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2024, BOCC, Uncategorized

November 20 BOCC: Fleet Mgt Presentation, Bonuses, Meeting Location Change

BOCC: Fleet Management Presentation, Employee Bonuses,
BOCC Meeting Location Change

 

George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The November 20, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) regular meeting was held in their royally appointed quarters in the Annex across from the courthouse.
It started around 9 a.m. All three Commissioners were present: Bill Canda, Lucas Epp and Kevin Day.
In Commissioner Items, Epp said the Commissioners had to sign the 2025 budget in their December 11 meeting coming up. Day said he had received a letter from the County’s insurance carrier, CTSI, warning against “mass changes” in personnel when the new board convenes in January. (That, folks, was a little strange. There is one new Commissioner coming on board in January.) Epp noted that the Board has received three applications for the Director of Human Services (DHS) Director’s opening coming up in January. Epp wants to speed up the interview/hiring
process so the newly hired Director
has a chance to train with the
retiring one.
In New Business, the first item up was a presentation by a company
called “Enterprise Fleet Management”. They manage the purchase of fleet vehicles for various government entities and private companies. This was Day’s item. The Enterprise guy gave a decent Zoom talk which went on for a bit. The Commissioners will give him the VIN’s of all our fleet vehicles and he will get back to them with a
proposed plan.
Next up was approving the Upper Ark Weed Management Area Agreement. This passed.
The annual “Dedicated Service Awards for the County Employees” bonus was next. This is a year-end bonus of around $120 gross to each county employee. (Elected officials are not included.) Epp said we have “money in the salary lines” to do this. He also said the county “should be $200k to $300k under budget for the year”. (Commissioners, give that money to Road & Bridge. They need more help and equipment.) The bonus passed.
As a comment, Day said if somebody needed to see the County’s 2025 budget, one must go to the county website and then to the HR/Finance page. It is on a tab there.

Elected Official reports were next. The Sheriff’s Office report was first up. It was written and was not read at the meeting so we don’t know what was in it. After the Commissioners spent a few minutes scanning it on heir computers, Epp stated that he was working with our IT guy Vernon Roth to get the written reports online so us peasants can see what is going on. He said hopefully in January this will be working. (Thank you Mr. Epp and Mr. Roth for doing this.)
The Treasurer’s written report was accepted.
Coroner Brad Baltzly gave his report in person. He said they had 20 deaths YTD including one from Sawatch County (a hiker died in their county but the body was pulled out to Custer so we got stuck with it). Baltzly said suicides were “way up” (the county had seven) and about 40% of our total deaths are suicides. There were no homicides this year. He noted that in 2023 the county only had 13 deaths. (re homicides: Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith has put together a top notch team of very qualified counselors to respond to suicide calls. The timing is good. Our suicide rate, per capita, is very, very high.)
Department Reports

Human Resources was a written report. It was accepted.
Our Veteran Services Office Director, Dominic Edginton, was there to give his report. He had 61 scheduled appointments last month with around 65 walk-ins. He went through his claim numbers and compensation gained which were impressive. At the end he mentioned that he was Vice President of the Colorado Veteran Service Officers organization, but now, since the President stepped down, he became the big Chief. He made a couple of comments that there were going to be some changes in the organization in terms of performance and responsibility. (Go git’m Dominic!)
Road & Bridge gave their report. He needed the Commissioners to ok the water lease with the Upper Ark Water District (they get their road water from them). It was $9,500. The same as last year. It passed. He also needs the Commissioners to approve
the cost to replace the R&B’s fuel
station. That cost was $80k for the work and equipment and another $12k to do a new concrete pad. That passed.
Human Services, Landfill and Recycling reports were all written and accepted. Planning & Zoning was also written but Epp made the comment, from the report, that all receipts (building permits, etc.) were down dramatically from last time, around $200k worth. (The building boom is over folks. We better start tightening our budgets.)
The Airport report was written. Canda said the new AvJet fuel tank is here but not installed yet. He also noted the $450k game fence project had started. (That is being paid by a private company with no cost to the county.
Information Technology’s report was written. It was noted that there are two finalists for the vacant IT assistant position.
The Office of Emergency Management and the Extension Office reports were both written and accepted.
In Additional Items, Epp said the BOCC were moving their meetings down to the All Aboard Westcliffe building in Westcliffe to avoid using their current room as the Annex is HR and Finance’s current home and the BOCC meetings are very disruptive to their operations. The time frame is open.

