Delta County Independent, May 3, 2017

Page 1

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Hea lt h Care

�����

����������������

���������������������������� ����������������

SURFACE CREEK NEWS

A HEALTHY OUTLOOK

Take charge of your health with tips to optimize your well-being

NORTH FORK TIMES

ARBOR DAY

END OF WATCH

Cedaredge fifth graders join 23rd annual celebration, C1

Paonia community honors the life of a man with ‘Hart’, B1

DELTA COUNTY

MAY 3, 2017 VOL. 134, NO. 18

75¢

INDEPENDENT

www.deltacountyindependent.com

Consultant picked for trails planning BY HANK LOHMEYER Staff Writer

The Board of County Commissioners on Monday selected consultant DHM Design of Durango to help develop a county master trails plan. The DHM bid for the master trails plan project was $115,540. Staff reported there is up to $100,000 in grant money from DOLA for the project with a 33 percent county match of the amount used which includes in-kind work. DHM was selected over another finalist for the job, Dynamic Planning and Science of Montrose, which came

in with a bid of $79,985. Commissioners said they selected DHM on staff recommendation due to the company’s extensive list of completed projects and its considerable experience in the field. Six bids for the work came in between the low by Dynamic Planning and Science to a high bid of $132,000. The City of Delta recently issued a request for bids for trails and open space master plan within city boundaries. At a joint meeting in March, the two governmental entities expressed a desire for their efforts to be complementary.

Cigarette blamed for townhouse fire BY PAT SUNDERLAND Managing Editor

A cigarette has been blamed for a fire that severely damaged a townhome at 1120 Park Ridge Court in Delta Wednesday, April 26. The structure fire was reported at about 6 p.m. When firefighters and police officers arrived on the scene, the garage was fully engulfed in flames and the fire was spreading to the attic area. The occupants of the home were able to exit through the rear doors. The unit is owned by Nina Williams and sits between two adjoining properties. Williams was out of town when the fire occurred, but the home was occupied by Dorothy Duran, her daughter, and Bill Duran. Initially, Dorothy suspected the dryer was the cause of the fire because she had been doing laundry in the garage. But upon investigation, DPD Sgt. Furstenfeld and Delta Fire Chief Daniel Cano found evidence that pointed to a different cause. According to a report filed by Sgt. Furstenfeld, Dorothy said she had been smoking while doing laundry and was using an ashtray sitting on a shelf by the door. The shelf also contained papers and plastic wrappers she used for delivering newspapers. Cano and the police officers concurred the opening and closing of the door from the garage to

the interior of the home could have ignited the fire. The fire was deemed accidental. The interior of the home has severe smoke and water damage, and three vehicles were damaged. According to the DPD report, two of those vehicles were completely destroyed. The neighboring residence at 1118 Park Ridge Court owned by Donald Smith received smoke damage.

BY PAT SUNDERLAND Managing Editor

Despite the closure of two of the three mines in the North Fork Valley, property values in Delta County have increased, assessor Debbie Griffith reports. The number of transactions also jumped dramatically, with 52 percent more residential sales and nearly twice the number of vacant land sales during the reappraisal period. Under Colorado law, county assessors’ offices throughout the state conduct a complete revaluation of all properties in their county every two years. The Colorado Legislature sets the appraisal date, the market sales data collection period, and the annual calendar for the assessment

Photo by Pat Sunderland

INDEX

Fore!

A foursome drove from Telluride to try out the new disc golf course at Confluence Park Sunday. They report their own course won’t be open until Memorial Day, when the snow has melted from the ski slopes and the baskets can be installed. In the meantime, they’ve been competing in regional tournaments, where they report the proceeds are being designated for the Delta course. The City of Delta Parks Department, with help from the local disc golf club, installed the 18-hole disc golf course earlier this spring. There’s more to come in the next 18 months, parks director Tony Bohling reports, including tee pads, signage, benches and paths, but the course is open for play. He suggests golfers park at the lot by the Gunnison River, walk down the trail and drop off to the right after 50-60 feet. There is a three hole warm-up area (pictured) followed by tee #1 on the left.

2017 reappraisal: Property values, transactions increase

The middle unit of a three-plex on Park Ridge Court, Delta, was severely damaged by fire last week.

