by Gena Akers
From Crop Circles to Baseball Diamonds
Geoff West, a former baseball coach, professional scout and owner of the Pilot Baseball Academy, has hopes of building a 24-field park east of Alamosa. During a presentation at the annual SLV Tourism Conference, West said the complex could bring up to 2,000 little league players to the Valley each summer.
West says the Valley is a perfect location for traveling baseball leagues since it is centrally located and has cool, dry summer climates. West is also in talks with the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad to develop a “park-and-ride” train shuttle for spectators to travel between Alamosa and the property, located seven miles east of Alamosa.
A Forest of Beetles
Spruce-bark beetles have been munching on the Rio Grande National Forest for more than a decade. State and U.S. Forest Service officials recently completed an aerial survey, revealing that bugs have infested roughly 90 percent of the forest’s 560,000 acres of spruce stands. The infestation has grown by 78,000 acres in the last year alone, mostly impacting the stand between La Garita and the northern Sangre de Cristo mountains.
Valley Aquifer Gets a Boost
The volume in the unconfined aquifer increased by 71,440 acre-feet in 2014, the first increase since 2009. The increase is attributed to a decline in pumping, resulting from a combination of fees on pumping and fallow farm ground.
Even with these gains, the aquifer has declined by more than 1.2 million acre-feet since monitoring first began in 1976. Water leaders have a goal of increasing the aquifer’s volume to one million acre-feet. Accomplishing this may require a significant change in the subdistricts’ water management plans.
New Judge to Join the 12th Judicial District
Senator Larry Crowder has said that the people of the San Luis Valley should “have their day in court in a timely fashion.” With the judicial district currently operating at 72% of full staffing requirement, time slips away. Soon, a fourth district court judge may join the 12th Judicial District. Currently, the district is the lowest among all state judicial districts in staffing operations.
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Man Killed While Trying to Stop Drunk Driver
Kendrick Marquez, a 25-year-old man, was killed the evening of Feb. 15 in Monte Vista after jumping on the hood of 21-year-old Autumn Martinez’s car. Police reported that Marquez was trying to keep Martinez from driving drunk. Martinez was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and driving with a suspended driver’s license.
Shorts
• A draft environmental assessment by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management may save Xcel Energy from burying three power lines in the north end of the San Luis Valley.
• Matthew Maestas, a sixth grader at Sanford, won the San Luis Valley District Spelling Bee. He will travel to Denver in March for the state competition.
• Alamosa police shut down an illegal pot business in early February, confiscating cash, firearms, 140 live plants and edibles. Even while police were processing evidence, potential customers were trying to enter the house.
• Over 200 racers participated in the 2015 Rio Frio 5K in Alamosa, a 5K race on the frozen Rio Grande River. The overall winner finished the two-lap course in 19:21.
