Tag Archives: 2024

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.

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.

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.

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

February 24 BOCC: Money “For the Children”, UAWCD Manager Drama, Audit Cavalry Coming

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The Custer County Board of County Commissioners meeting held on February 24, 2024, occurred at that Wetmore Community Center. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda (via Zoom from France) and Lucas Epp. From the Zoom video, it appeared that only one meeting spectator was present.
In Commissioner Items, Epp mentioned that the accounting consulting firm they selected (Redlands Consulting) will be starting next week and will work Monday through Thursday on the audit and adjusting entries issues.
Old Business was next: Epp talked further about what Redlands was going to do next week. They will put in 40 hours of work analyzing the issues and put a plan together to get the mess fixed. This includes the audit issues plus a bunch of accounting problems we are having. They will then present the plan and the cost to the Commissioners hopefully in two weeks’ time. Epp gave a shout out to our IT guy, Vernon Roth, who is putting a lot of time in at Finance to keep the ship from sinking.
In New Business, Day presented his Agenda Item, Money for Playground Equipment for Wetmore. Day said Ruth Roper has been working for years trying to get a playground built in Wetmore “for the children”. She has found a piece of playground equipment from a company that is on sale for $9,281. Day said we have money in the LATCF fund and
the CTF fund that can be used for this. Day said there are around 30 children in the area.
Epp wasn’t too happy with the timing of this request. He said we just turned down two department head’s requests for a vehicle so they can do their jobs two weeks ago and giving money away for playground equipment now is not right. Epp said the state of the LATCF AND CTF funds is unknown, and it would not be wise to tap into those now. He said he will look into their status. Epp concluded saying we have several purchases that have to be made and we need to prioritize them.
Canda then piped up from the Riviera in southern France and said he agreed with Epp, that the timing for this is bad. He requested that we “table this until we understand how much money we really have.” He continued, “We had issues with the LATCF stuff. Can we wait a few weeks?”
Day, trying to salvage the spending “for the children”, said “we don’t have to move on it today.” But he added that this price is special and if that equipment is sold, we have to pay more for it down the line. (Day should have pulled this Agenda Item. Absolutely the wrong time to ask for money when we can’t even provide a crucial vehicle for county employees. But Day lives in Wetmore and this is gravy for his homies.)
Canda responded, “We need to make sure we have the money for priorities.” Canda ended with, “I think we ought to wait.”
Epp noted that he will “look into” the LATCF slush fund and see what is left.
They then decided to hold off on this until a later date.
The next item was Consideration of Signing a Letter of Recommendation for Greg Felt. This letter is a recommendation for Mr. Felt to become the next General Manager of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservation District (UAWCD). (This is a big deal. UAWCD is the big water player around here and very powerful.) Canda put this Item on the Agenda. Canda does a love minute dance for Felt saying he knows the guy, blah, blah, blah. Felt is also on the UAWCD Board.
But Epp smells a rat. He asked Canda, “Is there anybody else running for the same job?” Canda responded, “There are several others. I know one other that is qualified is a Mr. Jord Gertson.”
Epp turns the screws with, “This letter carries a lot of weight. If we are going to endorse someone else, we need to know about the other candidates. I don’t know the other candidates.” Canda replied, “I will send you Jord’s resume.” Day then chipped in, “We need to reach out and get information on the other candidates.” Epp finished with we need to put it on the Agenda “before the deadline.”