And that was it. Another day in Happy Valley.

Uncategorized

Exclusive: At The Center of Tragedy — Asheville, North Carolina

Exclusive: At The Center of Tragedy — Asheville, North Carolina

14 Days at Mission Hospital

by Fred Hernandez
The Sentinel had a source on the ground in Asheville, North Carolina reporting on real time conditions in one of the most devastated areas resulting from the recent hurricane. Based on the follow-up interview of the Florida based team members, this is the Sentinel report:

After receiving an urgent call for help from their central emergency office, the Disaster Response Systems team, (DRS) took a commercial flight to Greenville, North Carolina, from Florida. At the airport they were taken on the next phase of the trek in a four-wheel drive Jeep Wrangler over very rough terrain and roads that had been almost washed out by heavy flooding to a rally point where they hopped on an EC-135, a large helicopter that also serves as aerial ambulances.
On their flight inbound they could see the extent of the destruction and the totally unexpected level of damage wrought on Ashville and the surrounding areas by the monster hurricane, Helene. The EC-135 landed on the rooftop of the Mission Hospital in Asheville. The seven hundred bed facility was surrounded by water and the emergency room on the ground floor was totally inundated.
Once on the ground the devastation was even more glaring. Pine trees bore evidence of how high the water rose from the clothing and other detritus and dregs tangled in the branches twenty or more feet above the ground. In one instance a human body was spotted high up in the trees tangled in the branches. Cars and other vehicles, sunk deeply in thick mud, had tags placed by workers in hazmat suits. The tags strictly instructed passersby and others not to open the doors or try to remove the vehicles. It quickly became clear that these vehicles were the final resting places of some of the unfortunate victims of destruction and death delivered by Helene’s
heavy hand.
After locating some higher ground close as possible to the medical facility that had been spared from flooding, they set up their emergency rooms in tents and immediately began the much
needed aid and care of waiting patients, many of whom had received no medical attention in days.

Mission Hospital in Asheville, part of a chain of medical facilities, the only hospital for thirteen counties in the area, is owned and operated by Hospital Corporation of America, (HCA), one of the largest healthcare companies in the country. Mission is a Level Two Trauma Center. The members of the emergency response team from other states came to Asheville to assist their colleagues in this time of disaster. They were to relieve the hospital workers of their duties in order to give them the time and opportunity to attend to their own family’s needs.
But this was not to be. After leaving the hospital they were the ones who were giving desperately needed aid to other victims in the rural areas. Helping people out of their mud filled and destroyed homes, giving aid to those rendered homeless and ferrying those in need back to the emergency rooms set up in tents outside the flooded medical building. There was no evidence of any teams or helpers from the government. These teams are known in their trade as strike teams. Team members who had previous experiences in these types of national disasters said that usually the government had teams of search and rescue professionals and medical aid personnel. This time there were none of these teams.


There were FEMA personnel on the outskirts of the town proper, but they were simply preventing outsiders from coming into the affected disaster zones. They were also “confiscating” whatever relief goods were being brought in. The real assistance came from surrounding states and mainly from private groups and enterprises. In fact, they were surprised that only fifty miles from Asheville, there is a military installation that had several large helicopters that would have been ideal for rescuing people from their rural homes and ferrying them to safety. It was common knowledge on the ground that while the personnel at the base were eager to help, they were not allowed to do so.

This was a double disaster for some of the communities affected by this natural calamity. The first disaster caused by nature is something that man cannot control. Nature will behave as it is supposed to. After a natural disaster, however, man, which is to say government, should have been able to control the aftermath at least a little bit better than it was in this case.

To have had no funds available to assist its citizens because they had squandered their budgets on illegal aliens entering the country in such a force, much like the hurricane, is inexcusable and unconscionable.
For fourteen days, the team worked sixteen-hour days continuously, before they were told that they could return to their homes. And so as they prepared to leave their posts they sadly took a last look around. Their surroundings seemed as if it had been ravaged by a marauding army. Death and destruction everywhere. Their last memory was the stench permeating the air while above them flocks of buzzards circled lazily over the treetops.

