Healthy Living Park
Acquires Property
The Rio Grande Healthy Living Park in Alamosa is one step closer to becoming a reality after backers of the project won a lawsuit and managed to purchase the controversial property from the developer.
The site of the proposed park, the Polston property, adjacent to the Rio Grande river, created a city-wide controversy when the Alamosa School Board, who owned the property, agreed to sell it to Dan Russell, the county’s elected land surveyor, for $500,000. Russell wanted to build a high-end RV resort.
Several area nonprofits and community activists hoped to raise the $755,000 appraised value of the property in order to prevent the land, which sits on prime topsoil, from being commercially developed.
Eventually, after mediation, Russell agreed to sell the land to park backers for $900,000.
We hope to do an extended report on this story in the September issue.
No to Grow
On July 23, the Alamosa County Commissioners voted 2-1 to deny a special use permit for Valley Meds, LCC, to operate a medical marijuana processing facility on U.S. Hwy. 160. The decision was made after consultation with county residents.
Aspens Under Attack
The western tent caterpillar is causing concern for foresters in Southern Colorado forests. Tens of thousands of acres in the southern part of the state have been infested by the two-inch-long caterpillar that strips the leaves from aspen trees, leaving a white cocoon in their aftermath.
Fortunately, the aspen trees show some resilience to the infestation, according to Steve Hartvigsen of the U.S. Forest Service.
““The aspen clones will gather up their energy and re-leaf again. They will put out a whole canopy of leaves and that will carry into the fall, so we will see that color,” he said in a interview with KOB4 News.
Drought Assistance Available
Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued disaster designations for 10 Southwest and San Luis Valley counties due to severe drought conditions. The designations make farmers and ranchers in these counties eligible for assistance from the Farm Service Agency.
Producers in the following counties are eligible for assistance: Archuleta, Conejos, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma, Rio Grande, San Juan and San Miguel.
Dunes to Celebrate Quarter
Great Sand Dunes, which has been chosen as the national site to represent the state of Colorado on the reverse side of the United States quarter-dollar coin, will host a ceremony in honor of this historic event on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 10 a.m. at the dunes’ parking area.
Wolf Creek Exchange Decision
A decision may come soon on the proposed land exchange for the Village at Wolf Creek. Ranked as the most controversial high country real estate development plan in Colorado, the exchange would prevent the construction of a private road across federal lands.
The exchange would move the proposed road away from the Wolf Creek Ski Area and reduce the size of the Village proposed by Texas billionaire B.J. “Red” McCombs.
