By Marcia Darnell
Election News
Alamosa voters said “yes” to a new city hall/library complex at Cole Park. The special election resulted in a 942-828 decision to fund a new building. Residents have yet to hear about a grant application that could kick in $2 million for the project.
In Rio Grande County, Karla Shriver won the Republican primary for county commissioner. In Alamosa County, incumbent Sheriff Dave Stong won over challenger David Osborn.
Mineral County rejected commissioner Karl Kolisch in favor of R. Scott Lamb for the Democrat slot, and Costilla County elected a new county clerk, Karen Garcia, and a new sheriff, Amos Medina.
Enviro News
An Alamosa man survived a grizzly attack in Yellowstone National Park in July. Ron Singer, 21, was vacationing with his girlfriend when he was set upon by a female grizzly, which was captured after killing another camper. Singer’s wounds were superficial and he continued his trip.
The would-be developers of the Village at Wolf Creek have altered their plans for the resort – again. The new vision calls for a new ski lift on the eastern edge of the development. The U.S. Forest Service is preparing for a feasibility study of the plan.
Water level is low in San Luis Lake, the gem of San Luis Lakes State Park. Water groups, including the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, are trying to salvage the tourist area during vacation season. Water quality is also an issue.
And state rules have changed in the wake of Alamosa’s 2008 salmonella outbreak. Standards are now strengthened statewide, and waivers on the rules are disappearing.
Firing Line
Lucille Duran, former city clerk of Monte Vista, has filed a lawsuit against the city for violating her First Amendment rights. Duran claim she was terminated in January because her husband, Gabriel Duran, was an outspoken critic of city officials. Duran was told her job was eliminated for cost-cutting reasons, but she alleges the city hired new people and gave raises to existing personnel.
Brief Briefs
• Faith Hinkley, 23, of Monte Vista was killed in Iraq. She was nearing the end of her tour of duty in the Army.
• The National Renewable Energy Laboratory held its executive leadership seminar in Alamosa in July, marking the Valley’s growing importance as a solar energy provider.
• The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is back to running its usual route. The damaged trestle is still under repair, but the route is being completed using motorcoaches to shuttle passengers between trains on both sides.
• Alamosa put the finishing touches its new water tower on the south side of town. The tower sports the city’s name and logo.
• Alamosa County approved a 30-megawatt power plant for NextEra Energy at the north end of the county.
• The San Luis Valley Museum opened its new conference room, which is available for meetings and public events. The museum board is asking for $55,00 in funding from the marketing district for 2011, a big jump over this year’s funding of $27,000.
• Coaches at Alamosa schools are lobbying for new athletic facilities.
• Leroy Salazar, brother of John and Ken, is returning to the Adams State College Board of Trustees. He is president of the new Sweetgrass Co-op.
• Alamosa County Treasurer Lois Widhalm was appointed to the Colorado Public Trustee’s Association board.
• The April 22 poaching of five deer on the Adams State campus is still unsolved, but campus cops say they’re interviewing “persons of interest.”
Sayonara, SLV!
The time has come for the Mile High state and I to part ways. It’s been a long love affair, with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns – and not all of them on mountain roads. But it’s over.
It wasn’t an instant attraction. Colorado and I didn’t get off to a good start. My parents moved us from Albuquerque to the Denver Metro Area in autumn 1978, and I thought I’d truly die from the cold. That first winter, Denver had a stretch of something like 100 consecutive hours of below-zero temps and I felt the cold to the marrow of my bones. It lasted, it seemed, for years.
Besides the cold were other irritants. A local population unable to pronounce names correctly (like Zuni) and who treated football like a religion. And despite living in a snow city, many were incompetent at driving in snow. Finally I started ignoring the people and focusing on the amenities and things got better.
Yes, it took me a long time to fall in love with Colorado, but I did. Hiking, riding, the change of seasons. Crisp September days, cold winter nights, and mountains, mountains, mountains.
I adjusted to the Front Range lifestyle, enrolled in CU-Boulder, flunked out, re-enrolled, then eventually graduated. I worked jobs and quit jobs between stints of Colorado campouts, day trips and discoveries.
As the big 3-0 approached, I felt bored. City life was both too easy and too stressful, too removed from the high country I had come to love. So Colorado and I renegotiated, and I moved to the San Luis Valley for a more challenging environment.
And a challenge it’s been. There’s no weather like El Valle weather. I’ve seen it go from clear and sunny to windy, to rain, to hail, to clear and sunny – all within an hour. Piling on layers in the morning and peeling them off in the afternoon became normal.
And I discovered the incredible variety of Valley terrain: rolling hills and tundra and fourteeners and prairie and wetlands and sand dunes and …
I love it still. It, however, no longer loves me.
Osteoarthritis has taken an iron grip on my leg joints, and it’s the kind of OA that flares and aches and tortures whenever a weather system is moving into the area. Which, in the Colorado Rockies, is always. Friggin’ ALWAYS.
So it’s back to the desert. I hope to be ensconced in southern New Mexico before the snow flies. I plan to revel in one last September in the high country. As Ed Quillen has pointed out many times, it’s the best time of year.
Colorado and I have built a wealth of memories: hiking the Continental Divide Trail; soaking in numerous hot springs; standing on Mt. Evans, looking over the surrounding peaks with a feeling of infinity; and an episode of bad judgment on Boreas Pass that still makes me sweat to recall it.
And those memories will always be with me. But now I have to rekindle the flames with New Mexico, land of rattlesnakes and back widows, scorpions and tarantulas.
Yes, there will be mountains, but the naked kind. And there will be adventures, and walks, and vistas, but not of Colorado.
So it’s so long to Colorado. Adios, auf weidersehn and good-bye.
It was great while it lasted.
Marcia Darnell wrote for Colorado Central Magazine for 15 years.
