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Volume 10 Issue 42
In This Issue:
October 23, 2019
* Page 2 * Page 4
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Fort Lupton Boot Scoot Fund Raiser Keene Clinic Polka Fest Fundraiser Pics
Tommy Holton Running for the Republican Nomination for Weld County Commissioner District 3 by Bob Grand Tommy Holton is running for the Republican nomination to run for Weld County Commissioner Representing District 3. Tommy has been married to his high school sweetheart for forty years and has three children, 2 girls and a bit, with 9 grandchildren. Tommy’s family moved to Fort Lupton in 1968 and he has been involved with the family ranching operation since he was a youngster. All of Tommy’s grandparents worked in the mining industry in the Carbon Valley. Tommy has a long and distinguished career of service to his community and to the citizens of Weld County. He was Mayor of Fort Lupton for eight years, was term limited, but now sits on the Fort Lupton City Council. He served on the Weld County Planning Commission for eight years, serving as Chair the last years of his term. He served on the Weld County Fair Board fo0r five years, serving as Treasurer his last year. He served as a Commissioner on the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission for eight years, serving as Vice Chair, the last two years. He participates or has participated in the Highway 85 Coalition, the Highway 52 Coalition, the Mayor’s Bullseye Meetings involving all the Mayors of the area, to discuss what is going on in their respective towns as well as mutual issues; the development of the Boys & Girls Club in Fort Lupton; working on economic development within Fort Lupton as well as working with then Towns of Platteville, Dacono and Hudson on IGA development; and was instrumental in the restructuring of the High Plains Library District Board of Directors. Asked why he wanted to run for Commissioner representing District 3, he said “I cannot do anything that I cannot make a difference at” We have to have a Commissioner that represents District 3 that has local government experience, agricultural experience, economic development experience, oil & gas experience and the ability to work with all levels of government, including local, county and state level. We are at a critical point in Weld County and we need the best and most experienced people as Commissioners. I think I fit that bill the best of anybody who has announced running for Weld County Commissioner
representing District 3. Holton went on to say we need to focus on protecting the property rights of all our citizens, including mineral rights, focus on our infra structure needs, and improving opportunities for all our young people, working with our school districts and libraries, both local and at the County level. Our future lies with our young people and too often we see them grow up and leave to go elsewhere to earn their living and raise their families. We need to assess what our social capital investment needs are to support our local communities. People have to realize that we are seeing the impact of uncertainty in the oil and gas industry today, in terms of delayed drilling approvals and the impact of reduced employment and local sales taxes on money that is not being spent. The bigger impact begins in 2022 when the reduced oil production will hit the state, county, local government and the special districts such as fire protection, schools, libraries and the multitude of others in terms of property tax revenue. Weld County has been working on that, but we have to make sure we continue to have qualified representation on the Weld County Board of Commissioners that has the knowledge and experience to continue representing all the people of Weld County effectively.
