Tag Archives: 2025

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DA Lauds Sheriff Smith for Transparency

DA Lauds
Sheriff Smith for Transparency

2022 CCSO Tasing of a Minor Incident

Press Release
The Office of the District Attorney for the 11th Judicial District has completed the review of a tasing  incident that occurred in Custer County on January 18, 2022.

In January 2024, Custer County Sheriff Lloyd Rich Smith was provided a copy of a civil suit regarding the tasing by a Custer County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) Deputy of a 16-year-old runaway. The incident happened in January 2022 under the administration of CCSO Sheriff Shannon Byerly. Continue reading DA Lauds Sheriff Smith for Transparency →

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Obituary: Eva Joyce Rathbun Colgate

Obituary
Eva Joyce Rathbun Colgate

Eva Joyce Adams Rathbun Colgate, the second of three girls, was born on July 9,1929  in the Rocky Ford Hospital in Rocky Ford, Otero County, Colorado to Lea and Celesta Adams.  She lived there until 1931-1932 when her parents moved their family to Custer County.  A few years later the Adams bought the Willow Glen Dairy. She went to the one room Willows School House from 1-8 grades and then attended and graduated from Custer County High School in 1947.  She attended Colorado A and M College and graduated with a B.S in Vocational  Home Economics in 1952

She met William (Bill) B. Rathbun  and they were married in Madison, Wisconsin in 1954.  She gave birth to a daughter, Joan, in 1955.  They moved to Lauderdale, Minnesota, a suburb of St Paul, for Bill to complete his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.  In 1961 they adopted a toddler, Kirk.

After many decades of marriage, they divorced.  Eva moved back to Custer County and reconnected with and married George T. Colgate.  They lived for years on the Colgate family ranch near Hillside, Colorado. Health concerns moved them to lower altitude in Canon City.  Later as a widow, she continued to live independently in Canon City.

Throughout her life she was an exceptional seamstress, homemaker, teacher, school bus driver, entrepreneur, award winning quilter, and dedicated community volunteer.

She died on January 31 at the age of 95. She is survived by her daughter, Joan and her 2 grandchildren Gillian and Travis and extended family throughout  the area.

A private immediate family only interment  is planned.

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BOCC: County Attorney Showdown

by George Gramlich, News and Commentary

The February 13, 2025 Custer County Board of County Com-missioners’ (BOCC) meeting took place at the All Aboard Westcliffe meeting room and started at 9 a.m. All three Commissioners were in attendance: Chair Bill Canda and members Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
In Commissioner Comments, Epp mentioned a bunch of meetings he attended since the last BOCC gabfest: CCI (a lobbying group for counties who are a member), a wages workshop with Human Resources, a Public Health meeting to talk about the impact of grants disappearing, met with CDOT on the courthouse sidewalk project and with Redmonds Consulting re: audit strategy. Epp noted as part of the courthouse sidewalk project, a new county employee parking lot will be built which would help with citizen parking next to the courthouse.
In New Business, the monthly Accounts Payable amount ($291k for January) was approved.
Resolution 25-03, Moving $146k
from the Tourism Fund to the Tourism Board was approved.
Next up was Resolution 25-04, approving $5,560 to the Airport from the Capital Improvement fund was ok’d. This was for the three airport gate upgrades.
Vernon Yoder’s Short Term Rental (STR) application was then approved.
The Horton STR application was recommended to be not approved by the Planning Commission, but the Commissioners approved it anyway. Some of the issues surrounding the application was that there were too many STR’s already in the area, the septic size and the shared driveway access. Continue reading BOCC: County Attorney Showdown →

2025, Uncategorized

Kirkpatrick Bank Names Mike Steppenbacker To Lead Colorado

Kirkpatrick Bank Names Mike Steppenbacker
To Lead Colorado

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado
—January 28, 2025

Kirkpatrick Bank names Mike Steppenbacker as Colorado Market President and Head of Colorado Lending. He brings over twenty four years of experience to the role.
“We are extremely excited to have Mike join our team,” said Trent Stafford, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer for Kirkpatrick Bank.
Most recently, Mike served as Director/VP of Corporate Banking at Ent Credit Union, specializing in commercial lending and business banking oper-ations. Before joining Ent Credit Union, Mike held the position of Vice President of Business Banking at ANB Bank from 2005 to 2010. His foundational experience includes serving as a Bank Examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Cleveland, Ohio, where he developed a deep understanding of regulatory compliance and banking oversight.
Mike holds an MBA from Colorado State University and a Bachelor of Science in Financial Management from Grove City College.
Mike has been married to his wife, Linda, for nearly two decades. Together, they are proud parents to three children, ages fifteen, thirteen, and eleven. Mike remains actively engaged in the community, serving as a youth basketball coach for seventh-grade club teams and strongly involved in his local church congregation.

