Essay by Martha Quillen & Columbine Quillen

Sept. 11 events – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

ED STARTED THE Letter from the Editors this month after rereading Jihad vs. McWorld, a book he picked up years ago on remainder. In Jihad, author Benjamin Barber writes about the new global economy and how it’s fueling a growing clash between religious fundamentalists, tribal cultures and hidebound traditionalists and the corporate culture that gives us fast food, Wal-Marts, pop music, and theme parks. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Martha Quillen

Salida school mill levy election – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

In the final analysis, almost all of the numbers support the idea that Salida could use more money — since it certainly isn’t one of the richest districts in the state. The truth is, most of the schools in our region could use more money (some of them far more desperately than R-32-J Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Martha Quillen

Salida School Mill Level Election – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

One of the common local debates regarding District R-32-J’s proposed mill levy override revolves around whether money matters. But rather than being conclusive, the answer seems to be… Sometimes. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Annie Hays

Salida School Mill Levy Election – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Average teacher salary in selected districts, according to the Colorado Department of Education report cards

Buena Vista $ 31,975

Cotopaxi Re-3 $ 30,847

Custer County Consolidated C-1 $ 30,899 Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Martha Quillen

Salida School Mill Levy Election – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

One of the arguments against the mill levy override is that Salidans can’t afford to raise District salaries. Here’s the gist of it — and the numbers.

According to the Salida Comprehensive Plan 2000 the average per capita personal income in Chaffee County in 1997 was $16,082, and the average income for a two person household was $34,400. According to the Colorado Department of Education the average teacher salary in Salida was $34,507 in 2000. That would mean that the average teacher in Salida already makes what it often takes two Chaffee County residents to make. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Ed Quillen

Salida Scholl Mill Levy Election – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

What’s a mill?

In this context, a mill is the smallest unit of currency in the United States — a unit so small that it has no coin. It’s 1/10 of a cent or 1/1000 of a dollar; think of it as a “millidollar” in the way that a “millimeter” is 1/1000 of a meter, and you’ve got it.

In property tax matters, a tax of one mill per dollar of taxable value is the same as a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value. Read the rest of this article

Article by Annie Hays

Salida School Mill Levy Election – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

IN MOST PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, voters aren’t nearly as eager to head to the polls this year as they were last year. But in Salida the school board is campaigning to insure that citizens of District R-32-J will be anything but apathetic on voting day 2001. The Salida School Board is asking its voters for a second time in a row to approve a mill levy override for its schools. Read the rest of this article

Column by George Sibley

Sense of Place – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

SENSE OF PLACE has come to be one of those concepts whereby we post-modern, post-industrial, post-urban bucolics move up through the thirty-two degrees of right living. So it seems appropriate that “senses of place” should be the focus of the 12th regional “Headwaters Conference” early this November in Gunnison. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Colorado Central – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

A subscriber in New Mexico sent us a reasonable complaint. His September edition arrived on Sept. 4, he wanted to write a letter for publication, and the deadline for that was Sept. 7 — not enough time.

We agree that’s a problem, but there’s not much we can do about it, since when it comes to delivering magazines to subscribers, we’re at the mercy of the U.S. Postal Service. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local Arts – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

It was easy for us to claim with both honesty and modesty that we were the leading monthly magazine in Central Colorado — we were the only one.

Now there’s Metaphor, which bills itself as “Salida’s Monthly Poetry ‘Zine.”

The idea, according to publisher Carla Sonheim, is to document the monthly open-microphone nights at Bongo Billy’s Salida Café. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Media – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Except when the ground blizzards are howling, a drive in South Park is scenic. But it has also been a silent place if you want to listen to FM radio while you’re on the road.

Now that’s changed. KRCC, the public-radio station at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, installed a new translator on Oct. 4 to serve South Park.

It’s at 91.3 mHz on Badger Mountain near Wilkerson Pass, and station manager Mario Valdes said his signal should reach Fairplay, Alma, Hartsel, Lake George, and Florrisant — and perhaps even Cripple Creek and Victor. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Salida – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Like many Salidans, we were mystified one October night when we looked across the river and saw some new lights on Tenderfoot Hill.

Normally, there’s a white-light S that alternates with a red heart outline (for Heart of the Rockies, a Salida slogan that dates back to the 1930s). At Yuletide, it’s a big Christmas tree. And there has been talk, since Sept. 11, of installing an American flag, or of flanking the S with two more big letters to make it USA.. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local History – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado Fuel & Iron operated its steel mills in Pueblo, but the company’s influence extended deeply into the fabric of Central Colorado for about a century.

The old Orient iron mines above Valley View Hot Springs, now best known as the summer home for immense clouds of bats? Those were CF&I mines. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Fallout from 9-11

Even in a small town, the effects of the terrorist attacks have been widespread. Aside from the prayer vigils, blood donations, and fundraisers, the reactions to the event are pervasive.

* The Alamosa School Board is encouraging teachers to lead their students in the Pledge of Allegiance every day. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Sept. 11 events – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

The mass murders on Sept. 11 happened a long way from Central Colorado, but the local response was almost instantaneous.

