The Durango Telegraph, Oct. 12, 2023

Totally peaking

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FREE Oct. 12, 2023 Vol. XXII, No. 41 durangotelegraph.com

inside

T H E

O R I G I N A L

I N D I E

W E E K L Y

L I N E

O N

D U R A N G O

&

B E Y O N D

Dammed if you do ...

Repeating the past

Got a beef?

You can’t always leave it to beavers for restoration p5

Could Durango see another flood on an epic scale? p6

City app allows residents to report issues in real time p8

2 n Oct. 12, 2023

telegraph

lineup

Reflections of a Native Fort Lewis alumnus on school’s dark legacy

5 Writers on the Range

4 La Vida Local

Haunted by the past

by Kirbie Bennett

6 The Land Desk

6

8 Local News

Flooded memories

10 State News

A look back at the 1911 flood begs question: could it happen again?

by Jonathan Thompson

12-13 Stuff to Do 13 Ask Rachel

Got a beef?

Only a few taps away, new city app allows residents to report issues

by Jonathan Romeo

14 Free Will Astrology 15 Classifieds

11

15 Haiku Movie Review

All hail the hakurei

On the cover The color show is on full display – fall leaves are popping around Southwest Colorado./ Photo by Alex Krebs

No need to ‘turnip’ your nose at this versatile and delicious root veggie

boilerplate

by Ari LeVaux

ADVERTISING SALES: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com STAFF REPORTER: Jonathan Romeo jonathan@durangotelegraph.com

T

he Durango Telegraph publishes every Thursday, come hell, high water, tacky singletrack or mon-

Re-up!

Have any new and used bicycles, bike frames, and other usable bike parts and accessories that you’d like to donate to a special cause that upcycles/recycles bikes for the Navajo Nation? Well, this weekend’s “Share the Love Cycle” at Buckley Park is your chance.

From 12 noon - 6 p.m. Oct. 13 and 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Oct. 14, you can head down to Buckley Park and donate your bike or parts to be donated to Silver Stallion, a bike advocacy group on the Navajo Nation.

11 Flash in the Pan

8

EDITORIALISTA: Missy Votel missy@durangotelegraph.com

Ear to the ground: “I think Dolly should run, with either Ryan Reynolds or Steve Carell.”

– A ticket we can all get behind

thepole

4

RegularOccurrences

STAR-STUDDED CAST: Kirbie Bennett, Ted Williams, Jonathan Thompson, Ari LeVaux, Rob Brezsny, Lainie Maxson, Jesse Anderson & Clint Reid

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Last year, organizers hosted the first “Share the Love Cycle” event in Durango, collecting 90 bikes. Within two days, volunteers were able to repair the bikes before handing them off to Silver Stallion. (Repairs happen on-site at Buckley, so if you’re handy with tools, help out!)

This year, organizers say the target goal is to collect 100 bikes to donate. Also this year, the City of Durango adopted the event and incorporated it into Spoketober, a monthlong celebration of all things cycling.

In an interview with The Durango Telegraph last year, Teal Stetson-Lee, an event organizer, said the idea for Silver Stallion was born from a lack of bicycle shops and bicycle culture on the Navajo Nation. The concept then grew with the purpose of empowering youth and young adults by training them to be bicycle mechanics, teaching riding skills, and fostering a love of bikes.

“The Durango community has a rich history with bicycles, and that history has often been competitively focused, so this is a way to share that love of bicycles through a new story, in a new angle that I think everyone, from the most competitive cyclist to the average cyclist, can relate to,” she said.

The event has an educational component as well. Time will be set aside for workshops on basic bicycle maintenance.

“Bike maintenance should be accessible to everyone,” Stetson-Lee said previously.

And that’s not all. Friday at the Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino del Rio, a film festival featuring works by Diné and local filmmakers will happen at 7 p.m.

Oct. 12, 2023 n 3

opinion

LaVidaLocal When We Remain All around me, leaves are blushing and bleeding. In the back yard, two cats lounge in the shade. The world surrenders to October, and I observe in silence. I hear history through the wind, and it feels like I’ve been speechless for days.

I’ve been reading History Colorado’s 140-page report on the state’s Indigenous boarding schools. The unspeakable violence that Native children endured has been heavy to process. The fallen leaves that surround me reflect a blood-soaked country.

As a Fort Lewis graduate, the report confirms stories I’ve heard from Native classmates about the college’s boarding school legacy. “Through archival analysis we identified 31 deaths of students over an 18-year time frame at the Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School,” History Colorado reported. My heart sinks over that statistic. The researchers worked thoroughly to confirm a number. But since much of the boarding school’s record-keeping has been lost or damaged, it’s hard to fully know how many children died there.

My heart drowns for the unknown.

In another section, the report details the investigations at the boarding school cemetery. The cemetery was first used during the Fort’s early days as a military post. When the post turned into a boarding school, administrators continued using the burial site.

The report notes that over time, surrounding communities also used the cemetery. “To date,” History Colorado wrote, “the cemetery is the final resting place of 350-400 individuals.” Of that, “30-100, or more” are associated with students from the boarding school.

It’s chilling to know there’s a mass grave holding the enforcers and victims of colonial violence. I’m shaken over the fate those children were forced into.

My sinking heart reaches for the sky.

The sun eventually surrenders its hold on the day, and the chill sets in. I need to hear something healing, the sound of god. I need poetry. So I head inside and play Samantha Crain’s music. Crain is a Choctaw Nation songwriter from Oklahoma. Her voice often quivers, not like she’s afraid but like she’s channeling something transcendent. Her voice comes through the speakers like whispers in the shadows, and I hear music from another lifetime.

Her song, “When We Remain,” centers on Indigenous resilience. Like all that is holy and sacred, Crain sings it in her Native language. It begins with the

