—February 28, 2018,
Colorado Emergency Management Association (CEMA) Conference
The Eastern portion of Custer County, in Colorado’s South Region is home to the small communities of Wetmore and Greenwood. The Wetmore Volunteer Fire Department serves this portion of Custer County, lying outside the Wet Mountain Fire Protection District. Since 2005, the area has been affected by five wildfires, most recently the 18,403 acre Junkins fire in October of 2016. Continue reading Wetmore Resident, Ruth Roper Named Regional DHSEM Volunteer of the Year
Category Archives: Letters
Local National Honor Society: Three New Members Welcomed
National Honor Society members pictured are;
Back Row – left to right – Jess Franta, Michael Batson, Tyler Ferron.
Middle Row – left to right – McKensie Penkoff, Nicole Henrich, Riley Smith, Jessie Henrich, and Holly Wenger.
Front Row – the new inductees – Jakob Morris, Grace Flynn and Lauren Kitchen.
Photo by Carol Franta
All About Caucus
“Caucus creates repeated opportunities for average ordinary people to take the first steps toward becoming political leaders.”
Information provided
by Dan Bubis
In the Colorado caucus system the process lasts for weeks. You have to make the commitment to be engaged for weeks, not minutes. In a primary you show up, you cast a ballot, you go home. The reason it lasts for weeks is that, unlike in a primary, the focus in the Colorado caucus is on discussion and thoughtfulness. After the caucus, delegates will move onto the County, State and National Assemblies. The only way you are ‘disenfranchised’ in this system is if you fail to participate.
Colorado instituted the caucus system in 1910. The caucus system was abolished in favor of presidential primaries in 1992, but restored in 2002 with the defeat of Amendment 29 and due to cost considerations. The fully restored Colorado Caucus was in 2004.
Caucus creates repeated opportunities for average ordinary people to take the first steps toward becoming political leaders.Colorado’s Democratic and Republican parties will hold precinct caucus meetings March 6th in advance of the June 26 Primary Election. Voters interested in caucusing must be affiliated with one of the major political parties by January 8th. Continue reading All About Caucus
The CCEDC’s Broadband Towers Proposal The $2 Million “Road to Nowhere”
by George Gramlich,
Managing Editor
Analysis and Commentary
Introduction
Custer County should not commit to supporting this venture that the Custer County Economic Development Committee (CCEDC) is proposing. Government should be limited, especially when it comes to entering a private sector marketplace (Just look at what happened to healthcare.)
Just from a business perspective, the proposal lacks a detailed business plan, market analysis, income/revenue projections, firm cost and liability projections competitive analysis (satellites, etc.), technology evolution projections, and county infrastructure requirements to support the towers. The proposal is fatally incomplete and would be laughed out of any CEO’s office.
For Custer County to make a 20-year financial and
liability commitment to this incomplete, flawed and certainly doomed project would be fiscally irresponsible and a complete disservice to its tax paying citizens. Continue reading The CCEDC’s Broadband Towers Proposal The $2 Million “Road to Nowhere”
CCEDC’s Broadband Tower Proposal Instant Obsolescence?
by Dan Bubis
Colorado law requires that municipalities hold a referendum before providing cable, telecommunications, or broadband service, unless the community is unserved. Our community is not unserved, we have several providers and yet we have not seen a ballot issue addressing whether taxpayer funding should go to providing either broadband or telecommunications. For the County to engage in the provisioning of these services they stand a reasonably good chance of being sued.
One of the major problems with the CCEDC’s proposal is that they don’t really have a plan beyond building towers. They have no commitments from any providers of Internet or Cellular service. While “if you build it, they will come” may work in a movie, businesses need more concrete commitments to ensure success. AT&T has demonstrated an unwillingness to increase their current equipment and they already have a tower. If the existing Internet providers could make the use case for additional towers, they would erect those towers. Perhaps the CCEDC is planning on providing access to the towers at no charge. Then how will maintenance and support be funded. See the map of DD Wireless (now Secom) towers for an idea of existing coverage. Continue reading CCEDC’s Broadband Tower Proposal Instant Obsolescence?
