The Tributary Where opinions & knowledge flow!
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Volume 11, Issue 33
In This Issue:
August 19, 2020
* Page 2 * Page 4
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Letter to Voters in Weld County Commissioner District 3 Bear Attacks Woman in Manitou Springs
West Nile Virus Detected in Town of Stop the Charade of “Public Comment” Dave Kisker, President, People United for Responsible Goverment Berthoud Mosquito Trap If you have ever attended a land use hearing before the Weld County
Weld County – One group of mosquitoes collected from traps set during the week of July 27, 2020 on the Weld County side of the Town of Berthoud has tested positive for West Nile Virus (WNV). This group came from traps set as part of the Town of Berthoud’s WNV surveillance program. This is the first positive test of any mosquitoes trapped within Weld County this year. Weld County contracts with an outside vendor to conduct mosquito trapping and testing in three zones within Weld County, which includes the Greeley/Evans area, the Johnstown/Milliken/Platteville area, and the Fort Lupton/Dacono/ Firestone area. These traps have not had any WNV positive mosquitoes this year. The results of fifteen mosquito groups trapped the week of August 3, 2020, however, are pending. Although the risk of WNV is currently low, the hotter days in August create perfect conditions for the Culex mosquito and WNV. Currently there are no human cases of WNV in Weld County or in Colorado. Last year, there were a total of 9 human cases of WNV in Weld County. West Nile virus symptoms can appear 3 to 14 days after an infection. Initial symptoms can include fever, headache, nausea and vomiting, muscle aches and weakness and rash, but most infected people don’t exhibit any symptoms. If a person develops symptoms, he or she should see a doctor immediately. There are no medications to treat or vaccines to prevent West Nile virus infection, and less than one percent of infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, neurological illness. Health officials recommend following the four “D’s” to prevent mosquito bites: DRAIN standing water around your house weekly. Remember to drain water from tires, cans, flowerpots, clogged rain gutters, rain barrels, toys and puddles. DUSK and DAWN are when mosquitoes are most active. Limit outdoor activities and take precautions to prevent mosquito bites during these times. DEET is an effective ingredient to look for in insect repellents. Always follow label instructions carefully. DRESS in long sleeves and pants in areas where mosquitoes are active. For more information about preventing mosquito bites, visit “Health Hot Topics at: www.weldgov.com
Commissioners, you will have observed a quasi-judicial, several step process concluding with a decision to approve or deny the application. First, the County Planning Staff gives a presentation about the application, concluding with a recommendation for the outcome—denial or approval. This is followed by a presentation from the applicant that attempts to justify the proposed change, whether it’s a use by special review (USR) or a proposal to rezone their parcel that would allow other uses. In both cases, specific criteria are supposed to be met according to the Weld County Code. The Commissioners would have you believe that the next step, Public Comment, is an important part of the process, and that they might even depend on competent testimony from knowledgeable members of the public on the impacts, positive or negative, of the proposed land use. Public Comment is then followed by an opportunity for the applicant to respond to the concerns that were voiced by the public, and then, the County Commissioners render a decision on the application. Since this is a “quasi-legal” process under State law, it is supposed to be fair and honest. However, the reality is different. After watching numerous such hearings over the last several years, it has become clear that in nearly all cases, the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Public Comment does not matter. Simply put, the Commissioners are merely “letting members of the public talk”. As suggested by their complete disinterest in this part of the proceedings confirmed by their lack of questions or other engagement, any hope that Public Comment has an impact is misguided. And, in some cases, such as the Martin Marietta rezoning hearing on 22 July 2020, these same people, who you have elected to be your representatives, blatantly ignored the well documented public input (available here: https://tinyurl.com/y2xk9377 ) while at the same time accepting without scrutiny the falsified contributions from Martin Marietta Materials. But, the Martin Marietta Materials rezoning was just the most recent example. I can’t think of many, if any, examples where public comment changed an outcome. It simply doesn’t make a difference unless it happens to coincide with the specific concerns of a Commissioner, such as an RV storage facility, or if the proposed use would be near one of the Commissioners, such as a compressor station near Johnstown. I suppose that in this day and age of government “openness”, public “participation” is the politically correct approach, but, if it doesn’t matter, what’s the point? In fact, in this case, there is evidence that in this case, at least one of the Commissioners had decided to approve this rezoning days in advance of the hearing and said so in conversation. So, since Public Comment will be ignored anyway, I suggest that it’s time to stop the charade. Let’s just save everyone’s time, and let the County Commissioners get together in a smoke-filled room with their crony applicants and decide what’s “good” for the rest of us. That’s essentially what happens anyway, but at least then, we could all save hours of wasted time and avoid the window-dressing of “fairness”.
