1999 March

We’re ready for Y2K, if not quite compliant

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Column by Hal Walter

Y2K – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

I WAS LISTENING TO Radio-Free Jesus the other day while driving around in my truck. This is the umpteengigawatt Colorado Springs station where “one nation, under God,” means the religious right gets to make up all the rules by which everybody must live. I didn’t need to see the opening scene in the movie “Elizabeth,” in which several religious “heretics” (in this case Protestants) were burned at the stake by the Catholic-run government, to know that theocracy is a real bad idea.

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Valley of the Cranes by V.M. Simmons

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Review by Nancy Ward

Wildlife – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Valley of the Cranes – Exploring Colorado’s San Luis Valley
Essay by Virginia McConnell Simmons
Photography by Robert Rozinski and Wendy Shattil
Published in 1988 by Roberts Rinehart, Inc. Publishers
ISBN 0-911797-41-6

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Making it work

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Brief by Marcia Darnell

Action 22 – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Action 22 could soar like an eagle or it could die like a dog, depending on how it handles its immediate roadblocks. The likely dangers include:

Apathy. If Action 22 doesn’t recruit enough members, it won’t have political clout. And it’s more than sheer numbers — the group needs a good diversity of members. Political entities, non-profits, businesses, clubs and dedicated individuals will ensure that Action 22 doesn’t become another PAC.

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Southern Colorado imitates Club 20

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Article by Marcia Darnell

Action 22 – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

A WATERSHED EVENT in the history of rural Colorado politics may have begun January 13, with the formation of Action 22, a coalition of 22 southeastern Colorado counties.

Patterned after Club 20, the Western Slope bloc (which also includes Lake County), Action 22 aims to create “a single unified voice on issues of mutual concern to Southern Colorado Counties,” according to its brochure. In other words, 22 usually ignored counties are pooling clout to make one BIG voice in the state legislature.

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Raccoons aren’t as cute as they appear

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Article by Lynda La Rocca

Wildlife – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

SOMETHING’S BEEN EATING the birdseed. And it isn’t the mountain chickadees or the tree sparrows, the intended recipients of our largesse. My husband Steve and I are pretty quick on the uptake, so when we found our outdoor storage containers — a collection of metal cookie tins fitted with what we thought were tamper-proof lids — scattered open and empty around the backyard, we immediately surmised that the birds weren’t the culprits.

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The Mountain Time Zone isn’t Major League material

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Essay by Ed Quillen

Sports – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

SALT LAKE CITY wanted to put itself on the world map with the 2002 Winter Olympics. The games are still three years away, but the Utah capital has already succeeded in a big way — pick up a newspaper from just about anywhere, and the City of the Saints is on the front page.

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An Industrial-Strength Identity Crisis

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Essay by Ed Quillen

Leadville – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

WE’VE BEEN READING a lot about the “judgment of history” lately, usually in reference to the impeachment and trial in Washington. But hereabouts, future historians might well reach the verdict that 1999 was the year that the mineral industry departed from Central Colorado.

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Dumpsters beat the lottery

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Letter by Slim Wolfe

Mountain Living – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dumpsters beat the Lottery

Editors:

I have never bought a lottery ticket. Any time I’m in doubt as to my standing with the great Kahuna, I have a more interesting test: I play scratch-and-sniff with dumpsters. This started years ago during fits of nocturnal insomnia or maybe to distract my aggravated mind from a girlfriend squabble.

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Just a little paranoia

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Letter by Charlie Green

Progress – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Just a little paranoia

Editors:

This is the Copper Gulch Curmudgeon again. And I’m still grousing about Fremont County paving the Copper Gulch Road.

Last year they paved six or seven miles of it. Mind you, this was just a few years after it washed out and the county said they weren’t even going to reopen it. Now the townies are moving in all over our neighborhood. The homeowners association is even talking about plowing the snow on our streets. Might as well live in Cañon City. Next will come streetlights … temporarily.

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Monte Vista Festival is for the Birds

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Article by Lynda La Rocca

Wildlife – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

THIS IS ONE FESTIVAL that really is for the birds. Monte Vista’s 16th Annual Crane Festival, March 12-14, celebrates the return of more than 13,000 greater sandhill cranes to the San Luis Valley, and offers the possibility of sighting one of North America’s rarest birds — the whooping crane.