Allen Cooper: Candidate for Fremont County Sheriff
by George Gramlich
Over coffee at the 16th Street Cafe last week, I asked Cañon City Police Department Deputy Chief Allen Cooper what got him interested in law enforcement. It was an interesting short story. When he was around 20 years old he had a hot rod Ford Galaxy 500 and was speeding quite a lot with it around Fremont County. He was stopped for speeding (the third time in a short while) by a Colorado State Patrol Trooper. Instead of a ticket, the trooper gave Allen the “fatherly” lecture on where he was headed in life and that he has a couple of alternatives to consider. That trooper’s talk planted a seed in Allen that sprouted several years later. Continue reading Allen Cooper: Candidate for Fremont County Sheriff
BOCC February 6th Commissioner Kerfuffle over hearsay?
BOCC February 6th
Commissioner Kerfuffle over hearsay? Printz on Commissioner Protocol, Resident on CR 271 Discusses Ongoing Problem of Semi Truck Traffic
by Jackie Bubis
Reporters Note: Since I was headed in to this meeting and my car wouldn’t start, I took the opportunity to watch live streaming. It worked very well. During the staff reports, the person with his back to the camera was a little difficult to hear. I had my volume maxed out. It was also interesting to watch facial expressions and body language.
Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)
—February 6, 2018
WESTCLIFFE, CO
The meeting started at 9:00 a.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call. Introductions of the public in attendance followed.
Minutes from January 31st were approved.
Commissioner Items
Commissioner Canda reported working with Road & Bridge, particularly on the Hermit Bridge project.
Commissioner Printz reported attending a Regional Housing meeting, the Dennis Hunt meeting (CTSI), CART’s Person of the Year event (which he said was a great handshake opportunity).
Printz then engaged Mr. Canda, accusing him of “usurping your power as a commissioner” on two occasions. He went on to state that Canda had instructed the Planning and Zoning office to take out references to light pollution in the Zoning Resolution and had instructed Planning Commission Chairman Vic Barnes to make an announcement in their meeting that the commissioners were not going to speak. Printz stated that he’d heard about these things “second and third hand” and said, “I hope it doesn’t happen again.”
Mr. Canda responded that he had gotten the rough draft of the Zoning Resolution and was merely speaking for himself with input on the draft. He suggested that anything not enforceable should be taken out of the draft. Regarding the conversation, he believes that Barnes misunderstood him, and that if he attended, it would be only to listen. Continue reading BOCC February 6th Commissioner Kerfuffle over hearsay?
Let There Be Lights: Planning Commission Kills Latest Dark Skies Proposal 6 – 1
February 5, 2018
by Jackie Bubis
The courtroom was full to overflowing for the Custer County Planning Commission (PC) meeting on Monday afternoon. The citizens were there to make their voices heard on the on-going work the PC is doing, as requested by the Custer County Commissioners last year, to study requested changes made by the local Dark Skies International group concerning regulating outdoor lighting in the county. The Dark Skies group defines outdoor lighting as “light pollution”. This has been a highly controversial topic in the county for the past year or so and was one of the reasons for the successful recall of two County Commissioners who supported the Dark Skies proposals last November. Continue reading Let There Be Lights: Planning Commission Kills Latest Dark Skies Proposal 6 – 1
Trails For All Meeting
by Paul Parsons
On the evening of January 30th, the All Aboard Westcliffe facility was filled nearly to capacity. The people gathered because of a shared interest in trails in Custer County, informally representing at least seven user groups of trails: by horse, motorbike, ATV, road bike, mountain bike, snowmobile and foot. Presentations were given by Trails For All, an all-volunteer, presently unfunded, grass-roots group that has been meeting for the last year. They shared that their purpose is to maintain, promote, and enhance the trails of the county, and that this community event to which all were invited would be an essential step in moving towards that purpose. Continue reading Trails For All Meeting
Another Dark Skies LTE
Dear Mr. Brown,
I don’t expect you to understand this but I will try. You state in your January 19th Letter to the Editor “it is against the law to litter, to cause fires and to set up firing ranges on our properties that might endanger others. Then you state in your piece ‘my rights on my property are unlimited and I can do what I want on my property.’” What you miss is that those activities don’t stay on my property. I can shoot all I want on my property, what I can’t do is let those projectiles leave my property. The same is true for the rest. I notice that you conveniently left off the whole livestock thing. Continue reading Another Dark Skies LTE