Grand Opening During COVID

By Matt Hoisch

“Brewing in these small pots like this,” Hudon explains, “is called Gongfucha.” Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Colin Hudon says the teahouse has been about a decade in the making.

“So I’ve been traveling extensively over the last 12 years around Asia to source these special teas and tea wares,” he explains.” And that hard work, he claims, has paid off. “I say this with humility, but I think we have one of the finest collections of tea in North America right now. Here.

Hudon owns Mountain Gate Teahouse & Art Gallery, which is opening next week in Telluride. I stopped by earlier this week to check out the spot and talk tea.

The renovated space off Main Street looks nothing like the bike shop it was in a previous life: white walls sandwiched between wood panelings that stretch across the floor and ceiling. Tea themed paintings Hudon commissioned from a Taiwanese tea mentor hang along the walls. Hudon says the renovation turned out to be more extensive than he and his team imagined. They redid the storage space, added a kitchen, and re-modeled the bathroom.

He says they were still painting walls and putting in the floor as they were approaching their original opening date back in March. But then the coronavirus hit, and running out of time was no longer an issue. Hudon says the four-month delay has given them a chance to tighten up some back end logistics, but they also had to fire all of the servers they’d hired for the March opening. And, because they weren’t going to have any major operating expenses until March, they weren’t eligible for the government’s coronavirus loan programs since those funds are based on operating expenses before shutdowns hit the economy.

So they got creative. Hudon says he was able to use his background in Chinese medicine to compensate for the lack of tea time.

“We’ve been able to put together an herbal preventative formula,” Hudon explains, “which they’ve used really effectively in a lot of the hospitals in China and Taiwan.”

He says through all of it, his years of studying, sourcing, and brewing tea have given him a helpful mindset to get through the unplanned pandemic. Brewing tea, he explains, is, after all, largely about water and understanding fluidity, change, and patience.

“So when you first start to brew a tea, the leaves are just opening,” Hudon says. “And then as you go through subsequent steepings it becomes very full bodied. And then yous tart getting to later steepings which are lighter but more mineral rich. And throughout that process, if you’re paying attention, you’re enjoying the impermanence of one cup to the other. So that’s where you start to tie together esoteric ideas with really practical, down-to-earth ideas.”

They’re ideas to master, especially since one more tectonic shift hit the teahouse team before the opening: Hudon’s business partner and girlfriend, Jade Rose, gave birth last week to their first child. 

“It’s one of those things,” he says, “I don’t even know—I don’t even know—words don’t lend themselves very well to explaining what a profound and beautiful experience the whole process [of having a child] is.”

Hudon says they haven’t gotten much sleep with their days old child, but the teahouse is still prepping for the grand opening next week.

Tea themed paintings Hudon commissioned from a Taiwanese tea mentor hang along the walls in Mountain Gate Teahouse & Art Gallery. Pictures by Matt Hoisch.

Hudon brews some tea in a tiny clay pot and pours it into two smooth cream colored cups that each hold only a few sips.

“Brewing in these small pots like this is called Gongfucha and it’s out of Chaozhou, and it’s about a 350 year old tradition that developed alongside a lot of the martial arts in that area of China,” he says. “So it draws from economy of movement, economy of tea—using a small amount of tea, small cups. So frugality. And also there’s certain types of tea that are most conducive to brewing in this way.”

Even the type of clay the pot is made of makes a difference, he explain. “It softens the water. It changes the body of the tea quite a bit.”

And we drink

“It’s strong but it’s…it’s like on the cusp of being too strong,” I say after my first sip. “But in a good way.”

“Yeah,” Hudon says. “Yeah.”

Hudon says he wants the space to be a place for people to enjoy and learn about tea and Cha Dao, or The Way of Tea. People won’t be allowed to use phones or computers in the teahouse, he says. Rather, he wants a space for patrons to enjoy tea, artwork, and each other. Like leaves soaking in a pool of water. A spot in which to steep.

Featured Songs:

“Dorval” by Julia Kent

“Them” by Nils Frahm

Locals Commemorate Juneteenth

By Matt Hoisch

Locals listen to speakers at Juneteenth rally in Elks Park. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Several cardboard signs cover the stairs at Elks Park—a noticeable display as people trickle in. They feature phrases such as “Black Lives Matter”, “White Silence is Violence”, and “Are you part of the solution or problem.”

About 60 people fill the park on a Friday night for a rally to commemorate Juneteenth. The holiday marks the day the last enslaved people in America found out the Civil War had ended and they were free. It’s the largest local gathering around issues of race, racism, and inequality since earlier this month when about one hundred people marched on Main Street to protest the killing of George Floyd, a black man, while in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department.

At the foot of the stairs, Po Nicodemus is painting another sign. It says “Trans Rights.” They say they hope this month’s earlier protest and this rally are just the start of longer-term discussions and actions.

“If we can’t sustain ourselves for multiple rallies, then the rally at he start of this June in hindsight is tourism. And that makes me feel a bit sick,” they say. “That’s tourist attitude in the opposite direction.”

This is a common point many people at the rally express. Unlike the Main Street march, Friday night’s rally is more focused on speeches and discussions about local-level action and maintaining growing momentum. 

Chloie Plumber has grown up in Telluride and Norwood. Speaking to the crowd, she says “growing up in a very white town is never easy.”

“It’s feeling like a token diversity piece in someone else’s coming of age film, rather than the main character in your own,” she says to the crowd. “And dealing with almost constant microaggressions. Being told ‘I don’t like non-white girls, but you’re the exception,’ or even ‘You’ll look like a young Aunt Jemima.’ It’s having people—some peers and some in positions of power compared to me—touching my hair. Constantly asking to touch my hair. If I say ‘No,’ I’m at the risk of seeming like the stereotype of the angry black girl. If I say ‘Yes,’ I feel dehumanized. It’s having friends come up to me saying ‘So-And-So said the N-word and you should yell at them.’ They don’t want to make a big deal about it. But they have no problem having me be the one who always has to say something.”

Signs cover the stairs at Elks Park. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Several attendees also say in addition to discussions around discrimination against black individuals in Telluride, they hope the town reckons with discrimination against Latinex members of the community.

“I’ve heard from clients ‘I’m a woman of color and I’m pregnant and my white co-worker is allowed to have her cell phone, but I get reprimanded if I have my cell phone.’ That is discrimination,” says Claudia Garcia Curzio, who works for the San Miguel Resource Center. “I think a lot of people in this town think that primarily we have Mexican and Guatemalans that can be replaceable, and that’s discrimination.”

Ross Valdez, Community Outreach Coordinator for Tri County Health Network, echoes Garcia Curzio’s sentiment while speaking to the crowd.