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T H E T R I B U TA R Y
Robert Grand Testimony Before Erie City Council October 8th, 2019
Thank you for allowing me to address the Council. My name is Bob Grand. I wear a couple of hats, as many of you do. I am a citizen of Weld County, a newspaper publisher and the Secretary/ Treasurer of the High Plains Library District. I come to you tonight to relate my experience of trying to testify at the Colorado Oil & Gas Commission Conservation Commission meeting held at the Erie Recreation Center last Thursday night. The meeting was run in a professional manner, with the Chair stating, several times about the purposes of the hearing and rules of conduct that were expected. There were about 80 people in attendance. I would say that the testimonies that were given were equally representative of both pro and anti-oil and gas positions. Although many testimonies did not address the four issues that were identified as the express purpose of the public hearing. There was a demonstration directly outside of the room where the meeting was being held, clearly visible through the windows, where seven demonstrators, each holding large, threefoot size mockups of tombstones with anti-oil & gas comments. The meeting was suspended, and the room cleared as the Commission Chair said it would be. The demonstrators were asked to move by the Erie police, and they did. The meeting was opened again, and people filed back in to testify. Prior to beginning the meeting again, the Chair restated the rules of conduct and noted that if there was another incident the meeting would be terminated. As my luck would have it in the middle of my testimony the same demonstrators appeared and the meeting was terminated, with some people in the room loudly shouting it was their first amendment right to demonstrate. My papers and myself are strong supporters of our veterans. In fact, in 2016 one of my papers was recognized by the Department of Colorado American Legion as being the best small newspaper that supports veterans in the entire state of Colorado for that year. Now since our country was founded over, 1,100,000 servicemen and woman have given their lives to defend our Constitution and Bill of Rights. None of them asked whether you are Democrat or Republican, those documents are for all American Citizens. I do not fault the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission They went out of their way to come to Erie to listen to testimony from citizens. I applaud them for that. I fault the Erie Town Council for not proving adequate protection from the demonstrators. There were two Erie policeman presents, who were very polite. When asked why the second demonstration was not stopped before it occurred so that the meeting would not have to be ended the officer politely told me that it was the demonstrators first amendment right. Well I have to ask what about everyone else’s first Amendment rights? For example, the right to testify at a public hearing. I understand the emotions run high on the oil & gas subject. I recognize there is a large and loud constituency on the subject opposed to oil & gas in your community. That is their right. I understand you are sensitive to that constituency and you should be. Everyone agrees that oil & gas exploration and production operations should be safe. However there some facts that you need to consider. I was testifying before the Commission that they should consider the language of HB 181 in terms of being responsive in a timely fashion. Uncertainty is something that adversely effects everyone. I also noted that when people buy property on which to build the county or the town authorizing body should remind folks that they own their land, they do not own their view. Realtors and developers should be made to formally disclose that to prospective purchasers. I was stopped before I could testify on the economic impact of delayed drilling. As Secretary/ Treasurer of the High Plains Library District I a very familiar with the District’s financials. Over 60% of the Districts Revenue is generated by oil & gas assessed values. The District is trying to schedule a groundbreaking ceremony for the $4 million expansion /renovation project at the Erie Library. The Board unanimously approved that expenditure some time ago because the citizens of Erie have the highest library utilization rate of any library facility in the County, approaching fifty percent of the population. The HPLD Board did not consider how your citizens voted whether Democrat or Republican or pro or anti oil and gas. They addressed the library needs of the citizens of Erie. I cannot speak for the St Vrain, RE1j school district or the Mountainview Fire Protection District. I would assume, as well-run organizations, as they are, they too focus on the needs of the citizens not their politics. But being a bean counter by nature, I would like to point that The High Plains Library District annual revenue that is generated is composed of over sixty percent from the oil & gas assessed values, which has an assessment of about eleven times residential assessed value. For their Weld County portion of their property tax revenue the St. Vrain School District revenue is composed of over forty percent from oil and gas assessed value. The Mountain View Fire Protection District for its portion of Weld County property tax revenue is at forty eight percent level. The Town of Erie assessed valuation for its Weld County tax valuation attributed to oil and gas is a little over 15% percent of your total assessed valuation. Residential assessed valuation is $212,828,346 or 64.6% of your assessed valuation total. the special districts have enough money to provide the services needed. Cont. on Page 4, See Robert Grand Testimony
October 23, 2019
