Category Archives: Letters

Letters to Sentinel Concerning Building Codes or Dark Skies

We have received a few letters concerning the Custer County Board of Commissioners’ desire to add IBC building codes to the County’s  laws and well as the proposed Dark Skies Ordinance

More to come….

Letter “Zen of Total Recall” from  Arthur Gerard Michael
von Boennighausen   see his website

Letter Chris Euberroth

Letter William Brown PHD,  CSUP Observatory

Letter from Lorene Cushman

Letter from Frank Oberlin

Letter from Eva Holgate

Letter to the BOCC: 06/02/2017 Mark Howard   

LTE Building Code by Dan Bubis 060217

Building Code evaluation

“Lies of Omission” PreRelease Screening a Success

by George Gramlich

A  good crowd attended the pre-release screening of the new patriot movie, “Lies of Omission”, last Saturday at the  Mountain View Core Knowledge School in Cañon City on May 20, 2017.
The movie is in the “interview documentary” format with the film makers/producers, L.T. Davis of Colorado, and his daughter, Sammi Lee Davis of California interviewing some of the giants of the patriot movement including Mike Vanderboegh, Matt Bracken, Claire Wolfe and others about the political and moral status of the country and the efforts of those people and others, to bring back the country to its constitutional roots.

Associate Producer, Peter White, and Producer Sammi Davis.
Photo by George Gramlich

Continue reading “Lies of Omission” PreRelease Screening a Success

BOCC: A Summer of Discontent Is Coming

Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)

-May 10, 2017

WESTCLIFFE, Colorado

by Jackie Bubis

The meeting started at 1 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call. Introductions of the public in attendance followed.
Commissioner Items:

Commissioner Printz had four items he wanted to cover.  The first was an update on the Wetmore Community Center (WCC).  There was a mistake with a stainless-steel table that is the wrong size and Mr. Printz was adamant that contractor Whitlock fix the error.

He then announced that he had told Brenda Gaide to go ahead and post the meeting for Wednesday, May 17th as being held at the new WCC since the plumbing issues were taken care of.  Commissioner Kattnig took exception with Commissioner Printz not consulting the board before making the change in venue.  An argument ensued between Mr. Kattnig and Mr. Printz leaving the audience wide-eyed.  Continue reading BOCC: A Summer of Discontent Is Coming

BOCC Extension Chaos: Attempts at Damage Control Uncertain

BOCC Extension Workshop

—May 2, 2017

by Jackie Bubis
On May 2nd, the Board of County Commissioners held a workshop to discuss the repercussions of Carlan Cardenas leaving the position of 4-H Coordinator.  This was in response to a letter received by the Board from Bill Nobles, Regional Director of CSU Extension.  Another letter was sent to 4-H leaders and families from Jean Glowacki, Director, 4-H Youth Development.  Both were letters saying that the 4-H program in Custer County is suspended for the moment.  The letters went on to identify steps that must be taken in order for 4-H to be reinstated in the county.
Commissioner Hood read Ms. Glowacki’s letter, stating that it was “very inconsiderate of Ms. Glowaki to not have a conversation with the BOCC before sending out this email to 4-H families.  Actually I think her actions were preposterous.”
Chairman Kattnig again stated that he has had numerous meetings with Mr. Nobles asking for help to “fix things” with no help coming from CSU.  He went on to say, “What they’ve done is kicked our youth in the mouth, and I’ll be da**ed if I’ll stand for it.”  “I’m not going to stand by and let CSU arbitrarily say, well, we’re not going to do this and you’re suspended and if we hire somebody, we gotta do this. For this to come out and us not be part of it is not acceptable.  We will be in touch with Dr. Frank.  If we can’t get resolution, we will be going up the line.  If it comes down to seeking legal action, I’m going to support that too.  This is a disservice to the professionalism of the leaders, the work of the youth and to the county officials.”
The Board told the crowd gathered that they had reached out to Beverly Goertz, who formerly assisted Robin Young with the 4-H program and to Sara Shields, local rancher and 4-H leader.  They assured the crowd that these two people would “help us get back to where we need to be.”
Kattnig also stated, “I’ll be da**ed if our kids will be discriminated against at state fair.” [recording] Continue reading BOCC Extension Chaos: Attempts at Damage Control Uncertain

“Lies of Omission” Pre-Release Screening May 20th

Patriot Alert:
“Lies of Omission”
Pre-Release Screening – May 20th

 
by George Gramlich
Locally, we have a great opportunity coming up on Saturday, May 20th, to attend a pre-release screening of one of the most important American liberty/freedom movement films to be released this year, “Lies of Omission”, produced by fellow Coloradan T.L. Davis and his patriot film company, “12 Round Productions”.