Perhaps the most bizarre reaction came in Leadville, where there was a run on gasoline that evening. Only one station was open, the Kum & Go, and the line was so long that the station implemented a $10 maximum purchase. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written by Clint Driscoll and illustrated by Judie Moorhead

Mountain Life – November 2001 – Colorado Central Read the rest of this article

Essay by Barbara Kingsolver

Patriotism – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

My daughter came home from kindergarten in Tucson, Ariz., and announced, “Tomorrow we all have to wear red, white and blue.”

“Why?” I asked, trying not to sound wary. Read the rest of this article

SNOW SURVEY AND STREAM GAUGE FUNDING

The FY2002 Senate Agriculture Appropriations bill (S. 1191) provides the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) with $8,515,000 for snow survey and water forecasting. The House passed H.R. 2330, which provides NRCS with $7,137,000 for the same purposes. A conference committee will work out the difference. The Interior conference committee approved $64,318,000 to the USGS for cost sharing on stream gauging. State and local contributions total $123.2M. USGS is also funding a geology study of Lake Meade with $299,000. (The National Water Quality Assessment program funding is being decreased by $596,000) A note added to the Interior conference report reads, “Work by the [F&W] Service to mitigate the effects of water resource development projects conducted by other Federal agencies should be performed on a cost reimbursable basis and the Service should receive full and fair compensation for such work.” Read the rest of this article

Column by Hal Walter

Mountain Life – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

IT’S FALL. I know this not by the calendar but by a certain blue color of the sky and the spray of white on the higher peaks. A select few branches of some aspen trees have begun to turn, and the first cold front has blown through, taking most of the bugs and summer with it.

I also know it’s fall by the almost primal instinct to start gathering necessary commodities. Firewood and hay are the two biggies. Wild meat for the freezer is another. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Earle Kittleman

Anza References – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Resources

Kaelin, Celinda Reynolds. Pikes Peak Back Country. Idaho: Caxton Press, 1999.

Kessler, Ron. Anza’s 1779 Comanche Campaign, Second Edition. Monte Vista, Colorado: Adobe Village Press, 2001. Read the rest of this article

Article by Earle Kittleman

Anza – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE SAYING THAT “all politics is local” could be applied to history as well. The Sixth Annual World Anza Conference in Pueblo over the Labor Day weekend brought together an ardent band of local historians, genealogists, and all-out fans of Juan Bautista de Anza.

The continuing purpose of the conference is to illuminate the military and political genius of the man who served as the King of Spain’s colonial governor of New Mexico from 1777 until 1787. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Martha Quillen

Modern Life – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE GOOD NEWS: It’s still harder to arrange an international conference than to get an American family with school age kids together to eat dinner. After all, a family dinner doesn’t usually require faxes, e-mails, fees, brochures, or a web site.

But even so, the everyday, ordinary family dinner just doesn’t seem to be all that everyday or ordinary any more. There are just so many things to juggle these days: dual jobs, cooking, housework, homework, after school activities, band practices, sports, home and yard maintenance, town meetings and civic obligations… The list goes on. Read the rest of this article

Column by George Sibley

Poetry – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

“Knowing your place” used to be a kind of snobbish putdown. Certain kinds of people said of certain other kinds of people, “Don’t they know their place?” — which presumably indicated some kind of uppity social status on the part of the speaker.

But today, in post-modern, post-industrial and post-urban Central Colorado, to “know your place” has a different connotation. In this case, I think we’d rather have people here who “know their place.” Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]1890437484[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Historic Photos – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado: Yesterday and Today
by Grant Collier
Published in 2001 by Western Reflections
ISBN 1-890437-48-4 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0700610839[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Tourism – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Seeing & Being Seen – Tourism in the American West
Edited by David M. Wrobel and Patrick T. Long
Foreword by Earl Pomeroy
Published for the Center of the American West
in 2001 by University Press of Kansas
ISBN 0-7006-1083-9 Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Education – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

IMAGINE GOING through high school again. Now stop grimacing and imagine going to class only when you want to, not having to match your learning pace with everyone else’s, and never having to listen to a lecture in a classroom or stand in line in the cafeteria.

That’s the reality of high school at Monte Vista’s On-Line Academy, which is now in its seventh year of educating people who don’t fit the mold. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Ed Quillen

Water – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

The bypass flow issue originated in northern Colorado, where plains cities like Greeley had reservoirs on Forest Service land in the mountains. Many of these could contain the entire flow of the river, so that the bed was dry downstream from the dam — but over time, they began to leak, and aquatic life returned to the stream. Read the rest of this article

Article by Allen Best

Water – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE CURRENT QUARREL between Colorado’s water establishment and the U.S. Forest Service comes down to creeks named Fancy, Missouri and French. They tumble off the Sawatch Range and — if left to their natural ways — flow into Homestake Creek and thence into the Eagle River. Read the rest of this article

Article by Rayna Bailey

Local artist – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

WESTCLIFFE ARTIST Sarah Woods is an admitted conservative from a family of conventional teachers and lawyers. There may not be a “Bohemian” actor, musician, or artist in the entire clan. Except for Sarah.