(Here is the skinny on this UAWCD Manager opening. The current Manager Terry Skanga, who helped start UAWCD is stepping down. Our very own ex Board Chair of UAWCD, local Bob Senderhauf’s choice is one Jord Gertson. Jord is a professional water guy who has worked for UAWCD for a long time (he’s their resident hydrologist) and even has his own water consulting business. He also has a B.S. in Watershed Science from Colorado State University. His resume is astounding. His has done everything you can think of re: water management. Bottom line, if Senderhauf wants this guy, HE IS THE ONE. Canda’s boy, Felt, has very limited actual water management experience and no degree. He owns a rafting company on the Arkansas River and with him on UAWCD there could be conflicts of interest. Plus, and I can hear the snowflakes whining already, he is supposedly a Democrat and the last thing you want is someone with that lib orientation running a locally powerful organization controlling our water.
Canda should not have recommended this guy without giving out the resumes of the other candidates. In fact, the BOCC doesn’t know jack about water and the UAWCD and should probably not endorse anyone. If they insist on it, they should definitely invite Senderhauf in and let him educate them on the candidates.)
At the end of the lovefest, Epp said the February 29 BOCC will be on Thursday so that Day can attend some meeting on Wednesday.

Obituary: Michael John McCarty

Obituary

Michael John McCarty

Michael John McCarty, a cherished father and resident of Westcliffe, Colorado, passed away on November 17, 2023.
Michael found serenity in retirement, living peacefully in his log cabin alongside his loyal dog, Shadow. His memory will be lovingly honored by his daughter and son, who reside in Denver. Michael’s kind spirit and warm presence will be deeply missed
by all who knew him.

Obituary Tyrese Von Dale Moore,

 

Tyrese Moore

Tyrese Von Dale Moore, 24, passed away on Saturday, February 17, 2024, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Tyrese was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, on January 6, 2000, the
son of Dawn Markel and Daniel Moore, Jr.
Throughout Tyrese’s life, he loved many things but above all his biggest accomplishment was being a full-time father to his beautiful daughter, Zayla Michelle Moore. In his free time, he enjoyed gardening and working out. He had many hobbies and businesses including Sangre De Cristo Locksmith and Moore Spore Store. He was a mycologist and had developed alternative therapies to help those struggling with mental and physical issues as well as people struggling with addiction. Tyrese was a loving and kind man with many friends and family from every walk of life. He loved without judgment or prejudice.
He was proceeded in death by his father, Daniel Moore Jr. (2023); his grandmother, Tina Moore (2013,) and his brother, Artadius Moore (2024).
He is survived by his daughter, Zayla Michelle Moore; his mother, Dawn (Montgomery) Markel; his brothers, DeAndre (Carissa) Hedrick, Ethan Moore, Daytryan Moore and Lyrik Ruane; sisters, Tesa Moore (Arlo Garner), Holly Dilbeck, Madison Atkins and Sawyer Barkley; grandparents, Dexter and Brenda Hedrick and great grandmother, Audrey Hedrick along with many aunts, uncles and cousins.
There will not be a public visitation as cremation has been chosen. Services will be held at New Resurrection Church, 1500 Forrest St., Hutchinson, KS 67501 on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at 1 p.m. with Pastor Charles R. Crumble Sr. presiding. A butterfly release will be held at Memorial Park Cemetery following the service. Please bring your bikes and cars. Wear casual clothes, or whatever is comfortable. Let’s do it big for Tyrese’s final ride to paradise. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made to the “Zayla Michelle Moore Trust Fund” and can be sent to Hutchinson Funeral Chapel, 300 E. 30th Ave., Hutchinson, KS 67502.

Custer County Deputy Arrested and Fired

by George Gramlich
On Tuesday, February 26, 2024, an Arrest Warrant was issued by the Custer County Court for Custer County’s Sheriff Deputy, Jason Ryan Salbato. He was charged with violating two Colorado Revised Statutes:
19-3-304 Persons required to report child abuse or neglect (M2) and
18-3-208 Reckless Endangerment (M2).
Both are second degree misdemeanors.

