Another Month in the Valley
By Thomas Wills – Herald Editor and Co-Publisher
Winter in the Valley. Snow, ice, the smell of wood-fires and the occasional tang of burning coal in the mornings. The month began with the first serious in-Valley snow of the season accompanied with a plunge to overnight below zero temperatures. As happens every year there were a few weather related car accidents as drivers struggled to recover their suppressed memories of past winters and the driving skills learned to cope with them. Include in the latter is the need to apply one’s brakes gently well before you wish to stop and have a very light touch on the gas pedal when getting moving from a stop. The phrase “sunny side of the street” takes on a practical meaning.
Then, after only about a week of cold-cold temperatures, a January thaw arrived in the lower Valley with water running in the gutters and mud in the fields.
December 29 – A heavy, serious snow descended on the Valley, accompanied by the usual drop in temperatures. The teasing part is over and the core month of real winter begins. The cats moved a little closer to the woodstove in the bookstore.
The January Herald was printed today and I am hoping that it will clear off tomorrow in time for my drive to Montrose to pick up the copies. I haven’t been a happy snow driver ever since a 1999 storm during which I was hit head-on by the semi on the way back from the printer.
Of course, as I was reviewing the template to format next month’s issue I noted, too late, several typos and awkward wordings that I failed to correct. But, if an issue of the Herald is ever printed without a typo the sun will probably explode. Better safe than sorry.
December 30 – Merchant Herald distribution day. Luckily for my nerves the roads were reasonably clear from Hotchkiss to Montrose and back. The only really nasty slick ice was on the back streets of Hotchkiss and Paonia, something that made parking an adventure. The day was enlivened by stops at three thrift shops: the Salvation Army in Delta and Barkin’ Bargains and the Methodist Thrift Shop in Paonia. And of course while I was out I restocked on Leroux Creek apple sauce from Hardin’s Natural Foods and local meats from Homestead Market in Paonia.
A dusting of more snow fell in the afternoon and evening. A multi-car accident was reported near Hardin’s on Roger’s Mesa. A local traveler wrote on Facebook that early in the morning the west Hotchkiss grade was so slick that several cars descended sideways and others couldn’t make it up it.
December 31 – New Year’s Eve. I’m thinking a lot about next year—plans and resolutions. I had a few customers in the bookstore and I sold one small painting; always an incentive to find the time to produce more art.
January 1 – New Year’s Day. I’ve been listening to physics and cosmology lectures that explain that time doesn’t really exist as a separate concept. In the big picture there is only spacetime. But here in the North Fork, a small unique speck on a small planet in a large galaxy, only one of millions in a near infinite, expanding universe, time exists as years and seasons, and on a small human scale it does matter.
January 2 – Below zero across the Valley overnight but the sun did come out to help thaw the main roads.
January 3 – Bitter cold continues despite some sun.
January 6 – Sunny, warmer with snow melting. Jane visited businesses in the Hotchkiss area to see if we couldn’t wheedle a few more ads for February issue of the Herald.
January 7 – The Crawford Town Council met in their temporary chambers at the Crawford Montessori School. There was also a meeting at the Hive in Paonia to discuss local foods distribution systems.
January 8 – The Hotchkiss Town Council convened for their first meeting of the year. There was a discuss of how to allow property owners to install a sink or bathroom in their garages without cheating other tap holder by giving away expanded water service without the user purchasing a share of the system in the form of a new or partial water tap. Tricky business.
Meanwhile in Paonia, the supporters of the Mount Lamborn (Waldorf) Charter School proposal met to discuss their options after their application to the Delta County School Board was rejected.
January 9 – Sunny and warm again. The January thaw and mud continues.
January 10 – Partly overcast but still warmish. I finally got a short story and one slightly jokey poem sent off for the annual Blue Sage anthology contest. It was the first piece of non-Anthracite related fiction I have completed in nearly a year. I immediately started another story. It’s hard to stop once I’ve primed the pump.
January 11 – The Valley awoke to a gentle wet snow that covered over the recently bared ground and made early morning driving a cautious affair. In Hotchkiss it soon became slush, and even standing water, on the streets. Mud.
January 12 – Hotchkiss Neighborhood Watch met in the evening to discuss and plan for their February 8th fundraiser.
January 13 – The first Paonia Town Council meeting of the new year was a three hour plus affair with new Town Manager/Administrator Jane Berry flexing some serious leadership skills.
A little rain/snow (snain?) fell in the evening but the roads were clear and even dry at midday. The relatively mild temperatures continue.