“Thirty percent of this community identifies as Latinex or Hispanic. This is based off of the Telluride School District information. So I want you to ask yourselves,” he says to the crowd, “does 30% of every position of power in our community reflect that? Do we have that diversity that exists at every single level? Absolutely not.”

Dominique Bruneau says she wishes there were more people of color at the rally, but she guesses that “most of them are maybe still working or they are so tired that they have to go home to take care of their kids.”

Still, she says she’s hopeful that if more events this like continue, they’ll become more familiar and more people of color will come.

That sort of eye toward the future is a theme of many of the speakers. They encourage the people sitting across Elks Park to continue to educate themselves and act. They also stress that people shouldn’t see Telluride as an escape or a bubble cut off from the wider world. 

To cap off the evening, everyone takes a tea light and gradually passes a flame to people around them until everyone in the park holds a lit candle. Then, several minutes of silence to reflect on what actions everyone will take next.

Bluegrass Roots

By Matt Hoisch

Picture by John Kovacich, Public Domain Pictures.

Friday, June 19, is the first day of KOTOgrass, a celebaration of archived and live Telluride Bluegrass performances. But Friday is also Juneteenth, a holiday that marks the day the last enslaved people in the United States found out the Civil War was over and they were free. As we acknowledge that day and our own local Bluegrass celebration, we also remember that Bluegrass music is a uniquely American mix of European, Appalachian, African, and African American musical forms. To examine the African and African American roots of Bluegrass, KOTO speaks with acclaimed musician Rhiannon Giddens and University of Tennessee musicology teacher and musician Sean McCollough.

Picture courtesy of Rhiannon Giddens.

Picture by Bill Foster, courtesy of Sean McCollough.

Featured Music:

“there is no Other” by Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi

“Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig)” by the Carolina Chocolate Drops

“Following the North Star” by Rhiannon Giddens

“Wayfaring Stranger” by Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi

Original banjo music by Sean McCollough

Amid COVID-19, Childcare Re-Opens

By Matt Hoisch

Megan Berry, Director of Rainbow Preschool and Rockies school age program, run check-in on the first day back in business. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

“Kids! We miss you!” Those are the words colorfully painted onto giant pieces of butcher paper taped to the windows at Rainbow Preschool and Rockies school age program. Inside, the schedule for the week of March 9-13th is still scrawled on a chalkboard. For over two month, childcare centers across San Miguel County closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This week, relaxed public health orders mean they can open back up. Well, partially.

Megan Berry directs both the Rainbow and Rockies programs, which take three to seven-year-olds. We spoke last week as she was preparing for the re-opening. She says each program normally has about 20 kids per day, but state guidelines now limit them to half that. So, she says, her team has been reaching out to families to try to balance the childcare needs between all of them.

“For most people, they just needed a couple days,” she explains. “What we asked them to do was like, maybe you could share a kid sitter for a couple days with another family. Or—kind of getting creative with their childcare situations for the summer.”

And for the kids who do come, things don’t look exactly the same. X’s made out of colorful duct tape dot the sidewalk—marking socially distanced spots to stand on for drop off. Masks are also not going away. And Berry’s staff has gotten rid of a lot of soft toys and dress up props that would be hard to disinfect. 

“We’ve just kind of edited it so that they still have toys to play with, obviously,” she say. “Just not as many for us to clean at the end of the day.”

And yes, that cleaning includes all of the pieces in the Monopoly set that’s still out for the older kids to play with. 

The sign taped to the window at the Rainbow and Rockies program reads “Kids! We miss you! Love, Rainbow Rockies”. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

But because of the extra cleaning, Berry notes, they have to shorten their hours so she doesn’t have to pay her staff overtime. That’s important because she says even though they’re opening, both programs will lose money this summer.  

“Childcare throughout the State with these limited numbers is completely unsustainable,” she says.

But, they’re still taking kids, she says, because they want to help the community. She’s just hoping for more state aid down the road. 

But, not everyone can afford to run at a loss and hope for help later. A few blocks away, dozens of colorful toys pack the wooden cubbies at another childcare center, Elaine’s Place. It’s where they’ve been since March when the Telluride toddler center closed on a Wednesday in winter.

“And then that Thursday and Friday, me and two of my employees came in here and bleached and Cloroxed every single toy and item in here,” explains Leah Roman, the Director of Elaine’s Place, which offers toddler care for 1-3 year olds. The toys, she says, haven’t moved since then.

Earlier this year, when the coronavirus shut down the business, they closed so quickly and unexpectedly, she says, that parents didn’t have time to pick up their kids’ winter clothes. There’s still several pairs of toddler snow boots neatly arranged by the front door.

But even with loosening public health orders, Roman made what she says was a “very hard” decision not to open back up this week. She says she has 12 families who send their kids, but only four told her they’d want to come back right now, and that just doesn’t work with her business model.

"We have to have two staff here at all times. And for me to do that with such as small center and number of kids—we can’t afford to stay open and do that,” she says."

When the coronavirus shut down Elaine’s Place in March, they closed so quickly and unexpectedly that parents didn’t have time to pick up their kids’ winter clothes. There’s still several pairs of toddler snow boots neatly arranged by the front door. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Part of it is the economy. Childcare is going to be essential for people to get back to work. But right now, as things slowly open back up, Roman says a good chunk of her parents don’t have work pulling them from home. So they don’t need the toddler care. She’s hoping she’ll be able to open up again in July.

***

Back at the Rainbow and Rockies program, it’s Monday and for the first time since March, their gates are open for business. Of course, some kids are a little nervous to jump back into the more social life. Like Julia Carlson.

“Well, I’m excited because I finally get to be here now,” she says. “But I’m sort of scared because I haven’t really been at schools yet or play areas yet.”

Most parents are pretty excited to drop their kids off again. Like Cathleen Sowinski.

“Thank God it’s open again!” she exclaims with a laugh. “I don’t want to say it wasn’t that horrendous because it was very difficult having us all home all together all the time.”

Inside, the older kids are playing upstairs before opening circle time, while Brandon Baker, their lead teacher, supervises. With the health restrictions, he says it will be an interesting summer, but he wants to enjoy whatever he can.

“I have this feeling that everything’s gonna open just to be closed again late fall,” he notes. “And so I feel like this is just kind of a short little bliss moment that we’ll have.”

Downstairs, the younger kids are wearing colorful face masks decorated with characters like Disney Princesses and Peppa Pig. They’re playing with puzzles and Legos at four socially distanced tables—and listening to some Jack Johnson. 

After months of coronavirus closures no one really knows how long and how much childcare will be able to re-open over the next few months. But, for now at least, one short little bliss moment.

