Category Archives: 2024

2024, Uncategorized

Pet Photography Workshop

Sangres Art Guild Offers Free
Pet Photography Workshop
April 27 at the 3rd Street Gallery

Press Release
The Sangres Art Guild (SAG) announced today that a free workshop titled Pet Photography Basics, sponsored by the Sangres Art Guild in partnership with Wet Mountain Animal Welfare, will take place from 12 – 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 27th at the 3rd Street Gallery at 59000 N. Highway 69 in Westcliffe, Colorado.
This free pet photography workshop is open to anyone who would like to take amazing photos of pets or rescue animals. Whether you want to pursue fine art portraiture or just capture great memories to share with friends and family, artist and instructor Sandra Dalton will teach you basic techniques to turn your pet photography from “blah” to captivating. Regardless of what type of equipment you have, or experience level, you can take photos that capture your pet’s unique essence and personality. Instructor Sandra Dalton is a fine art photographer focusing on portraiture and pictures that tell a story, best known for her portraits of feral and rescue cats. She is president of Wet Mountain Animal Welfare and also serves as the SAG Marketing Chair.
The workshop takes place April 27th so that participants have time to practice and create artwork for the SAG “For the Love of Animals” art show and competition that will be judged by Andy Mast as a benefit for Wet Mountain Animal Welfare. Art must be submitted July 28-29 and the show runs during the month of August.
FOR THE LOVE OF ANIMALS, benefit for Wet Mountain Animal Welfare, judged by Andy Mast…Show runs: Thursday – Monday, 11 a.m.-.4.p.m .August 1st to August 31st in the 3rd Street Gallery, 59000 N. Highway 69, Westcliffe, CO Opening Reception: August 1, 2024 from 4pm-6pm
Class size is limited. To register, contact sandra@sandradaltonphotography.com or call (719) 695-0092.

In addition to great art, there is plenty to do in Westcliffe. Some of the more popular excursions for tourists include hiking in the surrounding Sangre de Cristos Mountains, visiting the acclaimed local theater for a live production or touring the nearby wolf sanctuary. This area of Colorado is known as a dark sky community and gazing at one of the darkest, starriest night skies on Earth is also top of the list.

2024, Uncategorized

Barbara Nordyke Passes

Obituary
Barbara Nordyke

 

Barbara Maxine Babb-Nordyke was born February 5, 1940, in Parkview, New Mexico, to Richard and Florence Whaley-Babb. During her childhood, the Babb family, with five children, moved to Rockvale, Colorado, and she attended Florence High School, where she met her future husband. She graduated high school in 1958. She married Arthur Lee Nordyke in 1959, and was a devoted wife and mother for 65 years. Barbara and Arthur are the parents of Chris Wayne (Shelly) Nordyke, Kurt Lee (Emma) Nordyke, and Kyle Len (Leslie) Nordyke. They are blessed with nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Barbara was preceded in death by Richard and Florence Babb, Ellen Babb-Dunsmore, Rudy Babb, and Christopher James Nordyke. She is survived by her devoted husband, three sons, daughters-in-law, and her grandchildren: Cole (Tori), Casey (Shelby), Cory (Emily), Kade, Mason, and Lane Nordyke, as well as, Jesse Todd and Sara Elizabeth Aldrich. Her surviving great-grandchildren are Bentley, Cooper, Aliyah, Elowyn, Eliana, Brayden, Adeline Mae, Harper, Brooklynn and Evelyn Nordyke.
Barbara loved to cook and sew. She planted and tended many gardens and raised chickens. She loved photography; especially taking pictures of her grandchildren. She enjoyed riding horses and loved a good strong cup of coffee. Barbara loved to laugh and had a funny sense of humor. Barbara was an active member of the First Baptist Church of Westcliffe for 20 years. However, she came to know Jesus as her personal savior at First Southern Baptist Church in Florence, Colorado, when she was approximately 10 years old. She leaves a beautiful legacy of faith to her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She passed away after an extended time of illness, peacefully at home on April 10, 2024.
Services were held at First Baptist Church of Westcliffe, Colorado, on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 10 a.m.
A guest book to send the family a message can be found on Legacy.com.