lyrics: When we remain, we will not be like the beautiful bones of a forgotten city & it reminds me of the starving antennas poking out of the West Building on 2nd Ave. aimlessly reaching for the sky waiting for a sign, waiting for the gates to open because I find myself doing the same thing in the void of a quiet night when my hope has fallen asleep but my doubts are wide awake & it’s amazing it’s heartbreaking to realize those children in those boarding schools in those unmarked graves are my ancestors & their prayers are still circulating in the air & some days I see them as sunbathed birds reaching for the sky. & I cherish being an alumnus but I know the same cannot be said for those children for my ancestors because what’s another word for having your tongue cut out having your hair ripped off having your heart stomped out, but I find comfort in Samantha’s voice when she croons: When we remain, we will be the flowers and the trees and the vines that overcome the forgotten city & that calls to mind one night when my friend Kathleen and I walked by the Himalayan Kitchen & as we made our way up that sidewalk slope, Kathleen stopped to point out the silhouette of a skeletal tree leaning along the fence after fall had plucked all the bloody leaves away & it felt like the angel in flames on Horeb & I stayed to watch that shadow crookedly stretch reaching for the sky. & Samantha godblessHer she keeps praying I mean she keeps singing I mean what’s the difference when she says We have woven ourselves into the cloth of the earth, We have mixed our breath into the expanding sky & I think of the night the Native children tried to burn down the boarding school because if they couldn’t make it at least the flames had a chance to escape reaching for the sky because what it comes down to is land back means lives back & my heart is always reaching for the sky like my ancestors traveling through former worlds because I still believe another world is possible I see it in dreams with hands held high waking up to rainbows & rhizome horizons & just right over there do you see them in that world full of borderless love no map can articulate just right over there the children have returned home & they begin singing: Kirbie Bennett is part of the creative team behind “The Magic City of the Southwest,” a podcast aiming to add new stories to Durango’s history books. Tune into the next episode on Sun., Oct. 15, at 2 p.m. on KSUT. Find out more at themagiccity.org

Thumbin’It Durango finally set to break ground on converting the former Best Western into a 120-unit affordable housing complex.

The solar eclipse passing through Southwest Colorado on Saturday, reminding us how minuscule our presence is in the vast expanse of the universe. Though if we’re caught in traffic, all bets are off.

The return of “Frasier?” We’re kind of grasping for straws here. This week has sucked (for obvious reasons – see next column.)

4 n Oct. 12, 2023

SignoftheDownfall: Cowboy Reboot Just everything about the horrible, tragic situation happening in Israel.

The woman who attacked a mattress mascot at Mattress Outlet. If it was at a sporting event in Philly, sure, that’s acceptable behavior. In everyday life in Durango? Not so much.

Disney upping the ticket prices at Disneyland and Disney World. With everything going wrong in the world, couldn’t we at least have affordable prices to hang with Mickey and Minnie?

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Crocs footwear and the apocalypse are obviously linked. So much so that after heralding our downfall more times than Florida Man, the “shoes” were retired as a sign. However, on Oct. 23 (look to the sky that day for brimstone), Crocs will start selling rubber cowboy boots with plastic spurs for adults. The boots will be textured to look like crocodile skin for an extra-meta touch, and they’ll sell for $120, because anyone who’d put them on is too dumb to understand money. Regardless, the company is on track to gross more than $4 billion in 2023, which will surely lead to some crocodile cheers.

WritersontheRange

No one size fits all Are beavers always the answer? Not really

by Ted Williams

B

eavers, through their assiduous dam building, can recharge groundwater and provide habitat for fish and wildlife. In the Pacific Northwest, for example, managers are bringing back beavers as part of trout and salmon management.

“God bless beavers and their industrious nature,” Trout Unlimited’s Idahobased Chris Hunt wrote in Hatch. “They make habitat for the fish we love and opportunities to catch them.”

True enough, in Idaho.

But the notion, ubiquitous in the United States, that all beavers everywhere are a panacea for what ails an ecosystem is misinformed. Yes, beavers are beneficial – in the right places.

In the wrong places – watersheds degraded by humans – they’re a scourge.

The environmental community and the public tend to have trouble grasping these two realities simultaneously.

In his essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” Aldo Leopold, father of wildlife management, described how killing wolves for the supposed benefit of deer resulted in obliterating deer habitat along with the deer themselves. Everything he wrote about deer applies equally to beavers. Both species depend on essentially the same forage – in unnatural abundance because of massive logging – and the main predators of both are wolves that are no longer around.

Beavers affect ecosystems the way wine affects humans: One glass a day

helps the heart; 20 blows out the liver.

In the wrong places, beavers grossly overpopulate, blocking trout migration, stripping streamside cover, choking spawning gravel with silt and muck, and converting oxygen-rich streams to deadwater. That’s because humans have eliminated wolves and old growth from most of the West, and stream corridors now grow willow and aspen – beaver candy.

Consider the debacle in Nevada. Kim Toulouse, the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s former conservation educator, recently said, “Historically, virtually every stream in the northern half of Nevada held some form of cutthroat trout. Additionally, many small-order streams also held native redband and bull trout.

When the push started (for trout recovery), we discovered that many singleorder streams were infested with heavy populations of beavers.

Extremely high numbers of beaver dams on these systems led to loss of fish gene flow and precluded the ability of fish to move up and down these systems, according to Toulouse. Additionally, fish found it difficult to find suitable spawning grounds due to heavy siltation caused by the dams. The loss of riparian habitat led to erosion, more siltation, less shade, higher water temperatures, loss of native riparian vegetation and establishment of noxious invasive plants.

So Nevada initiated major beaver control. But politicians, incited by the Humane Society of the U.S., shut it down.

Beaver damage to Minnesota and Wis-

Beavers can sometimes do more harm than good in environmental restoration, argues Ted Williams, chair of the Native Fish Coalition/ Photo by Niklas Hamann consin trout streams is even worse. Fisheries managers have to hire Wildlife Services to trap beavers and blow up dams.

It’s expensive, so only a small percentage of streams can be salvaged.

Trout Unlimited reports in Minnesota’s Knife River, artificially high beaver numbers threaten the survival of coldwater fisheries, as well as the health of the watershed and Lake Superior. But an outfit ironically called “Advocates for the Knife River Watershed” is fighting to nix beaver control, circulating junk science and such fictions as “beaver have been totally eradicated in the whole Knife River valley – more than 200 square miles.”

California’s Silver King Creek watershed is the only refuge for threatened Paiute cutthroat trout, yet overpopulated beavers block migration and destroy habitat. It got so bad in Four-Mile Creek that Trout Unlimited volunteers had to reroute the stream.

“The biggest problem I see is that beavers move into an area that doesn’t have

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enough forage, and they abandon their dams,” retired state fisheries biologist Bill Sommer said. “When beavers leave, the dams blow out, and that causes erosion.”

Aldo Leopold could grasp two realities about deer simultaneously. Were he still alive, he’d applaud Phil Monahan, who wrote this in Trout Unlimited’s Trout Magazine: “Many anglers see the beavers’ work as predominately destructive – turning a babbling trout stream into a slowmoving wetland, for instance. Wildlife biologists recognize that each of these ‘destructive’ effects has a flip side: situations in which that very same effect is beneficial to trout.

“After looking at all the data, then, the question, ‘Are beavers good or bad for trout streams?’ can be answered only with a definitive: ‘It depends.’”

Ted Williams is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring conversation about the West. He writes for several national publications about wildlife.

