CMC moves to buy land next to Rifle campus

Colorado Mountain College is working out the final details to buy 25 acres of land adjacent to the school’s Rifle campus, near the Garfield County Regional Airport.The college’s board of trustees, at its May 14 meeting in Glenwood Springs, authorized the administration to move ahead with a plan to pay $500,000 for the land.

The property, located behind the existing campus building, is owned by the Airport Land Partners development group and was appraised in 2011 at $2.23 million, according to CMC spokeswoman Debra Crawford.

The school, however, will only pay $300,000 of the purchase price, thanks to a $200,000 charitable donation from the Clough Family Foundation. The foundation is linked to the same family that, through the Genevieve Clough Fellowship, has awarded grants to provide scholarships to more than 200 recent graduates of Rifle, Coal Ridge and Grand Valley High Schools, Crawford said in an email.

The 25-acre parcel is part of a 622 acre property slated for development by Airport Land Partners.

Nancy Genova, the chief executive officer of the Rifle campus, said the property likely will be used for the college’s growing renewable energy program, among other possibilities.