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PAINTER OF THE WEST AND ITS WILD: Melody DeBenedictis

Artist, Singer, Songwriter
PAINTER OF THE WEST AND ITS WILD: Melody DeBenedictis

by Fred Hernandez


Her paintings are absolutely beautiful as she captures the very essence of that moment in her subject’s life. That’s Melody DeBenedictis, painter of the wild mustang and wildlife in their natural habitat. She moved West 14 years ago and wanted to focus on her art. A true artist in every sense, she is also a singer and songwriter. It was when she lived in northern Colorado that she was initially invited on a trip to wild horse range. The first time she ever saw wild mustangs in their habitat she was, in her own words,”blown away.” Since then, she has traveled all over the West photographing and painting wild mustangs and burros.
Settling in Custer County two years ago, she opened her Fine Art Gallery and Studio in the town of Westcliffe located at 111 North 3rd Street. Melody is deeply committed to the welfare of wild mustangs on the range, and in holding. Over the years Melody has traveled across the west with EQUUS Film and Arts Fest and The Mustang Summit. While at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo last winter, Melody suggested the idea of having an EQUUS Film Fest in Westcliffe, and founder Lisa Dierson agreed it would be a great venue location! Melody has co-coordinated the events for September 28th through October 1st. This paramount occasion, the first such event in Westcliffe, will bring together an important group of players in the present and future fate of the mustangs due to recent changes.
This group is composed of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which is the agency responsible for the management of wild horses and burros, and the Mustang Heritage Foundation, established in 2001, which worked with the BLM to facilitate successful adoptions until the recent loss of their long running contract. The Cloud Foundation will also be present at the EQUUS Film Festival, a strong voice and filmmaker for the Wild Mustang.
The EQUUS Film and Arts Fest and The Mustang Summit is such an important event to aid in the plight of the mustangs and wild horses spread across the west, with focusing on the present nearing 80,000 wild mustangs lingering in holding facilities across the nation. In the words of Melody, “ We cannot assume that the information out there is correct. It’s important we educate ourselves regarding the issues that surround our West’s public lands. Otherwise we assume. When we do, we may be wrong”. As an example she tells this brief narrative of a customer who was interested in one of her beautiful paintings. She asked him if he knew anything about wild mustangs and he replied that what he understood was that they were overpopulated. Melody asked him when was the last time he had been out on Public Lands where the mustangs live. His reply was “never”; clearly illustrating the lack of information out there in the public sector. Education is key to assuring Land Use of our public lands to be a fair plan moving forward for wild mustangs and wildlife. The demand of industry on our public land is fierce.
Melody is very well versed on the history of the mustang, the problems they face at this time, the need for organized, well funded programs run professionally and transparently, that will protect, maintain, and help these icons of the American West, which is part of the total history of America. The goal is for these magnificent creatures to thrive so that future generations may enjoy them. This is Melody’s mission and she shows her passion for it in the paintings, and songs she creates of these living symbols of the American pioneer spirit, the historic motivation and inner being that propelled this country to greatness.


Come visit Melody and learn more about the organizations that manage the mustangs, and work for their welfare, the laws that affect them and going forward, all the benefits humanity gains by their being here for us. In fact, one significant achievement recently is the advent of equine therapy which has been a big help specifically for veterans who have suffered traumatic experiences. Learn about this milestone in psychology and how it will help our local Veterans here in Westcliffe. For more information about the
EQUUS Film Festival, or Melody’s Gallery here in Westcliffe, you can find her through her website at www.melodydebenedictis.com
Come to the EQUUS Film Festival September 28th through October 1st in Westcliffe!

Snookered: BOCC Executive Session Tape Released

 

BOCC: Secret Session Audio Tape Released Due to Citizen Pressure

Here’s How Day and Flower Tried to Snooker Us

by George Gramlich,
Sangre de Cristo Sentinel
News and Commentary

 

Man, oh man, that secret Executive Session (ES) that the Custer County Board of County Commissioner’s (BOCC) Kevin Day and Tom Flower had on August 16, 2023, was supposedly just about “legal advice” on the “process for contract negotiations” concerning the employment con-tract for the proposed County Manager (CM) position, turned into something else — which was way wrong. Instead of just “legal advice” for the “process for contract negotiations”, the secret session discussed a whole hoard of things other than that single subject. When you read the transcript of the meeting  (coming next week) it will give some insight on Day’s and Flower’s “management” skills and “leadership” qualities. (That is, two clowns lost in Clown World.) In addition, Day and Flower talked about how to suppress citizen’s input and comments and personally attacked a citizen. Folks, this tape is an eye opener into tyrannical and corrupt government. So, let’s see what we have.