T.L. is a life-long patriot and is the author of the influential blogsite, christianmerc.blogspot,com. (T.L. also attended Westcliffe’s July 4th/2nd Amendment March last year.) T.L. decided a few years ago that a documentary on some of the leaders of the patriot/III% movement was needed to show others in our country how these particular people, coming from completely different backgrounds, decided to dedicate their lives to our Constitution and exposing the left for what it is: tyranny and oppression.

Continue reading “Lies of Omission” Pre-Release Screening May 20th

BOCC: Bills, Business and more… Cattleguard Talk and CSU Extension Office Q’s

Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)
—March 31, 2017
WESTCLIFFE, Colorado

by Jackie Bubis
The meeting started with the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call. Introductions of the public in attendance followed.
The Board approved minutes from March 21st.
Chairman Kattnig announced that the Extension Office item on the agenda was an update on the extension office, that two hours had already been given to public comment on the matter and that the Board needed to move on.
The Commissioner Items will be discussed at the continuation of this meeting tonight at 7 p.m.
Attorney Clint Smith said he would not be present at the evening meeting.
The Board reviewed and approved the vouchers.
Per the request of Treasurer Virginia Trujillo, on advice of the CPA, two small accounts that had not been used in recent years were deleted by transferring funds from each into the general fund.  On unanimous approval of the Board, the PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) funds will go 100 percent  to the school. Continue reading BOCC: Bills, Business and more… Cattleguard Talk and CSU Extension Office Q’s

LTE: Socialized Broadband: A Lot of Dollars, Little Results

03-31-2017

This informed letter is referring to the study on Broadband solicited by the Custer County Economic Development Corp (CCEDC).  They have linked the report and the you can see the report at the link below;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0gfi4i0rpngjfq8/Final%20Report_CC%20Broadband%20Infrastructure%20Expansion%20Design%20Study_2017%2003%2024.pdf?dl=0

The letter;