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Putting the Trout Back in Trout Creek

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Article by Jeff Keidel

Landscape Restoration – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

I’VE DRIVEN OVER TROUT CREEK PASS between Johnson Village and Antero Junction (U.S. Highway 24/285) at least a hundred times. Always keeping focus on its notorious curves, I’ve managed to steal glimpses of its dramatic Castle Rocks and the creek below. It’s a beautiful sight.

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Individual Contributions to Rep. Scott McInnis

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Article by Central Staff

Politics – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

— Matthew 6:21

That biblical quotation is one consideration. Another: Why bother with all these laws about reporting campaign contributions if nobody pays any attention to the reports?

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Free Range Radio goes off the air

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Brief by Jane Carpenter

Communication – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Salida’s unlicensed FM station — Free Range Radio at 101.1 Mhz, operated by the Salida Radio Club — has gone off the air. The action was voluntary, although there was the very real fear of arrest and prosecution by the Federal Communications Commission.

But if proposed new regulations are adopted by the FCC, then Free Range Radio — and many other low-power, low-cost radio stations — could legally start or resume broadcasting.

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Gunnison school really stinks

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Article by Central Staff

Education – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Many kids will tell you that “school stinks,” but at the elementary wing of the Gunnison Community School, it’s the literal truth. Ever since the new building opened in the fall of 1997, it has been plagued by foul odors that cause headaches and stomach upsets.

The problem has been reduced over time, so that it no longer affects the middle school. But the elementary portion, especially the first-grade rooms, still suffer.

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Colorado Mountain College seeks permanent home in Chaffee

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Brief by Central Staff

Education – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

On March 6, the trustees of Colorado Mountain College are scheduled to meet in Glenwood Springs and decide on a permanent home for operations in Chaffee County.

The college has offices and classrooms in both Salida and Buena Vista, but the rooms are rented, and over the years, there have been many moves when buildings changed hands.

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Avlanche kills 3 on Cumberland Pass

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Brief by Central Staff

Outdoors – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

A back-country avalanche killed three Western State College students on February 6 near Cumberland Pass.

The three — Andrew P. Vork, Casey James McKenny, and Matthew Allen Noddin — were part of a party of six people on an outing that combined skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling.

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Ma Bell puts us up for adoption

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Article by Central Staff

Communications – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ma Bell Puts Us Up for Adoption

US West, the regional Baby Bell telephone monopoly, wants out of Central Colorado. The company has put 18 rural Colorado exchanges up for sale, and these include Salida, Buena Vista, Fairplay, Gunnison, Monte Vista, and Alamosa.

Why doesn’t US West want us any more?

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Leadville School Board Recall Succeeds

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Brief by Central Staff

Education – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Leadville School Board Recall Succeeds

It was a close vote, but it did change the school board in Leadville on Feb. 2, with Jack Saunders replacing Ernie Kuhns as the result of a recall election.

Turn-out exceeded expectations. Lake County Clerk Patty Berger had anticipated about 600 voters, and instead, the special election attracted more than 1,100 citizens. That represents nearly 30% of the county’s 3,925 registered voters.

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Briefs from the San Luis Valley

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Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

2 Cents’ Change

Alamosa County resident Larry Crowder wants to change the county tax rate and distribution. Currently, the county keeps 0.8£ of its 2% sales tax, with the other 1.2£ going to the city of Alamosa.

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A roadblock in the on-ramp to the information highway

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Article by Ed Quillen

Communications – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

A roadblock in the on-ramp to the Information Highway

For many people in Central Colorado lately, Internet access has consisted of a busy signal, rather than the squeaks and hums of connecting modems.

That’s been the situation at Mountain Computer Wizards of Buena Vista, which provides Internet access via chaffee.net to us and hundreds of other people in the region.

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Just Say No to Improvements

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Essay by Ken Wright

Growth – March 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

FOR TWO YEARS I wrote an environmental column for a small newspaper in western Colorado.

It wasn’t hard work, really. I just rambled on for 600 words each week about the rugged landscape around us and then offered some helpful observations and suggestions: that housing developments really aren’t good elk habitat, that the local ski area is big enough already, that the Forest Service shouldn’t execute one of the area’s last old-growth Ponderosa stands, that the Bureau of Reclamation shouldn’t insert yet another concrete suppository in yet another nearby river, and so on.

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