| County Open House on Chevron's Infill Drilling Application |
| La Plata County has requested that an informal public forum be held regarding a proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Board of County Commissioners of La Plata County, Colorado and Chevron Midcontinent L.P. and Four Star Oil & Gas Company (together Chevron) concerning Chevron’s infill drilling application before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for 80-acre spacing of Fruitland Coal Wells in certain areas of La Plata County, Colorado. Read County Open House on Chevron's Infill Drilling Application |
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| Bye, Bye Drought? |
| At the end of last November, the Four Corners region reverted back to an Abnormally Dry category on the U.S. Drought Monitor which is its first drought classification since September 2007. December snows and rains squashed this most recent drought rating, and data indicates that conditions have been more normal through the past year. In addition, precipitation records show that the last two Decembers, for 2007 and 2008, have had steadily increasing precipitation depth and moisture content.Read Bye, Bye Drought? |
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| America’s Morals and Ethics |
| As the dismantling of America plays out in the daily press, there are more and more opinions voiced on the lack of morals and ethics by elected officials, business leaders and public role models. Ethics come from morals, so if there are no morals, there cannot be any ethics. Read America's Morals and Ethics |
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| Numbers for Every Man, Woman and Child in the Country |
| State and local governments are cutting budgets to stay afloat in these hard economic times since things aren’t going quite like they expected when they first approved those budgets. While the governments nearest to the people slash and reduce, the United States federal government keeps adding new multi-billion dollar debt schemes onto the already out-of-control pile. Read Numbers for Every Man, Woman and Child in the Country |
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| Durango City Budget: Reality vs. Non-Reality |
| A recent six-hour sitting at Durango City Hall, listening to department heads and councilors discuss the 2009 City of Durango budget proved to be educational. It was also surreal watching officials try to read tea leaves and anticipate the future. Read Durango City Budget: Reality vs. Non-Reality |
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| Your Own Insurance for Disasters: Long-Term Food |
| For anyone who watches the news these days, it's fairly obvious that we've entered the Age of Disasters as this New Order gets established. FEMA pretty much says it all with their publication entitled "Are You Ready?" Who knows what's really coming? Instead of depending on the government to come to your rescue or waiting on an insurance claim check to arrive, you could provide for your family's well-being with some realistic and future thinking today by buying long-term food. Read Your Own Insurance for Disasters: Long-Term Food |
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| City of Durango Becomes A Landlord |
| The August 19, 2008 Durango City Council meeting covered various items – a request for help finding space for the new charter school opening in 2009, an announcement that while city sales tax was up 2.7 percent over last year, the budget called for a 4 percent increase in sales tax revenues and also that there were no permits issued for single family homes in the city in June and only one permit issued in July, and more. Read City of Durango Becomes A Landlord |
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| A Win for Twin Buttes, A Win for No Growth |
| The Durango Planning Commission’s July 29, 2008 recommendation to approve annexation of the Twin Buttes development can be seen as a “win” for the project’s investors, but it also is an indication of how developers looking at Durango will be treated by “no growth” advocates in the future, and how rich people will be the only ones who can afford to live here. Read A Win for Twin Buttes, A Win for No Growth |
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| CarbonZero to Give Away and Plant 2,500 Trees This Fall |
| CarbonZero, a locally owned and operated carbon‐offset company, will be conducting its first mass tree planting and giveaway in La Plata County on September 4, 2008. Read CarbonZero to Give Away and Plant Trees |
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| Local Author Fighting Cancer with a Pen |
| When Durango author Wesley D. Stein first learned his wife had been diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called Von Hipple Lindau (VHL), he was just finishing his debut novel for young adults, Son of the Sword: The River of Doors. After the book was published in May, Stein and his wife Melissa found out their daughter Chloe, age 6, had inherited the disease as well. Read Local Author Fighting Cancer with a Pen |
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| FLC Grads: Hoping for the Best |