Fred Hernandez comments:
In this reporter’s opinion, nature’s hurricane causing much destruction and death on American communities is akin to the man-made destruction caused by those in office to allow millions of unvetted, illegal aliens to swarm into the country unchecked. Much like an unwelcome hurricane. In some cases the same government officials intentionally flew in illegal aliens from other countries and settled them in small communities disrupting the lives of law-abiding citizens, causing cumbersome difficulties on their modest resources and inflicting pain and in some cases even death. Nature cannot be held accountable for its behavior. However, in the case of men inflicting great damage on his fellowman, they should be taken to task. 

 

2024, BOCC, Uncategorized

Oct 30th BOCC: Another Grant Machine, Weed Board Bylaws

BOCC: Another Grant
Machine, Weed Board Bylaws

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The October 30, 2024 regular meeting of the Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) was held in their royal annex across from the courthouse. The meeting started around 9 a.m. and all three Commissioners were in attendance: Bill Canda, Lucas Epp and Kevin Day.
In New Business the Commissioners approved the Accounts Payable monthly bill. This was $227, 087.
Next, a lady from the Southern Colorado Economic Development District (SCEDD) gave a pre-sentation on who they were, what they do, and how they can “help” Custer County. (SCEDD is another one of the multitude of parasitic grant entities that live off of fed and state grants. These folks try to find grants for their members and help them get in on the grant money train. Like literally dozens and dozens of similar operations around the state. SCEDD is paid by its member counties, of which Custer is one. I think she said there were 14 member counties.) The lady droned on about how they write grants for us, etc. She mentioned SCEDD has a grant that it is using to do a study in our area about seeing if they can help to bring, get this, the semi-conductor computer chip industry here. (They are spending our tax money on this pipe dream. You can’t make this stuff up.) She also said that they had done a Custer County Economic Development study as requested by our very own Charles Bogle (currently on the SCEDD Board.) (How many “economic” studies have we paid for in the last ten years, folks?
Too many.) The lady of course touched on broadband (SCEDD handled HUGE grant monies for this over last few years) and the need for more workshops. Finally, it was done.
The Commissioners then ok’d some changes to the Weed Board Bylaws. They then approved the Sheriff’s contract with the Town of Silver Cliff. (Same $ as last year.)
In Public Comments, citizen and big-time local democrat James “Dr. Doom” Gilbert then delivered a handwritten speech attacking
Canda and Epp over the dismissal of County Attorney Dan Slater at the last meeting. He went on and on and on in his usual, somewhat, whiny voice saying that Canda and Epp hadn’t given a reason for them to fire Slater. (Folks, they said it last week, and they said it at this meeting: there was a personnel issue with Slater and a County employee, and it was confidential.)
Gilbert seemed to intentionally ignore the reason given and attacked the two without merit.
Here’s a couple of good quotes from the Dr. Doom; “maybe doing this for political reasons”, “Canda has no transparency”, “Sounds like a purge to me”, and “Shame on you, Mr. Epp, for going along with this”. Ahhh, a riff Kamala would be proud of.
And that was it.

Uncategorized

Black Hills Energy Botched Its Rate Increase Notice, PUC Demands Do-Over

From Canon City’s Energy Future

Black Hills Energy Botched Its Rate Increase Notice, PUC Demands Do-Over

Material errors in the original Customer Notice from Black Hills Energy in June of 2024 made it impossible for customers to determine the real impact of BHE’s proposed large rate increase to their utility bills.

The local citizen group, Canon City’s Energy Future (CCEF) (established 2018), questions the confusing information.

“BHE officials presented information to Canon City in mid-May that no increase was coming before 2030, and in fact they showed we could expect a 7%-8% DECREASE by 2030,” said CCEF committee member Steve Andrews, “one month later they proposed as much as an 18% rate increase.”

“The BHE notice sent to all customers in mid-June 2024 was loaded with errors, not mere ‘typos’ as the company, argued,” Andrews said. “BHE’s filing at the Public Utilities Commission in mid-June contained even more contradictory information stating a 20.46% increase to both business and residential customers.”

PUC Trial Staff together with the Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate (UCA) confronted BHE with at least some of these issues October 18th in a Joint Motion requiring an immediate corrected Customer Notice be done at BHE expense. The motion also listed other items.