A Gondola Graduation

By Julia Caulfield

Photo by Ryan Bonneau

Graduation for the Class of 2020 starts at the base of the gondola in Mountain Village. Students arrive to Heritage Plaza in full cap and gown and are immediately greeted by a welcoming committee of teachers and staff – all wearing masks and standing at least six feet apart. The greeters line a pathway to the gondola, cheering with maroon pompoms, and balloons.

At timed intervals, students and their families load into a gondola car and make the trip up the mountain.

At the top, outside the San Sophia station, Telluride High School Principal, Sara Kimble, and Superintendent Mike Gass meet the students, with more applause. Pomp and Circumstance is blaring from a speaker; a tent is set up with the diplomas on a table. There’s a space to take photos, surrounded by flowers special for the occasion, and that brilliant blue sky backdrop.

Kimble read each student a graduation declaration.

“This diploma represents an affirmation that you have met the requirements of graduation set by the Colorado Board of Education and the Telluride School District,” said Kimble, “upon receiving this diploma, by the authority granted in me by the Colorado Board of Education and the Telluride School District, I hereby declare you a graduate!”

Kimble said the day was better than she could have imagined, despite obvious adjustments.

“We’re not handing diplomas; they have to grab their own diploma. Everyone’s in masks. So it feels different, and there’s a lot of individual experiences, and hopefully that can create one big, shared experience,” said Kimble.

Some students are pumped, dancing and cheering. Others are more subdued, maybe a little anxious. It’s a graduation. COVID or no, emotions are naturally bubbling just below the surface.

It’s not just the students. Mike Gass, is feeling it too. He’s retiring, and this is his last graduation as superintendent.

“I can’t imagine it could be any better considering the circumstance,” said Gass, “watching families get individual graduation is pretty cool. I get a little choked up. It’s been a good group of kids, and a good group to go out with.”

Natalie Bowers is one of the graduates fully embracing the situation. She said the whole day makes her feel really special.

Bowers said, “more than probably any other Senior in the country, which is really cool. I think it’s way more special than regular graduation because we get to be outside, and be in Telluride.”

Morgan Dahl shared the feeling.

“It’s a very exciting moment. Definitely not how I thought it would go, but I honestly think it’s such a unique graduation. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way,” said Dahl.

But for Cameron Creel, it’s a little strange to not experience the traditional graduation in the Palm. The whole community there supporting each senior.

“I grew up with two older siblings, I’ve been kind of expecting the normal for many years,” Creel said, “it’s definitely interesting to get a different experience. I wouldn’t say I’m sad, it’s a different kind of way. It gets the job done.”

One thing is for sure. Graduating from high school in 2020 is like nothing else. And it’s not lost on Maxwell Stanley Gorraiz.

“It makes you feel more badass. I’ll be able to tell my kids and my grandkids that I graduated during a global pandemic,” Gorraiz said, “that’s pretty rad.”

After several more moments to take photos, and walk around the overlook, the main event is done. Students take a squirt of hand sanitizer, load into the gondola head back to Mountain Village.

It’s not a typical graduation, but certainly one for the history books.

Remembering Shandy Strand

By Julia Caulfield

Shandy Strand had a huge heart. She was a light that encouraged everyone around her to stay positive and find the good in any situation. She was selfless, and joyful.

“She was a rallier, a spirit, a motivator for all us,” said Andy Shoff, Head of School at the Telluride Mountain School.

She loved to get outside, pushed herself, and always had a smile on her face. She was a fierce friend.

Emily Durkin, one of Strand’s teachers, said, “she’s the type of person who would always have your back, and always be there to support you, regardless of the situation.”

Strand was diagnosed with liver cancer at the end of 2018, during her senior year of high school. She underwent chemotherapy treatment and received a liver transplant. In the spring of 2020, she began going between Telluride and Durango for treatment before settling in Durango to be closer to the hospital.

On May 6th Strand was in Telluride with her father, Scott. In a web post entry, Shandy’s family wrote “on the drive back to Durango she passed away peacefully while holding Scott’s hand and enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery”.

Strand was 19 years old. She is survived by her parents Danita and Scott, and her brother, Evan.

Shandy Strand grew up in Telluride and embraced the opportunities of the outdoors and the community. She was a central figure at the Telluride Mountain School, the “mama bear” of her senior class and a role model for the younger students. She would look out for others in her class. Ross Perrot, one of Shandy’s teachers, remembered one trip hiking Mt. Sneffles where Shandy stayed behind with a fellow student who was struggling.

“One of the girls where hiking wasn’t her forte, and Shandy hung out at the back of our group with this girl, and egged her on,” said Perrot, “the girl didn’t make it to the top of Mt. Sneffles, but she made it to the pass that goes down to Blue Lake, and I don’t know if that girl would have been able to make it even to the pass if it hadn’t been for Shandy’s support, positive energy, enthusiasm.

Durkin recognized that instinct in Strand to encourage her classmates and make any experience a positive one.

“In Costa Rica, I was very excited about the kids getting into birding, and birding is harder than you think it is,” said Durkin, “we birded maybe four or five times with experts that knew what they were doing, and after a while the kids got a little bit tired of it. But Shandy was always super engaged and always into it, and her and this other student created this birding for life motto and this hand motion, and it just turned what students were thinking of as a chore into a really great, funny, awesome experience, and engaged everyone in the experience.”

Strand was an avid volunteer with the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program, and an integral part of Ski PE.

Perrot said, “she would always ski around during Ski PE with this jam box, blasting out country, or pop music, or hip hop, you name it. She was always one of the stars that everyone loved to ski with.”

Strand graduated from the Mountain School in 2019. She was planning on attending Westminster College in Utah.

“I wrote in her college recommendation that she thrived in high school for all the right reasons, the most important herself. You never got the feeling that she was doing something for external reward or motivation, and she really had a sense in herself, who she was, and what was important to her,” said Jesse McTigue, Strand’s college counselor, “words that describe Shandy are authentic, vibrant, creative, engaged, funny, and present.”

She loved outdoor education, but was also interested in architecture.

“Many times she would choose, especially when it was a project relating to a trip, she would trace the architecture of Cuba, linking it to the history, and did something in Berlin,” said McTigue, “I have also commented on her voice in writing about the landscape around the Canyonlands and Telluride, and the natural architecture.”

Talking with those who knew her, it’s clear Shandy reflected the mountains of Southwest Colorado she loved so much. She had passion, she was resilient and strong. Shandy Strand had grit.