Oct. 12, 2023 n 5

LandDesk

Déjà vu in Durango The 1911 Flood: Could it happen again?

by Jonathan Thompson “A fellow who thinks the ‘river of lost souls’ won’t do to watch has all the feathers out of his willow plume. She may look meek and sleepy-eyed, but don’t tickle her heels.”

– Durango wage earner, Oct. 12, 1911

A

t around 4 a.m. on Oct. 6, 1911, Navajo Methodist Mission Superintendent J.N. Simmons woke up to find himself and the mission near Farmington surrounded by water. It wasn’t a total surprise. He and two other staffers – Frank B. Tice and Walter Weston – had received the flood alarm the previous day but had chosen to stay, certain that the San Juan River’s waters would never reach them, and if they did, the brand new, three-story cement-block mission building, watched over by God, would provide an unsinkable refuge. They were wrong.

The rain began in the San Juan Mountains late on the morning of Oct. 4, 1911. It came down gently at first, slowly gaining intensity over the course of the day. By evening, the tropical storm was a torrent, dropping 2 inches of precipitation on Durango in just 12 hours, nearly twice what the town normally gets during all of October. Weather watchers in Gladstone, above Silverton, recorded 8 inches of rain Oct. 5 – a virtual high-country hurricane.

Once-gurgling streams jumped from their banks and twisted steel railroad tracks into contorted sculpture, decimated roads and bridges, and demolished barns. Junction Creek tore out its Main Avenue bridge before adding its load to the Animas, which carried an estimated 25,000 cfs of water through town. It’s an almost incomprehensible volume. A good spring runoff these days might lift the waters to 6,000 cfs, high enough for the river to leave its banks and spread across the Animas Valley and turn Smelter Rapid into a churning hellhole for rafters.

The water unmoored the railroad bridge near Durango’s fish hatchery and carried it downstream, despite the fact that two full coal cars had been parked on the bridge to provide ballast. The river jumped its channel and headed onto 15th Street, creating a river that today would go right through Burger King. Farther downriver, the waters washed away 100 tons of toxic slag from the Durango Smelter and carried away several homes from Santa Rita, on the opposite shore.

Sixty miles east of Durango, in Pagosa Springs, the upper San Juan River swept away more than 20 structures and destroyed the town water plant, hospital and jail. The Bayfield Blade called Arboles, a village near the junction of the San Juan and Piedra Rivers, “a thing of the past.” That was a bit of hyperbole but maybe also prophetic: the community survived that flood but was later buried under the waters of Navajo Reservoir. Farther east, the Rio Grande grew even

6 n Oct. 12, 2023

The Animas River rushing beneath the Main Avenue bridge in October 1911. Note the partially submerged house located about where VFW Post 4031 is now and water crossing Main Avenue near where Burger King is now located./ Courtesy photo grander and threatened to carry parts of Española, Bernalillo and Albuquerque down to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Dolores River peaked at 10,000 cfs, more than 20% greater than the second-highest peak, hit in 1949.

The raging river of sorrow ripped out railroad tracks, washed out roads, carried away houses and the boardwalk and inundated the town under 4 feet of water and 4 inches of mud. My great grandfather, John Malcolm Nelson, had come down from Ouray in early October to look at buying land in the Ute Strip – and he did, down at Sunnyside Mesa. But his trip back north was delayed by the fact that every bridge and road in the region was washed out.

In Farmington, the upper San Juan and Animas joined forces, spilling over the banks and onto the flats where the Navajo mission sat. Simmons and his fellow staffers sent the children to higher ground at about midnight as a precaution, equipping each with a blanket and loaf of bread. Then they went to bed, not realizing their own mistake until they awoke four hours later.

Somehow, Weston was able to quickly escape on

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horseback (he may have snuck out earlier). Tice chose to stick around, heading for the top floor. Simmons ran out and climbed atop an outhouse, apparently in order to launch himself onto a horse. Simmons missed the horse and ended up in the water, carried rapidly downstream alongside dead animals, haystacks and pieces of people’s homes.

Tice, it seemed, was the only survivor, and as the sun came up, onlookers gathered on the opposite shore. They watched Tice climb from the second story to the third, finally climbing onto the roof with his dog. It seemed safe enough; the water stopped rising after it inundated the third story. Little did he know, the waters were slowly dissolving the building underneath, and it, the dog and finally Tice were all swallowed up by the current.

To the west, the Shiprock Indian School was covered with 5 feet of water, washing away several adobe buildings and the fairgrounds, prettied up for the annual fair, were covered with a torrent of muddy water.

Every bridge in San Juan County, Utah, where a miniature oil boom was on, was torn loose and carried away

by the angry torrent; 150,000 cfs shot past the little town of Mexican Hat, according to a 2001 USGS paleo-flood hydrology investigation. That’s about 100 times the volume during a typical March or April. It took out the then-new Goodridge Bridge – some 39 feet above the river’s normal surface – tore through the Goosenecks, backed up in Grand Gulch and deposited trees on sandstone benches high above where the river normally flows. It finally combined with the raging Colorado River to create a liquid leviathan of unknown volume that wreaked more havoc through the Grand Canyon and beyond.

The 1911 event is typically considered to be the Four Corners’ biggest flood, based on streamflow estimates, anecdotal accounts and the damage wrought. Since then, it has been rivaled only by the June 1927 flood, when the Animas River in Durango reached 20,000 cfs; and in 1949 and 1970, when the high-water mark was about 12,000 cfs and 11,600 cfs, respectively. That might make 1911 seem like a freak event – a once-in-a-millennium confluence of factors. Combine that with the fact that the river’s annual peak streamflows have trended downward over the past century, and a 1911 repeat seems less and less likely.

But these waters are muddied, so to speak, by a relatively short timeline and limited geographical scope. There weren’t gauges on many streams at the time, and what gauges they had weren’t always accurate (most of the 1911 figures are estimates). Even though most of the “old-timers” said it was the biggest flood they’d ever seen or heard of, we have to remember that they tended to be white guys, and white settler-colonists had only been in the area for four decades or so. Not that memories of weather events are ever all that reliable.

A swollen San Juan River nearly wiped Montezuma Creek and Bluff City, Utah, off the map back in 1884 (the

1911 flood wreaked less destruction). Yet there were virtually no stream gauges, so the magnitude of that earlier event is hard to quantify and, besides, maybe the later flood was less destructive, because there were fewer homes and infrastructure in the flood’s path by then.

Also, when one looks beyond the San Juan Basin watershed, one finds streamflows that far exceed those of October 1911. On the USGS stream gage on the Green River in Green River, Utah, the 1911 flood (which was at the beginning of the 1912 water year, by the way) ranks as just the fifth-largest flow since 1895. And 1911 places fourth overall on the Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge, outdone by 1920, 1941 and 1904.

