Another Month in the Valley: Politics, Flowers, and Spring!

Hotchkiss Sheep Dog Trials in 2014 – Beginning May 8-10, 2015

Another Month in the Valley

By Thomas Wills – Editor and Co-Publisher

March 24 – The Paonia Town Council agenda looked dull, but true to recent form, the pot was stirred briskly and secrets were revealed. It turns out that multiple department heads have been claiming money they are not entitled to. Trouble in personnel-land. Also a lot of fire and smoke about how the Town should, or should not regulate (and charge for) commercial use of the parks. Apparently there is a perception among some in the business community that the Town has been less than helpful and this was one more brick in that particular wall. In reality it may just be a result of a difficult transition from having a Town Clerk and deputy, to the present office administration with only a clerk and a Town administrator who supervises the entire Town and  who has been extremely busy with getting up to speed and steering Paonia back onto a sustainable course.

March 25 – Hotchkiss Chamber of Commerce in the morning and Hotchkiss Planning Commission in the evening.  The Chamber continued planning for the June arrival of the Denver Post Ride the Rockies bicycle tour.  The planning commission, after three full years of work, adopted the Hotchkiss Downtown Core and Highway Corridor Improvement Plan as a part of the Hotchkiss Community Master Plan.  There was also a long debate about allowing an out-of-town resident to hook his new very large shop building to town water without the purchase of a separate water tap.

March 26 – The North Fork Ambulance Association held their second community meeting, this time in Paonia at the high school, asking for input on how the non-profit should proceed in overcoming an annual deficit.

March 27 – 28 -The nights have been below freezing but day continue to be very warm.  It’s that time of the year when it is almost cooler inside the bookstore than outside and a fire in the woodstove is still required, at least for a few hours, to knock the chill out.  I planted more peas.

The Herald was distributed and I’m anticipating a few comments on a couple of the pieces.

HHS art teacher, Jamie Roeber, led an all young woman, student art squad in speedily painting a small, mono-chromatic  mural of an elk and aspens on the east side of the Hotchkiss Elks building.

There was a meeting at the Hive in Paonia on Saturday to discuss how hemp farming and outdoor marijuana growing could possibly co-exist when faced with the “you got some of your peanut butter on my chocolate” problem of cross pollination.

March 29-30 – Beautiful spring days across the Valley.  More peas are coming up and I planted more salad greens and some parsnips.  I made a big batch of arugula –based salad on Sunday and worked at cleaning some of last season’s detritus out of the yard.

April 1 –  The Crawford Town Council met and discussed updates to their stale 1991 personnel manual (they have three employees), the need for enhancing general fund revenues and how to ramp down the number of barking dogs, yard junk and people revving up poorly mufflered motor bikes while other people are trying to sleep.” It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” said the Town’s marquee sign in the little roadside park just below the carwash.

It rained a few drops in the afternoon and it looked like snow fell in the high mountains.

Hotchkiss K-8 shop teacher, Harold Burch, delivered about 40 plywood and stake wooden flowers made by his students to be placed in the Bridge Street planters during the offseason. Colorful and cute. If anyone would like to make a wooden flower or several to donate to the project be as creative as you want and check with me at the used bookstore (229 West Bridge) about which planter you would like it placed in.  Make sure you sign your work!

April 2 – A little blustery but still warm, and the temperatures dropped well below freezing overnight.

April 3 – Warm with a little wind. Jane and I made the long drive to her rheumatologist in Fruita, which just happens to be the place where I grew up from second grade through high school. It was good to note that most of a mural I painted in downtown Fruita in 1990 is still there on the side of a bicycle shop. Someone did a nice job of refreshing the colors.

April 4 – Easter egg hunts all over the valley including in Hotchkiss and Paonia.

April 5 – Easter. Jane and I attended services at the Hotchkiss Methodist Church where the celebration included the beautiful, eight foot, flower-covered cross.

April 6-7 – Beautiful spring weather if a little blustery at times. Unfortunately there hasn’t been more than a sprinkle of rain for quite a while. A dry spring so far and the mountain snowpack percentage below average has decreased. Not terrible, but not that great.

April 8 – Hotchkiss Municipal Court featured one young man who was stopped back in September riding a motorcycle with no tail light and who didn’t have a driver’s license allowing him to operate a motorcycle, and who had failed to appear in court multiple times. The several others on the docket failed to appear and will get a surprise when they finally do, namely an extra $100 fine plus a State mandated doubling of any traffic offense fines and fees.

April 9-10 – Still no April showers and below freezing at night. I continued with building a low stone wall out in front of the bookstore to make a permanent raised bed. I made an early morning trip to Paonia to pick up more cement at Dependable Lumber. Great to have a local lumber/building supply company. They also happily deliver your project supplies. Please support them.

Paonia is a charming, beautiful town in the spring with the budding trees, early flowers and a little snow on the West Elk Mountains as a perfect backdrop. What privilege it is to live in this Valley.

Sculpture at Paonia Library

April 13-14 – Still freezing at night, but with pretty warm days.

April 15 – Another inspirational co-meeting between the Hotchkiss Town Council and the Hotchkiss High School student government.  Among the agenda items the Trustees voted to allow residents to keep two female milking goats on their property north-west of Willow Heights.

April 16 – Snow. Not that unusual for mid-April.

April 17 – More snow and rain. Snain. The Hotchkiss K-8 School moved their Spring Fling fundraising event inside where it was warm, dry and very enjoyable.

April 18-19 – More rain, snow and low clouds.  But the resulting moisture has local farmers and water managers smiling.

April 21 – The Hotchkiss Downtown Improvement (and Downtown Merchants’) Committee met at the Coaltrain Coffeehouse to get primed for the May (live) flower planting on Bridge Street.

Business News and Other Rumours

Of course the big event in May is the kickoff of the local festival season with the Hotchkiss Sheepcamp Stockdog Trials over Mother’s Day Weekend, May 8-10^th.  Along with that event is the All Roads Lead to Hotchkiss Yards Sales all over town and the immediate area.

The Hotchkiss Chamber of Commerce had one gala ribbon cutting opening for a new business in April and will host a second in May.  In April the Chamber and Town welcomed Kyle Douglass’s Commander Windshield Repair to Hotchkiss at a location on the southeast corner of Bridge and Cedar Street. His business name is pretty self-explanatory.  Always a needed service in our area of gravel roads and highway construction projects. Kyle’s grandfather, Marlin McCracken, who owns the building, used to be in the same business, founding Mac’s Windshield repair.

Then on Friday May 8 the Hotchkiss Chamber will hold a ribbon cutting for Debbie Pennington’s North Fork Lifestyle Boutique at a new location at 101 West Bridge Street that you might remember as the venerable location of the former Ark II collectibles shop. Lifestyle Boutique will feature a tantalizing selection of gifts and finery at the best location in the Valley.