“A do-over five months after it was botched does not inspire confidence, nor can it hide the enormity of the increase BHE wants to inflict onto rural Colorado customers,” stated Andrews.

Between now and the end of the year, this issue is moving quickly through Public Comment and Public Hearing. Here are four important meetings:

Tues. Nov. 12th 5pm-6:30pm – PCC Fremont Campus, 51320 US Hwy 50 Rm 146 Canon City

Thurs. Nov. 14th 6pm at Canon City Hall, 128 Main St – with the Utility Consumer Advocate

Mon. Nov. 18th 5:30pm – Florence City Hall, 600 W 3rd St – Informational meeting on how to provide input to the PUC

Tues. Nov. 19th 5pm-7pm Canon City Hall – Public Comment Hearing with the Public Utilities Commissioners.

The volunteer members of Canon City’s Energy Future group encourage you to come learn why the Utility Consumer Advocate recommends NO RATE INCREASE for BHE.  Then testify at a full hearing with the Colorado PUC on Nov 19 to push back on the proposed 18% rate increase to your electric bill.

2024, Uncategorized

Trump Wins! There Is Hope Epp, Vogelsong Cruise to Commish Wins

Trump Wins! There Is Hope
Epp, Vogelsong Cruise to Commish Wins
Mt. Lion Hunting Ban Shot Down

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

(Unofficial ballot numbers from 11/6/24))

Some real good news statewide with the Ranked Voting and Mt. Lion Hunting Ban ballot measures being defeated. Locally, the two big races were for the two County Commissioner slots with Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong easily defeating their opponents Epp beat his opponent with 2,465 votes to 1,235. Vogelsong vanquished incumbent Commissioner Kevin Day by 2,053 to 1,205. (Some thought that the write in candidate, Attebury, would pull enough votes away from Vogelsong to let Day slide in, but that didn’t happen. Attebury only got 378 votes.)
Jeff Lindsey ran uncontested for our 11th Judicial District District Attorney. He got 2,788 votes in Custer County.
Of note, all the judges up for retention were voted down in Custer County except one, Court of Appeals Judge Gilbert Roman, who barely won a “Yes” by just nine votes (locally.)
Stephanie Luck, won her District 60 State Representative position against Dem Kathryn Green, In Custer County, Luck got 2,596 votes to Green’s 1,102.

At the Federal level, our hero, Donald Trump, won the monumental President of the United States battle against Kamala Harris. In a landslide predicted by only a very few. He won in the electoral college vote and the national popular vote. In Custer County, The Donald received 2,560 votes to Harris’s 1,171. For the entire state of Colorado, Harris got 1,345,023 votes to Trump’s 1,052,320.

In the U.S. Congress District 7 House race, Democrat Brittany Pettersen won, but in Custer County her opponent, Sergei Matveyuk, whooped her bad getting 2,435 votes to Pettersen’s 1,168.

The Colorado ballot measures results were generally good:
Amendment G: Expand Veteran Property Tax Exemption won easily (72.4% to 27.6%).
Amendment H: Create an Independent Judicial Board passed (72.7% to 27.3%).
Amendment I: No Bail for First Degree Murder passed (69.4 % to 30.5%).
Amendment J: Remove the Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriages passed (63.8% to 36.2%).
Amendment K: Earlier Election Filing Deadlines lost
(55.3% to 44.7%).
Amendment 79: Constitutional Right to Abortion passed
(61.5% to 38.5%).
Amendment 80: School Choice K-12 failed
(52.2% to 47.9%).
Proposition JJ: Keep Sporting Betting Tax Revenue was ok’d
(75.9% to 24.3%).
Proposition KK: Tax on Firearms and Ammunition passed
(54.2% to 45.8%).
Proposition 127: Prohibit Big Cat Hunting was defeated
(55.5% to 44.5%).
Proposition 128 Change Parole for Violent Crimes passed
(62.4% to 37.6%).
Proposition 129: Create New Veterinary Positions passed
(52.4% to 47.8%).
Proposition 130: The Law Enforcement Support Fund passed
(53.1% to 46.9%).
Proposition 131: Ranked Choice Voting was defeated
(55.2% to 44.8%).

2024, Uncategorized

Joseph A. Fawcett Service Sunday November 10 POSTPONED

 

Joseph A. Fawcett

UPDATE:  Service POSTPONED until Spring.

