Stun Gun Scenario
An Alamosa city councilor who was attempting to evict his son from a rental property was living up to the traditional Wild West ways of resolving disputes – new school style. Leland Romero had waved a stun gun at his son Lucas during a lawn-watering incident and then pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment.
He has been sentenced to nine months of unsupervised probation and ordered to donate $200 to a local charitable group of his choice.
Alamosa’s Newest – and Largest – City Park
The Oxbow Recreation Area is now officially the name for 109 acres of Alamosa’s ranch property.
The city of Alamosa needed to name the park in order to apply for funding for a proposed cross-country course and trails. Great Outdoors Colorado requires grant requests for funding to be used in designated parks.
The Oxbow Recreation Area includes the disc golf course and will encompass trails and cross-country areas developed in conjunction with Adams State.
SLV Trails Initiative
San Luis Valley Great Outdoors (SLVGO) is revealing its Trails and Master Recreation Plan initiative and is asking for community input to create a flawless inventory of the Valley’s many miles of trails and access points.
Working in conjunction with the former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and the SLV’s direction to pilot its efforts, the plan will include the recreational needs of all communities and will coordinate with ongoing trail plans to boost the system’s visibility and identify its future potential.
“The trails, in some ways, don’t always define all of their own uses,” said San Luis Valley Council of the Governments Executive Director and SLVGO leader Mike Wisdom in an interview last Friday, according to the Valley Courier. “Just to know where the trails are and what access is, we have one more planning tool for the entire Valley that we didn’t have before.”
The plan, he said, will bring together preexisting government agency and county maps and plans, and public input to make for a complete and accessible Valley trail guide. All trail users are encouraged to bring their thoughts to the table at one of the several upcoming public meetings or through email. SLVGO also has an online survey available.
“It’s almost a civics project to get people to join together in a way to plan for their own future, to plan for recreation instead of waiting for someone else to say what is available to you,” Wisdom said.
The lottery-funded Great Outdoors Colorado is funding most of the $109,000 plan, which the SLVGC is heading up with direct assistance from Alamosa and Rio Grande County and with support from several other entities, believing the trail data set will lend to sound development, tourism and the locals’ value of everyday life today and tomorrow.
Experienced Mountain Climber Dies in the Sangres
Michael Cormier, 56, from Aurora, Colorado, was an experienced climber who had climbed many 14ers.
On July 22, Search and Rescue members aboard a helicopter located Cormier’s body. It appeared that Mr. Cormier had fallen approximately 200 to 300 feet while descending Kit Carson Peak. Search and rescue reported that he died from the fall. The weather could have been a contributing factor in his death.