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Joan Marie Kelly Barnett- Obituary

Obituary
Joan Marie Kelly Barnett

If it’s true that everyone leaves behind a legacy, then Joan Marie Kelly Barnett’s legacy is Love.  Born May 16, 1938, in Miller’s Crossing, Newfoundland, Canada, Joan passed away peacefully on February 6, 2025, in Cotopaxi, Colorado. In her final days, she was surrounded by loving family members and caregivers, all of whom adored her.
Joan’s deep faith was unshakeable, and her love of Jesus was always front and center. Her caring and caregiving nature meant she cherished people, especially those with special needs, whom she worked with for many years. Music
brought Joan great joy, and Leonard Cohen’s voice often filled her home. She saw the beauty in every-thing, particularly the
natural world, and she relished camping, hiking, and being outdoors. She could out-hike younger people well into her 70s and always enjoyed pointing out various plants and flowers like the lupines she loved.
Joan never met a stranger—only friends she hadn’t gotten to know yet. “Love,” “My Love,” and “Me Love” rolled off her tongue often and never failed to make the recipient feel like they were just a little bit extra special—even though everyone was special to her. She loved sharing stories about growing up in Newfoundland and her lifetime of travels around the globe, and she never failed to make people smile and laugh with her funny anecdotes and her charming “Newfie” accent. She was a wonderful cook and her fried bread was legendary.
Joan is survived by her devoted husband, David Barnett; her four sons: Rick, Ken, Glenn, and Paul Kreibich; her two sisters: Pauline (Kelly) Hines and Mary (Kelly) Rootes; two brothers, Emile
and Kevin Kelly; seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, as well as spouses and friends.
Joan was truly one of a kind—a bright light and a sweet and funny soul—and her absence is deeply felt. Rest in peace, Me Love.
A service will be held at 10 a.m on Saturday, February 15, 2025, at Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Westcliffe, Colorado.

2025, Uncategorized

Cosme Daniel “Danny” Hernandez -Obituary

Obituary
Cosme Daniel “Danny” Hernandez

Cosme Daniel “Danny” Hernandez left us February 8, 2025. Danny was born in Pinar del Rio Province, Cuba, in 1927, and from a very young age learned to be resourceful and quite the entrepreneur. His careers in Cuba included serving as a police officer, the Cuban Navy/Coast Guardsman which they call a Marine and he worked at an American electric company. It was the day he was handed a communist newspaper and told this is what he now was to read that he tore it into two pieces and knew it was time to go to the United States. Unfortunately, his family stayed behind in Cuba. He landed in New Jersey and once again his entrepreneurial spirit prevailed working multiple jobs, one of which was selling quality women’s dresses and jewelry. This would be his most important job as he met the love of his life when he sold several dresses to Hildalisa Chavez.
Quite smitten, she said to him she could not pay him in full but that he must come back weekly for payments. They were married August 30, 1963. Shortly after they married, they moved to Miami where they created their beautiful life together. Throughout their 62 years together, they traveled the world, visiting France, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Austria, to name a few. He was a successful business owner, always considering his family, supporting where he could. He was generous to a fault. Never denied any financial requests. A true living angel.
He even went back to Cuba decades later to visit his sisters and was able to build them a home with indoor plumbing. One of his proudest moments in life. Danny and Lisa were sweethearts to the end, always loving with each other, always holding hands, a true love story.


He will be missed dearly by all. He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years, Hildelisa C. Hernandez, sister-in-law, Esther (Rodolfo, deceased) Barrio, niece Barbara (Ron) Beckner, and many many nieces and nephews and even more dear friends.

Memorial services to be held at Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church, 109 South Fifth Street, Westcliffe, CO 81252, February 20,
2025 at 9:30 a.m.   Rosary at 9:20 a.m.

