Category Archives: Uncategorized

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, 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.

2024, Uncategorized

Jeff Lindsey runs for 11th District DA

by George Gramlich

9/13/2024
We are blessed to have an extremely qualified career prosecutor running for the office of District Attorney in Colorado’s 11th Judicial District this November, Jeff Lindsey. Not only has Jeff had extensive prosecutorial experience in various venues, he is a local, having graduated from Florence High School and currently residing in Cañon City.
Jeff has had experience as a prosecutor in every county in the 11th Judicial District (Fremont, Custer, Chaffee and Park).
The best description of Jeff Lindsey’s experience comes from this resume:
“His journey as a career prosecutor began by working in Chaffee and Park District Attorney’s Offices from 1997-2000, while living in Salida and commuting to Fairplay weekly. He next worked in the Pueblo County District Attorney’s Office from 2000-2004. From 2004-2021, Lindsey was a prosecutor for the Fourth Judicial District in El Paso and Teller Counties. During his time in the Fourth, Lindsey worked as a Special Victim’s Unit prosecutor, Senior Deputy District Attorney, and Chief Trial Deputy District Attorney. During his time as Chief Trial Deputy, he was responsible for the homicide prosecution team from 2011-2017 and County Court from 2017-2021. During his time as County Court Chief, he was able to recruit and mentor new attorneys. In 2017, Lindsey was recognized as the statewide Faculty of the Year for the Colorado District Attorney’s Council. In 2021, Jeff worked at the District Attorney’s Office in the 11th Judicial District, and then accept-ed a new opportunity to work in the 10th Judicial District in Pueblo where he presently serves as Chief Trial Deputy and third in command for DA Jeff Chostner’s office.
Lindsey has prosecuted every type of crime, supervised scores of attorneys, and provided justice to hundreds of victims. During his career, Lindsey has obtained over a half dozen life sentences on homicide cases and has been on numerous critical incident crime scenes. He currently maintains an active caseload and is responsible for several ongoing first-degree murder prosecutions.”
Jeff is married with three grown children and attends St. Benedict Parish Church in Florence. Jeff is more than happy to talk to the citizens in the 11th Judicial District: call or text at 719-271-0146 or email him at ElectLindsey  DA11th@gmail.com.

Uncategorized

A Wagging Good Tale

from VRBO, Facebook
via the McCallisters

Jake with Annie’s Grooming assistant, Roy Messer
Photo courtesy of Melissa Thomas

This story is told by Melissa Thomas, who was staying in a vacation rental home in the Rosita area.
“Saturday evening a stray dog showed up at our front door – it was pitch black outside… . The dog was full of stickers – and matted hair – and he was shaking – very scared…He put his trust in me – I gave him water and I always have dog treats in my truck (where we board our horse has dogs, I always bring treats)..
He eventually trusted us enough to come inside the VRBO. We put out some bath towels, a bowl of water, and more treats — and we gently tried to brush him. He was very scared, but eventually – relaxed and he slept inside with us Saturday night.
I posted on Next Door and Facebook – we found the owner !
The owner of the Dog (Jake) is an elderly couple who are visiting their son and daughter–in–law. They went on a trip and left the dog with a local person.
Anyway, somehow, the dog got loose and ran away.
I guess he was in a strange place, with a strange
person, and was scared …
So, we met up with the daughter-in-law on Face-book. I told her that we were leaving Sunday and offered to bring the dog back to her home – but she asked if we would bring the dog to her best friend’s house. On the way to her friend’s home, we saw
Annie’s Grooming. We saw that they were closed on Sunday, but we called the number anyway.


Annie answered and agreed to open up and give Jake (the stray) a bath and grooming…
It took Annie and her helper (a really nice young man) about an hour – and Jack looked wonderful !!
They did not charge to do this – Annie saw this post on Facebook and offered to do this from her heart.
When we dropped Jake off – he was doing the biggest butt wag you’d ever see —

Uncategorized

BOCC: Another $50K Down the Drain

Another $50K
Down the Drain in
Nanny State Happy Valley

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The October 9, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners special meeting was held in the Search & Rescue building and started at 9 a.m. All three Commissioners were present: Bill Canda, Lucas Epp and Kevin “Turncoat” Day.
The meeting was a rush job as the Office of Emergency Management Director, Robyn Knappe, had a grant deadline to meet which required the Commissioners to make a financial decision regarding it. The deadline for responding for the state grant was the next day. Why Knappe waited so long is unknown.
The proposed grant was from Colorado’s Forest and Management Grant program. Some background first: Knappe has been trying to get local landowners to mitigate their properties through various means. This year she had a program that trained eight local people on how to run a chainsaw and do mitigation work including trimming trees and cutting them down. Knappe was here to ask for money to aid the citizen run mitigation efforts.
At this meeting, Knappe said she wanted to “grow the mitigation program” and “provide additional services”. She said there were six HOA/neighborhoods on board with the program.
Knappe then got to the issue of the day noting that the few civilians who were mitigating had to rent a chipper machine (where you feed cut branches into it and it cuts them into chips) and that was costing them money. And it was an inconvenience as they had to rent the machine in Cañon City and drive it up and back. She mentioned that the daily cost was around $500 and somehow this was too much for these poor large landowners.

