Oil and Gas Uncertainty Impacts Local Government Services

By Matt Hoisch

The Lone Cone Library in Norwood is looking at cutting programming due to revenue uncertainty from oil and gas company tax payments. Picture courtesy of the Lone Cone Library.

Carrie Andrew has a problem with her 2020 budget.

“This year it looks like we’re going to be $51,000 short,” she says.

Andrew is the director of the Lone Cone Library in Norwood in San Miguel County. A large part of that shortfall, say County officials, is due to a delay in tax payments from Paradox Resources, an oil and gas company that operates in the County. Their 2019 taxes were due by April 2020. The money helps fund local tax districts like the library. But, the company didn’t pay when they were supposed to. By late 2020, they owed over a quarter million dollars in 2019 taxes.

“That is a relatively significant amount,” says Jan Stout, the County Treasurer and Public trustee responsible for tax collection.

The Coronavirus pandemic is one of the reasons Paradox wasn’t able to pay the taxes on time, explains Todd Brooks, the company’s CEO.

“Pandemic combined with—and probably caused, but combined with—super naturally low product prices,” Brooks notes. 

Eventually, Paradox was able to enter into an agreement with the County to pay off the taxes in installments. But under that plan, the full amount won’t be paid off until December 2021. 

And if Paradox will still be paying off the 2019 taxes in late 2021, I ask Brooks if the company is confident they won’t also fall behind on the 2020 taxes.

“Barring catastrophes,” he says, “I feel the company is in a good place.” 

Paradox is a private company and didn’t provide any documentation about its financial health.

Mary Ellen Denamie is more skeptical. She’s an accredited petroleum accountant and master analyst in financial forensics. She’s helped Colorado counties collect oil and gas taxes for over a decade. I told her the Paradox story and asked for her opinion.

“I mean they might be able to find an investor that will keep them running,” she says. “But that’s usually the first sign. When they can’t pay their taxes, they don’t have the money to keep functioning.” 

In response to Denamie’s comments, Walter Daniel, Vice President and Senior Counsel for Paradox notes the company is confident it’s business plan will generate enough revenue to pay all taxes. But, he also adds “there are a lot of variables that are outside of our control. We are trying our best.”

Denamie points to Ursa, a natural gas drilling company operating in other parts of the state that owed over $6 million in overdue taxes to Colorado counties when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September.

That’s an extreme example. There hasn’t been a wave of similar bankruptcies. But it has been a hard year for other Western Slope producers, according to Chelsie Miera. Miera is the Executive Director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association. Twenty twenty, she says, has been a rollercoaster for the industry. “It’s definitely been a hardship for many of our operators over here.” 

Denamie sees the potential for choppier waters ahead. Twenty twenty one, she predicts, could be even worse for producers than 2020 if demand doesn’t improve. This year, she notes, support from the federal government was key for a lot of producers. “A lot of that money went into the companies to keep them afloat for this year,” Denamie explains. “That’s like gone and done. So April of this coming year might be even worse than it was last year.” 

That kind of disruption could have a huge impact in Colorado. According to a 2019 report by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, as of 2017, the industry was responsible for $13.5 billion dollars of Colorado’s GDP and $1 billion in taxes.

Denamie thinks Colorado should develop a rainy day fund for oil and gas tax revenue that collects money in good years to reduce the impact of bad years. Other States, such as New Mexico and Oklahoma, have similar funds. 

But, in Colorado, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, prevents that. Under TABOR, governments have to return any excess revenue to taxpayers rather than save it.

So,  for now, local tax districts just have to plan around the revenue uncertainty. Carrie Andrew says the Lone Cone library is budgeting more conservatively. “Those are real things we’re looking at: cutting programming, cutting materials and resources that we provide, and cutting hours that we’re open.”

