Alamosa Agencies Look to Revitalize Historic Building
Alamosa agencies are looking to revitalize the old Rio Grande Motorway for regular and special events, such as the Alamosa Farmers Market and Alamosa Live Music Association concerts. Other revitalization ideas include installing a catering kitchen, and banquet facility amenities that could hold up to 800 people. Building revitalization would also preserve an important part of Alamosa history.
By 1935, the Rio Grande Motorway provided rail and bus service to many sizable towns across Colorado and Nevada. The Rio Grande Motorway also employed a fleet of trucks, providing less-than truckload services in the same region. The Alamosa County Marketing District and the SLV Development Resource Group currently have joint ownership of the building.
Del Norte Plans for Larger Trail System
Del Norte is working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to expand a trail system located south of town. The newly improved trail system will hopefully increase tourism and improve community health. Del Norte’s mayor pro-tem, Marty Asplin, and his wife are preparing a grant to construct the new trail and renovate the existing single-track trails to be used by hikers, mountain bikers and horse riders.
Antonito Goes Solar
A 500-killowatt array of solar panels is being installed on the southeastern edge of Antonito. The new array will be online at the beginning of 2015. Antonito is not the first San Luis Valley town to install a solar array to supplement town energy needs. Alamosa and Del Norte have installed similar arrays.
Meth Drug Bust in Monte Vista
Police seized 11.2 pounds of methamphetamines during a traffic stop in Monte Vista in mid-October. The car was pulled over after it was spotted weaving in the street.
Inagural Alferd Packer Festival Held in Saguache
Residents of Saguache held their inagural Alferd Packer Festival in early October. Alferd Packer, who was accused of cannibalism against his five prospecting companions, was held in the Saguache jail before his trial. The Festival featured a 5K Cannibal Crawl, rib cook-off, beard and mustache contest, live theater and a free screening of Cannibal! The Musical by Trey Parker.
Bacon Receives Conservation Leadership Award
Louis Bacon, leading conservation philanthropist and founder of The Moore Charitable Foundation, became the fourth recipient of the Land Trust Alliance President’s Award for Conservation Leadership during a conference in Providence, Rhode Island. Bacon owns the Trinchera Ranch, located in the east end of the San Luis Valley.
From Small Town to No Town
The county attorney of Saguache County recently made an application to the Secretary of State determining that the town of Bonanza is abandoned. According to the notice, Bonanza has neither held any regular or special elections to elect officers nor maintained any of the functions of a town government in five years.
Residents Prepare for Winter at Woodfest
Forbes Park, northeast of Fort Garland held their third annual Woodfest at the end of September. Whether or not participants brought their own chainsaw, everyone left with a full load of wood and was invited to return as many times as they wanted for additional loads.
Valley Veteran Agencies Share Resources
The Veterans Coalition of the San Luis Valley held their second gathering to share resources and discuss barriers veterans have to accessing or utilizing services. Representatives from SLV counties, educational institutions and health care, behavioral health and social services organizations were in attendance.
La Puente Hosts Annual HOPE Week
Homeless Outreach, Prevention and Education (HOPE) Week featured a series of events to educate and engage community members of the reality of homelessness in the San Luis Valley. Events included a candlelight vigil, homeless shelter open house and documentary night.
South Fork May Reduce Force
The board of trustees in South Fork proposed to reduce the police department from six officers to three for budgetary reasons. Opponents are concerned about what consequence the change will have on response time.
Paranormal Findings in the Fort Garland Museum?
Purple Sage Paranormal Investigations (PSPI), based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, investigated reports of ghosts at the Fort Garland Museum. The group of five investigators, armed with video cameras, light source communicators and voice communicators examined the museum’s buildings. PSPI will present their full findings in the mess hall at the Fort Garland Museum on Halloween at 6 p.m. The Valley Courier reports that preliminary results are a “definite maybe that there are spirits at the fort.”
Adams State Receives Grant to Improve STEM Education
The US Department of Education awarded Adams State University $2.9 million to train elementary and middle school teachers to improve science, technology and math education in 15 rural school districts across Colorado.
