Hilary White stopped at the bank Wednesday morning hoping for good news. With eight days to go, the project director for the Valley Floor Preservation Partners in Telluride is checking the organization’s bank balance constantly.
It’s not there yet.
After 11 weeks of nonstop fundraising, the group is still $2 million short of its goal to raise $50 million to buy 570 acres of wetlands, old mining land and pasture at the entrance to town.
That comes to $250,000 a day in a place where the locals already have sold household possessions, put second mortgages on their homes and donated days of pay toward what has become a highly emotional campaign.
Folks in Telluride began trying to preserve the Valley Floor more than 10 years ago. The land, which was purchased by Neal Blue of the San Miguel Valley Corp. for $7 million in 1983, was valued at $50 million by a jury in Delta in February after the town sought to acquire the property through condemnation.
Appraisers for Telluride had established the land value at $26 million, which was close to what the town had on hand in bonds, money set aside for land preservation and donations.
White and several volunteers have been raising funds furiously to breach the gap and had hoped to meet their goal weeks ago. Their self-imposed deadline was extended twice. Now May 11 is the end of the line.
If the people of Telluride are worried, they show no fear.
“I’m nervously optimistic,” said White, who said they’re so close she can’t imagine failure.
Mayor John Pryor is equally determined. “The town of Telluride is going to be successful in raising these funds,” he said.
He has reason to believe.
Among the heavy-hitters behind the the fundraising effort are Meg Whitman, president and chief executive of eBay; actress Daryl Hannah; and Richard Holbrooke, former ambassador to the United Nations.
Holbrooke admits that he has called several of his contacts and “pressed people to participate.”
“To me the Valley Floor is an indispensable part of Telluride,” he said.
Holbrooke has owned a second home in Telluride since 1988 and knows the area intimately. “I think it’s a magical place. It’s been a central part of our lives. Our whole family has grown up there.
“It will have a profoundly negative effect on the town if the Valley Floor is developed.”
While celebrity support has been huge, local workers and year-round residents have been heroic in their fundraising efforts. White said when many of them left for their annual spring vacations after the ski resort closed for the season April 8, progress stalled.
“In the meantime, we have been scrambling to get outreach across the country,” she said. They mobilized phone trees, sent e-mail blasts through the membership lists of national conservation organizations, called and then recalled past donors.
Pryor said they have contacted donors to ask them to contribute another 15 percent in an attempt to meet the deadline. “We’ve had a lot of success with that,” he said.
Still, the goal slips a little further away with each passing week. Interest accrues at the rate of $11,000 a day.
But inspiration comes cheap.
On Wednesday, White said, herds of elk were grazing on the Valley Floor, which has turned a brilliant green as spring settles over the town.
“We’ve seen coyotes out there and a resurgence of the Gunnison prairie dogs.”
Some locals claim they’ve seen lynx on the land too, but it may be wishful thinking. The presence of a protected species there could give them an ace in the hole if fundraising falls short.
No one dares mention failure at this point though.
Not even Holbrooke, who’s never been accused of being a Pollyanna.
“Optimistic? That’s overstating it,” he said. “I’m hopeful.
“It’s never over till it’s over.”
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 303-954-1580 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