A chain of uncertainty connects the fate of oil and gas in the ground to a library book on a shelf. But, over the months this story has played out, at least one thing has become a little less uncertain: according to Jan Stout, the San Miguel County treasurer and public trustee, in the fall Paradox paused their installments and requested a new payment plan that pushed back the original timeline. Now, instead of being paid off in December 2021, the taxes won’t be paid off until April 2022—two years after they were first due.

Starlight Shines on Telluride

By Matt Hoisch

The renovated star shines in the distance on the northern hillside above Telluride. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Sometimes in journalism a story is hiding in plain sight. Sometimes, it's shining in plain sight.

Since early in the pandemic, a giant star has glowed on the north hillside above Telluride. Normally, the star is only lit around the holidays. But, when COVID hit, Rich Estes, a.k.a. Big Daddy, saw an opportunity. Estes is the town's Streets & Utilities Superintendent and has lived in the area his whole life, most of it in Telluride.

Featured Songs:

“We Will Never Come Back Here Again” by Tim Linghaus

“Again” by Daigo Hanada

Local Lawsuit Asks Oil and Gas to Help Pay for Climate Change

By Julia Caulfield

Colorado saw its two largest forest fires in state history in 2020. This fall, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified the entire state as in drought. Colorado’s average temperature has risen by 2 degrees Celsius in recent decades. Scientists say all of these effects are caused by climate change.

While these statistics have an impact from an environmental standpoint, according to San Miguel County Commissioner Hilary Cooper, they also affect the pocketbook of state and local governments.

“Our roads are deteriorating faster than they have in the past from extreme temperatures,” says Cooper, “and then of course the effects on our economy of extreme weather and especially drought conditions and the effects that that has on the ski area’s ability to operate and then also our farmers and ranchers.”

San Miguel County Commissioner Hilary Cooper (courtesy of Hilary Cooper)

Cooper says the changes in climate means the county needs to budget more money for climate mitigation, and she says they had a choice.

“Either going to our taxpayers and increasing their taxes or we can go to these companies who are making massive profits off of their sale of fossil fuels and make them accountable for at least a percentage of what it’s costing local governments,” says Cooper.

San Miguel County went to the companies.

In 2018, San Miguel County, along with Boulder County and the City of Boulder - representing both urban and rural parts of the state - filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy, to make them pay a portion of the price for climate mitigation on the local level. Exxon and Suncor are two of the largest fossil fuel companies working in Colorado - one of Suncor’s two U.S. offices is in the state.

The Colorado municipalities are not the first to file similar lawsuits, there have been cases in California, New York, and Hawaii – to name a few - though none of the cases have been decided in court yet. But the Colorado lawsuit is the first to be filed by governments in a non-coastal state. Marco Simons, General Council at EarthRights International, and part of the legal team in the lawsuit, says they wanted to tell the story of climate change from a different perspective.

“It’s not just about sea level rise, and it’s not just about coastal communities…It’s really affecting everyone across the United States,” says Simons, “and there’s a range of climate impacts that are visible to many folks in Colorado, whether that’s the changes in precipitation and snowpack, the damage to forests, heat waves, wildfires. All of these impacts which are happening throughout the Mountain West.”

Simons says the first aim for winning the lawsuit is to collect damages for San Miguel and Boulder. But there’s a secondary aim too, and it’s wrapped up in tort law.

“What tort law essentially does is it shifts the cost of dangerous or injurious activities onto the people who are engaging in those activities, rather than simply the victims,” says Simons.

In this case, Simons argues Exxon and Suncor are the agents, with residents and taxpayers in San Miguel and Boulder as the victims. His hope is, by shifting the cost, the lawsuits can also shift behavior.

Simons says, “whether that’s cutting back on the harmful activities, especially where the cost of those activities might exceed the benefits; and/or to raise the price of the products that are causing those harmful effects so that if they are continuing to sell fossil fuels, that the cost of the harms of those fossil fuels would ultimately get priced into them.”