2024, Uncategorized

April 4 BOCC: Child Advocacy Center Hired to Help SO

BOCC: Child Advocacy Center Hired to Help SO,
Finance Director Hiring Update

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The April 4, 2024 regular meeting of the Custer County Board of County Com-missioners (BOCC) met in their meeting room across for the County Courthouse with all three Commissioners present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp. The meeting started at 9 a.m.
In Commissioner Items, Canda revealed that KKTV is now operational off the county’s hill top transmission building. The installers are having a small problem getting the other station (Channel 13) to work due to an incorrect cable. They hope to fix
that soon.
In  Elected Officials Reports, Sheriff Rich Smith was up first. With the County’s Victim Advocate employee resigning
a while back, Smith opted for a better solution. He hired a company out of Cañon City, the Child Advocacy Center, to perform the job. They have a full-time staff and the cost to the County is only $500 per month. Plus Smith noted we have two local volunteers who can also assist.
With regards to the increasing number of mental health calls, and the Deputy’s roles in responding to such calls, Smith said he has hired a very experienced local couple to assist in these calls. They will be available 24 hours a day.
Sheriff Smith said he also recently hired a part time person to be his Chief of Staff. This administrative position is for three days a week. No benefits. The person Smith hired was the retired Chief of Police for Florence, Mike DeLaurentis, who has 42 years of law enforcement experience. Smith had worked closely with DeLaurentis while Smith was the State Police Captain in Florence.
Smith was pleased to announce that the Sheriff’s Office has finally got their FreCom dispatch CAD software working.
The Coroners Report was given by Coroner Brad Baltzly. He said the county had only three “unattended deaths” this year and all were sent to autopsy.
In Staff Reports, Dominic Edginton, the County’s Veteran Service Officer gave his report. As usual, he reported great results with new veteran cases and continuing cases. (Dominic is doing an outstanding job. Reviews of his work are outstanding.)
Newly hired Bob Chesser gave the Human Resources report. He discovered a fairly big problem with the CTSI increased benefit to some County employees. The cost is split between the county and the employees, but the cost increase was not programmed into the employees’ paychecks. Thus, some employees owe the county money. The total is $15.5k, total, for all employees. They are exploring ways to fix this. (Chesser was a great hire. This guy has tons of experience, knows all the laws and regulations, and is a problem solver. Listening to him, it shows the BOCC should have hired a pro years ago instead of bringing people on board with NO knowledge at all of HR.)
In New Business, the Finance Report was first. Lisa Hemann, from Redland’s Accounting, the firm the County hired to fix the audit issues and other problems left by the last two Finance Directors, gave the report. She said she has spent three weeks working on the issues and concentrated on adjustments to liabilities and fund balances as well as looking at general ledger details. She has fixed a lot of incorrect fund postings and wrongfully entered account items. She also described other fixes and changes she made. She is confident she can get the “pre-audit” done by May 1st so the data can be turned over to the County’s auditor on that date. It was noted that a lack of training on the County’s new CIC accounting system is a major factor in a lot of the issues.
Dorothy Carsten, our Planning & Zoning Director, delivered her report. During her report she mentioned a “homeless camp” located on four lots in Silver Cliff Heights. She said it “goes back many years” and that there are concerns from a “healthy standpoint” as there are no “septics” or the “septics are not connected”. Where this is going remained unclear.
Two new Short Term Rentals were then approved by the Commissioners.
The next Agenda Item was “Revising and Reposting the Finance Director’s Position. (The response to the current posting was dismal. The CPA requirement and fairly low salary are the main culprits.) Canda opened the discussion. This discussion went on and on. In the end, the Commissioners lowered the requirements to a minimum of a Bachelors Degree in Accounting with a Masters and a CPA preferred. They also added mandatory experience in government accounting. HR Guy Chesser added a lot to the discussion. He also found several excellent job posting internet sites that specialize in these kind of jobs.
Epp talked about how it would be good to keep Redlands Accounting on retainer even after the new Finance Director is hired. (That seemed like a good idea.)
And that was that.