Accent ........................... A4 Activities ....................... A7 Back Page ................... D6 Business ........................ A8 Church ............................C6 Classifieds .................. D1-2 Editorial ......................... A2 Legals ......................... D3-4 North Fork Times ........B1-4 Obituaries ......................B4 School Zone ............... A5-6 Service Directory ........ D5 Sports ..........................B5-8 Surface Creek News ...C1-5 TV Listings ..................C3-4

Photo by Pat Sunderland

process. The reappraisal process recently completed by Griffith and her staff shows property values increased by 0.5 percent. Without oil/gas figures, property values in Delta County total $313,017,883. The new values were established using market sales data from Jan. 1, 2015, through June 30, 2016, and will be used for tax years 2017 and 2018 (payable in 2018 and 2019 respectively). Sales transactions occurring after June 30, 2016, cannot be considered until the 2019 reappraisal. Griffith reports residential property values increased an average of 7 percent overall, although the North Fork carried the majority of the increase. Griffith said the county’s newest residents are buying a “lifestyle” that features friendly residents, lowstress atmosphere and reasonable living expenses. Most commercial properties increased 4 percent. Vacant land is up 9.5 percent, again driven by the robust market in the North Fork Valley. Agricultural land experienced the largest increase in value of all property classes. Agricultural land is valued based on the earning capacity of the land; the calculation uses a 10-year statewide average of commodity prices. For this re-assessment cycle,

DMS has a new principal

Sheryl Yeager has been named principal of Delta Middle School for the 2017-18 school year. Yeager and her husband Kelly moved to the area in 1998. In 2006 she joined the staff of DMS as a reading coach/reading interventionist. After three years, she transferred to Cedaredge Elementary School where she was a fulltime instructional coach. She then served as assistant principal at Cedaredge Elementary School before transferring back to DMS as assistant principal two years ago. Marty Rover, now in his second year as assistant princi-

two historic low years of commodity prices were removed and two more recent higher priced commodity years were added. This factor along with stabilized operating expenses resulted in a significant increase of about 30 percent for irrigated land in Delta County. Most agricultural grazing land increased by about 9 percent. This trend of double-digit increases in irrigated land and single-digit increases in non-irrigated land was experienced not only

in Delta County, but across the entire Western Slope of Colorado, Montrose County assessor Brad Hughes noted. Three factors determine the level of taxes on a property — the market valuation, the assessment rate and the mill levy. The assessor’s office is solely responsible for establishing valuations, not taxes. To accomplish this, the assessor uses actual market sales transactions to build a mass PROPERTY VALUES TO A3

Sheriff’s office targets illegal drug activity PRESS RELEASE

The Delta County Sheriff ’s Office patrol and investigations divisions during February, March and April 2017 conducted multiple traffic stops and search warrants related to illegal drug activity within Delta County. As a part of these narcotic investigations, the Sheriff ’s Office executed two search warrants in Eckert and one in the Delta area. The traffic and the search warrants resulted in the seizure approximately 63 grams of suspected methamphetamine. Several arrests have been made as a result of these investigations and

pal/athletic director, will be joined by Holly Rupp, who is transferring from Cedaredge Middle School. “My vision for DMS has been and still is to change the perception of Delta Middle School by continuously improving communication, teacher support, student support and increased parent involvement,” Yeager said. “We have amazing students and staff here. We are not perfect; we know we do have things to improve, but there are great things happening at Delta Middle we want people to know about.”

detectives have filed multiple requests for prosecution related to felony drug charges. Suspects include Jimmy Atwood, Ronda Kilcoyne, Laurie Lucas, Shirley Rimpley, Jason Burnett, Jessica Gallop and Kathryn Davidson. The Delta County Sheriff ’s Office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute illegal narcotics in our county. If you have any information that would assist in these investigations, contact the sheriff ’s office at 874-2000 or call Crime Stoppers at 8748810.

Shred Day is May 6 Are you overwhelmed with papers you would like to get rid of? Do you have old tax documents, bank statements, credit card solicitations, medical records and other personal documents needing to be destroyed? Then, join Alpine Bank and Colorado Document Security for the annual free Community Shred Days at Alpine Bank, 1660 Highway 92. Donations will be accepted for Delta County 4-H’ers. All documents will be shredded onsite by Colorado Document Security; the number of boxes is limited to four per person or business. No need to remove papers from file folders, take out staples or remove paper clips as they can run through the shredder.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Delta County Independent, May 3, 2017 by Delta County Independent - Issuu