The litigation process is long. Filed two years ago, the Colorado case still hasn’t been approved for a trial. But policy experts say lawsuits like the one in Colorado are having an impact already, noting as the lawsuits move further into the court process - and there’s discovery and hearings - oil and gas companies may lose their social license to operate, or acceptance from the general public.

Attorneys representing ExxonMobil and Suncor in the lawsuit did not respond for comment, neither did Suncor Energy. Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton commented in an email that lawsuits such as the one in Colorado “waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money and do nothing to advance meaningful actions that reduce the risks of climate change”.

But with the potential a loss of social license, oil and gas companies might be forced to change direction, or risk losing investment. That’s according to Patrick Parenteau, a professor of environmental law and former lawyer with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says the banks that finance the oil and gas companies are looking at the rising number of lawsuits.

“And of course they’re looking at the science, and they’re beginning to get nervous. You can begin to see that the financial institutions are going to be disinvesting in oil and gas and reinvesting in renewables…so I think these cases could actually result in a major disinvestment in these companies that will push the energy transition that we’re seeing already even faster”, says Parenteau.

Time will tell if the tides are turning on the oil and gas industry. Until then, San Miguel and Boulder Counties, the City of Boulder, and all their residents will be stuck with the bill.

San Miguel County Shifts to Safer at Home Level Red

By Julia Caulfield

San Miguel County is moving to Safer at Home Level Red: Severe Risk.

The county’s COVID case numbers have been on the rise for weeks.

“We’ve now more than doubled the bi-weekly cases for COVID than what we had in our July peak,” says San Miguel County Public Health Director Grace Franklin. She says the county was allowed a brief window of time to get case numbers moving in the right direction, but that hasn’t happened.

“Seeing were we are now, there’s not much of a shift without taking policy action,” she says, ”so we will be moving into that Level Red of the State dial.”

Franklin made the announcement at a San Miguel Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday. The new level affects most industry and private gatherings.

“Personal gatherings, private or public, are no longer allowed. In the last few dials it was up to 10 people no more than two households,” Franklin says, “in Level Red, for gatherings it’s ‘please stick to your households and do not gather’.”

Retail, offices, and gyms will have capacity limited even further – and working remotely is recommended when possible.

“Indoor dining will be closed. Takeout, curbside, delivery, to go, and outdoor dining – as long as spacing is appropriate between households – is okay,” she notes.

Bars are still to remain closed, unless they serve food, and County Commissioner Hilary Cooper notes food service, must be substantial.

“It cannot be a microwave or a bag of popcorn,” Cooper emphasizes, “we understand our bars have been hit extremely hard by this. But we’ve been a little lenient around here, allowing our bars to operate this summer, and we just want to make sure you don’t lose your liquor license because you don’t have the correct information.”

Level Red also places last call at 8 p.m. but Franklin adds that cutoff isn’t just for bars and restaurants.

“It’s our businesses as well. It’s not a curfew, people can still be walking around, but the intent is not having those late nights,” she says.

On Tuesday, Governor Jared Polis also warned businesses against defying new COVID regulations.

“I think it’s a time for every Coloradan, and that includes county elected officials too, to really asking themselves ‘are you on the side of the virus? Or are you on the side of Colorado?’” the Governor cautioned.

The warning came after some business owners on the Front Range said they would not follow public health orders in their counties. Polis says the state may need to punish businesses that do not comply to protect customers from the virus.

On top of the state’s Level Red restrictions, in San Miguel County, lodging will be capped at 50% and the County is adding an additional provision that will require guests in a lodging unit to be from the same household.

“So a good example would be if I was go hang out with my family and rent a place here. I don’t live with them typically throughout the year and so we would be considered two separate households, which would not be allowed,” notes Franklin, “but Dr. Grundy, with her husband and kid, they could go and rent a place because they are all one household.”

Lodging guests will also be prohibited from visiting others or hosting gatherings within their lodging unit – such as a condo, or hotel.