TRIVIA What color is Guatemala’s one-quetzal bill? GREEN What folk song promises: “That ain’t all she’s goin’ to do - Mammy’s goin’ to make a little coffee too? SHORT’NIN’ BREAD What movie studio owns the rights to 13 Oz books? WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS What cousin of Donald Duck wears a watch with hands that point only to mealtimes? GUS What nut-gathering rodents include the cliff, Sonoma and Townsend species? CHIPMUNKS What are invented in the game Sniglets? WORDS What sprawling U.S. state boasts the most railroad crossings? TEXAS Where do Rodgers and Hammerstein say “the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet”? OKLAHOMA What French word is the term for male ballet dancer? DANSEUR What ABC TV effort won a dubious achievement award as “most sadistic show” in 1980? THAT’S INCREDIBLE What infectious disease can be detected by the Paul-Bunnell blood test? MONONUCLEOSIS What Disneyland revue does Guinness call the world’s longest-running stage production? THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE REVUE What’s the largest country to share a border with Luxembourg? FRANCE What a city does Gene Pitney say he’s 24 hours from? TULSA
October 23, 2019
Also on This Day 1980S 1989 23 people die in a series of explosions sparked by an ethylene leak at a factory in Pasadena, Texas. The blasts, which took place at a Phillips Petroleum Company plant, were caused by inadequate safety procedures. ANCIENT ROME 42 B.C. Marcus Junius Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar, dies by suicide after his defeat at the second battle of Philippi. MIDDLE EAST 1983 A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. That same morning, 58 French soldiers were killed in their barracks two miles away in a separate suicide terrorist attack INVENTIONS & SCIENCE 1983 A suicide bomber drives a truck filled with 2,000 pounds of explosives into a U.S. Marine Corps barracks at the Beirut International Airport. The explosion killed 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers. A few minutes after that bomb went off, a second bomber ...read more CRIME 1998 Doctor Barnett Slepian is shot to death inside his home in Amherst, New York, by an anti-abortion radical, marking the fifth straight year that a doctor who was willing to perform abortions in upstate New York and Canada had been the victim of a sniper attack. Slepian and his ...read more
T H E T R I B U TA R Y
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This Day in History - October 23, 2002 Hostage Crisis in Moscow Theater
On October 23, 2002, about 50 Chechen rebels storm a Moscow theater, taking up to 700 people hostage during a sold-out performance of a popular musical. The second act of the musical “Nord Ost” was just beginning at the Moscow Ball-Bearing Plant’s Palace of Culture when an armed man walked onstage and fired a machine gun into the air. The terrorists—including a number of women with explosives strapped to their bodies—identified themselves as members of the Chechen Army. They had one demand: that Russian military forces begin an immediate and complete withdrawal from Chechnya, the war-torn region located north of the Caucasus Mountains. Chechnya, with its predominately Muslim population, had long struggled to assert its independence. A disastrous two-year war ended in 1996, but Russian forces returned to the region just three years later after Russian authorities blamed Chechens for a series of bombings in Russia. In 2000, President Vladimir Putin was elected partly because of his hard-line position towards Chechnya and his public vow not to negotiate with terrorists. After a 57-hour-standoff at the Palace of Culture, during which two hostages were killed, Russian special forces surrounded and raided the theater on the morning of October 26. Later it was revealed that they had pumped a powerful narcotic gas into the building, knocking nearly all of the terrorists and hostages unconscious before breaking into the walls and roof and entering through underground sewage tunnels. Most of the guerrillas and 120 hostages were killed during the raid. Security forces were later forced to defend the decision to use the dangerous gas, saying that only a complete surprise attack could have disarmed the terrorists before they had time to detonate their explosives. After the theater crisis, Putin’s government clamped down even harder on Chechnya, drawing accusations of kidnapping, torture and other atrocities. In response, Chechen rebels continued their terrorist attacks on Russian soil, including an alleged suicide bombing in a Moscow subway in February 2004 and another major hostage crisis at a Beslan school that September.
SUDOKU
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The Tributary
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T H E T R I B U TA R Y
October 23, 2019
Robert Grand Testimony
Cont. from Page 2 You need to think about what happens if all oil & gas stops, as many of your more vocal constituents would like. I suspect that none of the special districts would be able to afford to support Erie at the levels they have currently or will need in the future without oil and gas tax revenue from their entire geographic area of service. I am not asking you to roll over on oil and gas, but I am asking you that you use common sense in your deliberation processes. That is asking a lot in today’s world of politics. When I was younger life was easy because everything was either black or white. As I get older, I am recognizing that there is a lot of grayer areas than I ever thought of. Complex and emotional issues but the state officials and the communities who are so anti oil & gas need to understand where the money come from. Roof tops, even expensive ones, are nice, but you cannot pay for the services the community wants and needs solely with them. Having served on a town board, a school board, and the library board it is a lot better to have money to provide the services the community needs and wants than not. Thank you for your time.
Keene Clinic Annual Polka Fest Fund Raiser at the South East Weld Fair Grounds
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