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February 20, 2014 Elbert County, Colorado | Volume 119, Issue 3 A publication of
elbertcountynews.net
Arsonist Averette arrested again Former volunteer firefighter set 600-acre blaze in 2012 By George Lurie
glurie@coloradocommunitymedia.com Deputies from the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office have once again arrested convicted arsonist Alex J. Averette. Averette, 21, was taken into custody by ECSO investigators on Feb. 12 and was booked into the Elbert County jail. He is charged with two counts of violation of a protection order and two counts of violation of bail bond conditions.
In June 2013, Averette pleaded guilty to starting a wildfire that scorched 600 acres along County Road 102 and forced the evacuation of the entire town of Elbert in 2012. At the time, he was a volunteer firefighter for the town of Elbert. On Jan. 17, 2014, Averette was sentenced to 240 hours of public service and 10 years of probation. He Averette spent 41 days in the Elbert County jail and also was ordered by Judge Jeffrey Holmes to pay $2,000 in restitution and court costs.
His defense attorneys argued for a minimum sentence based on Averette having only one prior petty offense on his record. But Sheriff Shayne Heap said his investigators have since discovered that Averette pleaded guilty on July 26, 2013 for a theft committed in May 2013. “This new offense was a violation of Averette’s protection order and bail bond conditions,” being a Class 1 misdemeanor and Class 6 felony, respectively, Heap said. ECSO investigators also discovered Averette was arrested on Oct. 17, 2013 in El Paso County and subsequently pleaded guilty to
a domestic violence/harassment charge. “This offense was also a violation of Averette’s protection order,” said Heap. A warrant was issued for Averette’s arrest on Feb. 8. “With the help of the Monument P.D., my guys tried to locate him and he wasn’t where he was supposed to be,” Heap said. “So we got with his probation officer and found out when his next probation meeting was and when he showed up for that, we took him into custody.” Averette is currently being held in the Elbert County jail on $100,000 bond. He was scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 13.
Fracking fight focus of forum Battle expected over possible November ballot measure By Vic Vela
vvela@coloradocommunitymedia.com
A standing-room-only crowd at the Feb. 12 BOCC meeting looked on as Commissioners Kurt Schlegel and Robert Rowland, by a 2-0 vote, approved new oil and gas regulations. Commissioner Larry Ross was ill and did not attend the meeting. Photos by George Lurie
New oil, gas regulations approved Commissioners clear path for new energy development activity By George Lurie
glurie@coloradocommunitymedia.com
At the Feb. 12 BOCC meeting, Community and Development Services Director Kyle Fenner went item by item through a list of 17 suggested modifications to the new oil and gas regulations that were passed on by the Elbert County planning commission.
After nearly three years of debate and controversy, the Board of County Commissioners finally approved on Feb. 12 a revised set of zoning regulations to guide future oil and gas development activity in the county. After commissioners voted 2-0 in favor of the changes at their regular meeting, many in the standing-room-only audience applauded. Commissioner Larry Ross did not attend the meeting, which lasted nearly three hours. County attorney Alex Beltz reported that Ross had called the morning of the meeting and said he was ill and on his way to the hospital. At the meeting, Community and Development Services Director Kyle Fenner presented 17 recommendations from the planning commission for minor revisions to the final document, which the BOCC adopted as amendments to Section 27 of Elbert County’s zoning regulations. “Staff has worked very hard on this,”
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Fenner told commissioners. The revised regulations will dramatically shorten the approval process for issuing oil and gas permits, which, Fenner said, is currently taking “six months to almost a year.” Fenner said the revised regulations prohibit open pits at development sites and so-called “produced” water (which has already been used once by the development companies) from being sprayed on county roads. “Most importantly,” she added, the new regulations “protect the county’s water.” Air-quality issues were not addressed in the new regulations, Fenner said, because revised state-mandated air-quality guidelines will soon be adopted by the state and those guidelines will apply to all future oil and gas development activity across Colorado. During the meeting, the BOCC also approved a related Memorandum of Understanding — or MOU — that will serve as an additional tool for the county to hold oil and gas developers to specific standards — and, in some cases, to expedite the approvals process. Commissioner Robert Rowland called the MOU “a stand-alone contractual document and not a zoning regulation.” During the public comment portion of the meeting, more than a dozen people spoke, most in support of the new regulations. A number of people in the audience wore fluorescent green stickers reading: “I support responsible energy development.” Mark Smith, a 20-year county resident who operates a small dairy farm, said, “Our land and water are extremely important to us. But technology for oil and gas development is amazing and has proven to be very Approved continues on Page 17
With a ballot measure looming that could determine the future of hydraulic fracking in Colorado, oil and gas industry leaders are preparing for a battle unlike any they’ve fought before. “We’ve got a serious fight on our hands in 2014,” said Tim Wrigley, president of the Western Energy Alliance. Wrigley’s comments came during a Jan. 31 fracking forum in downtown Denver, where leaders from the oil and gas industry and other business groups converged. The hour-long discussion focused on developing pro-industry voter outreach strategies in anticipation of a potential November ballot initiative that is being driven by anti-fracking advocates. Fracking is the mixing of water, sand and chemicals that are blasted deep into the surface to crack porous rock to free up blocked oil and gas. So far, five Colorado cities and more than 100 municipalities across the nation have either placed bans or other limits on the practice. The group behind the ballot proposal, the Colorado Community Rights Network, is the same organization that spearheaded last year’s successful ballot measure in Lafayette that banned any new oil and gas drilling there. If it makes it on to the ballot, the proposal — which was filed as a potential state constitutional amendment last month — would allow cities to block oil and gas development, as well as any other kind of business practice that could have harmful impacts on residents’ well-being. Organizers have until August to collect 86,105 valid signatures for the proposal to make it on the November ballot. Cliff Wilmeng of the Colorado Community Rights Network says the ballot proposal goes beyond allowing cities to ban fracking. “Oil and gas isn’t even mentioned in the amendment,” he said. “The motivation is to ensure communities are able to exercise fundamental democratic rights and self determination.” But the oil and gas industry knows exactly what the ballot proposal is all about — it’s a statewide effort that could have serious repercussions for the fracking business, something that they believe is a critically important industry practice. “The ground has shifted forever under our feet,” said Wrigley. “All eyes of the country are on our state now.” Fracking continues on Page 17