But how do we know what went on in that ES? We know what went on because of the demands of a group of motivated citizens who attend the BOCC meetings and smelled a rat regarding the process Day and Flower used to push a County Manager position on us. They wanted that audio recording of that August 16th Executive Session (ES) made public. What else happened was  a change of who is a county commissioner due to the recall (Lucas Epp replaced the recalled Tom Flower) gave the citizens the deciding vote in the BOCC releasing the tape. (Day fought tooth and nail to keep it a secret. When you read/hear it, you will see why.)

Due to the pressure from the citizens and Epp’s vote to release, we have the tape. (These citizens did what most of the county refuses to do: engage our local politicians and keep them on track and honest. God bless them.)

The following description and quotes of the ES are based on listening to the audio recording. It is very poor quality in parts so some words may be incorrect. We are having the recording professionally transcribed and that will be printed in next week’s Sentinel.

What you hear on the tape is Day frantically pushing to get the whole contract negotiation process and the hiring of Wilson done in that one meeting as the Flower official recall results were days away (the unofficial Recall results were out August 7th and it wasn’t looking good for Flower Boy) and if Flower was recalled, the new BOCC would probably never finish the process.  (That’s why Day put in an unprecedented Severance Pay provision for ($45K) that the CM would get even if he worked only one day.)

Commissioner Bill Canda refused to attend the ES on August 16th as he believed that  Day and Flower did not properly follow the Colorado statutory provisions required to create a CM position and that the whole process was totally improper because Day and Flower had pre-chosen Wilson for the job and that was unethical.

So, what happened in that ES and the open meeting?  Here are some important items that occurred:

What the recording revealed:

1. The ES was supposed to be about getting “legal advice” from the County Attorney, Dan Slater, about the process for the contract negotiations Day and Flower should be taking in negotiating the contract with Wilson. But it turned into a lot more which was outside of the stated reason for the ES and thus illegal.

2. County Attorney Slater was inconsistent during most of the meeting.

3. Flower, even after being told by Slater that the actual negotiations with Wilson must be in a public, desperately wanted to do them in secret to keep the public in the dark. In the end, due to Slater, they did the fake “negotiations” in the public exposing the farce again to the citizens.

4. The whole ES discussion was a total clown show with Flower using curse words to describe the citizens in the meeting and Day pushing the absolutely crazy proposition to hire Wilson first and THEN negotiate a contract. This was beyond the realm of stupidity. Remember Flower called the citizens in the gallery at a big BOCC CM meeting a few months ago, “ya, ya’s”? Well, now he refers to the citizens that attended this meeting Bill’s “Billy Goats.” (Nice way to refer to the citizens who pay his salary and to show disrespect for your fellow commissioner.)

5. Slater, who constructed the proposed contract, used a sample employment contract from the national county manager association. Do you think that the sample contract might be a little biased towards the employee? Nah, no way. In the rush job to get this done, Slater did not get a good sample of other counties’ actual contracts but went with one that was surely pro employee and anti-county. (So we are paying him to side with an employee over the county’s interests?)

  1. Day pushed this through with the abhorrent severance pay provision. Flower gleefully went along but it was Day’s baby. (Wilson grabbed the money ($57k for five days work) the second he got terminated ALL DUE TO DAY’S INSISTENCE ON THE SEVERANCE PAY CLAUSE BEING IN THE CONTRACT.)
  2. Flower’s unbelievable arrogance: The management analysis team that Canda put together plus literally hundreds of retired or active big time business owners and small, medium, and large business executives live in this county. They actually KNOW how to run a business and especially an office type business. Flower has NO experience in that and had caused an incredible amount of damage in his six-year reign. Day has no business management experience AT ALL. In spite of that, here’s what Flower said, “Nobody down there has the expertise, knowledge, and insight that the three commissioners have. They can run their pie hole all they want. They don’t know.”

8. Our County Attorney, Dan Slater, who made up the employment contract (and we paid him for it) actually says about his proposed contract THAT HE MODIFIED, “And it may be poorly written. That’s a reality.” (Unbelievable.)

9. At one point, Flower asked Day, “How do you feel about postponing it all? Give them what they want?” Day, apparently started literally crying and said, “If that’s the case, I just spent two months fighting for something I know needs to happen and then I see [it] not happening.” (Day seems to think he knows it all and the dozens of citizens who said let’s slow this thing down on this are wrong.)

