SLV Solar Spotlights
Saguache County Commissioners recently approved a sprawling 6,200-acre solar complex proposed by Santa Monica, California-based SolarReserve. It is to be located 30 miles north of Alamosa and 10 miles west of Great Sand Dunes National Park.
“We got a traffic-stopper,” said board Chairman Mike Spearman, according to The Denver Post. He said he hopes the site will become a tourist attraction, complete with a visitor center and shuttle tours.
In addition, the solar plant being built near Alamosa by North Carolina-based Cogentrix LLC – a Goldman Sachs-owned power company – is almost complete.
According to The Denver Post, “We are expecting to take power from the plant this quarter,” said Gabriel Romero, a spokesman for Xcel Energy, which has an agreement with Cogentrix to buy the plant’s power for 20 years.
The deal will bring Xcel somewhat closer to its state-mandated goal of 355 megawatts of solar power generation by 2015, but the company continues to struggle with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to lower that requirement until it can build a new transmission line out of the SLV.
“We’re kind of in limbo on it right now because we know we can’t get 355 megawatts out of the Valley using existing capacity,” Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz added.
SLV Strays in Need of Shelter
“There are no other certified shelters in the San Luis Valley,” said Cheryl Santi, a representative of the Upper Rio Grande Animal Society (URGAS), according to the Valley Courier. “We are making do with what we have … it is really hard. We see abused dogs, dogs picked up on the street and dogs that are hungry.”
Santi, and Ray Skeff, both of URGAS, asked the San Luis Valley County Commissioners Association (SLVCCA) for a letter in support of a roughly $1.3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant to expand the Conour Animal Shelter into a regional animal shelter.
The current shelter is not suitable to earn regional animal shelter status. There is no space to separate the animals to prevent the spread of disease, which puts other animals at risk. According to the Valley Courier, the grant would build a “better structure to better manage the animal population and provide better isolation and separation to improve the overall animal health,” as written in the URGAS request letter submitted to the SLVCCA. This would allow the shelter to be of service to all of the Valley counties on its 11-acre property. Currently, it is barely able to provide services to less then half of the dog population, even when taking in over 70 animals at one time – twice the facility’s capacity.
URGAS representatives are developing a “long-range plan for an Animal Care Park in an effort to become self-funded, certain revenue producing segments.”
Wise Beyond Their Years
SLV students bowled over the competition at the Colorado State Knowledge Bowl State Championship in Colorado Springs recently. Alamosa High School won first place 3A; Del Norte High School won first place 2A, and Sargents High School won second place 2A.
Short …
In Saguache, town officials are putting the final touches on a town zoning code. Apparently there hasn’t been one. Also in Saguache, a new thrift store has opened downtown on 4th Street and the Saguache County Museum reopens for the summer on May 26.
