Delta County Independent

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NORTH FORK TIMES

Cedaredge High School Trap Club

The top academic performers of Cedaredge are honored with a “free day.”

SURFACE CREEK NEWS -- Not School Sanctioned Club --

BACK TO THE POLLS

By: Sierra McCann Staff Writer As the year goes on, sports are becoming more and more relevant. They are a positive way to build school spirit. Recently, more students are leaning toward a more solitary, but still competitive sport: trap shooting. “Students learn good skills of perseverance, sportsmanship, self improvement, and self-discipline,” Grimson stated. Trap shooting is both a competitive sport and a personal hobby, especially for people in Cedaredge who enjoy hunting. Unlike hunting, trap shooting is available year round, but competitions are typically held throughout June. Starting in September, students practice with Mr. Grimson twice a month. Mr. Grimson is doing a great job teaching students the techniques involved in how to trap shoot. His students are currently competing virtually by sharing scores with other teams across the country, and they are doing fantastic! Four shooters are ��������������������������������������������������� of four hundred and thirty others nationwide. Nate Stumpf is currently in the top ten! His score is a 48 out of 50, also called two 24s. “I like the experi������������������������������������������������� dedicating myself to earn that perfect score of 25,” Nate stated.

MONEY MATTERS

Cedaredge is host to multiple students from different countries.

ON TARGET

Crawford trustee resigns as voters consider mayoral recall, B1

EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS

Cedaredge High School trap shooters compete nationally, C3

DELTA COUNTY

David Schipman �������������������������������������� through the air.

Senioritis Flu Rampages Through Cedaredge High School

Find out how to get the most bang for your buck, B8

� ����������������� AP study sessions is held at Delta High School to prepare students for the AP exam. Are athletes treated differently than students who play no sport?

JANUARY 25, 2017 VOL. 134, NO. 4

Toothaker twins compete in Karate Tournament. -- Coming Soon -Watch out! Early morning track practice can run a person down in the hallways!

75¢

INDEPENDENT By: Hannah Gardner Staff Writer An outbreak of senoritis has hit Cedaredge High. As the days wind down toward graduation, seniors become less and less motivated to keep up on school work. The importance to stay caught

up on school work is as crucial as ever. Being accepted into colleges isn’t the end of a high school career. Keeping grades up guarantees the college will remain signed up with you. Senior Shayna Dale talks about keeping her grades up second se-

mester, “Even though I’m already accepted to Colorado Mesa University, I have to keep my GPA up to stay signed on.” Second semester of senior year ����������������������������������� but it’ll help you in the long run. Avoid the stress of bad grades.

www.deltacountyindependent.com

Sale of vacant grocery is back on track Sweeping changes are in the works for Delta-Montrose Technical College BY PAT SUNDERLAND Managing Editor

The acquisition of the old City Market/Chaco building by Delta County Joint School District #50 has been resurrected with the commitment of additional cash from DeltaMontrose Technical College. Last week, the school board approved allocating $150,000 in DMTC reserve funds for the purchase of the long-vacant building at 124 E. 6th Street. At the same meeting, the school district’s leadership team was directed to move forward with a name change for the college. Pending legislative approval, the college will be known as Rocky Mountain Technical College, in recognition of programming that’s taking place beyond the boundaries of the Delta and Montrose school districts. A new director is also pending. Director John Jones is retiring at the end of the 201617 school year. Superintendent Caryn Gibson announced that six applicants for the position will be interviewed this week.

After an article outlining the proposed purchase in the Dec. 28 edition of the Delta County Independent, Gibson said the school district had not been able to come to terms with the seller. In early January, she was quoted as saying the technical college will pursue other sites or add instructional space to the current facility. But the deal wasn’t dead, after all. Stanley said she and Gibson redoubled their efforts to negotiate a sale. Lucinda Stanley, broker/ owner of Grand Mesa Commercial Real Estate, the listing agent, said Tuesday morning the sale is expected to be finalized on Jan. 31. Although the purchase price of $150,000 is considerably higher than the original bid, the school district is working with Delta County Economic Development, Delta County, City of Delta and Region 10 to pursue grants for planning, design, renovation and operations. Late in 2016, the City of Delta committed $25,000 to be used either for building acquisition or for matching funds for those grants. The 22,000-square-foot building is very open, having been used for a grocery store and then a distribution facility for footwear manufacturer Chaco. Stanley said an office area and boiler room occupy

Public assistance applications surge BY HANK LOHMEYER Staff Writer

Case workers in the county’s Health and Human Services department (HHS) are struggling to deal with a new wave of applications for food stamp assistance, the county commissioners learned on Monday. Other department programs are also seeing high demand for services, managers explained. The number of food stamp cases here has breached the 2,000 level and stood at 2,028 in December. That compares with 1,856 cases in December a year earlier. Chuck Lemoine, HHS director, told the county commissioners on Monday, “There’s no evidence to suspect that anything is leveling off.” Debbie Melgoza, program eligibility supervisor, told the commissioners, “They just keep coming. We can not explain it. We don’t know where they are coming from. The case load is hard to keep up with.” Melgoza added that in addition to the current 2,028 cases there are still another 230 new applications pending eligibility review and approval. “We are really struggling,” she said. Susan Blaine, children’s