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Custer Deputies Bust Four Mexican Illegals Plus, a Sinister Twist

Custer Deputies Bust
Four Mexican Illegals
Plus, a Sinister Twist

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

About 1:25 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29th, Custer County Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Santiago was patrolling State Highway 96 (aka, Hardscrabble Road, or just the Scrabble. It runs from Wetmore up the mountain to Silver Cliff and Westcliffe.) and got behind a somewhat older (2002) white Ford box van. Around mile marker 18 (near MacKenzie Junction). Noticing that the van had a defective taillight, the Deputy lit up his lights and pulled the van over. Continue reading Custer Deputies Bust Four Mexican Illegals Plus, a Sinister Twist →

2025, BOCC, Uncategorized

Jan 30 BOCC: Lawsuit, Roth Get FD Position, Attorney Drama

Decline Rumblings,
$60k Lawsuit Payment, Roth Gets the Finance Director’s Position, More County Attorney Drama

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The January 30, 2025 Custer County Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) meeting started at 9:01 a.m. at the All Aboard Westcliffe meeting room in Westcliffe. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Bill Canda and members Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
In Commissioner Items, Epp said the Commissioners were “mandatory” reporters for the Department of Human Services re child protective services and they must undergo training because of that mandate. Epp also said he had talked to our Public Health Department about their grant funding and what level of services that could provide if their state and federal grant for income declines. (And it will. All of Custer County’s departments and offices should prepare contingency plans for a probate grant income decline.) He noted that the Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments (UAACOG) (a government grant dispensing non-profit machine in Cañon City) might also have some serious funding issues going forward. Epp commented, “Grants are up in the air. If certain things go away, what are we going to do and what is it going to look like?)
( It’s called small, efficient, prioritized government focusing on the essentials.)
Canda chimed in, “Fed funding is the issue. We need to know what grants are federal.” (Note a LOT of “state” grants are actually fed money that was given to the state…)
In New Business, Accounts Payable was first up. Epp stated that the monthly AP amount was high as it is in the beginning of the year and also it contained a $60k bill from the county’s insurer (CTSI) for the deductible amount we have to pay for the settlement of the tasing lawsuit brought by a minor who
was in custody by the Sheriff’s Office. (This was before Sheriff Smith came on board. Rumor has it the settlement was for around $700k.) The incident occurred in 2022 and involved alleged excessive force. The total A/P for January was $365k and it was approved.
The next report was from the Wet Mountain Fire District. It was reported that the District received the most calls for service ever last year, 340 calls. There were 16 fires responded to.
The Tourism Bureau’s report involved a slide presentation. They said they were doing a good job as the Lodging Tax was up for last year. The online Zoom system went out during their report so much
was missed.
Our County Clerk and Recorder, Kelley Camper, then was up requesting the ok form the Commissioners to apply for a $144k grant from the state fund that grabs $2 from every electronic document recording the Clerk’s Office does. The Commissioners gave their approval.
Brian Anderson gave the Airport report. The $650k eight-foot fence that a donor put up and paid for was about completed. However, the three access gates to the airport need to be upgraded to keep deer and other pesky critters out. The Airport has a $50k grant it can use. They received a local bid to fix the gates for around $21k. This passed.
Next Agenda Item was, “Consideration of the Finance Director’s Position”. Epp handled this. (As you know, we haven’t had a Finance Director for over a year after the big County Manager debacle. The Commissioners were only offering $125k for the job and the real-world price to get anybody decent is over $200k. Vernon Roth, our IT Director has been basically doing the job (with help from Redlands Accounting) and all reports say he is doing a great job. So, after a year, something finally happened….) Epp kind of laid out some background on where we are re the position saying we had an employee (Roth) in this position (on an interim basis) now for a year. Epp proposed to “move that employee into this Finance Director’s position” and we “will keep Redlands or another consultant here as backup.” Epp proposed a salary of $95k. Epp then read a letter from a local citizen who is a very high-speed accountant saying Vernon can do the job. Vogelsong commented that if we bring somebody new in it “would be a big learning curve.” A couple of peasants then spoke up supporting Vernon. The vote was then taken and all three Commissioners voted to give Vernon the job. (Good move. Vernon is super smart and a very hard worker.)
The next subject was pretty controversial, “Review and Consideration of the Contract for County Attorney”. (Remember there was a personnel issue with our County Attorney, Dan Slater, and a county employee. The Commissioners voted to fire Slater for it. They took away Slater’s contract with the department where the issue occurred but kept him on for the BOCC and the Sheriff’s Office until they found a replacement. Until now, they haven’t found anybody.
This Item is Canda’s baby. He said he has an attorney, Rachel Maxam, who just moved here and has a practice in Colorado Springs and she wants the job. She wants $5k a month and $100 per hour for
extra hours.
Canda went on a bit about Maxam then Slater rose to his defense saying she would cost 43% more than what he was getting. Epp said he thought her flat fee was way too high and was concerned that we would normally not use that many hours. Slater said his average monthly fee for 2024 was $3,290 per month and her proposed contract doesn’t cover “litigation” which his does and this could cost a ton more. Slater then said he “continues to have questions to why you still want to change.” Epp responded something about, “legalities of conflict of interest”. At some point in the discussion, Slater said the “issue” had been resolved (so no point in trying to get rid of him.) This went on and on. Finally, as it is a personnel issue, the Commissioners decided to have an Executive Session on it (date to be decided). So, Slater is still our County Attorney. (Well, Slater was removed re his “personnel issue” from one of his contracts with the county and apparently the “issue” is resolved now. The problem is, getting an attorney who really knows county/municipal law is difficult. And the gov’t legal arena is complex and complicated. You need a lot of experience to get good at it. Watching Slater now for years, he knows his stuff. The only real blem on his work here was the County Manager vignette where he did not give the Commissioners proper advice on how to follow the law regarding setting up a County Manager position and filling it. Other than that, he has done a good job. He had his hand slapped over the personnel issue. It is going to be real difficult to find someone with his experience who will charge us a reasonable rate….  Maybe change your minds mighty Commissioners and give him a second chance?)
And that was it. Pretty good drama quotient. Stay tuned for the next chapter of “Happy Valley”. Continue reading Jan 30 BOCC: Lawsuit, Roth Get FD Position, Attorney Drama →

