November 2015 – Another Month in the Valley

Winter on the Highway – Hotcukiss –  Photo by Thomas Wills

Another Month in the Valley

By Thomas Wills – Herald Editor and Co-Publisher

October 25 – I picked all of the green peppers in the gardens along with the mature green tomatoes.

October 26 – Heavy rain in the morning. No killing frost in Hotchkiss yet but at only slightly higher elevations there has been. It all depends upon the Valley micro-climate you are living, and gardening, in.  The climate in the Valley as a whole over the last three decades has definitely changed. The positives appear to be a growing season that is longer by a couple weeks to a full month, but the early season has been even more erratic than average and a challenge especially to local fruit growers. Then we had this extraordinarily wet summer and fall that scientists say is a result of the warming oceans in the eastern Pacific (El Nino).

October 28 – The first killing frost in downtown Hotchkiss. The peppers, squash, tomatoes and other tender crop plants are toast. I gathered up all of the now exposed butternut squashes. The November Merchant Herald went off to the printer.

The Hotchkiss Planning Commission met in the evening and we continued to work on updating the mobile home and mobile home park regulations.

October 30 – A warm fall day in Hotchkiss.  I harvested a few plants of sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) from the planters near the bookstore.

October 31 – Halloween and.  I celebrated not by dressing funny, but by cooking a chicken and some fingerling potatoes from the garden using both my bookstore wood burning range and my solar oven. It was a good day to cook solar.

I skipped the morning Hotchkiss Zombie Run, not being fully up to speed this season. But, it was a beautiful day to have your guts ripped out.

November 1 – The rolling back of daylight savings time.  I accidently got up at 4 a.m. to write. I spent the day catching up on reading and garden work.

November 2 – The Hotchkiss Town Council met to discuss the 2016 budget and possible matching of funds for the Region 10 broadband initiative. My worry is that the Town will spend $75,000 to $100,000 on something that won’t serve the general population if an existing or new ISP is not willing to step up to complete the final mile.

November 3 – Odd Year Election Day. The rains returned again to Hotchkiss as snow fell in some higher areas.  The key question of whether to opt out of the restrictions in SB 2005-152 and support government helping with getting higher speed broadband Internet service into the Valley and County was answered very clearly by overwhelming majorities in all jurisdictions. Hotchkiss had the highest percentage of voters in favor, some 86 percent.

November 4-5 – More rain and wet snow in the lower areas and snow above about 6,000 feet. I spent Thursday delivering Jane to various doctor’s appointments in Delta.  It was our first trip over the nearly finished Hotchkiss/Stengel’s Hill railroad overpass; this in a driving snowstorm. The project has drawn much derision from locals and the regional press as a State waste of millions of taxpayer dollars that could have been used for something more useful like adding shoulders and turn lanes on the hazardous stretch of highway across Rogers Mesa, or shoulders and guard rails on section between Hotchkiss and Paonia.

Word came on the 4^th that Delta County Library District administrator Annette Choszczyk had been placed on administrative leave by the District Board and that IT manager John Gavin had resigned in protest. Lots of speculation on the reasons, one of which may have been a perception the Paonia and North Fork libraries received more attention.  Regardless, Choszczyk has brought a level of professionalism to the libraries that is pretty impressive. Very nice person too.

There was a Paonia Council meeting on Thursday to discuss the reasons for the recommendation to significantly increase water rates in the town. The main reason is that it is necessary in order to keep the enterprise funds solvent. Tough love.

November 10 – The local Republicans held a Republican Debate Watching Party at Tucker’s Pizza and Arcade in Hotchkiss this evening. Paonia Town Council night.  And… a non-political seed sorting party was held at the Hotchkiss Public Library.

Ed Marston (DCED board member and former HCN publisher) stopped by the office to share information and discuss.  Always an interesting conversation. One topic: how the demographics have changed in the County/Valley over the last decade or two.  Lots of well-educated newcomers (quality of life immigrants) are adding a different flavor.

November 11 – The Valley awoke to a light (Hotchkiss) to substantial (Crawford and higher) covering of snow that had fallen overnight.
November 12 – Lots of stuff happening in Hotchkiss today that I attended: municipal court, Hotchkiss Community Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, and the Town Council meeting. The Council was joined by the Hotchkiss High School Student Government. I tried to stir up some discussion on such things as increasing the Town contribution to area economic development so that our guests could see some deliberative debate. I wasn’t successful on either count. My stirring the subject of raising Judge Lynn French’s salary did draw some substantive comments from the staff if not the Trustees.