Joseph A. Fawcett died at 7:41 p.m. on October 5, 2024, at the University of Colorado Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado with friends at his bedside.  He received last rites from a Catholic Priest.  His death was preceded by his parents,, Peter and Rita Fawcett of Racine, Wisconsin, and brothers, Paul and Anthony Fawcett.  He is survived by siblings, John, James, Teresita, and Catherine Fawcett.   He had been life-flighted from his home in Westcliffe, Colorado to the hospital for a blockage in his digestive system and underwent a successful surgery, but only hours later a complication in the form of a blood clot in his leg ultimately caused his demise.

Joe was a 1978 graduate of Saint Charles Preparatory High School in Columbus, Ohio.  Having retired from the Floral Industry and his work as a designer and talented artist, Joe resided in Westcliffe, Colorado, situated between the Wet Mountains to the East and the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range to the west.  He spent most days sitting in his wheelchair smoking his pipe with his dog, Dusty, by his side and overlooking the small lake at Bluff & Summit Park near his home.  Joe had become an amputee as a result of damage caused through radiation treatment for cancer in the mid-2000’s.

Per his wishes, his body was cremated and his family will spread his ashes in a private ceremony in the future.

There is a Memorial Service scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 10, 2024 at the Smokey Jack Observatory at the Bluff and Summit Park in Westcliffe, Colorado with a reception at the Vista Celesta Apartments common room (109 South Adams Blvd.), where friends and family will visit and some of Joe’s Artwork will be available for viewing.  The reception location will also act as the Memorial Gathering location in case of inclement weather.

As Joe in his final years practiced the faith of Messianic Judaism and was strongly supported, in lieu of flowers, any acknowledgment of Joe’s passing can be made through donations to:
“Shammash Ariel Synagogue” and delivered to 2612 South Prairie Avenue, Pueblo, Colorado 81005.  Please note:   “In Memory of Joseph Fawcett”.

2024, BOCC, Uncategorized

October 24 BOCC- Budget Woes, OEM Empire Building, County Attorney Fired

BOCC: 2025 Budget Woes,
More OEM Empire Building,
County Attorney Gets Fired

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The October 24, 2024 regular meeting of the Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) started at around 9:20 a.m. due to some computer issues. It was held in their royal annex across from the courthouse. All three Commissioners were present: Bill Canda, Lucas Epp and Kevin Day.
In Commissioner Items Canda said the two TV stations are broadcasting fine. Epp said that he had contacted a construction consulting company to look at all the issues of the courthouse and give the Commissioners a report on it. He also stated that the 2023 audit and the 2025 budget are both “posted”. Epp reported that the proposed 2025 budget expense is $923,000 over expected revenue and that the county would have to get money from the Cash Reserves account to cover some of that. Epp added that they are going over the budget cutting where they can.
In Department Reports, Finance was first. The County’s finance consultant Lisa Hemann, from Redland’s Accounting, reviewed the various items she worked on last month including the county’s lack of policies and procedures for the various departments. After her presentation, Canda stated that, “We need to talk about changing
the auditor. We’ve had him for a long time. We need to look at others and get prices.” Hemann agreed. Epp added that he has asked Finance to “research audit options including a forensic audit”. He said we need an “audit policy” and suggested we should change auditors every five years. (Folks, auditors should be changed every three to five years. You need to audit the auditors. We have had
this one for 15 years or so. Totally unacceptable.)
The Human Resources report was written. The Commissioners read it silently and didn’t discuss anything substantial to the public. (No transparency here, folks. Post it on the website, Commissioners, so the peasants can see where their money is spent. It ain’t that hard.)