According to the Affidavit for Arrest Warrant issued by 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Investigator, Andrew Corey.  Corey was
requested by District Attorney Linda Stanley to investigate “possible criminal charges on Sgt. Jason Ryan Salbato of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office.”
The Affidavit states that Sgt. Salbato was contacted by an individual on January 23, 2024 by a Custer County resident and that the individual wanted to talk to a Deputy. Salbato contacted the individual and the individual informed Salbato that he had been told that a certain father of a minor female “had been beaten on the back with a belt.” Salbato told the resident that “he would look into this matter and contact the Department of Human Services.”
Sgt. Salbato actions after the contact are described in the Affidavit:

Per Sgt Salbato’s report 24-0065 at approximately 1l:57a.m on January 24, 2024, he contacted Alexis Enslow a DHS Supervisor via telephone and while discussing another matter he was called away and unable to report this incident.
Per Sgt Salbato’s report 24-0065 on January 29, 2024, He went to Ms. Enslow’s office, she was engaged in another matter. He was again dispatched to another matter.
Per Sgt Salbato’s report 24-0065 on January 30, 2024, at approximately 9:26 a.m. He contacted Ms. Enslow via telephone. Ms. Enslow informed him she was contacted regarding child abuse involving. XXXXXX. Sgt Salbato informed Ms. Enslow Mr. Vandeusen had reported the information to Sgt Salbato on January 23, 2024.
It was later found that XXXXXX had taken. XXXXXX with him to California.
Sgt Salbato had many opportunities to send a text. message, email, phone call or voicemail to the Department of Human Services over the entire seven-day period from the day it was originally reported to him. Sgt Salbato also could have opened a case and investigated the information he had received.
Based upon the foregoing information, your Affiant is requesting that a warrant be issued for the arrest of Jason Ryan Salbato (DOB XXXXXX), for the offense(s):

CRS 19-3-304 Persons required to report child abuse or neglect

(M2) CRS 18-3-208 Reckless endangerment (M2)

Sgt. Salbato was arrested in Custer County on February 26th. Bail was set at $500 on a Personal Recognize Bond.
Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith declined to comment as it is an “HR issue”.  However, he did state that Sgt. Salbato was no longer employed by the Sheriff’s Office. Smith noted that the Sheriff’s Office is an “at will” employer. This status allows the Sheriff to remove a person from employment immediately and that is an important tool for law enforcement agencies.
(Our thanks to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office for their transparency, accountability and concern for the public)

Jan 10th BOCC: Tax Mil Levy, County CC’s, Day Continues as Chair

BOCC: A Small Property Tax Mill Levy
Reduction, Bank Shuts Down the County’s Credit Cards, Day Continues as Chair