  1. Day and Flower go way off base near the end complaining about the citizens actually being allowed to speak at the meetings. Flower blames Day for this. Day and Flower spend some time on how to muzzle the peasants once they get back into the public session. This is not seeking legal advice from Slater and NOT part of the reason for the ES. They are making decisions in an ES which is illegal.

11. Cat out of the Bag: Day saying that “Braden will probably take whatever we want for him.” (Does that sound like the whole thing has been set up?)

12. With regards to public contract “negotiations” that were going to happen after the ES, Flower says this about the citizens at the meeting, “Yeah. I say the public doesn’t have anything to say about it.” (Nice.)

Bottom line, the tape shows that Day and Flower have NO respect for the citizens who voted them in. Somehow, as soon as they got elected, these two clowns turned into Super Mario managers with no need for advice or consultation before they make big time structural changes to our county government. We didn’t see this in Day when he was running for office. But, as we have seen over and over again, the man has become a huge disappointment.

Canda was right. The county needs management and leadership training. Starting with Day.

So, most of the ES was NOT about getting legal advice about the “process for contract negotiations” thus violating the Open Meetings law. This is wrong and unethical and probably illegal. We have enough of these ES’s. As citizen Matt Miles has said repeatedly in the meetings, “the public’s business should be done in public.” We need to make that happen.

 

Meet Custer County’s New VSO Officer

by Fred Hernandez


“I am a veteran helping veterans. End of story.”
With that simple, yet firm statement the newly appointed Custer County Veteran Service Officer introduces himself and his mission. Dominic Edginton, twenty-two year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, an extensively trained specialist in various aspects of military medical services including dentistry and EMT operations, is eminently qualified to navigate the intricate labyrinth of the Veterans Benefits Administration. Continue reading Meet Custer County’s New VSO Officer

Coroner Baltzly : Powered Stretcher Donation

by George Gramlich

Custer County Coroner Brad Baltzly demonstrates “new” power stretcher

A little investigative work proved to be a gold mine for our Coroner’s Office and Custer County. Recently, our Coroner, Brad Baltzly, was looking around for a power stretcher that would allow the Coroner’s Office to move bodies via a stretcher with wheels rather than with body bags. These mechanical stretchers have wheels so they can be moved easily and also have retractable legs allowing for easy delivery of the stretcher with the body into the transport vehicle (a pick up truck). The problem is that these powered stretchers are very, very expensive and the lowest quote Brad got was around $48,000. At the last Board of County Commissioners meeting in Wetmore, Brad reviewed the status with the commissioners.
Now, a few weeks later, we received this email from Brad the other day and it was some real good news:
“At the commissioners meeting in Wetmore, Commissioner Day advised me that he had spoken with the fire chief in Florence
and was told they had recently updated all their
stretchers in their ambulances in Florence. As you know, the Coroners Office here has been operating without the luxury of having a stretcher of any kind. I immediately contacted Bill Ritter, chief of Florence Fire and ambulance. He told me they had updated their equipment and I explained our lack of. He was kind enough to offer me, free of charge, two standard stretchers and one power stretcher. They are older models and the power stretcher was not operational, but with a little work I was able to make it functional. It’s now working well and the Custer County Coroner’s Office is now much better equipped than before. I would like to publicly thank Chief Ritter for his generosity and I will be personally sending him a thank you letter. I also want to thank all our community members who were willing to support my efforts to get new equipment for my office.

Sincerely, Brad Baltzly Custer County Coroner

Brad saved the county $48,000. Good job, sir.

BOCC Sept 6: County Manager, County Manager, County Manager

by George Gramlich, News and Commentary

The September 6, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners meeting started at 1 p.m. in the their offices in the Annex Building. All three commissioners were there: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioners Items, Canda said a Cessna airplane crashed when landing at the SilverWest Airport due to high winds. There were no injuries but the front of the plane was heavily damaged.
Public Comments from the packed gallery continued to center around the County Manager (CM) debacle. Joy Anderson spoke saying that a group of local citizens are forming an “investigation committee” that will seek to determine what actually happened with Day’s County Manager rush job and they want to find the “facts”. She asked the commissioners to formally recognize the committee and asked them to ask the County Clerk to help them get all the “records”. Continue reading BOCC Sept 6: County Manager, County Manager, County Manager