Letter to Editor;
I have repeatedly tried to write an analysis of the Custer County Economic Development Corporation’s Phase 2 and Phase 3 documents that were recently released. The documents were prepared by CenterLine Solutions for the CCEDC. All of this is paid for by you, the taxpayer. And because of that, I feel like you should know how your money is being spent and because I know a little about the subject, I feel like you shouldn’t be led down the primrose path.
For the last couple years, the Custer County Economic Development Corporation has been talking about increasing the broadband availability in the county.  Their Phase 2 and Phase 3 documents were recently released.  And since the CCEDC’s plans for broadband will be partially paid for by the taxpayers of Custer County, I feel that it’s important to understand what they’re up to.
First of all, we need to understand that the CCEDC and their friends on the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) want to create a public utility (think phone company or electric company – one that has a monopoly and can charge whatever they want.)  It will probably be run by the CCEDC which could make a lot of money on the deal, whose principals stand to make lots of money on the deal.
The CCEDC spent $34K on these reports and is flashing them all over the county.  The documents are available online and you should check them and not just take my word for it.  Fair warning – their math is so unreliable it makes evaluating these documents nearly impossible.
Let’s start with the Phase 2 document.  Table 2 says that there are currently 9,328 addresses served by broadband but it also says that there are only 6,553 addresses in the county.  According to the Assessor’s Office, though, there are 9,122 parcels county-wide.  Head-scratching. . .  (The number 9,328 is calculated by adding the column in Table 2.)
If you add the column that lists the percentage served by each existing tower, you come up with 142.35%. You would think that these numbers by themselves would have been enough to put an end to the boondoggle being pitched by the CCEDC.   But, no, they either also can’t do such complex math as addition or they don’t care, they just want more money and power.
Municipal broadband is a colossal failure across the nation and just this simple math problem shows you why. If you look at the tables on pages 6, 7 and 8 of the Phase 2 document, you see this scenario played out in every table. And the bottom line of all of this is that if millions of tax dollars are spent on building sixmore towers, 870 more addresses will have access to broadband.   Access – Not Service.  Those 870 more addresses will have to pay for service – just like we all do and those services will be subsidized by additional tax money. Then many more millions of tax dollars can be pocketed by those running the utility.
And who are those people who will profit? It’s probably wrong to paint every supporter with this brush but the CCEDC members that I know about are Charles Bogle, Dale Mullen and Wilson Jarvis and they have already approached the towns and the county trying to get tax dollars to fund this fraud. And why is Commissioner Kattnig such a big supporter? And why does he get so mad when I refer to this as socialized broadband? I wouldn’t expect someone who has fed at the public trough almost his whole life to understand, but the legitimate role of government is not competing with private enterprise and using tax dollars to have an unfair advantage.
We currently have two wireless providers as well as a hard line provider (let’s ignore existing satellite). Much of the county has access to broadband with today’s technology. And that all improves dramatically in the near future.  What is on the horizon that will make anything the CCEDC can scheme completely
obsolete?
Before looking into the immediate future it is important to remember that both existing providers will add towers and improve the technology as the fiscal incentive merits. Before 2020, less than three years, 5G will deliver gigabit Internet everywhere and really, the theoretical speed could be 10 gigabits per second compared to 4G which is about 100 Megabits per second.  Much, much faster. Then there’s the satellite race. Big names like Boeing, Elon Musk, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX among others are launching satellites that will provide Terabit Internet. And this access will be every place on the planet that can see a piece of sky. Even the most remote places on earth will have this access. Google and Facebook have their own proposed solutions which involve covering the whole planet as well. As we have repeatedly seen, the competition will expand the quality and services while driving down prices. Without wasting tax dollars.
Why? Because the Free Market always, always does better than central government control. As technology improves, more and more people depend on that technology. That’s right Kommisar Kattnig, the unleashed productivity of the market does much better than command and control bureaucrats will ever do.
First, I’m astounded that the CCEDC spent $34,694 taxpayer dollars (grants don’t come from nowhere folks) with a firm that can’t get the math correct. Apparently, Centerline Solutions can’t even get the name of the company who hired them correct. Their study documents all refer to the Custer County Economic Development Board instead of corporation. Maybe the contractor thinks they’re working for a government agency instead of a private business.
Second, I’m flabbergasted that the CCEDC thinks the voters of Custer County are stupid enough to pay millions in new taxes so that a few more people will have access to Internet. Internet is a product, not a right. But, maybe, just maybe, the CCEDC has worked it all out with the sitting Commissioners and there won’t be a need for a silly vote.
Lastly, I’m dumbfounded that, in this day and age when the evidence of colossal failures of municipal Internet ventures is so readily available, any sane person would propose creating another municipal Internet venture.
Unless there’s big money for someone. And as always, follow the money. Who will benefit?

Dan Bubis
Rural Custer County

March 7 BOCC Meeting

Dark Skies for All the Valley?

Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC) Meeting
March 7, 2017
—Westcliffe, CO
by Jackie Bubis
The meeting started with the Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call. Introductions of the public in attendance followed.
The room overflowed with members of the public wishing to make their views known.
The first man to speak stated he was bringing to the Board some of the perceptions “out there” in the public, particularly against Commissioner Kattnig.  His main concern was for Roger Squire not even getting an interview for the road boss position.  Mr. Kattnig stated that everyone has complained about the roads and the Board needed to go in a new direction – one based on business principles. Mr. Kattnig also explained that the Board used a Colorado State entity, Workforce, to help review and rank the job applications for Road and Bridge supervisor position and that Mr. Squire’s application was considered, However, they only interviewed the top three applicants. Commissioner Printz stated that, had it been up to him, he’d have fired Mr. Squire for egregious violations but that Mr. Kattnig talked him out of it. Continue reading March 7 BOCC Meeting