We can extend the timeline dramatically by turning to paleoflood hydrology, which uses geological evidence – slackwater lines, debris – to reconstruct the magnitude and frequency of past floods. According to available literature, including this Bureau of Reclamation survey of studies, the 1911 flood was likely the largest on the Animas River over the last several hundred years or more. On the San Juan River near Bluff, researchers found no evidence of floods higher than the 1911 debris, indicating it “may represent the largest flood on the San Juan River for a much longer time period than 1880-2001.” In any event, 1911 was larger than the 1884 flood, even in Bluff.

On the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, the 1884 flood was most likely the largest during white settler-colonial times, with an estimated flow of about 300,000 cubic feet per second (there were no gages there, yet), which would have provided quite the ride through the Grand Canyon. Some researchers believe an 1862 flood had a flow of about 400,000 cfs.

Extend the timeline further, and the ride gets even wilder: A 1994 USGS paleoflood study found evidence of a 500,000 cfs flood at Lees Ferry between

350 and 750 A.D.; and a 2018 reconnaissance found slackwater deposits indicating a flow of 700,000 cfs. I’m sure it provided quite the scene for Puebloan observers looking down from the canyon rim.

A study of floods on the Colorado near Moab found that, as is the case on the Animas River, there were a lot of large floods between the 1880s and 1930s, but peak streamflows have followed a decreasing trend since. One study suggested this resulted from landuse changes; greater regulation of the river by upstream dams and so forth; greater upstream water consumption; and a decrease in intense, flood-producing storms.

The Colorado River near Moab has experienced 44 floods during the last two millennia with flows ranging from 63,500 cfs to 325,000 cfs. (For context, the 1983 runoff, which threatened Glen Canyon Dam, reached 62,000 cfs on this stretch of river and in 1984, it hit 70,300). Most of those floods occurred during the past 500 years.

Warming temperatures, like those resulting from human-wreaked, fossil fuel burning-exacerbated climate change, can increase the intensity of storms and the amount of precipitation. That could, potentially, lead to bigger floods. So even though climate change has mostly manifested as drought in the Four Corners, it could also have the effect of putting a 1911-like storm on steroids.

And with El Niño brewing in the Pacific, we might see some whopper storms. Or not. Either way, it seems silly to assume the 1911 flood won’t repeat someday – maybe even worse.

That 1911 storm dissipated over the next couple days, leaving a bright sun to illuminate the river valleys, newly scoured of roads, houses, bridges and railroad tracks. But the folks of the San Juan Basin soon went to work rebuilding – quite often in exactly the same spots that had flooded so catastrophi-

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cally.

I used to see that as a combination of foolishness, hubris, obliviousness and stubbornness all woven into a tapestry of denial. Surely they couldn’t have believed a flood of that magnitude would never occur again.

And yet, now that I’ve fallen victim to a flood, or at least my home has, I finally get it. What do I know about circumstances? Maybe they had invested everything they owned into this little plot of land and a home, and they have nowhere else to go. Maybe they are just so wedded to this particular place that they figure it’s worth the risk to build in a 100-year flood plain. Maybe they were just tenacious bastards shaking their fist at the sky in defiance.

What I do know is if and when there is a repeat of the 1911 flood, or that whopper that sent 700,000 cfs into the Grand Canyon, it will leave some serious destruction in its wake.

The 1911 flood wrecked a lot of infrastructure, but the human death toll was much smaller than one might have expected. Among the handful of fatalities was Frank B. Tice, of the Navajo Methodist Mission, whose body was found 20 miles downstream from where he was swept away.

But there was something else, too.

On an island in the San Juan River, somewhere between Farmington and Shiprock, a man huddled next to a small fire, cooking apples that he had snagged as they bobbed past. After falling in the water, he had grabbed ahold of some debris, and it had carried him for miles until he finally reached the island, cold, wet and hungry but, maybe miraculously, alive. It was J.N. Simmons, of the Navajo mission.

Land Desk is a newsletter from Jonathan P. Thompson, author of “River of Lost Souls,” “Behind the Slickrock Curtain” and “Sagebrush Empire.” Subscribe at: land desk.org ■

Oct. 12, 2023 n 7

LocalNews

Neighborly complaints New app allows residents to air grievances in real time

by Jonathan Romeo

H

ave you ever been walking around Durango and thought to yourself: “Man, Wendy’s has way too many signs out front. The city should really do something about it!” Or, “God, my neighbor’s band sucks! The city should really do something about it!”

Well, a new program launched by the City of Durango now provides an opportunity for you to channel those thoughts, and in some cases, have them resolved (though, there’s probably nothing anyone can do about your neighbor’s KISS cover band).

In January 2023, the city unveiled an app called “SeeClickFix,” which allows residents to report quality-of-life issues around town and request city services.

And jokes aside, it does provide a more formalized platform for people to report real issues – dangerous potholes and sidewalk damage, broken streetlights or traffic signs, and issues on local trails, to name a few. (And yes, the occasional curmudgeonly complaint.)

In fact, since the app went live, it has received 412 reports from residents.

“It has been pretty well received,” Nick Johnson, spokesman for the city, said.

“It’s been challenging to get it going. But now that it’s had some time out there, I think the public is receiving it well, and we’re able to use it in a myriad of ways.

We’re still learning how to use this.”

The process is quite simple. After downloading the app, residents can use it to drop a pin on an interactive online map and make a request or complaint to the city – i.e. a pothole on 25th Street, a traffic light out on North Main, random thoughts you have about the world.

The app also allows residents to provide city staff with pictures, specific locations and descriptions of things around the city that need fixing. (The service replaced the city’s previous reporting system, “Ask Durango.”)

Now 10 months in, city staff say it has a better breakdown of what irks Durangoans.

The top item reported, by far, was unsanctioned camping around town, ac-

10 n Oct. 12, 2023

How many Wendy’s signs are too many Wendy’s signs? We’ll let you decide./ Photo by Jonathan Romeo counting for 115 of all requests for assistance – or about 28%.

In these instances, Johnson said the city’s code enforcement department will go out to unauthorized camps and ask the person to move.

“Code compliance responds pretty quickly, since it’s not legal to camp in city limits,” Johnson said.

Among other top complaints, according to city records, a category labeled “other” received 63 requests, abandoned vehicles 40 requests, potholes 34 requests and snow removal 27.

In each instance, Johnson said the request for assistance is directed to the appropriate department, such as potholes to Public Works or business sign violation to Code Enforcement.

Whether each report gets resolved is on a case-by-case basis, Johnson said. In some instances, there is a violation, and

the issue gets corrected. In others, city crews will go out and fix a broken light or hazard on a trail.