Education is allowed to stay in person, hybrid, or remote, based on what is deemed appropriate, and the Telluride Ski Resort will still be allowed to operate lifts – however businesses, lodging, and restaurants associated with Telski will be required to comply with Level Red restrictions.

When it comes to getting out of level red, Franklin says that will require a shift in positivity and incident rates, and hospital capacity. The Public Health Department will continue to monitor trends, and reassess San Miguel County’s level in about two weeks.

And if the county does shift back to level Orange, Franklin says the community will need to take deliberate steps to figure out what a slight reopening looks like.

“What worked in the summer does not work as well now,” says Franklin, “and we really need to reevaluate what that looks like for each industry and each business.”

San Miguel County will enter into Stay at Home Level Red: Severe Risk at 1 a.m. on Friday morning, November 27th.

Biden/ Harris Victory Sparks Joy in Telluride

By Matt Hoisch

A crowd gathered organically in front of the San Miguel County Courthouse after media organizations called the 2020 U.S. presidential election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Saturday. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

This past weekend, celebrations erupted around the world as every major new organization from CNN to Fox News to the Associated Press to the New York Times called the US Presidential election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Telluride was no exception. Despite rainy weather Saturday morning, a crowd organically gathered in front of the San Miguel County Courthouse on Mainstreet less than an hour after the calls. Champagne bottles popped and car horns honked as dozens cheered the results.

Featured Song:

“Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Jon Batiste

What Are You Afraid Of?

By Matt Hoisch

Picture by Toby Ord, Wikimedia Commons.

With Halloween just around the corner, KOTO took to the streets of Telluride with a simple question for those brave enough to answer: What are you afraid of?

Featured Music:

“Thriller” by Michael Jackson, covered by H2R

Abbey Road Kicks Off the Listening Club

By Matt Hoisch

Abbey Road. Picture by m.caimary, Wikimedia Commons.

On Monday, October 12, the Wilkinson Public Library kicked off its first Listening Club. It’s like a book club, but for albums. Like most gatherings nowadays, it was over Zoom. Each meeting, a different person takes the lead. Tom Nading kicked off the first club with a discussion on Abbey Road by The Beatles. KOTO spoke with Nading after the meeting about some of the thoughts he shared.

Florida Newlyweds Die in Ingram Basin Plane Crash

By Julia Caulfield

Courtesy of the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office

A newlywed couple from Port Orange, Florida died on Monday afternoon after their plane crashed in Ingram Basin, near Telluride.

Costas John Sivyllis and Lindsey Vogelaar were visiting Telluride, and married at Alta Lakes on October 1st. Sivyllis was 30 years old. Vogelaar was 33.

The couple was flying home in their privately owned Beechcraft Bonanza – a small, single engine aircraft, when the accident occurred. Sivyllis was a United Airlines pilot and flight instructor. Vogelaar also worked in the airline industry.

According to Susan Lilly, Public Information Officer for the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, the couple took off at 12:45 p.m. on Monday from the Telluride Regional Airport.

“The crash occurred as soon as 10-15 minutes after takeoff, unless they did any kind of sightseeing in the area before the plane went down,” Lilly says.

The Sheriff’s Office received report of the crash just before 2:30, after an individual using a drone in the area spotted the downed plane.

Lilly says “And that lead to our, what started as a search and rescue effort that changed to a body recovery mission.”

The Sheriff’s Office contact the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB is leading the investigation into the crash.

Alex Lamishco, is a senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, and lead investigator on the incident. Lamishco traveled from Denver on Tuesday, and spent Wednesday at the crash site.

“The initial goal on on scene investigations is to inspect the airframe for any anomalies, inspect the flight controls for any anomalies, do a cursory inspection of the engine for any pre-impact anomalies,” Lamishco says.

Lamishco adds he will also look at conditions outside the plane itself for information.