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“Everything that Can Burn, Will Burn”

“Everything that Can Burn, Will Burn”
A Documentary to Learn From

by Katherine Brenchley
As the wildfires continue to rage in California, it seems the topic is on the minds of many Americans. Glenn Beck recently mentioned a documentary that came out in 2023 that does an amazing job of addressing the $12 BILLION per year (in California alone) “Wildfire Industrial Complex”. It’s called Hotshot and was produced by Gabriel Kirkpatrick Mann.
In the film, Mann follows his wife (a rarity in the firefighter community) and her Texas Canyon Hotshots, along with several other Hotshot teams, for six fire seasons. He captured some remarkable moments during some of the biggest fires in California leading up to 2023 and offers a good education on the lessons he learned and an important warning for states like Colorado.
Delving into the history of fire mitigation and suppression, Mann explains the idea of Fire Debt, which is “the primary driver of fire intensity. And the reason is simple. More fuel, bigger bomb. More carbon grows out of the ground every year. So every year that you’re not burning some of it off, your fire debt increases.” And when that debt comes due, the result is costly.
Mann says, “Global wildfire activity is actually decreasing. It’s only getting worse in the areas that practice aggressive fire suppression, like the American West, but few are eager to tell you the truth. Instead, they tell you the sky is falling like never before and it’s all the faults of our modern…climate.” In fact, Beck pointed out that when Mann presented his documentary to Netflix, they refused to buy it unless he made changes to include a segment about the problem of “climate change”. Mann declined.
The problem isn’t the climate, which is always changing, it is the that we aren’t taking care of our open spaces, something even the Forest Service acknowledges. We’ve likely all seen the smoke and read the notifications about prescribed burns, but I wonder, are we doing enough? Ever walk the Rainbow Trail and notice the standing dead and downed trees and the dead brush too thick to walk through? Consider the Sangres haven’t burned in almost 120 years. It has created watershed issues and a significant decline in the water table. And other areas are much worse than our Sangres, like the beetle kill forests around Steamboat Springs or Wolf Creek Pass.
According to Mann, “Medicinal fire reduces wildfire destruction by 87%. Florida proactively burns more in one year than California has burned in the last fifty years. And guess which state has a wildfire problem?” So called ‘environmentalists’ and politicians have put an essential stop to mitigation and prescribed burns, which directly cause the catastrophic fires like we’re seeing in California.
Check out the documentary and learn about this very real threat: hotshotmovie.com. Then start asking questions – your local Fire Marshall (the Sheriff) might be a good place to start.

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Sangre Shooting Sports Club Elects Board and Officers

L to R: John Noard, Cole Collins, Peggi Collins, Bill Garrett, Tom Sullivan, Steve Konegni, Linda Pollack

Press Release
The Sangre Shooting Sports Club (SSSC) held its annual members’ meeting on Saturday, January 18, 2025, at Lange Hall in the Hope Lutheran Church, Westcliffe. Approximately 60 people were in attendance. Morning
refreshments were served. 2024 accomplishments
were reviewed and planned activities for 2025 were revealed including community efforts such as CPR classes and highway cleanup adventures as well as shooting events. Sheriff
Rich Smith also gave a presentation on new and proposed Colorado gun laws that will have an impact on individual citizens. Tom Sullivan was reelected as President. Cole Collins, Peggi Collins, Bill Garrett, Steve Konegni, John Noard and Linda Pollack were elected as Board Members. Specific Officer positions were selected by the Board members. They are John Noard, VP, Peggi Collins, Secretary and Bill Garrett, Treasurer.