January 14 – Hotchkiss Municipal Court in the early evening featuring three boys caught with marijuana at the K-8 School.
I attended a very interesting talk by three young local foods advocate/farmers at the Hotchkiss Library/Memorial Hall. They had recently returned from the International Slow Foods Conference at Turin, Italy.
There was a late morning car wreck at what might be the most dangerous intersection in the Valley, Highway 133 at Samuel Wade Road/Third Street .
January 16 – On a trip to Jane’s rheumatologist in Fruita (where I grew up) we stopped in at the Roan Creek Ranch Local Foods store and found that “local” included Fire Mountain jam from Hotchkiss. My 1988 mural on the side of the bike shop is still there.
January 17-18 – Sunny, bright and relatively warm days across the Valley. Cold enough at night to freeze the mud in Hotchkiss.
January 19 – The annual Memorial Hall Congress was held in the evening. The Hall is owned by all civic and social groups in the Valley who pay a minimal $5.00 membership fee. The present volunteer board of directors have done a great job in maintaining and improving the building.
January 20 – The Hotchkiss Downtown Improvement committee met at the Coal Train Coffeehouse in the morning. When I left the bookstore for a quick walk to City Market, at 3 p.m. the First State Bank thermometer said it was 50 degrees. If this continues I should go ahead and plant peas.
January 22 – The Hotchkiss Library held a Seed Library sorting session at the Church of Art. A little inspirational warm-up for spring.
January 28 – The Hotchkiss Planning Commission met to discuss finishing up the Downtown and Highway Corridor Improvement Plan.
Business News and Other Rumours
The Valley business trends for 2015 will possibly include a lot of talk about transitioning from an economy heavily dependent on mining to one with a broader base. Arts, value-added farming and ranching, tourism and recreation, and probably most important, continuing to attract quality-of-life semi-retirees who don’t need jobs but sometimes create jobs and sparkplug ideas. It is ironic that all of these issues were on the table in 2012 when the North Fork 2020 Heart and Soul planning process began but there was little interest in some quarters then due to a lack of a feeling of urgency. Just because you would like things to stay the same economically doesn’t mean that they will.
At the national economy as a whole has essentially recovered and moves past its 2008 pre-crash levels the Valley as always late to feel the effects of a national downturn is slow on benefitting from the upturn mainly due to the specifics of the coal industry.
On the bright side, 2015 may be an exceptional year for tourism due to sharply declining gasoline prices and recovery of the economy elsewhere. Mountain snowpack is looking healthy so far, boding for adequate seasonal irrigation.
Thanks to the new advertisers helping the Herald keep going in a new year, our eighteenth. Please take the time to thank these businesses for supporting your free community paper. This month new advertisers include: Pat’s Bar and Grill in Hotchkiss “Where Good Friends Meet”; the Roger’s Mesa Store (way more than a gas station/RV Park/convenience store –also a gift shop, artist’s ceramic studio, ceramics teaching space, local foods store and more.)
Homestead Market in Paonia has been sold, according to manager Susan Smith. It will now be called Lizzie’s but will continue to be a similar local foods store. More details as we get them.
Sad news from Josie at West’s Home Center/Radio Shack in Paonia. The store will be closing as of the end of February; not good news for local retail sales tax revenues. Lots of reasons are at play in the decision, both personal and professional. Included are the currently declining coal mine employment, the changing demographics, and the Internet as a competitor. West’s was the last new furniture/furnishings and appliance store in the North Fork. Make sure you get in early for some bargains and to say bye to Josie, a smiling, friendly icon on the Paonia downtown retail scene for several decades. The building is being sold and will become a dance and yoga studio in its next incarnation.
When Farmer Frank’s Shoe Barn closed at the end of December, Rick Brodel cited some of the very same issues as well as it just being time to retire. By the way the Shoe Barn is still selling off the last of the stock at terrific prices!
We hear the Electric Mountain Lodge was sold a while back and is now a private Youth With a Mission Christian camp. YWAM is a very large international religious/service organization. A loss to winter recreationalists, including those who made the trip up recently without calling ahead or checking the website, but this may open a niche for a new winter lodge/snowmobile destination if you’ve been thinking about opening a similar business on a remote property.
The grapevine has a positive (for a change) rumour circulating that Bowie Resources may be hiring back up to about 100 miners in the next few months. Great news if true.
In local Church News it was announced that Rev. John Heistand, the pastor at the Hotchkiss and Crawford United Methodist Churches and his wife Vivian, the pastor at Olathe Methodist, will probably be moving to new posts elsewhere by mid-summer. The Heistands have been serving their present churches since mid-2011.