Telluride Celebrates Graduating Seniors with Parade Down Main Street

By Julia Caulfield

Photo by Jack Plantz

High School graduation for the class of 2020 will – hopefully – be like non other. Schools closing, learning going online, shelter in place orders, a pandemic have forced teachers and administrators to get creative with how they celebrate this year’s graduating class. Graduation in Telluride will take place next week, but on Thursday, seniors were treated to their very own parade down Main Street.

In decked out cars, bikes, the occasional motorcycle, and fire engines to start, graduating students – in full cap and gown - and their families drove down Colorado Ave, waiving to supportive onlookers.

Those onlookers, socially distanced – for the most part – and through mask muffled voices shared their well wishes for these students, as they leave the safe nest of home and head into an uncertain adulthood.

Dirty Sturdy's: Composting During Covid

By Matt Hoisch

Picture by AlbertHerring, Wikimedia Commons.

Since October, Mark Sturdevant has been running a local composting company. It’s a side gig. Most of the time, he’s a Recreation & Event Aide for the Telluride Parks & Recreation Department. But his entrepreneurial spirit has led to smooth growth for his operation, and he was approved to continue working through the Covid shutdown as an essential service. The name of this earthy endeavor? Dirty Sturdy’s.

Featured Songs:

“Horns of the Bull” by Penguin Café Orchestra

“Protection” by Penguin Café

The Reality of Living Through COVID-19

By Julia Caulfield

Morgan Smith and his wife, Sarah Lavender Smith

Morgan Smith isn’t the kind of person you may expect to be hit by COVID-19.

“I’m 53. I’m in good shape. It’s often hard to qualify that answer because my wife is an ultra-runner, and she runs hundred mile races. So in comparison to that, I’m like a couch potato,” said Smith, “but I love hiking throughout all the mountains here. I don’t smoke, I don’t have diabetes, I don’t have any of the risk factors that would be considered serious.”

But in March month, Smith found himself on oxygen at Montrose Memorial Hospital after a CT scan showed he had viral pneumonia in both of his lungs and symptoms for coronavirus.

“My wife had to say goodbye in the driveway without coming inside because of the exposure risk, and I stayed there for two days for observation to make sure the oxygen was helping and I wasn’t going to need anything more serious or go to the ICU,” said Smith.

Smith’s experience with COVID-19 began earlier in the month, after picking his son up from college.

“They had called to say that it was time to come and get everyone and bring them home,” said Smith.

According to Smith, his son showed mild symptoms of coronavirus, a slight cough. Then his wife and daughter ended up with low fevers.

But for him, he didn’t have a fever at all – at least at the beginning. There was a slight cough, and fatigue.

“I had a day where I basically stayed in bed all day. I woke up, had breakfast, fell back asleep, woke up for lunch, and fell back asleep, and then woke up for dinner and slept all night, which was highly unusual. But I didn’t feel bad,” said Smith.

After a few days, the symptoms got worse.

Smith said,“I started experiencing really bad aches and pains all throughout my body. My skin hurt to touch at all.”

He was still having a hard time getting out of bed.

“I was having something that was almost similar to hallucinations in that I was by no means sleeping for 24 hours, so I’d be awake for hours on end, but in my mind, what was going on was very similar to dreaming,” said Smith.

It culminated at the end of March. Smith’s wife woke him in the middle of the night. His breathing was rapid, and he had a 103-degree fever. She told him he needed to get to the Telluride Medical Center.

Smith said,“I didn’t want to. I was saying ‘let’s just wait until later, I don’t want to do that now”. It turns out when I got there, my blood-oxygen level was down at 74. What was happening was I was not making rational decisions in any way whatsoever.”

The Med Center tested him for COVID-19, although the positive test result would take several days to return. Medical providers took that CT scan which showed viral pneumonia and put him on oxygen. From there Smith headed to Montrose.

At the hospital, he was in a room by himself.

“They left me there with all of my thoughts. You start having those thoughts like this may be it,” said Smith, “This may be the last memory that I have in this sterile room where I don’t get to see anyone that I know ever again.”

Around 1 a.m. Smith’s oxygen levels started dropping again – even while he was on an oxygen machine.

“It was terrifying, honestly terrifying, because I knew what the results of that could mean. I could mean that my lungs were in fact in the process of failing, and if that’s true that meant I had to go on a ventilator of which I knew there was only a 20% chance of ever coming off of,” said Smith.

Ask Smith about the incident now, and he’ll say in retrospect, it had a funny ending. As it turns out, Smith says his nose was congested, blocking the oxygen from getting to his lungs. A quick rinse of saline and all was well. But that doesn’t change the real fear in the moment.

“I was basically in a position of thinking the absolute worst,” said Smith, “of I might be in a position where I never see my family again.”

Smith was released from the hospital the following morning, and he’s making a full recovery. But he says the experience shifted the way he sees the preventative measures of sheltering in place and staying at home.

“Now that I know how serious it is, and I understand what would happen if a whole lot of people got to the level that I was at the same time; what we are doing as a country is the most import thing we could possibly be doing,” said Smith.

Smith is one of 13 in San Miguel County to test positive for COVID-19 so far. The county’s stay at home orders are in effect until midnight on May 1st.

Keep Calm and Bird On

By Matt Hoisch

The river trail is filled with birds. Keep your eyes and ears open. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

One peculiar aspect of the new reality of COVID-19 is that while the human world grinds to a halt, the non-human world pushes forward. Seasonal rhythms carry on, and animal activity continues. Some people may be more conscious of this than others, but at least one group of hobbyists is hyper aware of it: birders.

Featured Songs:

“I Think” by Alexkid, B.J. Cole & Paolo Fresu

“If You Shall Return…” by The Silk Road Ensemble feat. Bill Frisell

Technology Sustains Addiction Recovery Communities During Covid

By Matt Hoisch

Picture by cogdogblog, Wikimedia Commons.

Davo is looking forward to an upcoming milestone.

“If I’m lucky enough to make it,” he says, “I’ll have 15 years sober next month.”

Davo lives in the Telluride area. We’re not using his last name because he wants to remain anonymous.

When we spoke, “next month” meant April. But Davo is also sheltering in place because of the coronavirus, so he’s unsure what he’ll do.

“You know, normally we have celebrations at meetings, and we get these coins that show 15 years or whatever,” Davo explains. “People bring a cake or whatever. We have cake after the meeting and we go out to dinner. This year since it’s next month, who knows if that’ll even happen or not.”

That “we” he’s talking about is members of his recovery community. Each individual is different, but many people, when recovering from alcoholism or drug use or any kind of addiction, rely on the support of others to recover and to avoid relapsing. But when people socially isolate to avoid the coronavirus, that can be hard.

