NORTH FORK TIMES
SURFACE CREEK NEWS
TOWN HALL
SPORTS
BRUIN TIME
Popular vote isn’t popular with Delta County constituents, B1
KEHMEIER HONORED
CHS students expand skills, explore non-traditional classes, C1
Cedaredge track named for longtime coach, educator, B4
DELTA COUNTY
APRIL 3, 2019 VOL. 136, NO. 14
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INDEPENDENT
www.deltacountyindependent.com
JR Reece named Delta’s school resource officer BY PAT SUNDERLAND Managing Editor
The Delta Police Department is proud to introduce Officer James (JR) Reece Jr. as the new school resource officer (SRO) for the Delta Police Department. The new position is jointly funded through the City of Delta and Delta County Joint School District #50. Officer Reece started his law enforcement career with the Delta County Sheriff ’s Office as a detentions deputy in 2004. He continued his career with the Delta County Sheriff ’s Office as a patrol deputy until March 2014, when he moved to the Delta Police Department. At the DPD, he has served as a detective, field training officer and patrol officer for the past five years. Officer Reece is also a certified trainer in the ALICE program.
Photo by Pat Sunderland
Teeing off at Confluence
Gronenthal selected to lead Delta chamber The Delta Area Chamber of Commerce, which serves over 300 local businesses across Delta County, is pleased to announce the hiring of Mitchell Gronenthal as the organization’s newest executive director, effective March 25. Mitchell Gronenthal has been a resident of Delta County for the last seven years. He is co-owner of Reve Portraits, a portrait studio located in Cedaredge. He has volunteered extensively in the community, serving on the boards of Little Sprouts Community
Mitchell Gronenthal
INDEX
Accent ........................... A4 Activities ....................... A7 Back Page ................... D6 Business ........................ A8 Church ........................... D4 Classifieds .................. D1-2 Editorial ......................... A2 Legals ............................ D3 North Fork Times ........B1-3 Obituaries ......................C6 School ........................... A6 Service Directory ........ D5 Sports ..........................B4-6 Surface Creek News ...C1-5 TV Listings ..................C3-4
Preschool and The Arc Mesa County. He is a former member of the Grand Mesa Arts & Events Center advisory committee and still serves on the special events committee. He formerly served as board president of the Cedaredge Area Chamber of Commerce for the past two years. He plans on bringing his knowledge in business to help guide the Delta Area Chamber of Commerce in the direction it needs to go. He brings his expertise in membership engagement, programs, events and marketing. One goal Gronenthal is hoping to conquer in the first year is to create a more dynamic understanding what the chamber offers to its members, while also bringing new and innovative membership benefits, educational training and opportunities along with supporting collaborative and economic development. If you have questions or would like to meet Gronenthal, stop by the Delta Area Chamber of Commerce at 301 Main Street, Delta, or give him a call at 970-874-8616.
JR Reece
year. He is married and has two children who attend Delta High School. His wife Cheri is employed at the Delta High School as the school’s registrar. Officer Reece will be assigned to all schools within the City of Delta. His duties will include school safety programs, criminal investigations in the schools and mentoring of the students. Officer Reece will be attending the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) basic SRO school in July. His duties will begin in mid-April for the remainder of this school year, and resume at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. “I’m going to try to split my time among the schools as evenly as possible,” he said. “For the most part, I feel our schools are safe; a dedicated SRO will just make them that much safer.”
Court: Feds illegally approved natural gas drilling in elk habitat PRESS RELEASE
The disc golf course at Confluence Park was the first of eight stops on the Peaks and Valley Tournament Series Sunday, March 31. The two-round tournament maxed out at 90 golfers. Tournament director Tim Gossage called the course “a new jewel on the Western Slope.” Following tournament play, an awards ceremony was held at CB’s Tavern. At 14 below par, J.C. Kester posted the best score of the day. Some golfers were also observed fishing — trying to snag errant discs from the shallow edge of the Gunnison River.