In instances where there is no cause – such as reporting a business for a violation, when in fact, it is not a violation of city code – Johnson said the city uses the opportunity to educate residents on city regs. (Every report is reviewed, he said, and the city has improved its effort to reach out to each resident who submits a request.)

“Early on, we didn’t do the best job of that, because we were getting used to the system,” Johnson said. “But now we try to be good and reach out to people who send us a request.”

And, when someone complains about, say, an intersection, the city can inform residents that there are plans to improve it.

“It’s given us some good interaction with the community,” Johnson said.

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The Durango Telegraph requested a copy of reports submitted for, of course, comedic purposes. Here’s a few: • “Does the city have a sign code?

Wendy’s have (sic) three banner signs, which seems like three too many.”

• “Neighbors are playing guitar in their garage with an amp. Not sure if there’s an ordnance (sic) violation here, but are we required to listen to them practice?”

• “Piles of rotten fruit in the alley.”

• “Could you guys trim the trees overhanging the sidewalk. Cyclists are hitting their heads.”

Well, that’s why you wear helmets.

The SeeClickFix mobile app is available for download on Android and iPhone, whereever you get your apps. And, the program is accessible through the city’s website at durangogov.org or through seeclickfix.com ■

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Oct. 12 2023 n 9

StateNews

Stuck in a war zone Colorado residents are trying to get home from Israel

by Stina Sieg and Caitlyn Kim Colorado Public Radio

A

Grand Junction doctor who was doing humanitarian work in Gaza remains stuck there as the fighting intensifies between Israel and Hamas.

Dr. Barbara Zind has been working with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund since 2010, helping kids with chronic diseases. She arrived last Friday, according to her husband Dr. Paul Preston, and was only supposed to be there for three days.

He said she was walking on the beach Saturday with a colleague and his daughter when they saw rockets being fired toward Israel.

“At that point she went back to her hotel and has been in her hotel since that day,” Preston said. The hotel still had water and electricity as of the last time he’d talked to his wife.

Zind was supposed to leave through the Rafah crossing, the only point of entry between Gaza and Egypt, but an Israeli airstrike hit that crossing Tuesday.

Preston said he has been talking to his wife three or four times a day, but was waiting for her next call when he spoke to CPR News.

While Preston is “stressed out” waiting for his wife to make it out of the war zone, he said Zind’s spirits are “probably better than mine.”

He added, “we have a Palestinian sister-in-law who has been through bombardments before. And she has been giving Zind good hints about what part of the room to get into ... So she’s hanging in there.”

Still, he is hoping American officials can do more to help people stuck in Israel and Gaza.

Zind isn’t the only Coloradan struggling to get away from the fighting. Denver resident Barry Curtiss-Lusher, a former national chair for the Anti-Defamation League, had just arrived in Israel with his wife and friends Friday and was staying about 40 miles from the Gaza Strip when the Hamas assault began.

On Saturday, his 72nd birthday, the couple woke up to “sirens and three distinct explosions.”

10 n Oct. 12, 2023

Dr. Barbara Zind has been working with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund for more than a decade./ Photo provided by Dr. Paul Preston “We opened up the drapes and looked outside and couldn’t really see much, but then heard an announcement of everybody to head for safe rooms,” he told CPR News. (A disclosure: Curtiss-Lusher formerly served as the chair of the board for CPR.) It took Curtiss-Lusher and his wife until Tuesday to be able to leave the country, managing to get seats on a flight to Greece. They spent the time waiting near bomb shelters and listening for warning sirens.

The commercial airport is still open in Tel Aviv, but some major U.S. airlines, such as United, American and Delta, have suspended direct flights to Israel. A State Department spokesman said on Tuesday they are in contact with “various carriers to encourage them to consider resuming travel in and out of Israel.”

Colorado residents who are in Israel or Gaza, or have family there, have been reaching out to Colorado’s congressional offices asking for help to leave. The offices are trying to help connect people on the ground with the U.S. Embassy in Is-

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rael or consular services in Washington.

A spokesperson for Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., said they’re sending information to the U.S. State Department “to hopefully expedite this process. they are also helping people enroll in the State Department’s STEP Program, which can help embassies on the ground assist American citizens and provide them with up-to-date information.

The Biden Administration said on Tuesday it’s confirmed that 14 Americans were killed during Hamas’ initial attack, and 20 or more are currently missing.

A spokesperson for Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said his office is assisting several constituents in Israel and Gaza. Any Coloradan or U.S. citizen visiting Israel or with family in the region who needs federal assistance should contact the U.S. Embassy in Israel, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Preston said he will do what he can to make sure his wife gets out of Gaza and returns home safely to Grand Junction.

For more from Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org ■

FlashinthePan

The caviar of turnips

by Ari LeVaux

D

uring the “Turnip Winter” of 1917, World War I left villagers so desperate for food, they would break into barns and steal the turnips meant for cows. For similar historical reasons, the turnip has the reputation of being a “starvation” food.

The hakurei (pronounced like “samurai”) turnip is no exception, having been developed in the 1950s, when Japan was desperate to feed itself after World War II. Also known as the Tokyo Turnip, the hakurei is actually exceedingly delicious. While most turnips must be cooked into edibility, hakurei are completely delightful when raw, like an extra-juicy apple with succulent edible foliage.

Hakurei translates to “esteemed companion,” a name that is entirely appropriate. You can do anything you want to a hakurei, including nothing; you don’t even need to peel it.

The cool-weather plant grows fast – about a month from sowing to harvest – and can handle a light frost and other forms of adversity. This makes them a great

fall staple at farmers markets.

They are great in salads for many reasons, including their crisp, juicy texture and the fact that they go very well with acid. Since they look like scallops, I like to feature hakurei turnips in a ceviche-like presentation, with dressing, onions and hot peppers, with or without actual fish.

My favorite way to cook our esteemed companion is in miso butter with garlic, white wine and a bit of sugar. The hakurei and miso taste like they are made for each other, and, with support from the other ingredients, create a quick, easy and glorious dish. You can use the same miso sauce as a glaze for salmon.

Getting your hands on Tokyo Turnips can be the hardest part of hakurei cookery, but they are gaining in popularity. The lily white globes might be waiting for you at market, just under your nose.

Hakurei Turnips in Miso Butter Glaze Two servings 1 bunch of hakurei turnips – about 6-8 in a bunch 2 tablespoons butter 2 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoon miso ¼ cup vermouth or white wine 2 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely 1 tablespoon sesame seeds Salt Trim the taproot that extends from the bottom of each turnip. Cut stems about half an inch above the turnip, and chop stems and leaves. Cut turnips into slices, which cook faster and absorb more glaze, or quarters, which look prettier. No need to peel.