Lynton Moore has lived in the area for three decades and used to be the substance abuse provider for San Miguel County. Now she has a private practice. “There are so many circumstances that could be triggering,” she says. “Especially if there’s trauma in the background. Like a lack of foundation, a lack of knowing, a lack of security. It’s easy to lose a sense of presence.”

Moore says those social connections are a powerful way to prevent relapse, which, according to her, doesn’t just happen at the flip of a switch. She says relapse can occur after weeks or even months of gradual changes in behavior and thought. 

“And you have to actually work. It’s almost like battling yourself again. And that’s why reaching out to people is really important, so that you’re not just stuck in the mind that just keeps going round and round and round.”

One way Davo is helping himself and others do that work while isolating is through virtual meetings on platforms like Zoom.

“It was no different,” he says, “except that we were seeing each other on a computer instead of in person.”

Well, there is at least one difference: unlike meeting in-person, digitally, people can join from anywhere. People like Aaron. Again, we’re only using his first name. Aaron lived in Telluride for 20 years. It’s where he got sober. Now he lives in Brooklyn, where, he says, his recovery community is less connected than it was Telluride. When he got an invite from his old roommate to join the Telluride Zoom meetings, he didn’t expect how meaningful it would be.

“I didn’t realize the level of anxiety and stress that I had been dealing with because it was built up over the course of a few weeks. And the connections, the human connections and the recovery connections, had been dwindling and dwindling,” Aaron recalls. “And then I connected with the group in Telluride via Zoom, and it gave me a pretty deep sense of comfort knowing that they were all there in the world, doing the same thing that I was. It was really comforting beyond anything that I thought it would be.”

Digital recovery communities aren’t anything new. They were around before the coronavirus pandemic. Chris Pesce is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Sober Grid, an app that helps people connect with others nearby and throughout the world in recovery. Through surveys, his team found that while many users are looking for help to get sober, just as many are sober people looking to help. 

“About half of those who responded let us know that they were in early recovery or still struggling,” Pesce explains. “And they were really using it as a lifeline, as a means to receive support. But interestingly, the other half of those who responded, many of them indicated that the were in longer term recovery. Sometimes five, ten, 15 years, or more. And their primary reason for using the app was to support others as a means of how they maintain their own program of recovery.”

Pesce notes that during widespread social distancing, users are sharing and posting on the app, and his team has started hosting their own Zoom meetings for users.

Mindsets also help. Aaron says one idea from his recovery that is also motivating him during this pandemic is taking things one day at a time. “This thing isn’t gonna last forever,” he says, “but it’s gonna last for right now.”

Davo shares a similar sentiment as he thinks about his upcoming milestone.

“I’ll be happy that I have 15 years of sobriety, but what’s important is 15 years and one day.”

Video meetings aren’t for everyone, and they aren’t some sort of universal solution. Again, everyone’s recovery is different. Lynton Moore, for instance, worries that, at least in Telluride, there aren’t enough ways for younger people to connect and work toward recovery. But, especially in times of necessary isolation, technology can help some people, like Davo and Aaron and many more, connect and keep up their recoveries—one day at a time. 

Integrative Medicine Looks to Offer Relief to Healthcare System

By Julia Caulfield

Across the county and world, health systems are being stretched thin due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While western systems and forms of medicine reach their limits, some are turning to different forms of medicine.

“Integrative medicine is basically the combination of using Western medicine approaches and a number of other modalities for healing” says Dr. Christine Mahoney, Acting Medical Director and Family Doctor at the Telluride Medical Center.

She says those modalities can almost be endless, and include things like mindfulness, Chinese medicine, homeopathy, massage, and nutrition.

In San Miguel County, several practitioners are using integrative medicine to serve the community and support the work of the medical center.

Joshua Geetter is a licensed acupuncturist and a clinical and production herbalist. He focuses primarily on Chinese medicine.

Getter says, “Chinese medicine is the base medical model, which has been used to support the most populous county in the world - for written record for 3,000 years , but really a lot of this was handed down by oral tradition before that, and we have the evidence going back to really contend that it’s probably 10,000 years old or more.”

According to Geetter, Chinese medicine has five main components: diet and nutrition, acupuncture, moxibustion (or the burning of herbs), body work, and meditation.

“What’s most prescient and efficacious for us right now, especially with ‘shelter in place’ and social distancing would be the herbal medicine, which happens to be the standard of care in the ancient Chinese medicine for epidemiology” says Geetter.

Christopher Beaver is a trained homeopath and holistic practitioner, and also uses herbal remedies to support people through sickness.

Beaver says, “homeopathy is a medical system based on the idea that the body is its own natural pharmacy. We look at the individual in its totality. We don’t just look at one single symptom, but we look at the person as a whole.”

Geetter and Beaver have been practicing in San Miguel County for years, but in the time of COVID, they both see the work as a way to support a strained healthcare system.

Beaver says, “These other methods have a great moment to help and to shine, to help alleviate some of the stress and pressure that our medical center - which is doing everything it possibly can, and more, and working tirelessly. I think complementary medicine modalities can actually be very beneficial in a moment like this.”

Dr. Mahoney says when integrative medicine and western medicine come together, there can be a benefit to the community.

“It’s really combining and layering them on top, which can have a profound effect on overall reduction of illness and keeping people healthy” she says.

Mahoney notes there isn’t data that shows certain supplements help prevent, or fight COVID…

“But we do know for viral bronchitis, umcka (which is an over the counter, herbal medicine) that helps with other viruses that cause upper respiratory infections. So we can extrapolate, and say, ‘that’s probably going to be supportive of COVID as well’”.

Geetter and Beaver both provide in person consultations, however, given the stay at home orders, they are currently only providing consultations through telemedicine, or a phone conversation.

“Given a few questions, and little bit of interview, I can asses what’s needed and then prescribe that which is accorded across the world as being the best right now” says Geetter.

He says he draws on protocols developed by hospitals in China and the government to prescribe remedies – some of which he says are common plants and herbs in our area, including honeysuckle.

“Another one of the main herbs that is used is milkvetch root, which is used in the western part of the county as a cover crop, and as a nitrogen fixer. That’s know as astragalus in the Latin, or huang qi in Chinese, and it promotes both proliferation of T-cell generalized immunity, and B-cell specific immunity.” says Geetter.

Beaver points to supplements that help boost the immune system, but he also notes, it’s more than prescribing remedies. He makes sure to note that we’re going through the COVID pandemic as a community, and sometimes simply checking in with people to see how they’re doing is enough.

Beaver says,“It might elevate some of the anxiety or the fears and anxiousness that people might be having, or people might have.”