2024, Uncategorized

Sheriff Rebuts Questionable Allegations

Sheriff Rebuts
Questionable Allegations

(Editor/GG: Another day in Happy Valley with the Tribune slinging mud against another county official. Sheriff Rich Smith received an email from the editor of the Wet Mountain Tribune last week that contained a draft of a variety of allegations against Sheriff Smith regarding hiring practices and issues with personnel in the department. Sheriff Smith responded that he would like to meet with the editor to discuss the draft but the editor declined the face-to-face, man-to-man encounter and demanded a written response instead.
Sheriff Smith wrote a response and sent a copy to the Sentinel. We are printing the response at the same time the allegations are being
published in the Tribune so our readers can see what the truth is (and just in case the Tribune doesn’t print the Sheriff’s response).
Next week, after we have read the hit piece we will parse it and give a detailed analysis. (This is gonna be fun. If the article was anything like the Trib editor’s kindergarten level criminal complaint last year against Commissioner Canda re the infamous Braden Wilson $45k severance check, we will be having some laughs, again, at the “creative” writing. Stay tuned.)

Sheriff Smith’s Response:
April 8, 2024
Jordan, thank you so much for putting these questions in writing, so that I can address them.
You are asking me a number of employee related questions which are often handled with a “no comment”, or “we don’t comment on personnel issues” response.
I believe it is a crucial part of my job, serving the people of Custer County, to be as open as I can be about how their government works, given certain limitations dictated by laws and regulations.
I am able to share some details about the following employees because there has been outside independent investigations into their actions and those investigatory reports are a part of public record. You are welcome to come to the office and view the report (it’s in a 3 ring binder – not conducive to scanning them in a scanner or copier). Continue reading Sheriff Rebuts Questionable Allegations →

2024, Uncategorized

New Volunteer CCSO Co-Responder Team

New Volunteer CCSO Co-Responder Team

Press Release
by Undersheriff Susan Barnes
The Custer County Sheriff’s Office, at the direction of Sheriff Lloyd Rich Smith, has launched a Co-Responder Program. This program pairs specially trained law enforcement officers with mental health professionals to handle mental health crises. The program’s primary goal is to provide efficient crisis de-escalation and connect individuals in crisis with appropriate
behavioral health services. Research shows that this response model has positive outcomes, including reducing arrests, police detentions, emergency department visits, and psychiatric hospitalizations, and promoting cost-effectiveness.
While pursuing election to his office, Sheriff Smith articulated his passionate commitment to improving law enforcement-based behavioral healthcare. With the addition of two mental health professionals to his department, who recently became residents of the County, Sheriff Smith established the basis for a co-responder program.
The Sheriff’s Office welcomes G Thomas Manzione, Ph.D., and Jaclyn Manzione, M.S. to their team. Dr. Manzione is a licensed professional counselor, certified addiction specialist, nationally certified addiction counselor, and a certified equine specialist in mental health and learning.
Dr. Manzione possesses special training and skills that enable him to assess the mental health of clients and address cognitive, psychological, and behavioral disorders using an extensive range of therapy techniques. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, he performs the tasks of diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders, conducts research into the efficacy of advanced therapy techniques, and refers clients to medical mental health professionals as necessary.
In addition to his mental health credentials, Dr. Manzione is a Colorado POST-certified law enforcement officer. Qualitative research indicates that the most effective configuration of a co-responder team includes having a police officer who is credentialed as a mental health professional.
Jaclyn Manzione is a retired medical professional who now practices as a registered psychotherapist. She is also certified as an equine Gestaltist, master Gestaltist, and equine specialist in mental health and learning.
Gestalt Counseling is a form of psychotherapy that provides mental and emotional support to individuals struggling with various mental, emotional, and addictive disorders. Jaclyn specializes in counseling clients with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, behavioral disorders, and sexual abuse. She also offers crisis management and mental health assessment services. As a research scientist, Jaclyn has conducted studies on diagnostic medical techniques and animal-assisted psychotherapy to determine their effectiveness.
Jaclyn has experience as a first responder, coach, and adjunct instructor at the Law Enforcement Officers’ Academy located at the Flatrock Regional Training Center. Additionally, she has trained SWAT team hostage negotiators.
Jaclyn and Tom lived in the mountains of Boulder County for 18 years before moving to their new permanent home in Westcliffe. They are a family of four, with two sons. Their oldest son is actively serving as a decorated Marine Corps Naval Aviator, and their youngest son works for a federal agency in Denver.
At the request of the Sheriff, Dr. Tom and Jaclyn agreed to help develop a co-responder program to address the increased demand for behavioral healthcare services in the County.
The Sheriff says that the co-responder program aims to enhance the already impressive work done by the deputies in serving the community. The CCSO deputies are highly trained (CIT) in dealing with critical incidents and have a successful track record.
Sheriff Smith’s agency has achieved an exceptional level of competency by implementing the co-responder model. According to the Brennan Center for Justice’s latest data (2020-2022), only fifteen out of the top 50 law enforcement jurisdictions nationwide have created new co-responder programs. This highlights the rarity of such programs and the significance of Sheriff Smith’s achievement.
To work towards the goal of providing better behavioral health-care services proactively, Sheriff Smith plans to establish an “Early Intervention Team” consisting of co-responders and members from the educational, law enforcement, and judicial communities. This team will conduct behavioral health threat assessments for situations of concern.
The Sheriff is dedicated to providing these mental health services with empathy, genuine care and concern to enhance the safety, security, and well-being of the community. The Co-Responder Program will share office space with Victim’s Advocacy. Please watch for an invitation from the Sheriff’s Office to meet Dr. Tom and Jaclyn and welcome them to our community.