He says “for instance, since this aircraft impacted in a mountainous area, I will be looking at the flight path in relation to weather conditions, environmental conditions, that kind of thing.”

Lilly notes flying in the mountains, at altitude, can be challenging. She says the crash occurred near 11,850 feet.

“High altitude flying takes a certain skill set, whether you’re flying a helicopter, a single engine plane, or something else,” Lilly says.

But Lamishco says when it comes to flight path, it’s not abnormal for small private planes to take off from the Telluride Airport, and fly over the mountains.

“From preliminary ADSB data it appears the take off and departure were normal, taking off to the West and making a turn to the East. That flight track seemed normal until it terminated in and around the accident site,” Lamishco says.

While Lamishco says an on-site investigation only takes a day or so, he notes a full investigation can take anywhere from 12-18 months. He adds if there is an area of special interest, the plane will be transported to Greeley, Colorado for further examination.

Sivyllis and Vogelaar eloped to Telluride for a small wedding and adventure filled honeymoon. They were documenting the celebration online for their friends and family. Lilly expresses condolences to the families on behalf of the entire mission.

“Our collective thoughts are with the family and friends of the family who are mourning this tragic loss. The Sheriff is personally extending his condolences, and also on behalf of all the members who participated in this mission,” Lilly says.

Sivyllis is survived by his parents Dimitris and Kristen. Vogelaar is survived by her parents Gary and Sandra, and her siblings, Courtney, Addy, Shayley, Ryan and Matthew.

KOTO Turns 45

By Julia Caulfield

Photo by Gus Gusciora

KOTO Community Radio first splashed onto the airwaves on October 3, 1975. Since then, thanks to dedicated DJs and staff, it has lived up to its mission to inform, educate, and entertain San Miguel County and beyond. On October 3, 2020, KOTO celebrates 45 years on the air.

The RV Reality

By Matt Hoisch

A Mario Kart RV parked in the Telluride Town Park Campground. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Margaret and Steve Albertson are leafing through a big book

“You could use this as a booster seat. It’s so thick,” Margaret says. “This is kind of like the Yellow Pages of RV travel.”

The RV Travel and Savings Guide is about 1400 pages. They’ve brought it to plan their trip in Margaret’s parent’s RV that’s taken them from LA to a spot in the Telluride campground. But they’re one of the lucky ones because they planned ahead for the campground.

“We made the reservation in July,” Margaret says.

”In the past, [the] Town of Telluride has been a first-come-first-served campsite. But with COVID, we had to move to an online reservation system,” says John Wontrobski, Projects Coordinator with the town’s Parks and Recreation Department. “Either way, the campground has been packed. I don’t have numbers for it, but it’s somewhere near 99% full. Generally people will call and say they want to stay in an RV in town. The first thing I tell them is that Telluride is not particularly RV friendly.”

That’s because only 10 of the town’s 33 campsites can accommodate RVs, and there’s a local law against sleeping in vehicles parked on public property.

Paul Jackson and his fiancée have been on a two-month COVID-induced road trip with a trailer. They’re both engineers and can work remotely. But they didn’t think to make any reservations like the Albertsons. So they had a bit of a surprise when they got to Telluride.

“The biggest thing we saw was these signs about sleeping in your vehicle. That was the first time we experienced that. And that’s on public roads, but that’s the first time we saw anything like that on our trip,” Jackson says.

So, they paid to park in a private lot in town for the day.

“At least for today we'd do this and pay the money to explore and then figure out a plan for tonight,” he explains.

Wontrobski says more driving travelers were predicted at the start of the summer with COVID, and that’s what the town’s seen. And since there’s limited RV capacity in town, he says he tries to send them to other campgrounds in the area.

But other campsites aren’t faring much better.

“Literally every campsite has been at capacity since the middle of June. And usually we get some breaks in there. But not this year,” says Megan Eno, Norwood District Ranger for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests. She says in addition to more car and tent camping, there’s been a significant increase in RV camping this year. And those RVs, she notes, can leave lasting impacts on the land. Especially when drivers can’t find spots in already-filled campsites. 