| Mitch Davis, Public Relations Officer at Fort Lewis College (FLC), says 700 - 800 graduates are awarded degrees every year at FLC. What happens to those students post-graduation? Are they living and working in Durango, successful members of the community with well-paying, professional jobs in their chosen fields? Davis estimated that only about 25% of these grads stay in the area. Read FLC Grads: Hoping for the Best |
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| Twin Buttes: Moving Ahead as Pros and Cons Surface |
| City Planning Director Greg Hoch completed a staff presentation on Twin Buttes at the July 8, 2008 meeting. He had updated information, including an Annexation Impact Report and a Traffic Impact Study on the Twin Buttes conceptual plan. His bottom line analysis, repeated over and over, was that the development had addressed all items as set out in the City’s 2007 Comprehensive Plan. Read Twin Buttes: Moving Ahead as Pros and Cons Surface |
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| Twin Buttes: New Suburbs, New Lifestyle, New Costs? |
| Twin Buttes is a tantalizing proposal that was presented to the City of Durango on June 24, 2008, offering a huge amount of free open space, trails and an almost perfect sustainable growth. Large questions come from the large development, such as what will be the true costs to our overall citizenry, and does Durango want to allow people sustaining growth that will maintain a diversity of citizens? Read Twin Buttes: New Suburbs, New Lifestyle, New Costs? |
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| Bayfield Wastewater Treatment Facility Approved |
| In what was clearly a longer meeting than was anticipated, the La Plata County Planning Commission unanimously approved the long anticipated expansion of the Bayfield Sanitation District wastewater treatment facility. The decision was the last government hurdle the Town of Bayfield had to cross in order to begin construction on the new facility. Read Bayfield Wastewater Treatment Facility Approved |
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| A Homogeneous Downtown |
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| Jack Rogers, Director of Public Works for the City of Durango, briefed the City Council at the May 27, 2008, study session about the downtown sidewalk plan. Sidewalks are part of the Downtown Vision and Strategic Plan which also includes the new transit building, signage, traffic signals, Camino del Rio redevelopment plans and much more. Read A Homogeneous Downtown |
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| To Be Civil or Not |
| Cathy Metz, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Durango, didn't know it was the 4th of July when she began her briefing to the city council on the availability of a $750,000 Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Trails Grant. She proceeded in her best professional manner at the May 27, 2008, city council study session into an onslaught of verbal fireworks and explosive eruptions over the inclusion of Goeglein Gulch Trail as a possible grant project. Read To Be Civil or Not |
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| Oh, Shoes! Where Art Thou? |
| Ted Holteen’s Durango Herald story, "Getting the Boot", on May 26, 2008, certainly got the attention of the world. By the time the Guardian was able to talk with Gabe Fidanque, owner of the Wagon Wheel Liquor Store, he had already given approximately 41 interviews. His story seemed to hit a nerve with people as it circled the globe. Read Oh, Shoes! Where Art Thou? |
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Growth: Can Durango Cooperate with La Plata County? |
On May 13, 2008, the Durango City Council Study Session looked at two issues related to the effects of growth – the proposed Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and Florida Road improvements and bond issue. La Plata County staff and two commissioners also attended the meeting. Read Can Durango Cooperate |
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| Volunteers of America Safehouse Receives Federal Grant |
| Congratulations to John Gamble, the director of the Durango Volunteers of America, and to the City of Durango for working together to obtain a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) which was recently awarded by the federal government. The $175,000 grant will be used to expand the group’s Southwest Safehouse facility. Read Volunteers of America |
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| La Posta
Déjà Vu |
| It has been approximately one year since this current Durango city council abruptly ordered staff to halt all work on the La Posta Road Area Plan. This same council is now reconsidering that decision, and the city held a public meeting on May 12, 2008, to inform the public and hear their concerns. Read La Posta Deja Vu |
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| How Government Should Work |
| Vicky Jones, owner of the North Village mobile home park, arrived at the regular time of 10:00 a.m. for the April 22, 2008, La Plata County Commissioners planning meeting on the Trimble Crossing Fair Share Reimbursement Agreement. The meeting, however, was already over when she arrived, and everyone was leaving. On this particular day, it had been scheduled for 8:00 a.m., two hours earlier than normal. Read How Government Should Work |