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T H E T R I B U TA R Y
LETTER TO THE EDITOR Letter to the Voters for Weld County Commissioner District 3 Race
In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.” ― Carl Sagan Weld County Government has been coasting. It has been coasting for a very long time. When done correctly governing is of the people, by the people, for the people. We, the citizens of Weld County have abdicated our responsibility because it seemed unimportant and mundane. Roads got fixed, not quickly or well. The Sherriff’s Department grew, but could not retain qualified individuals, because of low pay and morale. Morale is low within the department because jails are being used as storage facilities for humans who have mental problems. Weld County Government has outsourced the management of the county wherever it can. The management of that growth is now in the hands of for profit developers. The fluid that has calmed the normal forces that would have brought change over the decades? Oil. The resource curse, often spoken of in places like Nigeria or Congo, can effect places as small and localized as a county. Mistakes and bad decisions can be ignored or paved over when taxes from the sale of oil and natural gas can be used to cover them. Pet projects like paved roads to county commissioner’s houses can be green lighted and justification for them never explained. A time of reckoning is upon Weld County which has relied on this as an excuse for true fiscal responsibility. In July of 2020 only 5 rigs are currently active in the state of Colorado. In normal times a rig count in excess of 30 is considered normal. Oil and Gas tax revenue has been the proverbial tide that has covered up Weld County’s naked swimming. It will not last. Oil and Gas in the Wattenberg Field isn’t as easy or as cheap as it once was, and unless some dramatic new technology comes along that refreshes and invigorates the Niobrara Formation it is unlikely that the Northern Colorado fields will be as cost competitive as the Texas and California fields are, much less the Saudi, Russian and even Venezuelan fields are. Good news is that we will always beat the cost and difficulty of production of Brent, North Sea Oil. Bad news to be Norway or The United Kingdom! Speaking of Norway, Did you know that they have a sovereign fund that they use to maintain fiscal and political independence? Weld County could have done something similar, but the Republicans chose to lobby for a 51st state. We must stop this silliness and short sighted way of dealing with the problem faced by the county. One way or another the county will have to diversify out of oil and gas and into its primary source of its wealth, the people of Weld County. Barbara Kirkmeyer has been County Commissioner for District 3 from 1993-2001, 2008-2020. She’s now running for State Senate 23 because she has been term limited twice now at the county level. Her Republican replacement is Lori Saine, whose sole claim to fame is an arrest for trying to board a plane with a loaded 9mm, and being called by Denver’s weekly Westword, “Colorado’s Nastiest, Most Clueless Politician.” Lori is leaving her term limited position at House District #63, to continue employment in governmental bureaucracy having failed at the state level and bringing that failure to a more home level, Weld County District 3. Where her cluelessness, and poor decision making can continue the legacy left by Barbara Kirkmeyer of ignoring the needs of Southern Weld County and it citizens the same way she’s ignore common sense and good taste. She hopes to use District 3 like Kirkmeyer is, as a home base while they plot their never ending climb for ever higher political office. Are we really just a jumping board to them? Can’t we encourage them to seek greener pastures in private industry, something neither one knows anything about? I know I plan to vote for them to spread their wings and experience what the rest of us know all too well. Michael Welsh Democratic Candidate for Weld County Commissioner District 3
August 19, 2020
TRIVIA Do Guatemalan taxis have meters? NO What Huey Lewis and The News hit proclaims: “Don’t need no credit card to ride this train”? THE POWER OF LOVE How many in every three U.S. adults have never flown in an airplane? ONE What kind of animal joins Natty on her trip, in Disney’s The Journey of Natty Gann? A WOLF What kind of shark has been called the maneater, death shark, and white death? THE GREAT WHITE SHARK Which has baseball’s Reggie Jackson done most - hit a home run, struck out or walked? STRUCK OUT What number is assigned to the right-handed index finger in piano music? TWO What’s a University of Hard Knocks diploma tied with - a ribbon, string or bandages? BANDAGES What color cloak dos the Prince wear when he awakens Disney’s Sleeping Beauty? RED What organ is tranplanted most in North America? THE KIDNEY What Mediterranean country’s citizens know Donald Duck as Paparino? ITALY’S Which side of the Born in the U.S.A. front cover shows Bruce Springsteen’s left hand? THE LEFT What century saw the Four-H Club founded? THE TWENTIETH What kind of facial hair does the King of Hearts sport in Alice in Wonderland? A MUSTACHE Which has the highest average body temperature - a cow, horse or pig? A PIG
August 19, 2020
Also on This Day
CRIME 2011 Three men, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the murders of three boys in Arkansas, are released from prison in a special legal deal allowing them to maintain their innocence . U.S. PRESIDENTS 1946 William Jefferson Blythe III is born in Hope, Arkansas. His father died in a car accident before he was born, and young Bill later took the last name of his stepfather, Roger Clinton. WAR OF 1812 1812 Old Ironsides earns its name During the War of 1812, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerrière in a furious engagement off the coast of Nova Scotia. Witnesses claimed that the British shot merely bounced off the Constitution‘s sides, as if the ship were made of iron. COLD WAR 1960 In the USSR, captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his confessed espionage. WORLD WAR I 1919 In a break with conventional practice, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson appears personally before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to argue in favor of its ratification of the Versailles Treaty, the peace settlement that ended the First World War. WESTWARD EXPANSION 1895 John Wesley Hardin, one of the bloodiest killers of the Old West, is murdered by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas. Born in central Texas on May 26, 1853, Hardin killed his first man when he was only 15 during the violent period of post-Civil War reconstruction. WORLD WAR II 1934 Adolf Hitler, already chancellor, is also elected president of Germany in an unprecedented consolidation of power in the short history of the republic.