2024, BOCC, Uncategorized

April 3 BOCC: in County Facilities, High Drama, Lib Meltdowns

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The April 3, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) regular meeting started at 9 a.m. at their royally appointed abode across from the County Courthouse. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and
Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Items, Canda noted that the two local TV stations (11 and 13) operating off the mountain should be operational by next week.
In New Business, the Short Term Rental Application (STR) for the Urbiztondo STR was up. This is the third go at this STR. The Planning Commission had previously voted to recommend that the BOCC deny the application due to the vehement disapproval by its neighbors. Continue reading April 3 BOCC: in County Facilities, High Drama, Lib Meltdowns →

2024, Uncategorized

Liberty Rocks: Ricky Schroder, Stamping out Porn

Ricky Schroder At
Liberty Rocks
New Mission: To Stamp Out Pornography

by Fred Hernandez
The new venue for Liberty Rocks at Lange Hall on Third Street in Westcliffe had a great attendance of eighty five (85) friends and neighbors most of whom enjoyed a delicious dinner provided by Imperio Azteca. On the menu was a sumptuous taco bar featuring beef or chicken with all the trimmings including dessert.

Liberty Rocks March 2024
Photo by Fred Hernandez

Continue reading Liberty Rocks: Ricky Schroder, Stamping out Porn →

2024, Uncategorized

2024 Sangre Art Guild Create Pilot Program For The Children

2024 Sangre Art Guild
Create Pilot Program
For The Children of Custer County

by Fred Hernandez
A brand new program for all children but particularly beneficial for homeschooled kids because of the timing, is being announced by Liz VanSomeren, the contact person for this pilot program at 3rd Street Art Gallery. It will fulfill the need in the world of art for children from Kindergarten to the 7th grade. As Liz says, “we are learning from this pilot what we have to do to best serve the needs of the children and we will be offering this program again in the Fall for all children”.
From the write-up provided by Ms. VanSomeren:
Sangres Art Guild’s art education program for Custer County Home School Families is tuition free with art supplies provided by the guild. Our first classes started on February 28th, meeting on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month from 1-2 p.m. ending this semester on May 8th.
There are 15 children in grades K-7 in our pilot program, split into three classes: kindergarten, grades 1-4 and grades 5-7 with 12 more children on our waiting list. In the fall semester our goal is to enroll up to 30 children in grades 1-8.
Our art curriculum includes studying elements of art which are line, shapes, color, form, texture, and space while using various art mediums including pencil, watercolor, crayon, tempura, pastel, etc.
We’ll practice in class art techniques, work on an in-class art project and provide at-home art activities to extend classroom learning.
The five teachers who themselves are artists with a variety of teaching backgrounds are Jan Kraus, Anne Owens, Eileen Piasecki-Couch, Liz VanSomeren and Terri Weibke. Deb Rimmer is an assistant, and we have a need for more teachers and teachers’ assistants. Julie Hutslar, our visiting artist, will end the semester on May 8th with a special watercolor session for our children.
Parents interested in enrolling their children for the 2024 Fall Program, anyone interested in becoming an art teacher or a teacher’s assistant in the SAG Home School Art Class program or for further information please email:
Liz VanSomeren at Lvansomeren@
sagboard.org.

