Delta County Independent, June 22, 2016

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NORTH FORK TIMES

SURFACE CREEK NEWS

A LINK TO THE PAST

SPORTS

STEPPING UP TO HELP

Paonia Museum is packed with memorabilia from long ago, B1

E.J. Verdahl walks miles to benefit Samaritan’s Purse, C5

DELTA COUNTY

TWO-YEAR HIATUS ENDS State championship trap shoot returns to Delta Trap Club, B7

JUNE 22, 2016 VOL. 133, NO. 25

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INDEPENDENT

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FERC ruling opens the field for renewables STAFF REPORT

In a unanimous decision issued June 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington, D.C., struck down a fee imposed by Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association (Tri-State) on wholesale electric customers — such as DMEA — who purchase energy from renewable resources like wind, solar, hydro or geothermal power. “Yesterday’s ruling is a victory not just for DMEA and its members, but for people and communities throughout

Delta and Montrose counties,” said Bill Patterson, chairman of the DMEA board of directors. “FERC’s decision reaffirms that DMEA cannot be financially disadvantaged for following the law and purchasing local, renewable power.” The ruling comes on the heels of a 2015 FERC ruling that declared DMEA must buy from renewable generation projects at negotiated rates under a federal law called PURPA (the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act). The 2015 ruling confirmed that PURPA requires such nego-

tiated purchases, regardless of whether they are allowed under Tri-State customers’ wholesale electric contracts. In response to that 2015 ruling, Tri-State adopted a new board policy (Policy 101) letting Tri-State impose a “lost revenue recovery fee” on electric cooperatives, like DMEA, that make the required renewable purchases. The fee would have required DMEA to pay Tri-State for the revenue Tri-State “loses” when DMEA buys energy from the renewable projects instead of from FERC RULING TO A3

County opposes BLM planning rule changes BY HANK LOHMEYER Staff Writer

The Board of County Commissioners has taken a strong stand in opposition to national planning rule changes proposed by the Bureau of Land Management, saying they will negatively impact county interests and citizens. The commissioners contend the proposed Resource Management Planning Rule (also known as Planning Rule 2.0) fails in its aim to modernize agency resource management planning in four key areas: 1) The proposed rule violates public lands management policies and practices of long standing, and also violates current federal law; 2) The proposed rule would adversely affect the policy of multiple use on public lands by creating special priority

treatment for recreation and other activities at the expense of economic resource use; 3) The proposed rule deemphasizes local input into public lands planning decisions; 4) And the proposed rule would ultimately cause harm to Delta County’s agriculturebased economy that relies on access to public lands resources for human economy sustainablility. In its comment letter on the proposed rule to the BLM’s Washington office, the BoCC expanded on those four main points as follows: • Commissioners believe the proposed rule “outright violates the multiple use balance by allowing for single issue versus multiple use planning in formulation for a Resource Management Plan.” The proposed rule “fails to

Recruitment of Delta police chief broached BY ANNETTE BRAND Staff Writer

At the June 20 meeting of Delta City Council, city manager David Torgler reminded the council that former Police Chief Robert Thomas left Delta in September 2015 and that Sergeant Charles Kettle has been serving as interim police chief since that time. Torgler said hiring a police chief is necessary. Also necessary is recruiting a police chief whose values reflect those of the community of Delta, he said. The city sent out requests for proposals to professional recruiting firms and received four proposals in response (one not complete). Torgler recommended the council accept the proposal from KRW, a Colorado-based recruiter “with an excellent reputation for recruitment and placement of public sector officials, including police chiefs.” The cost to the city would be $10,500, plus later

INDEX

Accent ........................... A4 Activities ....................... A7 Agriculture .....................B6 Back Page ................... D6 Business ........................ A8 Church ............................C6 Classifieds .................. D1-2 Editorial ......................... A2 Legals ......................... D3-4 North Fork Times ........B1-4 Obituaries ......................7C Service Directory ........ D5 Sports ..........................B7-8 Surface Creek News ...C1-5 TV Listings ..................C3-4

costs to bring in candidates. Councilmember Bill Raley said he respected the city manager’s proposal but expressed his opinion that the expectations of city council, the community and police department staff regarding the best qualified person, and a person who would stay here a good length of time, should be considered. He said there were numerous qualified candidates within Delta County and surrounding counties. Torgler said it is critical to hold focus groups and KRW would conduct those meetings with all the groups Raley mentioned to determine the community’s expectations. Raley asked why the work could not be done by the city. Torgler noted the great amount of additional work that would fall to in-house staff to recruit at the level of police chief. Councilmember Gerald Roberts said he was reluctant POLICE CHIEF TO A3

meet the regulatory mandate of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) on several counts; specifically on the multiple use and sustainable yields clauses.” Multiple use of public lands has long been the cornerstone of Delta County’s position on public lands issues. • The BoCC also states that, “The proposed rule would COUNTY OPPOSES TO A3

Photo by Pat Sunderland

Cooling off

Bubba, a 9-year-old labradoodle, escapes the heat with a cool dip in the wading pool at the CAWS animal shelter. Center manager Sirena Ward (also pictured) says Bubba and his dad Dozer, a 10-year-old standard poodle, are among the 10 dogs awaiting adoption from the Delta shelter.

