she and her husband

Jason moved to Gunnison in 2022, their new home didn’t have much flower garden real estate. But she soon spied a plot next to the box cars on South Main Street, and, months later, she was putting her delphiniums, tulips and ranunculus in the ground. At first, the soil was dry and sandy, but with patience and help from a natural fertilizer made of alfalfa pellets, water and sugar, it grew softer and ready to support hardier plants like zinnias, sunflowers and cosmos.

“I was prepping [the soil] the other day. And I saw a worm. I mean, people don't get excited about worms. But I was jumping up and down for the worm,” she said.

Although Amrich’s growing season was short last year— she didn’t start planting until the beginning of June — she was able to serve Wilder’s Organic Market, Tough Enough to Wear Pink, local florists and Gunnison Valley Hospital with fresh flowers.

Gunnison presents a unique challenge for Amrich, who has mostly farmed in zone 5 and zone 6 climates, which are much milder than Gunnison’s zone 4. To help navigate the new climate, Amrich connected with friends and fellow farmers Sue Wyman and Alexis Taylor, and joined the Gunnison Valley Producers Guild.

“They're so welcoming. I love having a group where everyone is super supportive instead of competitive. I think the more awareness we bring to growing anything in the valley, whether it's flowers or vegetables, the more people start to say, ‘hey, I can get that stuff locally.’”

To learn more visit janniebirdfarm.com.

(Abby Harrison can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or abby@gunnisontimes.com.)