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| Florida Road Bond: What Is Right or What Is Popular? |
| The final discussion at the City Council study session on May 13, 2008, was the proposed Florida Road bond issue. The cost today to build this project is $14 million and in 2013, the cost would be $22.5 million. Jack Rogers, head of the city’s Public Works Department, was the focus of this discussion. Read What Is Right or What Is Popular? |
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| Bayfield Is Growing Too |
| At the regularly scheduled La Plata County Commissioner’s meeting on April 22, 2008, the Town of Bayfield planning staff asked the county commissioners to support the Town’s request for a “flag pole annexation” (down a public road) of the Homestead Trail subdivision from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Read Bayfield Is Growing Too |
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| Yes, Yes to Big Brothers and Big Sisters |
| Up early, a friendly group of local citizens met at the Durango Art Center on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 7:30 a.m. to hear about and support a very unique organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Colorado. Read Big Brothers Big Sisters |
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| Wildfire Sense: Wisdom of Spring Cleanup |
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The forests, grasses and open spaces are turning green with spring finally here! Upon closer inspection, however, it's evident that they are clogged with dead and kindle-dry debris — wood, leaves, pine needles and cones. Even though the winter has been wet, these dead wood areas are tinderboxes, waiting to erupt into flames. Now's the time to get them unclogged before fire season is in full swing. Read Wildfire Sense: Wisdom of Spring Cleanup |
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| Real Cooperation about Growth? |
A crucially important joint planning session between City of Durango and La Plata County elected officials and their staff was held on April 22, 2008, in city council chambers. Fifteen months of discussion about growth was condensed into a white paper jointly created by the city and the county. The white paper was suggested by Terry Moore, a city consultant, who stated that, ultimately, the only real solution for healthy growth was city and county cooperation. Read Real Cooperation about Growth? |
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| Durango City Council Pulls All-Nighter |
The May 7, 2008 City of Durango council meeting may not go down in history as the longest, but for many citizens it seemed to be. The meeting began at 6:30 p.m. and ended at a few minutes after midnight. It ran the gamut from proclamations to developments. Read Council Pulls All-Nighter |
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| Water Use Is Water Use |
On April 22, 2008, the La Plata County Commissioners met with County Attorney Jeffery Robbins to discuss their position on the appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court of a recent water court decision requiring coal-bed methane (CBM) gas producers to obtain water permits. The appeal has been filed by State Engineer Dick Wolfe and BP of American Production Company. Read Water Use Is Water Use |
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| League of Women Voters' New Immigration Policy Supports Earned Citizenship, Opposes Deportations |
| The League of Women Voters (LWV) of La Plata County and all other LWVs across the country now advocate for reform and against inhumane treatment of unauthorized immigrants. The group’s new position, announced by their national board in early April, is distilled from the consensus of nearly 850 chapters across the country, including La Plata County’s, after 18 months of grassroots study. Read LWV Immigration Policy |
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| Three Years and Counting |
| The Iron Horse Resort property took a step closer to becoming North Animas Village at the April 15, 2008, City of Durango council meeting. Developer I.H. Management has come up with their final plan after listening to, and making adjustments for, neighbors, City staff and council. Read Three Years and Counting |
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| Ah, La Posta: Sales Tax or No Sales Tax |
On April 8, 2008, Durango City Council met for a study session on completion of the La Posta Road Area Plan and other development issues. The City planning staff was prepared, focused and precise, but the Council seemed wary. Read Ah, La Posta |
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| Bayfield High School Students Win at State Skills USA Competition |
| The Bayfield High School Skills USA team competed at the state level of competition in Colorado Springs on April 11-12, 2008, and they won! Read Bayfield High School Students |
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