Coal conversation highlights the human impact of layoffs BY PAT SUNDERLAND Managing Editor

In advance of a BLM hearing in Grand Junction Tuesday, Western Colorado Congress (WCC) and Delta County Economic Development hosted a “Coal Conversation.” The June 23 hearing focused on a moratorium on new coal leases on federal land and a proposal to increase royalties on production — both of which could put additional pressure on the struggling coal industry. Policies such as those may be enacted at a federal level, but the impact is most felt by the miners, their families and their communities. WCC members heard how those miners are coping, how their families are dealing with uncertainty, and how their communities are moving forward from representatives of local government, the school district, the hospital, the libraries and more. Tom Huerkamp, DCED vice president, said he’s been upset with WCC’s stance on coal reform. “My main concern isn’t just the eonomic impact in terms of dollars and cents,” he said, “but no county has taken the whack we have taken the last few years over the diminishing coal industry. I realize it’s a problem of both market and regulation, but the thing I am really

DMEA election results Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) announced the results of the 2016 board of directors election at the annual meeting of members June 16. A total of 5,026 votes were cast. Elected to three-year terms were: District 3 — Brad Harding, 2,792. His opponent, Olen Lund, received 2,380 votes. District 4 — Jim Elder, 3,929. His opponent, Walter von Helms, received 1,148 votes. South Region — Tony Prendergast, 3,586. His opponent, John Fleming, received, 1,540 votes.

concerned about is the loss of human resources.” Declining population is taking a “terrible hit” on the school district and causing “all kinds of problems that trickle down into the community.” While some miners up and leave for the next mining job, older, well-established residents take lower paying jobs while they wait to reach retirement age. In either case, Huerkamp said, our communities have less revenue, less money for roads, less money for parks. But the loss we’re seeing with these miners goes way beyond just their job and their income, he said. He illustrated his point by relating a personnel issue at HopeWest hospice, where he’s a board member. Recently, HopeWest lost three case managers because their husbands moved for mining jobs. “The last one we lost was our chief clinical nurse,” he said. “In this instance, the husband was a volunteer fireman and a Little League baseball coach. Spanish Forks, Utah, now enjoys having two young teenage boys added to their school system. They’ve got a high quality nurse in their community and we’re taking a beating.” Kathy Welt, an environmental engineer with West Elk, the only remaining oper-

Voter turnout at 21%

The Colorado secretary of state says votes are “trickling” in for the June 28 primary, with turnout for Democrats reported at 14.76 percent, and turnout for Republicans reported at 15.24 percent. Turnout is higher in Delta County. According to chief deputy county clerk Rene Loy Maas, 21 percent of both the Republican and Democratic ballots have been returned. Ballots are only going out to Republicans and Democrats. Unaffiliated voters can participate in the primary by affiliating with either party through 7 p.m. Election Day. Results will be posted to www.deltacounty independent.com after the polls close June 28.

ational mine in Delta County, noted the loss of highly trained mechanics, accountants, surveyors, electricians, engineers, GIS professionals and environmental scientists who also volunteered in the schools, as EMTs, and as coaches, 4-H leaders and Sunday school teachers. “We are losing the middle class that has historically paid the bills,” said Paonia Mayor Charles Stewart. “As a geologist, I know we have here in Delta County enormous reserves of clean, reliable coal,” said Hotchkiss Mayor Wendell Koontz, who works in the coal industry. “It saddens me to see the silo up at Oxbow go down. That infrastructure will have to be rebuilt someday, because we’ll still be burning coal 40 years from now. But here we are looking at people moving out ... talent and skills lost, communities devastated, when we know this is a resource we’ll all need.” Paonia resident Ed Marston agreed. “We environmentalists have prided ourselves on following the science, and the science here says that we should do everything we can to keep the coal industry going while we transition, as we must, to renewable sources that are not carbon based.” Even the Sierra Club has HUMAN IMPACTS TO A6

Wildfire update Firefighters for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests continue their work to suppress the Pitch and Kelso wildland fires on the Uncompahgre Plateau. These fires were caused by lightning. The suppression strategy for both is to contain and confine the fires to keep firefighters safe. In doing so, firefighters are also able to protect private lands and achieve some benefits to fuels management, pine forests and wildlife habitat in the process.


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