The Veteran Services Office report was next. Dominic Edginton gave another excellent report on his work.
Coroner Brad Baltzly gave a brief report. He noted that the county’s suicide rate is double from what it was last year.
Road & Bridge filed a written report. The Commissioners read it in silence. At the end, Epp said they had to cut $100k from the R&B’s budget for 2025. (Another report denied to the public. No transparency.)
Planning & Zoning also filed a written report. The Commissioners read it in silence, so we don’t know what is going on. At the end of the silent reading, Epp said that P&Z’s receipts are down $241k from last year and that building and septic permits are also down a lot. He also said “compliance issues continue to grow.”
Landfill, Recycling and Human Services all submitted written reports that were read in silence by the Commissioners. The citizens don’t know what is in them.
The Office of Emergency Management Director, Robyn Knappe, was there in person to support her written report. Epp asked her about Knappe’s project to organize and program all the county’s radios. After some jiving, the bottom line was Knappe wasn’t even close to getting that done. (This is a big priority. Why this isn’t being done right now is not good. Let’s put aside the grant addiction and get some real, important work done.)
Knappe was up again in New Business re another grant. This time for a “mitigation concept” effort for a fed grant called AIM to support mitigation efforts. Knappe tells the Commissioners all about the county’s fire dangers and the need to reduce the “fuel load”. She now wants a full time “mitigation specialist” for us to pay for. (Folks, if you look at the size of Custer County, and the extremely small citizen cadre wishing to do mitigation, the results of all this spending –$100k for a chipper, a full-time employee costing $60 to $70k a year, plus all the other expenses– the result would be TRIVIAL and non-consequential. Total waste of money.)
Canda is not happy about this. He said, “We are not in the business of competing with contractors who do this for a living”. Epp is also a little skeptical about this with the added drain on HR and Finance. The Commissioners pass the motion to have a concept paper prepared for the AIM grant. (Suggestion from a Taxpayer: Having a year-round mitigation employee is a total waste of money. So is the $100k for a chipper that can eat a truck. Take this grant money, get some bids from local mitigation companies, select the best one, and PAY OUR LOCAL WORKERS to do the job. Pay them by the hour to chip the slash. That way you can see the demand from the public, and if it is huge, then you might be able to make a case for a full-time employee and a big capital expenditure. Instead of HURTING our local working citizens, you would be helping them. We have hard times coming Commissioners, we need a lean, efficient government. Not a bloated one.)
The big magilla was next: Canda’s Agenda Item on firing the current County Attorney Dan Slater. (Background: As you will see below, there is a personnel issue with Slater and the county. Because it is a personnel issue, it cannot be revealed, so the Commissioners dance around the subject in the discussion.) Canda moves to change the County Attorney. Epp says you can’t do that until you have a replacement. Canda said he had an “interim candidate in mind”. Epp seconds the motion.
Day immediately signals he wants to keep Slater: “We have a situation that has arisen. I am of the opinion that it can be resolved. I move we retain Dan’s services and move forward to get another attorney to service DHS (our Department of Human Services). (Background: Apparently, we have three contracts with Slater, all hourly. This is due to the regulatory situation re DHS and HR. There is one contract with the county/BOCC in general, one with DHS and one with Human Resources. This is the normal setup due to regulatory and statutory law. Day’s comment suggests the personnel issue is with Slater and DHS and that if they get another attorney just to cover that legal contract, everything will be ok and Slater could retain the county and HR contracts. The question is, does that DHS issue poison Slater to the point where we don’t want him around anymore?)
The Commissioners dance for a while. Slater then gets his say: “the issue we are not discussing does not mean improper conduct by me. At least as I view it. Whatever issues exist can easily be fixed by splitting up the departments. It will be difficult to find somebody with the experience that I have with all three contracts.” He went on for a bit more.
After Slater’s plea was done, Canda said, “We do have concerns. Stuff we can’t get into publicly right now.” Day then said, “I won’t support it.” Day then asks for the debate to end and vote on it. Canda and Epp vote to change the County Attorney. Day voted to keep him. Slater is bye bye.
Another day in Happy Valley….

2024

Memorial Service for Andrew Fernandez

Andrew Fernandez, photo via Facebook

There will be a memorial service for Custer County Emergency Medical Services paramedic Andrew Fernandez on Saturday, November 2, 2024, at 2 p.m. The service will be held in the East Gym at Custer County School.

Prior to the memorial service, there will be a procession of emergency vehicles that will escort his family to the school.
The Custer County Sheriff’s office gave this information on the motorcade:

A procession of emergency vehicles from across the state will escort the family and friends of Paramedic Andrew Fernandez with flashing lights from Fremont County to Custer County Schools. The procession is expected to travel through the town of Florence at approximately 11:20 AM. Then through the town of Wetmore around 11:40 AM. The procession will arrive in Silver Cliff around 12:30 then end at the High School Gym in Westcliffe. People who wish to, can observe the procession as it passes by. Several medical helicopters will also be landing at the High School. Paramedic Fernandez had previously served as a flight paramedic.