Boil 2 quarts of water with a teaspoon of salt for the

greens. If making soba noodles to serve it with, you can cook the greens in the leftover soba water. Either way, boil greens for five minutes. Drain, plunge into cold water, and drain again.

Add butter, miso, sugar and a cup of water to a pan.

Turn heat to medium and stir. When it reaches a simmer, add vermouth and garlic, and then the turnips. Allow the liquid to cook down and thicken, about 10 minutes. Season with salt if necessary – the miso may contribute enough. Flip the pieces, and turn the heat down to low, so the turnips can brown but not burn. Garnish with sesame seeds, and serve with noodles or rice. ■

It’s not hairy shopping at Jimmy’s.

Hours: Tues. - Fri. 11-6; Sat. 11-5 • www.jimmysmusic.supply 1239 Main Ave., Durango • 970-764-4577

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Oct. 12, 2023 n 11

StufftoDo

Thursday12 Eggs & Issues: Proposition HH, 8-10 a.m., DoubleTree Hotel, 501 Camino del Rio. Rob Webster plays, 5 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard Ave.

Gothla Belly Dance Show and Dance Party, 7 p.m., Durango Elks Lodge, 901 E. 2nd Ave.

Community Yoga, 6-7 p.m., Yoga Durango, 1485 Florida Rd. Donations accepted.

“The Tempest,” presented by Merely Players, 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center.

Bike Prom, meet at Buckley Park at 6 p.m., bike to Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave. www.bikedurango.org

Horizon plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th St. Station.

Community Harvest fruit gleaning, 5:30-7:30 p.m., location at goodfoodcollective.org/harvest-fruit

10-Minute Play Festival, 7:30 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.

Horseshirt plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th St. Station.

Thursday Night Sitting Group, 5:30-6:15 p.m., Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave, Suite 109.

The Expendables with Claire Wright, 8 p.m., Animas City Theatre.

Share the Love Cycle Film Fest, 7 p.m., Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino del RIo.

Ian Lennox plays, 6-9 p.m., 11th St. Station.

Deadline for “Stuff to Do” submissions is Monday at noon. To submit an item, email: calendar@durangotelegraph.com

“The Tempest,” presented by Merely Players, 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center.

Bluegrass jam, 6 p.m., Durango Beer & Ice, 3000 Main Ave. Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office & Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave. Trivia Night, 6:30 p.m., Powerhouse Science Center, 1330 Camino del Rio. “The Tempest,” presented by Merely Players, 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center.

DeVotchKa plays, 7:30 p.m., FLC Community Concert Hall.

Saturday14 Bayfield Farmers Market, 8:30 a.m., 1328 CR 501, Bayfield.

Durango Farmers Market, 9 a.m., TBK Bank parking lot, 259 W. 9th St. Chile Chase Trail Run and Chile Cook-Off, 9 a.m., Backcountry Experience, 1205 Camino del Rio.

10-Minute Play Festival, 7:30 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave. EDM Party, 9 p.m.-1 a.m., Roxy’s, 693 Main Ave. Silent Disco, 10 p.m.-12:30 a.m., 11th St. Station.

Sunday15

Solar Eclipse Viewing, 9 a.m., SJMA’s Nature Center, 310 Rivers End Rd.

Veterans Benefit Breakfast, 9 a.m., VFW Post 4031, 1550 Main Ave.

Eclipse Viewing Event, 9:30 a.m., Ignacio Library, 470 Goddard Ave.

Punk Rock Breakfast, 10 a.m., Anarchy Brewing, 225 E. 8th Ave., Unit C.

Share the Love Cycle, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Buckley Park.

Terry Rickard plays, 12 noon-3 p.m., 11th St. Station.

Gary Walker plays, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave.

FLC Homecoming Tailgate, 10 a.m., FLC’s Ray Dennison Memorial Field.

Vinyl Sundaze, 12 noon, Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.

Share the Love Cycle, 12 noon-6 p.m., Buckley Park.

Community Apple Cider Pressing, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Animas Valley Grange, 7271 CR 203.

Live music, 12:30 p.m., Durango Beer and Ice, 3000 N. Main Ave.

Open Meditation, 12 noon-1 p.m., Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave, Suite 109.

“Death Comes to Durango,: presentation by historian Charles DiFerinando, 1 p.m., Animas Museum, 3065 W. 2nd Ave.

10-Minute Play Festival, 2 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.

Thoughtful Ukulele Orchestra, 7 p.m., Smiley Café, 1309 E. 3rd Ave.

Friday13 Free Friday Yoga, 8:30 a.m., Lively, 809 Main Ave.

Free Legal Clinic, 4-5 p.m., Ignacio Library.

Noah Stotz & George Schmidt Art Show, opening reception, 5-9 p.m., Studio & Art Gallery, 1027 Main Ave. “Experimental Learning” by Lindsay Mark in The Recess Gallery.

Pete Giuliani plays, 5:30-8:30 p.m., 701 Public House, 701 E. 2nd Ave.

“The Tempest,” presented by Merely Players, 2 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center.

Feed the People! free aid, 2 p.m., Buckley Park.

Karaoke, 6 p.m., Durango Beer and Ice, 3000 Main Ave.

Sunday Funday, 6 p.m., Starlight, 937 Main Ave.

Celebrating our 6th Anniversary Nov. 4!

Stay tuned for party details ...

1135 Main Ave. • DGO, CO

12 n Oct. 12, 2023

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Open daily @ 11 a.m. • 1135 Main Avenue

AskRachel

Uber virgin, tickled pink and the brush off Interesting fact: Turns out, you actually have to brush your dentures. You also have to clean the grooves where you use adhesives. Especially if you set your dentures down in dog hair.

Dear Rachel, I’m not used to things like Lyft and Uber, because I walk or ride my bike everywhere. But, I got to experience rideshare for the first time on a trip to the big city. I’m not a total recluse, I have ridden in a taxi before. But the app kept sending me notifications during the ride.

Hello? I’m trying to keep conversation with the driver afloat, and you’re blowing up my phone! Why can’t they let me ride in peace?

– Backseat Driver Dear One of THOSE People, You really are a noob. The notifications are so you have an excuse not to talk to the driver. The drivers know full well your buzzing phone is asking you to leave them a tip. They really want to just listen to their music and get you where you’re going without having an allergic reaction to their way-too-much-cologne, because that’s bound to lead to bad ratings.

– Don’t speak, Rachel Dear Rachel, You said you would TP my dad’s house

Monday16

(“Pumpkin Head.”) If you do, would you shower it with pink if they have such a color?