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The January 10, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting started at 9 a.m. in the Commissioners’ Office. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Unfinished Business, Epp gave the status on hiring a consultant to help with the 2022 audit issues and keep the Finance Department running until the BOCC hires a new Finance Director. Epp said the consultants he contacted were in the $200k range (yearly salary) and that was too much. He is continuing to look. Canda mentioned that local, Len Arrigo, a CPA was available.
In a disturbing development, Epp said that Kirkpatrick Bank “has shut down” the county’s credit cards due to late payments. Epp said that the county has been paying late payment and interest fees every month for 2023. (Later on, Epp mentioned that those penalties cost the county around $6,000 last year!) Epp said,
“It was our fault” as the county was not paying the bill on time as the county’s departments were not paying their portion of the bill or paying it late. Plus, the Accounts Payable cycle happens at the end of the month and that was causing delays. (It looks like the Finance Department, under ex Finance Director Braden Wilson,
completely dropped the ball on this. Your local bank freezing the county’s credit cards is like, really bad. Total Clown Show.) Epp said he is going to fix this.
First item in New Business was Adopting the 2024 County Budget. Vernon Roth, the county’s IT Director, had taken over the task of assembling the budget since we have no Finance Director. (Vernon has done an outstanding job on this. He has worked day and night, six or seven days a week to get this done. And it ain’t his job. Thanks, Vernon.)
The big gorilla in the room was what are the Commissioners going to do to the General Fund mill levy rate to reduce the big property tax increases. With the huge 2023 statewide property evaluations sky high, land owners are facing huge property tax increases across the state. The two biggest taxing districts in the county are the school and the county. (The school had already lowered their mill rate to save us money.) The big question is will the BOCC lower the General Fund mill levy?
It appears that during the recent BOCC Budget Workshops, the Commissioners had proposed lowering the rate from 10.425 mills to 9.75 mills. Vernon stated that this caused a bit of discussion from the Commissioners because it seemed to not be a lot. Canda stated that there were various county departments that could not be touched (like Road & Bridge and Human Resources) so the only arena where the Commissioners could really reduce anything was the General Fund. Canda said the mill reduction would only reduce the tax for each parcel in the county by $8 (Eight Dollars). He said there are about 9,000 parcels in the county and most of them were taxable. The discussion went on for a while with Day stating that he wasn’t sure this small reduction was worth the hassle, but he was not opposed to it. (the reduction is temporary, for one year.) All three Commissioners voted to approve the budget.
There was an issue with the timing of deciding the county’s budget before the BOCC actually voted on the Resolution for Setting the County Mill Levies as that Agenda Item was AFTER the Budget Agenda Item. Somehow, the Board thought that doing mill levy change after the Budget was okay.
Finally the Resolution to Set the County Mill Levies came up. The Commissioners basically repeated a lot of what they had previously said during the Budget discussion. The General Fund one-year General Fund rate reduction to 9.75 mills (from 10.425) was approved unanimously.
Later, the County Government Appointments Item came up. The only item of interest was who was going to be the BOCC Chair for 2024. Newcomer Epp made a surprise move saying to Day that if Day didn’t want to do it, he would like to be Chair. This got Day dancing around with Epp with Day stating he would like to continue as Chair but if Epp really wanted it, Day would step aside. Then Epp said if Day really wanted it, he would back off. Day then noted that Epp was real busy with the Finance Department meltdown and being Chair is a fair amount of work.
Canda finally said he was fine with Day continuing as Chair. All three finally voted for Day to continue as Chair.

BOCC Special Meeting – Human Resources Hiring

BOCC Special Meeting:
Human Resources Hiring

by George Gramlich, News
The Custer County Board of County Commissioners held a Special Meeting, January 8, 2024 to select the new Human Resources (HR) Director. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
Day opened with the statement that they had selected three finalists for the position.
Epp then took the stage. He said the new HR Department has to be built “from the ground up.” There are kinds of issues to be addressed such as procedures, reporting, etc., “so the new guy has a big task load.” Epp then stated, “the applications we have received don’t represent what I think is needed to build a new department from the ground up.” Epp continued, “We need to caste our net further” noting that maybe we should have a salary range rather than a fixed advertised salary.
Canda disagreed. He said, “I think we have a candidate that does meet the criteria,” but noted he would not be against doing some more advertising.
Then it was Day’s turn, “There is one of the three that I can support, but, they would need additional help to succeed.” Day said he “shared your concerns, it is a big load. I would support putting it out for bid…. I don’t want to set somebody up for failure.”
This discussion went on for a bit. Finally, the Commissioners decided to put the job out for bid for an additional two weeks and try to find more outlets to advertise it.
The next and last Agenda Item was where to put the HR office. After a lot of talk, it was decided to put the office in the BOCC’s building. Some renovations would be necessary.

For more information on open  county positions see https://www.custercounty-co.gov/employment

Job Description Summary

The Director of Finance and Accounting for Custer County

The Director of Finance and Accounting for Custer County, Colorado, is responsible for overseeing the county’s financial systems and operations, including managing accounting records, preparing financial reports, and ensuring compliance with auditing and accounting standards. This role involves supervising the finance department, monitoring departmental budgets, and acting as a financial advisor to the County Commissioners and other officials. The director also plays a key role in developing and administering the county’s budget and capital improvement plans, while ensuring efficient financial internal controls and compliance with local, state, and federal regulations.  For the full description click here.

Applications are available at:

https://www.custercounty-co.gov/employment or

Custer County Finance & Human Resources Department

205 S 6th Street
Westcliffe, CO 81252

Monday through Thursday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Please submit applications to the address above or
email: hr@custercounty-co.gov