When it comes to the efficacy of integrative medicine in San Miguel County, Geetter notes the effort from the community to combat COVID provides the perfect atmosphere for different forms of integrative medicine to thrive.

Geeter notes,“The fact that we have a community where we’re already rallying around things like testing, and ‘shelter in place’, we’re already engaged. Because of all this, we have an incredible opportunity to put this Chinese medicine into gear as part of the combine efforts, and really benefit all of us.”

Integrative medicine is an evidence based practice, however it should be used in consultation with your primary care provider.

Beaver is providing his services for free through mid-April. Geetter says he’s in talks with the Medical Center and the County to coordinate care.

Volunteers Make Widespread COVID-19 Testing Possible

By Matt Hoisch

Widespread COVID-19 antibody blood testing began last month in the Telluride Middle/High School. Picture by San Miguel County Department of Health and Environment.

Over the last week, San Miguel County has drawn blood to test thousands of people for COVID-19 antibodies. This effort came together in a matter of days through a public-private partnership between the County and United Biomedical, the company providing the tests. But the testing would not have run as efficiently as it has without another piece of the puzzle: an army of volunteers from the community stepping up to do everything, from directing traffic, to handing out carefully labeled test kits, to drawing the blood. 

“I’ve been really surprised and quite honestly, daily, more people are singing up to volunteer,” says Lynn Borup, the Executive Director of Tri-County Health Network, the local nonprofit that the County tapped to organize the volunteers. “It’s been amazing to me, and I think that’s been the benefit.”

Susan Lily, Public Information Officer for the County, notes that the County initially put in a request for the National Guard to help with testing, but they were not available. So, she says, the county developed a plan to use volunteers. They reached out to Tri-County in the hopes of tapping one central group to handle volunteer outreach and coordination. 

Tri-County already works with citizens across the county on issues like food security, insurance, and energy. Borup says the nonprofit has been able to use that pre-existing trust and network of contacts to quickly enlist and mobilize volunteers. 

“Some folks are not really keen on government agencies, and so sometimes we found if local governments take the lead in things like this, people kind of back away a little bit, just depending on their own biases,” Borup notes. “Knowing that it’s Tri-County and knowing that we might have helped that person in the past, they always want to give back. And so they’re really happy to outreach to us and feel comfortable and safe that their information is really going to be used for the purposes of just volunteering.”

Trust has been especially key considering the fact that decisions on how and when volunteers will help have changed day by day. 

“I’m emailing people at seven, eight, nine o'clock at night for the next day. With stuff like that, it really shows how amazing our community is because people are responding and they’re getting there the next day at 8:30 when I emailed them not even ten hours earlier,” says Sami Damsky. Normally, she is the Behavioral Health Outreach Coordinator for Tri County Health, but for now, she is in charge of organizing and directing the more than 60 volunteers per day that do everything except draw blood. That organizing falls to Emil Sante, Chief Paramedic for the Telluride Fire Protection District and the County Coroner. Sante says he has about 50 volunteers who can take shifts to draw blood. A lot of them, he says, are nurses or EMTs who already serve medical needs daily. He’s also gotten requests from people with experience but who haven’t drawn blood in years.

“Let’s dust you off and put you with somebody who’s real experienced, and after an hour or two of being lobbed some soft balls here, we’ll take the training wheels off and you’re on your own,” says Sante. “It’ been pretty gratifying. Some of these people that have come out who haven’t done this in a while—you can see it in their face. They’re really having a good time.”

The county also has a significant immigrant population. Nuria Galipienso is one of several people who volunteered as a translator, helping Spanish-speaking community members navigate the testing. She worked in the area temporarily as a teacher years earlier, but she moved from Spain to Telluride permanently last year.

“They have gave me so many things. It’s been for me so easy to get adapted here,” she notes. “So in some way I was thinking ‘I need to give something back to the community too.’”

As COVID-19 continues to spread, there’s a good chance other communities will need to mobilize similar volunteer efforts in one way or another. Borup says some of the major lessons from San Miguel’s effort have been that it’s important to have one, central place for people to sign up, and it’s key to have a good system for figuring out availability and scheduling. 

But at the end of the day, it’s also all about being flexible and collaborative. Damsky says it’s amazing to see so many people from so many different sectors and organizations that are normally separate come together.

“This kind of is more like, yeah, we’re all just doing this.”

Tri-County Health Network is continuing to enlist volunteers to help with testing as well as other community needs, such as picking up groceries for people. Anyone interested should sign up at their website, tchnetwork.org, or email volunteer@tchnetwork.org.

The Show Goes On

By Matt Hoisch

Kevin James Marquis plays guitar on Telluride’s Main Street. Image by Matt Hoisch.

This recording from Sunday, March 15, feels like a surreal postcard from the past; a portal into another world. Kevin James Marquis plays a guitar next to the Coffee Cowboy on Main Street, Telluride, in a strange “in-between” time: on the heels of the ski resort closing, but before San Miguel County declares a State of Emergency. Marquis had a CD-release party planned that, like many other gatherings, was cancelled. So, he plops himself on a bench, perches a hat next to his foot, and plays for passersby.

Onlookers keep about 6 feet away. Save for the instant, every now and then, when one leans in to toss some cash into Marquis’ upturned cap. Image by Matt Hoisch.

Telluride Foundation Tries to Tackle Affordable Housing

By Matt Hoisch

Image Source: Telluride Foundation website.

The Telluride Foundation is trying to add another tool to the toolkit of affordable housing development on the Western Slope. 

Most people in the region know that affordable housing is hard to find. According to Paul Major, President and CEO of the Telluride Foundation, that’s because builders' costs have outpaced buyers' cash. 

“So,” says Major, “the cost of concrete, the cost of labor, the cost of wood, all of these things and have gone up, and they’ve gone up faster than people’s salary.”

The Telluride Foundation hopes to help solve that problem by creating a scalable toolkit that communities can use to bring together builders, financiers, and landowners to construct and sell cheaper housing. Major says the Foundation has been researching and developing this model for several years and the state is interested in supporting it. Earlier this week, he presented to the San Miguel County Board of Commissioners.

The model has three pieces. First, construction. The Foundation wants to use an approach called “modular construction” in which raw materials go to a single factory where they are processed into the pieces of a home and then shipped to the construction site. Major says this brings building costs down significantly.

The next piece of the model is finance. According to Major, because housing affordability has expanded into a national issue, public and private funders are interested in helping.

“And so a foundation or the state is going ‘How are we going to solve this? We’re not going to solve it by just doing the same things we did before. We’ve got to come with creative ideas,’” Major notes. “So foundations are now going ‘We could create a fund where we provide very inexpensive capital with the expectation it gets returned. But we’ll do it far below the current conventional lending.’”