INDEX

Accent ........................... A4 Activities ....................... A7 Back Page ................... D8 Bruin Tracks ................C3-6 Business ........................ A8 Church ............................C8 Classifieds .................. D1-2 Editorial ......................... A2 Legals ......................... D3-4 Money & Taxes ............ B8 North Fork Times ........B1-4 Obituaries ..................... A6 School Zone .................. A5 Sports ..........................B5-7 Surface Creek News ...C1-7 TV Listings ................. D5-6

services supervisor, noted that state/federal rules can be a cumbersome burden for HHS staff trying to handle the trend. Programs are overlaced with regulations which lack clarity, which staff can’t get consistent answers for, and which are even sometimes changed without notice. Most human service programs are funded 80 percent with state/federal money, but the county must provide personnel to administer the programs locally. Even though the case load increases, the county’s budget doesn’t fund new workers to help handle it. On top of that, the federal/state bureaucracy applies tight deadlines for completing 100 percent error-free work, Lemoine explained. For example, the state human services department will conduct totally random one-time, one-case checks for accuracy. A technician error of $200 on a case can result in a $14,000 penalty assessed against the local department. Newly hired case workers function with on-the-job training while waiting extended periods for comprehensive state training to be scheduled. Training is often held in Denver, requiring three days off the job to attend. HHS CASES TO A3

the upstairs portion of the building. Delta-Montrose Technical College plans to carve out three to four classrooms, plus offices, for business programs. The building will also include offices for Delta County Economic Development, the Small Business Development Center and Region 10 outreach. An innovation center/incubator

will support entrepreneurship, as envisioned in a Better City study of economic revitalization for Delta County. Trish Thibodo, executive director of DCED, said, “We will immediately be putting together a grant application to the Department of Local Affairs for a Feb. 1 deadline for engineering and design. We’ll then apply to the Eco-

nomic Development Authority for a grant for the innovation center.” This project is one of DCED’s top priorities, she added. “My hope is that we can figure out a way to do the renovations as quickly as possible, so we can at least start to use the innovation center.” DCED continues to also TECH COLLEGE TO A3

Photo by Pat Sunderland

Cause for celebration

Vision Charter Academy celebrated the renovation of new modular classrooms and several other accomplishments last Tuesday. Above, Mike Morgan, construction manager, and Ed Sisson, city mayor, join executive director Willyn Webb and Angie Gauthier and Tami Fancher from the board of stewards to officially mark the opening of the classrooms. The celebration also included the presentation of a $25,000 State Farm check for the Food for Thought program. See the full account on page A5.

Natural gas development proposed north of Paonia The Bureau of Land Management and the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests are seeking public comment on a natural gas development proposal that’s about 12 miles north of Paonia. Gunnison Energy, LLC’s North Fork Mancos Master Development Plan proposal is adjacent to the BLM Bull Mountain Master Development Plan and includes drilling up to 35 horizontal wells from four new well pads and one existing well pad over the next three years. Three new well pads would be on national forest system lands and one on private land. The existing pad is on private land drilling into federal minerals. “We require companies to provide a multi-year master development plan proposal so that we can better analyze and mitigate potential impacts from oil and gas development,” said Joe Meyer, BLM Southwest District manager.

The project area is accessed via Gunnison County Road 265. The proposal includes upgrading up to 2.2 miles of roads and constructing of up to 4.6 miles of new roads. Total anticipated initial surface disturbance for the project would be approximately 26 acres on federal lands and 10 acres on private lands. Of these totals, about 17 acres of federal lands and three acres of private lands would remain disturbed over the long-term. Gunnison Energy estimates the wells could produce up to 700 billion cubic feet of natural gas over 30 years. The BLM and Forest Service are asking the public to submit comments identifying concerns and issues before they begin drafting the environmental assessment analyzing this proposal. “Public involvement is an important part of our analysis of this proposal,” said Scott Armentrout, GMUG forest supervisor. “Comments specific to the proposed action

will be the most effective.” The proposal and associated maps are available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/projects/gmug/landmanagement/ projects or the BLM proj ect website at http://bit. ly/2jkGD3K. Comments should be submitted by Feb. 21. Written comments and questions should be directed to the Bureau of Land Management, Attn: North Fork Mancos MDP, 2300 River Frontage Road, Silt, CO 81652 or submitted electronically to blm_ co_si_mail@blm.gov. Before including your address, phone number, email address or other personal identifying information in your comment, be aware that your entire comment — including your personal identifying information — may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask for personal identifying information to be withheld from public review, there is no guarantee that request can be honored.

March for life

Predator study to be discussed

Funding site launched

Delta’s annual prolife march will be held Saturday, Jan. 28, beginning at 8 a.m. with Mass at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, 628 Meeker Street, Delta. Breakfast will be served in the hall at 9 a.m., followed by inspirational speakers and pastors and ending with the march from 11 a.m. to noon.

Over the next three years, Colorado Parks and Wildlife will attempt to increase the mule deer population in two regions of Colorado by reducing the number of mountain lions and bears. Join Chuck Anderson, CPW’s mammath research leader, for an educational 40-minute presentation on this project, which is part of a long-term wildlife study. The project was initiated in 2008 to address mule deer/energy development interactions and to identify improved approaches for habitat treatments as mitigation options to benefit mule deer. Northern San Juan Broadband, a chapter of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, is hosting the presentation Tuesday, Feb. 7, 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Ridgway Community Center/Town Hall, 201 N. Railroad Street, Ridgway. For more information, contact northernsanjuanbroadband@gmail.com.

A crowdfunding site has been launched for the Delta High School class that won the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow challenge for the state of Colorado. The students are using STEM principles to address a reallife problem — excessive noise in the cafeteria at Lincoln Elementary School. A video of the project is being put together to take the students to the next level of competition. See the complete story at www.generosity. com/community-fundraising/hear-fortomorrow.


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