Knappe proposed that the county buy these landowners a very expensive, industrial grade chipper which costs around $100,000! The county would own and maintain it and the landowners would simply borrow the machine from the county to use for free. The county would have to chip in $50,000 of our own tax money for the chipper and the grant would cover the other $50k.
(Notes from the Taxpaying Peasants: First, these landowners are not poor. Why should the rest of us taxpayers subsidize mitigating THEIR properties. They knew what they had when they bought it. Why do we, the taxpayers, have to subsidize improvements to their property? What happened to the idea that people are responsible for their own affairs and not big gov? Second: Where will this stop? $50,000 is a LOT of money for most of us. Giving that to a few, yes, privileged landowners, smells like nanny state spending. I need a bulldozer to make some fire breaks on my land and the cost to rent a decent dozer is like $10k a day. I think the county should buy one so I can improve my land using county money. Everybody could use new Stihl weed whackers to mitigate brush, we should get them free too. Third: The company that rents out the chipper in Cañon City has one because people want to rent one. The BOCC just took a good revenue stream away from this business and maybe now they can’t afford to rent it out anymore. The BOCC just hurt this private enterprise for the benefit of a few, select property owners. How is this a “pro business” effort? Plus, there are multiple mitigation companies locally that have chippers and you have hurt them, too.
Where are you going to draw the line Commissioners? We are a small county with very limited revenue. There are other areas where this money could be spent much more effectively without hurting local businesses and benefiting a small number of not poor landowners. $50,000 is a LOT of money to us peasants, Commissioners. Why isn’t it to you? Welcome, fellow peasants, to the new Happy Valley Nanny State. Grants are like heroin to some of our local officials elected, hired or appointed. )
During the discussion, in a rare moment of clarity, Day actually made a good point (for a change) and asked Knappe about liability in using the machine. (Folks, these things are super dangerous. We had one on our ranch back east and you have to have your act together to run a big one.) Knappe talked about “training” and somehow this satisfied the Commissioners. (WRONG! The County will be lending an extremely dangerous machine to civilians with little or no professional training on it and you can guarantee that we will be sued for big money someday. Not a smart move, Commissioners.)
At the end of the meeting, our three, supposedly fiscally conservative Commissioners, voted to spend $50,000 to buy a few landowners a dangerous machine to improve THEIR properties. Nice. Where is my bulldozer, boys?

2024, Uncategorized

FFA Creed Presentation

 

Left to Right: Jacob Tomassoni – 2nd Place, Eddie Crispe – FFA Advisor. Lucas Bradford – 1st Place, Sierra Foster – 3rd Place
Photo by Mariah Bradford

The National FFA (Future Farmers of America) Organization – Custer County Chapter held its annual Creed Presentation on Sunday, October 11, 2024 where 11 new members recited E.M. Tiffany’s “The FFA Creed” as a step to earning their Greenhand degrees. Parents, staff, and community members were wowed by their collective performance.
Judges, Katlyn Womack, Cheryl Laramore, and Christie Coleman-Holt scored each member on their recitation of “The FFA Creed” as well as three impromptu questions, “Why do you believe in the future of agriculture?”, “What does “playing square” mean to you?” and “How can you influence your community?”
Congratulations to Freshman, Lucas Bradford for his winning
citation which he will also present at the National FFA Organization district competition in January.

2024, Uncategorized

Randolph Knight Obituary

Randolph Knight

The man who “could talk a dog down off of a meat truck”
spoke his last words on October 1, 2024.

Randolph “Randy” Leroy Knight passed away peacefully at his home in Westcliffe, CO, on October 2, 2024. His wife, daughter and two dogs were close by. He was 76 years old. He was born in Cortez, CO on February 23, 1948. He grew up in the Southwest corner of Colorado and attended schools there. Randy graduated from Durango High School in 1966. He attended Fort Lewis College in Durango and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education with a minor in history and Spanish. He married Sandy Potthoff on August 2, 1969 in Westcliffe, CO.
Randy worked in the forest industry before joining the Navy construction battalion. He served in Vietnam and Guam. Randy spent most of his life working in the woods, which he loved. He was a true mountain man who enjoyed elk hunting, fishing, hiking and camping. Randy never met a stranger and would do anything for anyone in need.
Randy is survived by his wife, Sandy of Westcliffe; his daughter, Erica (Derek) Kilik and granddaughter, Sidney, all of Colorado Springs. He was preceded in death by his parents, Leroy and Melba Knight; and brother, Roland Knight.

A celebration of life and reception, followed by lunch will be held on
October 19, 2024, at 11 a.m. at Rancher’s Roost Banquet
Facility at Cliff Lanes in Westcliffe, CO.
In lieu of flowers, please befriend a stranger, enjoy nature or perform a random act of kindness.