Woods started out following in the family’s footsteps. She graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor of fine arts degree, and says that although the university’s fine art program was highly specialized and open only to a limited number of students, it failed to teach participating students “the business of art,” or how to make a career as a professional artist. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Annie Hays

Meteorites – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

What is a meteor/meteorite?

Meteor is the term used to describe both the small pieces of solid material that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, and the streak of light (shooting or falling star) produced when debris from space passes through the Earth’s atmosphere. Read the rest of this article

Article by Annie Hays

Meteorite – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE PIERCING SOUND of a Japanese girl band was blaring from my car speakers as I made my way to Saguache, and that strange, foreign, somewhat annoying noise somehow fit with the task at hand: searching for a meteorite. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Modern times – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado Central:

Come off it, readers, am I a Luddite? Ludd would surely roll over in his grave at the comparison. Honestly, I thought Luddite was some kind of magic mineral found on Mr. Tonganoxie and sold by enterprising longhairs for its restorative qualities. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Roger Williams

Geography – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

I noticed with amusement that the ad from the Wall Street Journal, “Colorado: An Enviable Position” about “Southfork” that was on page 11 [of the September edition of Colorado Central], and says their sites “are protected by almost 2 mm acres” of National Forest land. This is 2 millimeters or about 1/12 of an inch. (I think they meant million). Of course, an inch of acres doesn’t mean anything. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Robert Cross

Public land use – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

While I enjoyed the reprint from the Washington Monthly ["Playground or Preserve" in the September edition], I found it lacking (perhaps because of the audience at which it was originally directed). Ms. Watzman does a thorough job of reporting the existing status of the growing problem with off road vehicles. While the article was lengthy, when I finished reading, my impression was that it hurried to a lame conclusion for the sake of publication space. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Martha Quillen

Attack on America – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

10:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Tomorrow is our deadline day. So we merely need to put together eight or ten more pages, finish the calendar, tweak that one last minute story, add a few Tracks, proof-read everything, and we’re through! Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Media – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

The review of the novel Fool’s Gold in our September edition observed that the novelist, Rob Schultheis, was a columnist for Inside/Outside Southwest magazine in Durango.

And it went on to say “the last time I saw the magazine before its demise …” Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Geography – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

In a discussion of place names in the September edition, our bifocal-wearing publisher misread Rio Bravo on a map as Rio Brazo. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local literature – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

If you’re a writer looking for a new place to show your work, Talus Review would like to hear from you. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Politics – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Rep. Gary Condit of California’s 18th Congressional District has been much in the news lately after the May disappearance of Chandra Levy, an intern from his district with whom he was having an affair. (Her internship was not in his office, but with the federal Bureau of Prisons.)

We note that he represents the only other Salida in the United States — Salida, California, a suburb of Modesto in the Central Valley and home to some almond-processing plants. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Wildlife – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Hunting season does a pretty good job of keeping deer away from the roads, but the deer seem to know that it’s illegal to hunt in town — and that yards and gardens often offer an abundance of fine dining.

This problem is not unique to Central Colorado — it’s a national phenomenon, according to an article in the Aug. 21 edition of the Wall Street Journal, which pointed out that America’s deer population has gone from 500,000 to 15,000,000 in the past century. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Too Much of a Good Thing

The near daily rains the San Luis Valley enjoyed most of the summer were a dark cloud to the area’s barley growers. The barley crop, which needs dryness at harvest time for best quality, was soaked by the rains. Coors, the major buyer of the Valley’s barley, bought only a fraction of the crop. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written by Clint Driscoll and illustrated by Judie Moorhead

Mountain Life – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article

Essay by Judy Holzworth

Rural Life – October 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

AS A KID IN RURAL Montana I grew up knowing _characters like June, a snuff-spitting, aging cowgirl who drove a pink Lincoln Continental, and Joe, a bronc buster with bow legs who taught a pair of Texas longhorns to nicely pull a buggy. Both were leather-faced, and if they ran a little short on social graces, June and Joe were long on personality. Read the rest of this article

PRICE-STUBB DAM DECOMMISSION IN DOUBT

On 9/13, FERC issued an order approving the application for the Jacobson Hydro No. 1 Project, and lifted the stay of the license order. This gives Jacobson until 1/13/02, to begin construction of the project. The project’s financial feasibility is in question, and FERC is requiring the licensee to submit a project financing plan for FERC approval prior to any ground disturbance, to ensure financing to complete construction. If the hydropower facility is built on the Price-Stubb dam, a fish ladder will have to be built around the dam near Grand Junction instead of breaching the dam to help expand habitat for endangered fish. Construction of the ladder is tentatively scheduled for 2003-2004. Read the rest of this article

Column by Hal Walter

Wildlife – September 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

I HAVEN’T SEEN A BEAR THIS SUMMER. This fact may not seem odd to most people, but to me it’s amazing. I spend large amounts of time outdoors on trails and backroads. What’s more, the area I live in is a hotbed of bear activity, and almost everybody I know who lives around here has a bear story this summer. Read the rest of this article