From early in his career, Reece said he wanted to work with kids — he just didn’t know in what capacity. “I’m excited and grateful the chief and the school district were able to come together and create this position,” he said. Officer Reece has lived in Delta for most of his life. He attended elementary, middle and high school in Delta until the middle of his freshman
A federal judge ruled March 27 that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service illegally approved two adjacent natural gas drilling plans in western Colorado, finding that officials did not adequately analyze wildlife and climate impacts. In the ruling U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock faulted the two federal agencies for failing to account for downstream emissions from drilling and failing to adequately address potential harm to mule deer and elk. “This is an important win for our public lands, the climate and the tenacity of the North Fork Valley community. Requiring the Bureau of Land Management to clearly and properly analyze all potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of this large-scale industrial oil and gas devel-
opment project is absolutely critical to protecting the rare and irreplaceable ecosystem of the North Fork Valley and all those who rely on it,” said Natasha Léger, executive director, Citizens for a Healthy Community. “High Country Conservation Advocates is thrilled with the court’s favorable ruling,” said Matt Reed, public lands director at Crested Butte’s High Country Conservation Advocates. “The Bull Mountain area is home to important populations of elk and mule deer, iconic species increasingly under threat from surrounding oil and gas development. Ensuring that impacts from this project are considered, analyzed, and adequately addressed is critical to maintaining their long-term vitality in the Upper North Fork.” In January 2018 Citizens for a Healthy Community,
High Country Conservation Advocates, Wilderness Workshop, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and the Western Environmental Law Center filed suit to challenge the 146-well Bull Mountain Master Development Plan and an adjacent 25-well project. This area is primarily private surface ownership with a majority of public minerals. The BLM and Forest Service approved the drilling project after preparing an environmental assessment to analyze the environmental impacts. In his ruling the judge said the Forest Service and BLM “acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner and violated NEPA by not taking a hard look at the foreseeable indirect effects resulting from the combustion of oil and gas” in their environmental analyses.
Commissioners incorporate NF input into Mancos Development Plan BY ANNETTE BRAND Staff Writer
The agenda for the March 26 meeting of the Delta County Board of County Commissioners included finalizing comment letters to the Bureau of Land Management and United States Forest Service regarding the North Fork Mancos Development Plan (NFM). The commissioners submitted previous comment letters on the NFM on March 22, 2017, and June 7, 2018, as the county’s continuing input on the BLM environmental impact assessment and environmental assessment. Having read the comment
letter prior to the meeting, several North Fork residents, including Mary Jursinovic, Natasha Leger, Lisa Nierman, Mary Smith, David Livingston, Patrick Dooling and Mike Oupi, shared their concerns. They addressed the amount of water the project will consume and where that water will come from; truck traffic, including numerous loads of sand being trucked from Fruita, the lack of stability on Highway 131, the impact on hunting of big game and bonding by the developer. Elyse Casselberry, county community and economic development director, explained that this third com-
ment letter is another step in a multi-step process. The commissioners will be able to weigh in on the well pads, pipeline, storage facilities, surface impacts, performance standards, drought management plan, emergency response ... in other words, every part of the work going forward. Casselberry said the Oil and Gas Working Committee, appointed after the updated Master Plan was adopted, is reviewing all the steps of the development, including road access, spills and impact on roads. She said most of the NFM NF INPUT TO A3
Trash delay
Commissioners endorse Bernhardt
Escapee caught
One of the City of Delta’s two trash trucks will be out of commission the week of April 8-12 while it is being serviced. With just one truck available, trash pickup may be delayed until later in the day, or even until the day following your normal pickup day. For more information, call 8747913.
Delta County Commissioners Don Suppes, Mark Roeber and Mike Lane sent letters of support for the nomination of David Bernhardt as Secretary of the Interior to President Donald J. Trump and Senator Michael Bennet on March 26. The commissioners noted that Bernhardt grew up near Delta County and knows how the multiple use mandate of the BLM is applied practically across the landscape. He has broad and extensive experience in both the public and private sectors and understands the complexities of the laws and regulations from all sides. Bernhardt has significant knowledge of the full scope and complexity of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife regulations. They believe this broad-based and in-depth knowledge makes David Bernhardt the right person at this right time to lead the Department of Interior.
On March 31, at approximately 12:30 p.m., Delta Correctional Center escapee Adam Loehr #178404 was apprehended without incident near Whitewater by the Delta Correctional Center Search Team and the Office of the Inspector General. Loehr escaped from DCC on March 9. The search team acted on a tip that Loehr was sighted near Whitewater. The CDOC would like to thank the many law enforcement agencies that assisted in this effort.