Pink is one of my favorite colors, and I also want to remind people that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

– Pumpkin Seed Dear Pepita, There are many areas of life that beg for more pizzaz. My tush is not one of them. Never have I ever wished for colored toilet paper. In fact, this is a time for distinctly NOT wanting unexpected colors. As if beets weren’t bad enough. Why don’t you TP your dad’s house your own damn self, with good ol’ stolen gas station TP, and drop your pink-paper slush fund on supporting breast cancer research.

– Your house, I’ll egg, Rachel Dear Rachel, I always heard “brush your teeth after every meal.” But I don’t, because I’m a regular human being, and only nerds keep a toothbrush at work. Turns out, I might be right. I just read about how acids in food can temporarily weaken enamel, and brushing right away can wear down your teeth. What other childhood myths can I now disregard?

– Brushing Up

Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.

Rotary Club of Durango, featuring attorney David Kolbe who will talk about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, 6 p.m., Strater Hotel, 699 Main Ave.

Meditation & Dharma Talk, 5:30 p.m., Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave.

Open Mic Night, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Author Talk: Kerry Siggins, local CEO of StoneAge Tools, 6 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave.

Wednesday18

Comedy, 7:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Tuesday17 Community Yoga, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Yoga Durango, 1485 Florida Rd. Donations.

Slow Bluegrass Jam, 5:30-7:30 p.m., General Palmer Hotel, 567 Main Ave. Black Velvet Duo plays, 5-7 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave. Author Talk: James Mitchell, 6 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave. “Healing US," free film screening about the effects of the lack of universal health care in America, 6-8 p.m., Durango Library.

Presented by the Colorado Healthcare Coalition.

telegraph@durangotelegraph.com Dear Life Hacker, The real antidote to brushing teeth is just to have every single one pulled and start wearing dentures.

Just plop those puppies in a glass at the end of the night, and call it good. They come in handy in so many other ways, too. Like, you want to get out of an awkward conversation with the passenger in your Lyft? Just set your pearly whites on the dashboard.

– Say cheese, Rachel

Small Group Meditation, 8-9:15 a.m., Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave. Restorative Yoga for Cancer, 9:3010:45 a.m., Smiley Building, 1309 E. 3rd Ave. cancersupportswco.org/calendar Community Art Contest, Gallery Walk & Open House, 3-6 p.m., SOIL Outdoor Learning Lab, 2900 Mesa Ave. Trivia Night, 7 p.m., Bottom Shelf Brewery, Bayfield.

Bode Miller screens his film “Paradise Paradox” followed by discussion of mental health crisis impacting ski towns, 7 p.m., FLC Community Concert Hall.

Geeks Who Drink Trivia, 8 p.m., The Roost, 128 E. College Dr.

Stay classy, Durango Tina Miely Broker Associate

Karaoke Roulette, 8 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

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(970) 946-2902 tina@BHHSco.com Oct. 12, 2023 n 13

FreeWillAstrology

by Rob Brezsny ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Indigenous Semai people of Malaysia have an unusual taboo. They try hard not to cause unhappiness in others. This makes them reluctant to impose their wishes on anyone. Even parents hesitate to force their children to do things. I recommend you experiment with this practice. Now is an excellent time to refine your effect on people to be as benevolent and welcoming as possible.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author Shakespeare reshaped the English language. He coined hundreds of words and revised the meanings of hundreds more. Idioms like “green-eyed monster” and “milk of human kindness” originated with him.

But the Bard also created some innovations that didn’t last. “Recover the wind” appeared in “Hamlet,” but never came into wide use. Other failures include, “Would you take eggs for money?” and “from smoke to smother.” Still, Shakespeare’s final tally of enduring neologisms is impressive. With this vignette, I’m inviting you to celebrate how many more successes than flops you have had. The time is right for realistic self-praise.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I hope beauty will be your priority in the coming weeks. I hope you will seek out beauty, celebrate it and commune with it adoringly. To assist your efforts, I offer three gems: 1. Whatever you love is beautiful; love comes first, beauty follows. The greater your capacity for love, the more beauty you find in the world. –Jane Smiley. 2. The world is incomprehensibly beautiful – an endless prospect of magic and wonder. –Ansel Adams. 3. A beautiful thing is never perfect. –Egyptian proverb.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I read a review that described a certain movie as having “a soft, tenuous incandescence – like fog lit by the glow of fireflies.” That sounds like who you are these days, Cancerian.

You’re mysterious yet luminous; hard to decipher but overflowing with life energy; fuzzy around the edges but radiating warmth and well-being. I encourage you to remain faithful to this assignment for now. It’s not a state you will inhabit forever, but it’s what’s needed and true for the foreseeable future.

14 n Oct. 12, 2023

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The published work of Leo author Thomas de Quincey fills 14 volumes. He inspired superstar writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Nikolai Gogol and Jorge Luis Borges. Yet he also ingested opium for 54 years and was often addicted.

Cultural historian Mike Jay says de Quincey was not selfmedicating or escaping reality, but rather keen on “exploring the hidden recesses of his mind.” He used it to dwell in states of awareness that were otherwise unattainable. I don’t encourage you to take drugs or follow de Quincey’s path, Leo. But I believe the time is right to explore the hidden recesses of your mind via other means. Like what? Working with your nightly dreams.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo journalist H. L Mencken said, “The average person doesn’t want to be free. He wants to be safe.” There’s some truth in that, but I believe it will be irrelevant for you in the coming months. You can be both safer and freer than you’ve been in a long time. I hope you take full advantage!

Brainstorm about unexpected feats you might be able to accomplish during this state of grace.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran philosopher and writer Michel Foucalt aspired to open up his readers’ minds with novel ideas.

He said his task was to make windows where there had been walls. I’d like to borrow his approach for your use in the coming weeks. It might be the most fun to demolish the walls that are subdividing your world and keeping you, preventing free and easy interchange. But I suspect that’s unrealistic. What’s more likely is partial success: creating windows in the walls.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): More and more older people are transitioning to different genders. An article in The Guardian describes how Bethan Henshaw, a warehouse worker, transitioned to female at age 57.

Ramses Underhill-Smith became a man in his 40s. I invite you to reevaluate your personal meanings of gender.