2024, BOCC, Uncategorized

March 27 BOCC: Non-Sanctuary Proclamation

BOCC: We Are Now a Non-Sanctuary County!
(Local Lib Doesn’t Like That.)
Plus: Anti Porn Internet Resolution Passed

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

The March 27, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) regular meeting got into some hot topic political issues, and we are happy to report, that the “good guys” won to the weeping angst of the County’s political left. The meeting was at the Commissioners lavishly appointed throne room across from the courthouse. All three Commissioners were in attendance: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Items, Canda reported that the equipment for the TV towers has arrived and the contractor is testing it. Epp noted that the County’s accounting system provider, CIC, will be training our troops on various dates in April. Continue reading March 27 BOCC: Non-Sanctuary Proclamation →

2024, Uncategorized

Republican Assembly Custer County

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

The 2024 Custer County Republican Assembly, sponsored by the Custer County Republican Central Committee (CCRCC) , convened at 1 p.m., Saturday, March 16th at Lange Hall in Westcliffe.
The Assembly was run by the CCRCC’s Chair, Jack Canterbury.

There were 46 elected precinct delegates present and about 15 guests. After some preliminaries, the first item of business was voting for who would run in the primary for County Commissioner in Districts 1 and 2.
In District 1, incumbent Commissioner Lucas Epp received enough votes to be on the primary ballot. Challenger Veronica Nicholson received 12 votes which allowed her to petition on to the primary. The petition deadline is Tuesday, March 19th.
District 2 was a different story. First, a little background: the county voted in Kevin Day for Commissioner four years ago. He was a registered Republican and ran as a Republican. Republicans and a fair amount of unaffiliated voters were behind his victory. After three years as a poorly performing Commissioner, Day, knowing he wouldn’t be nominated to run in the Republican Assembly, switched his voter registration to unaffiliated in December so he could run as unaffiliated. (All you have to do to get on the ballot running as unaffiliated is to get a small number of registered voters to sign a candidate petition.) (So, “Traitor” Day abandoned the people and the party that elected him and is hoping the libs and the moderate unaffiliated will return him to office for more mayhem and disastrous decision making. It’s all about ego; the paycheck, and the power. You wonder why three of them have been recalled in recent years.)
So this left a vacuum for the Republicans in District 2. Fortunately, a well-qualified candidate appeared recently and who is a lifelong Republican and ex-career U.S. Navy veteran Paul Vogelsong. Paul has a long record of accomplishments and has strong management skills. He also has a lot of experience in finance and human resources. Paul has been actively campaigning the last few weeks for the District 2 Commissioner slot and was successful Saturday with a strong favorable delegate vote that put him on the primary ballot.
Ex-Commissioner Lynn Attebury surprised every-body by putting in a bid for District 2 Commissioner. He received just enough votes to allow him to petition on. Again, March 19th was the deadline for his petition.
The Precinct Committee People, who run each precinct were also con-firmed Saturday. They are: District 1: Ann Barthrop, Linda Pollack; District 2: Harald Frank, Joanie Wilcox, and District 3: Nikita Phillips, Dawn Ramsdell.
Eleven delegates were elected/appointed to the Republican State Assembly. They are: Jack Canterbury, Chuck Steigerwalt, Sandra Attebery, Nancy Drummond, Harald Frank, Aspen Baltzly, Lisa Kidwell, Lisa Frank, Ann Barthrop, Jean Canterbury and Nikita Phillips.
The eleven alternate delegates elected are: Bill Canda, Joanie Wilcox, Lucas Epp, Joanne Canda, Linda Pollack, Stephen Wilcox, David Lutz, Gordan Greer, Mark Graner, Judy Greer and Lynn Attebery.