BOCC: Day Doubles Down on Paying Wilson $50k for Five Days Work

by George Gramlich
News and Commentary
Another wild one at the August 31, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting in their throne room in the old VSO office. All three commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp. The meeting started at 9 a.m. Continue reading BOCC: Day Doubles Down on Paying Wilson $50k for Five Days Work

Christopher Lutz Virden ll

Christopher Lutz Virden ll (CJ) passed away August 19, 2023. He was a loving young man with a rugged exterior and a huge, soft heart. His loyalty to family, dry sense of humor, and willingness to go the distance for his friends were just some of his wonderful virtues. He will be forever missed, and always loved. CJ is preceded in death by the man he missed most, his father, Christopher Lutz Virden, who passed away from ALS after a long and courageous fight.
CJ is survived by his mother, Niki Jacob; his younger sister, Chaney Marie Virden; grandparents William Thornton and Betty Baker Virden; Jeri and William Henkhaus; his uncle and guardian, Scott Virden, uncles and aunts, cousins; and his faithful dog, Jax.
CJ was born in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Elbert, Parker, and Westcliffe. CJ’s fondest childhood memories were riding 4-wheelers around his home-made racetrack, playing football, camping and boating on Pueblo Reservoir, and shooting guns and his bow and arrows. CJ faced more adversity in his life than any young
adult should face. However, he had the innate ability to toughen, lean into the hardship, and become stronger. He never gave up but dug in deeper.
CJ stayed in touch with his inner child. He enjoyed goofing off, fishing, shooting off fireworks, drinking strawberry margaritas and beer, and just hanging with his boys and playing video games. He absolutely loved the outdoors and going into the backcountry in his Jeep with his dog, Jax.
CJ placed an extraordinary value on his interpersonal relationships. He loved his family dearly and cherished every moment he spent with friends. He dearly loved his sister Chaney and looked after her always. He found refuge bonding online with his video gaming buddies Nik, Jett, Cory, and Derek in the odd hours of the night.
CJ’s greatest gift was the size of his heart. Under his stoic exterior was an incredibly huge, soft, and unselfish spirit. He generously gave himself to others under any circumstances and was always thoughtful and introspective with his friends and family in times of need. He would creatively think of new and unique ways to challenge each person to become a better person and face adversity with grit. These attributes generated the deep respect of his friends and endeared him to his family. His friends and family dearly love CJ, and they will take a part of CJ wherever they go.
It is interesting to note that his family found a journal in his belongings that he had written just weeks prior to his death; CJ was questioning and seeking out God.
CJ faithfully served our wonderful country in the 1st Battalion 38th Infantry 3rd Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. He also served as a Junior Firefighter at Wet Mountain Fire Department.
On Friday, September 1st, a traditional Rosary will be at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Westcliffe, CO, at 5:30 p.m. At 7:30, we will meet at Tony’s Pizza to share stories of his life. Saturday, September 2nd, Funeral Mass at 10:30 at Assumption Catholic Church in Westcliffe, CO, with Interment following at Westcliffe Catholic Cemetery. Lunch for all at the Westcliffe Fire Department after both services at approximately
1 p.m. All are welcome.

Wilson, Day and the Fruit Tree in the Garden

by George Gramlich, Some News, Mostly Commentary

Sept 1, 2023

Apparently, right after last Wednesday’s Custer County Board of County Commissioners Special Meeting, where com-missioners Bill Canda and Lucas Epp voted to rescind the Resolution that created the despised County Manager (CM) position, which in turn, immediately terminated the CM, Braden Wilson, anointed by commissioner Kevin Day and ex-commissioner Tommy “Bye Bye” Flower just the week before, something strange happened.
From what we have been told, right after the meeting ended, the
county’s new Finance Manager handed Wilson, who was just terminated, a Custer County check for $54,000! Yes, Fifty Four Thousand U.S. Dollars! Not a bad pay check for a guy WHO ONLY WORKED FIVE DAYS AS THE COUNTY MANAGER! Yup, FIVE Days. Smell bad, fellow taxpayers?  It stinks. Continue reading Wilson, Day and the Fruit Tree in the Garden

SilverWest AirFest: An Amazing Day

by Nora Kamholz

SilverWest Airfest 2023
by Nora Kamholz

The SilverWest Annual AirFest that took place this past Saturday 13th, was an inspirational event filled with a wide array of vintage planes, aerial displays and incredible people. This has been an annual event for the last 20 years. This year, there were a total of 32 planes on display from all over Colorado. An estimated 1,000 people (including a great deal of kids) attended both the AirFest and the free pancake breakfast.