November 14 – Shop in Hotchkiss Day. Kudos to Creamery Arts Center founder, Linda Tullis, for trying to get the sometimes pretty self-involved (busy with their individual businesses) business community to do something together while encouraging locals to shop locally. I offered 50% off on all cash sales of fiction in the bookstore, which did bring some people into the store.

November 15 – We made it to the Hotchkiss Methodist Church this morning; Jane’s first time in four months to arrive walking upright, albeit with a Rollator.  Pastor Amos’s sermon was entitled “Spiritual or Religious?” and was charming and thoughtful as usual.

November 16 – Snow in the Valley.  Not a lot in the lower areas but enough decorate the transition between the seasons. It was our kitten Weasel’s first snow and she spent some time batting at fat snowflakes, but Waldo, the wiener dog, wouldn’t go outside at all.

November 17 – Hotchkiss Downtown Improvement/Merchants’   Committee (of which I am a part) at the Coaltrain Coffeehouse met in the early morning.

The Paonia Town Council met in the evening to finalize the planned utility rate increases after backing off on the most drastic of them. Not a lot of choice for some serious increases  since the enterprise funds have to pay their own way.  In lieu of that I attended both a Connect for Colorado health insurance meeting and the DMEA Informational Forum, both at Memorial Hall in Hotchkiss.

November 18 – Hotchkiss Planning Commission night where we went over the latest draft of a revision of the mobile home regulations. Early meeting due to the holiday so I missed the Crawford Town Council worksession.

Business News and Other Rumours

Arch Coal, owner of the West Elk Mine, has announced in a government filing that it may file for bankruptsey protection after they reported took on too much debt from the purchase of metallurgical coal mines, the market for which product has not developed as expected. It is unclear if such restructuring might involve the sale or closure of the West Elk Mine.

Mary Hockenbery of the Church of Art has announced that she will lead a petition drive to place a measure on the April Hotchkiss municipal ballot that will allow limited commercial marijuana sales if approved. Taking this action is seen as a tourism and Town revenue enhancement issue in light of a lack of controversy in other towns that have taken the action since 2012. If passed, Hotchkiss would become the first town in Delta County to allow commercial marijuana sales.

Body Wisdom Massage with LMT Ann Robertson has opened in the old Hotchkiss Marshal’s office in the old Town Hall/Bank of the North Fork (RM Locksmith) building at Second and East Bridge Street in Hotchkiss.

A trend of mobile food trucks in our rural area continued in November with the debut of Sugar Fix Doughnuts making an appearance in Paonia at the popular spot to the south end of Grand Avenue. Mobile businesses point to a basic unfairness between businesses that pay commercial real estate taxes (about five times the rate on the same valuation as residential) and mobiles and home-based businesses that are able to avoid such a burden.

After a little more than three and a half years as Executive Director of Citizens for a Healthy Community, Jim Ramey moved on this November, joining the team at The Wilderness Society working out of its Denver office. Ramey said in an e-mail that he has greatly enjoyed his time at CHC.  The local oil and gas watchdog group will begin the process of hiring a new director. Ramey has been very effective as the organization’s first paid director.

A controversy began in late October over the Delta County School District okaying sanctioned presentations by religious abstinence-only sex educator, Shelly Donahue. According to a website promoting Donahue’s work she gives talks encouraging teens to put off having sex until marriage, citing the possibility of disease, unwanted pregnancy, and moral and psychological benefits of holding off. The presentations were sponsored/arranged by Delta’s Pregnancy Resource Center, a local anti-abortion organization that provides information and services.

A number of Valley residents have expressed dismay at the talks, citing a perception of a violation of the separation of church and state and studies that have shown that abstinence only messages have little or no impacts on teens sexual behavior in the greater community and can heighten the danger of disease if other disease/pregnancy avoidance information is not also being provided. The school district administrator, in an e-mail response to a citizen, claimed that the presentations were “non-biblical” despite Donahue’s agenda as indicated by her website.

National statistics show that about one in three of all pregnancies are terminated, while 50% of unplanned pregnancies are terminated.