Major says cheap loans from public and private sources would further lower construction costs and provide dramatically lower interest rates on mortgage payments. From 4.5% down to 1%, making more expensive homes more affordable for lower-income buyers.

Finally there’s land. Major notes that a crucial part of this model is that communities provide free land. He approached the County Commissioners earlier this week to gauge their interest in donating a parcel of land the County owns in Norwood, on which the City could build 20 homes.

The Commissioners did not make any commitment one way or the other, but were interested in discussing more in the future. Commissioner Hilary Cooper noted that the County needs to be thoughtful because the only way it can participate in the affordable housing process is by contributing its land.

“There have been some other private developer partners who are having these conversations int he region as well,” Cooper said. “So how do we put all these ideas together and make sure that they’re all coming to fruition in a way that is not going to undermine any one project?”

The same day, after Major’s presentation, the Commissioners were scheduled to begin a systematic land evaluation process.

The Commissioners also pressed Major on how an economic downturn could affect the construction and sales in the model. He said that even in a downturn, public employees like teachers and government workers are still employed and would demand housing. He also discussed how communities could use government programs to assist and pre-qualify potential buyers, further alleviating any friction from a potential downturn. 

Corenna Howard, the Executive Director of the San Miguel Regional Housing Authority, has also spoken with Major about the model. “I do think it’s a great concept,” she says. “And I think it’s an opportunity to provide a lot of housing in the County and even outside the County.”

She says she would be interested in working with the Telluride Foundation on the model, regardless of whether the County decides to donate its land.

Major stresses that the Telluride Foundation wouldn’t be the body building and selling these homes. Rather, it is putting together a toolkit for other areas in the region.

“If a community wants to go forward,” he says, “they will have to drive the process forward. But the toolkit is here’s the kind of land that you need, here’s the financial package that we can bring to the table, and here’s a developer that will actually build. Ultimately it’s the individual communities that will form committees or some kind of structure that will contract with this toolkit to implement it.”

According to Major, the Foundation is in early talks with the City of Norwood. However, he also notes that, like any complex collaboration, there is no guarantee that all the parts will come together. That’s a question he believes he will know the answer to by mid-summer.

Voices of Gay Ski Week 2020

By Matt Hoisch

Rainbow flags fly across town, marking Gay Ski Week. Image by Matt Hoisch.

Gay Ski Week is well under way in Telluride, dashing the town in rainbow flags and prideful festivities. KOTO hit the streets to talk to folks around town about their experience of the week.

School Board Names New Telluride School District Superintendent

By Julia Caulfield

John Pandolfo

The Telluride R-1 School District Board of Education has named John Pandolfo as the new district superintendent.

Pandolfo was one of three finalists for the position and came to Telluride this week for a series of interviews and a meet and greet with the community.

Pandolfo currently works as the superintendent of the Barre Unified Union School District in Vermont. While he has worked in education for over 20 years, Pandolfo didn’t begin his career as an educator. He was born and raised in central Connecticut.

“I went to college there. I graduated, I worked as an engineer for about seven years. I left and went abroad, and lived in Italy for about a year and worked as an engineer there” Pandolfo says.

After Italy, Pandolfo moved to California where he began teaching math.

“I kind of fell into teaching. It wasn’t a long, planned out piece. I spent six years in the Bay Area – teaching in the San Francisco district and Berkley. It became my mission to help students grow a love for mathematics, and that’s not necessarily easy” Pandolfo adds.

He also spent thirteen years teaching math in Vermont. In addition to teaching Pandolfo has spent eight years as an administrator – as the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, and as a superintendent.

“I just feel like I can have a bigger impact on a larger scale with leading a system and helping to advocate for education in whatever larger venue there is” explains Pandolfo.

When it comes to moving the district forward, Pandolfo says his first step will be to hear from the school community.

“I think I can bring my expertise as an instructor and a strong educational leader, and really the ability to develop and implement curriculum. I think those are all areas I can offer and I think it’s going to be a collaborative effort, and for me to really look, listen, and learn to really help understand what everyone in this district feels is the direction we need to go, and then facilitate that collaborative work to get there. So, I’m really thrilled for that” Pandolfo notes.

Aside from work, Pandolfo says he’s excited to make Telluride home for the rest of his life.

“Everything that Telluride has to offer in terms of the incredible school system, what seems like an amazing community in itself, and all of the nature and physical environment that’s around. It just makes it a place that I don’t know why anyone would want to be anywhere else” adds Pandolfo.

John Pandolofo will assume the position as School District Superintendent in July. Current superintendent, Mike Gass, is retiring at the end of June.

Hilaree Nelson Asks Us to "Dare Greatly"

By Julia Caulfield

Hilaree Nelson

Hilaree Nelson has seen places most of us can only dream of. She’s climbed Mt. Everest and was the first person to complete the ski decent of Lhotse – the fourth highest peak in the world. She’s gone on expeditions in North America, Europe, Africa, Antarctica, and Asia. But, she also calls Telluride home.

On Tuesday, February 18th, Nelson will help transport us to the tops of mountains with her “Daring Greatly” presentation. Nelson’s presentation is part of the Watershed Expedition Series. KOTO’s Julia Caulfield spoke with Nelson about her presentation and why it’s important to take risks.

Julia Caulfield (JC): The name of your presentation is “Daring Greatly”. What does that mean?

Hilaree Nelson (HN): We have such an affinity towards comfort, and with comfort there are amazing things, but we neglect sometimes to take risks and to dare and to step out of our comfort zone. I’ve taken it to kind of an extreme level, what I hope the takeaway is for everyone in what they do to realize that all these comforts that we’ve made for ourselves are sometimes a detriment, and we should step outside of that and dare. Take dares and take a couple of risks and think differently about who we are, and how we live.

JC: You’ve been to places that most of us will never go to.

HN: Yes, perhaps. And that’s why I love telling those stories so that people can feel a little bit a part of some of these really wild places.

JC: When you’re on these expeditions, and you’re in these places that are so remote and wild – what does that feel like to be standing there in that spot?

HN: Wow. I mean, on particular moment comes to mind, and it was in 2018 and we were on our summit day for climbing this 8,000-meter peak – Lhotse – and we’d been in the dark. We started at 2 in the morning and it was dark, and it was so cold and you’re at 26,000-feet. And then, we had a sunrise, and there were five of us in the whole of the Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse Valley. That sunrise, I can’t even explain it. It gives me the chills right now. I turned around and it was instant tears in my eyes and I was laying back on the snow, and I just remember thinking ‘this is why I do this. This moment, is so personal, and I feel so small in this huge landscape, and so insignificant, but in a powerful way’.