The breakfast, provided by volunteers from the community served over 1,000 pancakes. Volunteers, including SilverWest Airport manager Clyde Butler,
says that this is by far their biggest year yet with every year seeing more and more people attending and participating in the AirFest.
A couple of the most notable planes found among the many different aircrafts on display at the AirFest, were two RV aircraft (short for Van’s Aircraft) and an old war bird T6 Texan from World War II that participated in several fly-by aerial formations. There were also many other notable aircraft like a high-speed Fouga jet, a Kodiak aircraft, Comanches, Cessnas and others. Several helicopters and other aircraft offered free flights to people throughout the day.
Including the onlookers of the event, the AirFest also hosted a wide range of pilots from casual fliers to veteran pilots, many of whom participated in aerial formations and displays. Among the different pilots attending and participating in the event, Gary Grub, with 46 years of flying experience, flew an RV-8 aircraft (one of the many big hits of the day.) A veteran of the Air Force, Grub loves everything about flying, from the speed and the height to the freedom it gives him. When asked what he enjoys about participating in the AirFest, he replied that he enjoys promoting general aviation and inspiring the people
attending.
One of the interesting individuals attending was Steve Janssen, museum curator of the Southern Colorado Space Museum & Learning Center which has it’s collection on loan at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum. Beginning with a small personal collection 13 years ago, Janssen is now in charge of a collection of artifacts worth millions of dollars. By attending the AirFest, Janssen enjoys  sharing and promoting knowledge of space and aviation and hopes to eventually house Southern Colorado Space Museum & Learning Center – Custer County  at SilverWest Airport Terminal.
In summary, the SilverWest Annual AirFest was an amazing event. Along with getting to view a wide variety of vintage aircrafts and watching impressive aerial formations and displays, it was also a great event to meet interesting people from all around the country. The AirFest is a great event for individuals and families to share their appreciation and knowledge of flying with fellow pilots and admirers.

Round Mountain Water Waste Treatment Update: Catch 22

Round Mountain Water Waste Treatment Update
Catch 22 Continues to Hold Up New Taps.
State Bureaucracy the Problem

by Fred Hernandez
The ongoing debacle of the sewer system problems of the Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District is just beginning to heat up. All the delays, through no fault whatsoever of the District, can be attributed to constantly changing rules and never-ending State and Federal bureaucracies. This report attempts to simplify the complex problems currently facing the District.
The District’s antiquated wastewater treatment system need to be totally upgraded to the tune of many millions of dollars. Proposed solutions are estimated to cost over 14 million dollars. This is far beyond the financial ability of the District and it’s constituents to install or operate. The District must find a treatment system that is both effective and affordable.
The most cost effective design for discharging reclaimed water from the treatment facility is to divert to Grape Creek that runs nearby. However, the Federal government declared Grape Creek as “impaired” due to excess nutrient loading causing harmful algae blooms in Lake DeWeese. This has caused the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to impose excessively stringent limits on any reclaimed water discharge, leading to the need for a very complex and expensive treatment system. This pollution could be cleaned up, but the state will not do so.
The District has researched other means of effluent disposal, but stream water discharge is the only option available. Initial treatment designs were estimated to cost around six million dollars and initially, the District was successful in receiving over $3,500,000 in grants and $2,500,000 in low interest loans. However, as rules and limits were changed, the redesigned plant cost skyrocketed to
over $14,000,000.
The District has by now spent over $675,000 on engineering, geotech work and other expenses related to the long-protracted study of the possible solutions to the ongoing problem. Their resources are depleted, and money is now needed badly.
After realizing that the traditional solution for wastewater treatment was unaffordable, District management has been conducting extensive studies and research of a new treatment technology that is currently not approved by CDPHE, known as the Powell Water Microalgae System. The new system testing has been proven on a small scale and would only cost $3 – 4 million to install.
CDPHE acknowledges the success but requires further proof on a larger scale. That requires funding which the District does not have. All these efforts have led to a catch 22 situation as the District does not have the funds available to construct a large-scale pilot study unless Federal grants and loans can be used, and those grants and loans are only available after the treatment system is approved by CDPHE.
What is urgently needed to move forward from this impasse is clearly that the state needs to assign an amount of funding designated as low interest loans to entities that can do research and design the necessary technologies to solve some of these problems faced by not only Round Mountain, but by many other counties and municipalities throughout the state. RMWSD has done everything within its power to try and meet the standards of the state. However, without the needed funding, there is little more that can be done to alleviate the situation at this time.