T H E T R I B U TA R Y
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This Day in History - August 19, 1909
First Race is Held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway On August 19, 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world’s most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500. Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing facility for Indiana’s growing automobile industry. The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each other. After seeing what these cars could do, spectators would presumably head down to the showroom of their choice to get a closer look. The rectangular two-and-a-half-mile track linked four turns, each exactly 440 yards from start to finish, by two long and two short straight sections. In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track’s surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster, breaking up in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators. The surface was soon replaced with 3.2 million paving bricks, laid in a bed of sand and fixed with mortar. Dubbed “The Brickyard,” the speedway reopened in December 1909. In 1911, low attendance led the track’s owners to make a crucial decision: Instead of shorter races, they resolved to focus on a single, longer event each year, for a much larger prize. That May 30 marked the debut of the Indy 500–a grueling 500-mile race that was an immediate hit with audiences and drew press attention from all over the country. Driver Ray Haroun won the purse of $14,250, with an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6 hours and 42 minutes. Since 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has been held every year, with the exception of 1917-18 and 1942-45, when the United States was involved in the two world wars. With an average crowd of 400,000, the Indy 500 is the best-attended event in U.S. sports. In 1936, asphalt was used for the first time to cover the rougher parts of the track, and by 1941 most of the track was paved. The last of the speedway’s original bricks were covered in 1961, except for a three-foot line of bricks left exposed at the start-finish line as a nostalgic reminder of the track’s history.
SUDOKU
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T H E T R I B U TA R Y
August 19, 2020
Bear Believed to have Attacked Woman in Manitou Springs Caught, Humanely Euthanized; Cubs Caught, Sent to Rehab MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers, working with federal wildlife experts, caught and humanely euthanized a sow bear early Saturday near Manitou Springs. The sow matched the description of a bear that attacked a woman near downtown on Thursday night. It was caught not far from the scene of the attack. Its remains were sent to a health lab for a necropsy and testing. The team of CPW officers and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) agents also captured the sow’s cubs and sent them to a rehabilitation facility where they will be raised and taught to avoid human contact. They will be released into the wild next winter. APHIS agents commonly help CPW manage conflicts caused by wildlife for the protection of public health and safety. “We believe this is the sow that aggressively attacked one woman in Manitou Springs and then chased another on Thursday night,” said Cody Wigner, Assistant Area Wildlife Manager for the Colorado Springs region. “Our wildlife officers, working with the APHIS team, set traps and staked out the area of the attack on Friday night. “Early Saturday morning, the APHIS team, using trained hounds, treed a sow matching the description of the target bear and in the same area as the attack. It was humanely euthanized. Then the two cubs were captured. We are very confident we caught the target sow so we removed traps set up in the neighborhood and pulled our officers out.” CPW launched an intensive search for the sow afColorado Parks and Wildlife believe officers caught a bear that knocked a woman ter receiving a report Friday morning of the attack down and scratched her back in an attack from Manitou Springs Police and interviewing the victim. Thursday, July 9, 2020, in Manitou The victim told CPW wildlife officers she was walkSprings. Photo courtesy of Colorado Parks ing home from work around 11:40 p.m. Thursday and Wildlife when she encountered an adult bear on the street. The bear charged her. As the victim turned to try to escape, the bear knocked her down from behind, scratching her back and ripping her shirt. Minutes later, a colleague of the victim walked down the same street and was chased by a bear. She avoided contact with the bear by running around a parked vehicle. A nearby witness reported seeing two cubs with the large adult bear. All three bears ultimately wandered off and the victim walked to her nearby home. CPW took the cubs to the nonprofit Wet Mountain Wildlife Rehabilitation facility in Wetmore. In the wake of the attack, neighbors told CPW the sow and cubs often rummaged trash cans in the area and acted aggressively toward people. “This is why we say ‘garbage kills bears’ and urge everyone to secure their trash cans,” Wigner said. “This is bear country. We need to keep them wild and not let them become trash bears.” More “Bear Aware” tips can be found here and specific suggestions about camping in bear country are at this link.