There is still time to donate to his family using this link
https://gofund.me/4a53781d  or by dropping a check off at Kirkpatrick Bank in Westcliffe. All funds raised will go directly to his wife, Justine.

2024, Uncategorized

SDCEA Welcomes New Fremont County Director

Rob Canterbury

Sangre de Cristo Electric Association (SDCEA) is pleased to announce the selection of Rob Canterbury as the new director representing Fremont County on the SDCEA board.
A rancher from a multi-generational family in the area, and a lifetime resident of Fremont County, Canterbury brings a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to the community. Canterbury steps into this role following the resignation of former director Nick Hellbusch in July and will serve the remainder of Hellbusch’s term, which concludes in June. Canterbury will be eligible to run for the seat at that time for a full three-year term.
“We are excited to welcome Rob to the board,” said Sandra Attebery, Chair of SDCEA. “His dedication to Fremont County and his background will be invaluable as we continue to enhance our services and meet the needs of our members.”
Canterbury was selected by the board after interviews of three Fremont County residents who applied for the position.
While board members are elected to represent members from geographical areas of the cooperative, they are elected to serve all members. Two board seats are designated as at-large.
Current board officers include:
• Sandra Attebery, representing  Custer County, Chair
• Charles Abel, rural Chaffee/Lake County, Vice-Chair
• Blake Bennetts, town of Buena Vista, Secretary
• Jeff Fiedler, At Large, Treasurer
The board also comprises directors Mark Boyle, Rural Chaffee/ Lake County; Sandy Long, At Large, and now, Rob Canterbury, Fremont County.
Contact Information
SDCEA directors can be contacted via email through myelectric.coop/boardinfo/board-of-director-contacts.

2024, Uncategorized

Chris Nordyke Service and Obituary

Chris Wayne Nordyke was born in Cañon City on February 12, 1961, to Barbara Maxine Babb-Nordyke and Arthur Lee Nordyke. Chris spent the early years of his life in Cañon City with his parents and brothers, Kurt and Kyle. At the age of 6, Chris made the decision to devote his life to follow Jesus and make Him the Lord and Savior of his life. The Nordyke family moved to Westcliffe while Chris was in high school where he graduated in 1979.
Following high school, Chris attended Ortero Community College in La Junta, Colorado, where he studied welding for a year. He then returned to Westcliffe and spent many years working for his parents at Nordyke Construction.
On July 14, 1990, he married the love of his life, Shelly Nordyke. Chris was a devoted and kind husband to Shelly for 34 years. Together, Chris and Shelly had four sons: Christopher James (CJ), Cole Lee, Corey Wade and Casey Taylor. It gave him great pride and joy to watch them grow, play football, and teach them his trade.
He actively attended and served at First Baptist Church of Westcliffe as a deacon and youth leader. Chris also volunteered as an assistant football coach where he followed his passion of mentoring young men and setting an example of Godly manhood. He had many other passions like fly fishing, reloading, bird hunting and guns….lot of guns. In 2015-2016 Chris went on two separate mission trips to Mexico where he built a church for some of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
He formed Construction Solutions of Colorado in 2011 and worked tirelessly as general contractor. During that time, he built a great love for building custom homes, meeting and working with clients, many of whom became his dear friends.
He is preceded in death by his mother Barbara and eldest son CJ. Chris is survived by his father Arthur, brothers, Kurt (Emme), Kyle (Leslie) as well as many nephews and one niece, his wife, Shelly and sons: Cole (Tori), Casey (Shelby), Corey (Emily) Nordyke. Chris was loved well by all his grandchildren: Bentley, Eliana, Cooper, Brayden, Aliyah Joy, Adde Mae, Brooklyn, Elowyn, Evelyn and Harper Jane Nordyke. Chris was 63 years old when the Lord called him home unexpectedly on October 25, 2024. In his final years he and Shelly lived out one of their lifelong dreams in their house on an acreage in Cañon City where they raised chickens, a garden, and spent many hours shooting with dear friends from Connect Church in Cañon City, Colorado.

A Celebration of Life for Chris Nordyke will be held at the First Baptist Church in Westcliffe, CO, at 10 a.m. on Friday the 1st of November.