Please note I’m not implying you should change your designation. Astrological omens simply suggest that you will benefit from expanding your ideas.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian author Mark Twain said that in urgent or trying circumstances, uttering profanities “furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.” I will add that these magic words can be downright catalytic and healing – especially for you

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right now. Here are situations in which swearing could be therapeutic in the coming weeks: 1. when people take themselves too seriously; 2.when you need to escape feelings of powerlessness; 3. when know-it-alls are trying to limit the range of what can be said; 4. when people seem frozen or stunned and don’t know what to do next. In all these cases, well-placed expletives could provide necessary jolts to shift the stuck energy CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In Roman mythology, Venus was goddess of love, desire and beauty. Yet modern science tells us the planet Venus is blanketed with sulfuric acid clouds, has a surface temperature of 867 degrees Fahrenheit, and is covered with 85,000 volcanoes. Why are the two Venuses out of sync? Here’s a clue, courtesy of occultist Dion Fortune. She said the goddess Venus is often a disturbing influence in the world, diverting us from life’s serious business. I can personally attest to the ways that my affinity for love, desire and beauty have distracted me from becoming a harddriving billionaire tech entrepreneur. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. How about you, Capricorn? I predict that the goddess version of Venus will be extra active in your life during the coming months.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Thousands of heirloom food species are privately owned and hoarded. They once belonged to Indigenous people but haven’t been grown for decades. Descendants of their original owners are trying to get them back and grow them again – a process they call rematriation – but they meet resistance from companies and governmental agencies that commandeered the seeds. There has been some progress, though. The Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin has recovered some of its ancestral corn, beans and squash. Now would be a good time for you Aquarians to launch your own version of rematriation: reclaiming what was originally yours and truly belongs to you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I like Piscean poet Jane Hirshfield’s understanding of what “lies at the core of ritual.” She says it’s “the entrance into a mystery that can be touched but not possessed.” My wish for you right now, Pisces, is that you will experience mysteries that can be touched but not possessed. To do so will give you direct access to prime riddles at the heart of your destiny. You will commune with sublime conundrums that rouse deep feelings and rich insights, none of which are fully explicable by your logical mind. Please consider performing a homemade sacred ritual or two.

classifieds

Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon. Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum. Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check.

(Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.)

Ads can be submitted via: n www.durangotelegraph.com n classifieds@durango telegraph.com n 970-259-0133 n 679 E. 2nd Ave., #E2 Approximate office hours: Mon-Wed: 9ish - 5ish Thurs: On delivery Fri: Gone fishing; call first

Announcements

West Coast Swing Dance 6-week class starts October 25. Learn the basics of West Coast Swing. Registration is required at www.westslope westies.com.

Divorce & Custody Legal Pres.

Colorado Legal Services will host a free presentation on doing your own divorce and/or custody in Colorado on October 17th from 5:30PM-7:00PM at the Durango Public Library and via Zoom. For more information, please visit durangovap.com/events or call 970-247-0266.

Reruns Home Furnishings Brighten up your space with furniture and décor for moving in like dressers, cabinets, kitchenwares, nightstands, rugs, lamps and coffee tables.

Looking to consign smaller furniture pieces … 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.Sat. 385-7336.

Services

KDUR is Celebrating 50 years of broadcasting in 2025. With that anniversary fast approaching, staff is on the hunt for past DJs. Maybe you did a show for one year, maybe you did a show for 10. However long that was, hopefully you have a fond memory, a story or maybe even some recorded material! If you do, please email station manager Bryant Liggett, Liggett_b@fort lewis.edu or call 970.247.7261

Classes/Workshops Yoga and Mental Health 5 week free group class for teen and pre-teen girls. Mondays, 4-5:15pm, Oct 16-Nov 13. Learn simple and accessible tools to help deal with stress and manage your mood Inner Peace Yoga Therapy Studio Room 20A @ Smiley/ Registration required. Sign up at https: //innerpeaceyogatherapy.com/loca tions/durango/

Cash for Vehicles, Copper, Alum Etc. at RJ Metal Recycle. Also free appliance and other metal drop off.

970-259-3494.

E-Bike 2018 German-made Haibike S-Duro 9.5 Trekking-LG-Bosch CX Mid-Drive.

729 miles. Exc. condition. Great for commuting & shopping. Panniers included. 970-749-5960 TaoTronics 4k Action Camera New and in the box. Comes with user guide and all accessories that came with it: waterproof housing, handlebar/pole mount, mounts, battery, tethers, protective back cover, USB cable and lens cleaning cloth. $50.

J.marie.pace@gmail.com

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BodyWork

Massage by Meg Bush LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-7590199.

What Are People Saying?

“Susan helps people tap into their inner strength. I would tell everyone, when they need this kind of help – run to Susan! So many good feelings will come to you if you do. Susan, I can’t thank you enough for your skill and patience.” – Linda Edwards, Music Director, San Juan College. Contact Susan Urban, clinical hypnotherapist, for a private, in-home hypnotherapy session. 35 years in private practice in the Southwest. 970-247-9617

ForSale

‘Spy’ James Bond she is not but much more adorable she certainly is – Lainie Maxson

Autumn Massage Deals Deep tissue, clinical, sports, rehabilitative, restorative body work sessions.

20% off autumn deal for new clients. [ $100 for 90 minutes ] Call or text Dennis to schedule @ 970.403.5451

Wanted

Durango Local Legend Turns 40 Kirk S. celebrates the big 40! Cheers to the most sought-after redheaded sportsman in the Four Corners region.

This town wouldn’t be the same without you.

HaikuMovieReview

Marketing Small/Local Businesses Media, website building, content editing, copywriting, newsletters, blogs, etc. for small independent businesses. www.thesaltymedia .com or email jnderge@gmail.com Harmony Cleaning and Organizing Residential, offices, commercial and vacation rentals, 970-403-6192.

Lowest Prices on Storage!

Inside/outside storage near Durango and Bayfield. 10-x-20, $130. Outside spots: $65, with discounts available. RJ Mini Storage. 970-259-3494.

Lotus Path Healing Arts Unique fusion of Esalen massage, deep tissue & Acutonics, 24 years of experience. Kathryn, 970-201-3373.

CommunityService Adaptive Sports Volunteer Training Nov. 11, 11 a.m. -12 noon; Nov. 14, 2-3 p.m. & 6-7 p.m.; Nov. 15, 11 a.m. – 12 noon & 6-7 p.m. Returning volunteer orientations: Nov. 11, 10-11 a.m.; Nov. 14, 1-2 p.m. & 5-6 p.m.; Nov. 15, 10-11 a.m. & 5-6 p.m. 463 Turner Dr. #105 (ASA Headquarters). No RSVP required and volunteers need only attend one session. Questions: 970-259-0374 or email program@asadurango.com.

Great Old Broads T-Shirt Contest Calling all artists! Great Old Broads for Wilderness is accepting submissions for their 2024 member T-shirt. The winning designer gets $250. Looking for black-on-white designs inspired by our nation’s wild places. Images must be minimum of 10” tall by 8” wide at 300 dpi. Deadline Nov. 1. Email submissions to Membership@GreatOldBroads.org.

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