JC: In addition to going on these expeditions, you’re also a really big supporter and advocate for keeping wild places wild. You’ve already mentioned that when we’re in live, the phone’s ringing, social media is happening, technology is all over the place. We’re very busy and there are so many things we need to be caring about all the time. Is there anything you feel that people, just living their day to day lives to support those places?

HN: Again, this is something I take to an extreme. I go to some crazy, really remote places. But really what it means to me at the end of the day, is that I have somewhere to go when things get tough; and live is tough for all of us in so many different ways. So that’s really my takeaway; whether you live in New York City, or Shanghai, or Telluride, Colorado – these places are all very different – hopefully there’s some short walk that you have that gives you that space to not be on your phone, to think a little bit, and I think when you connect with even the smallest, quiet trail, or space, or park, it gives you a little bit of sanity, a bit of that feeling of being a small thing in a big landscape, and hopefully that makes your problems feel smaller than they do when you’re all wrapped up in them. That’s not totally answering your question, but I think if you have that connection to a space then you are going to care about it. I think the point is that if you can care about that space, then hopefully you can transport yourself and care about some of these other spaces that maybe you’ll never see, but you can understand their importance.

JC: Without spoiling the presentation, is there anything you’re really excited or looking forward to share with folks?

HN: I’m super excited to talk about the trip I just got back from in Antarctica. I’ve wanted to go there for so many years, and I finally got to go there in January. I just got back a couple of weeks ago and the pictures are beautiful. It’s just an incredible place and somewhere that was really new to me – so that’s why I’m all jazzed up about it. So I want to talk about that, I’ll probably talk a bit about Lhotse, Telluride, I’ve lived here for 20 years so I have a lot of stories from here.

JC: Hilaree, thank you so much for taking a couple of minutes to chat with me.

HN: Thank you for having me.

————

Hilaree Nelson’s presentation “Daring Greatly” will take place on Tuesday, February 18th at the Sheridan Opera House at 6 p.m.. It is a free, community event.

The Wilkinson Public Library's Weekly Uke Jam

By Matt Hoisch

Participants at one of the Wednesday night Uke Jams at the Wilkinson Public Library reading music from a TV screen. Clockwise from bottom left: Benjamin Whiting, Estrella Woods, Tom Richards, Hannah Kiermayr, Tara Carter, Pam Hasler, Megs Schulte, and Ethan Hale. Image by Matt Hoisch

Since January, the Wilkinson Public Library has hosted a weekly Uke Jam. Every Wednesday at 6PM, Ukulele players of all skill levels can come together and play for an hour. The series runs through the end of March 2020. KOTO’s Matt Hoisch stopped by one of the sessions and spoke with the Uke Jam’s founders, Madeline Allen and Ethan Hale.

Solar Up and Running at Last Dollar Community Solar Garden

By Julia Caulfield

A cloudy day, with slushy now spitting from the sky may not seem like the ideal time for taking a trip to a solar array. But that doesn’t seem to dampen Tim Erdman’s spirit.

“It was 100 and some, now it’s 219 kilowatt hours. We’re putting power on the grid. I mean, that’s exactly what’s happening, carbon free power being put on the grid, and that’s a good thing. Anything we can do to help,” says Erdman looking at a power meter.

Erdman is the owner and operator of the Last Dollar Community Solar Garden, just outside Telluride, behind the airport. He bought the property around 2010, with the hopes of creating a small solar garden. Now, after close to a decade, his dream has come to fruition.

“These are the inverters that convert the DC power coming out of the solar panels to AC. The fact that it’s humming means it’s producing. I don’t think it’s above freezing right now, but these are thawed because these are known as bifacial solar panels and they’re glass on both sides with the solar panels sandwiched between them. Even when there’s snow on the top side, the bottom side will absorb reflected light and create some heat that should help clear the tops of snow,” Erdman explains as he gives a tour of the solar garden.

According to Erdman, the solar garden holds just over 800 panels, on a little less than an acre of land, nestled into Deep Creek Mesa.

“It’s really as unobtrusive as it might be. You can’t see this from many places because of the ridges on both sides, and yet we have the full center of the day’s sun – which is when you get most of your production anyway,” he notes.

Erdman began constructing the solar array last fall. Now that it’s up and running, he plans to begin offering subscriptions to the energy. Erdman says individuals or businesses will be able to buy subscriptions up to 25 kilowatts, for 20 years.

The San Miguel Power Association will monitor the energy produced by the solar array and apply a credit to subscriber’s monthly energy bill.

According to Terry Skyler, Energy Services Executive for San Miguel Power Association, the solar garden isn’t the most cost effective way to use solar. He notes users get a larger credit from SMPA if they add solar panels to their own home. But he adds, subscribing to the solar garden can be a good option for those who don’t have the money, sunlight, or space to install their own panels.

Skyler notes, “This is a way for them to participate in local renewable generation.”

Erdman recognizes the cost saving isn’t huge, but he adds that’s not the point.

“It’s not as good an investment, but it’s not an investment. This is a subscription to a solar garden, and it’s a way to either offset an impact fee, or it’s a way to show – or to have – solar power being part of your carbon footprint,” Erdman adds.

And the focus on having a smaller carbon footprint is a shift Skyler says he’s seen from SMPA members in general. He says the Last Dollar Community Solar Garden is bringing SMPA up to its 5% cap of locally generated power, based on its contract with Tri-State Generation and Transmission. And SMPA is working with Tri-State to increase that cap. It’s a shift, Skyler says, from when SMPA signed the contract around 30 years ago.

According to Skyler, “The priority was low cost, highly reliable electricity. Our priority as a cooperative of members is shifting towards favoring more local renewables, or more renewables in general. So we’re responding to that demand by maxing out the allowable amount of generation through that policy, and we’re also pushing, and working with Tri-State to amend that policy to meet the needs and wishes of our members.”

Erdman describes the solar garden as a passion project, or a labor of love. He spent his career as an architect, designing medical clinics across the country. But he says ever since he was a student, getting a degree in natural energy systems, he’s believed in the importance of alternative power.

So, aside from selling subscriptions for the solar energy, Erdman says a large focus for him is showing individuals how easy solar can be.

Erdman says, “My dream and my expectation is that as solar panels and photovoltaic equipment improves, it will become part of the build environment. That is, the walls, and the glass in buildings will actually produce photovoltaic solar energy. I’d like to see how much I can help in terms of showing people what can be done, and helping them get it done.”

The Last Dollar Community Solar Garden currently humming along, putting carbon free energy on the grid. Erdman plans to actively begin accepting subscriptions for the solar energy in March.