“And as a result, what you’re seeing is people pulling off of forest roads into meadows that are very easily impacted,” Eno explains. “Once those tire tacks are there, they’re here to stay. And then the next person that drives by sees those tire tracks and is like ‘Oh, that must be a designated spot,’ and pulls off into it.”

So, Eno’s turning to management. She says her team has dusted off an old plan from the 90s to add 50 to 75 campsites around Priest Lake that would include more RV sites. She hopes they can move quickly and take advantage of new funding available through the recently passed Great American Outdoors Act. But even then, she estimates, any new sites wouldn’t be ready for three to five years. So, she’s also planning for more signage and staff on the ground to help out for the coming seasons. Because the RV increase, she thinks, is here to stay.

“I think the days of just car camping and the old family station wagon are probably behind us and we’re trying to brace ourselves for this new way that people want to recreate, which is far more motorized than we’ve seen in the last few years,” Eno says.

One data point for that prediction is Margaret and Steve Albertson. Back at the Telluride Campsite, they confess their trip has converted them.

“It’s pretty great. We have never even thought to venture out in my parent’s RV,” Margaret says. “And now we’re like ‘Why didn’t we take this thing sooner? It’s pretty awesome."‘“

But the 1400 page RV travel guide is a bit much. Margaret says after a few minutes, she just looks for directions on her phone.

Plein Air Paints the Fall

By Matt Hoisch

David Dallison paints in East Telluride. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

For the first time in its nearly 20 year history, the Telluride Plein Air Festival is happening in mid-September. Roughly half of the originally confirmed 25 artists came to Telluride for the delayed festival. KOTO spoke with some of the artists and with Ronnie Palamar, Executive Director of the Sheridan Arts Foundation—for whom this is the largest annual fundraiser—about this year’s unique festival and the art of outside painting.

Featured Songs:
”Prayer” by Cory Wong and Jon Batiste

“Lullaby” by Cory Wong and Jon Batiste

Dallison drove 22 hours to paint for the Plein Air Festival. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Jill Banks paints along Mainstreet in Telluride. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Bill Meuser captures scenes around the Sheridan as the sun sets. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

Dozens March for Suicide Awareness and Prevention

By Matt Hoisch

Marchers at the Out of the Darkness walk go past the San Miguel County Courthouse on Mainstreet in Telluride.

September is National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. Earlier this week, dozens of people—and a good number of dogs—marched from Elks Park to Town Park for the Out of the Darkness Walk. This was the fourth walk put on in Telluride by Tri-County Health Network and the Colorado Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to spread awareness, end stigma, and raise money for suicide prevention and support.

The phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is  1-800-273-8255. Services are available 24/7 in English and Spanish.

Featured Songs:

“Small Memory” by Jon Hopkins

“The Dane” by Nils Frahm

“Small Memory (Tunng Remix)” by Jon Hopkins

Chuck Horning Discusses Upcoming Winter at Telski

By Matt Hoisch

View of Telluride from the Telski mountain. Picture from rawpixel.com.

The Telluride Ski and Golf Resort is preparing to open on time around Thanksgiving. That’s according to Telski’s majority owner, Chuck Horning, who spoke with KOTO earlier this week. Amid the coronavirus, there is historic uncertainty over what the 2020/ 2021 ski season will look like. But, Horning says, unless there is a government order to the contrary, he would choose to fully operate the resort. 

“We’re really focused on having these lifts ready to operate,” he explains. “We’re focused on opening on time, having the best season we can have.”

But, he also stresses, the reopening plans are a work in progress.

“Because things get a little complicated that are outside your control,” he says. “And of course COVID is outside our control.”

Even if the resort opens, he adds, it probably won’t be a typical winter.

“It’s very unlikely we’re gonna open as a normal season,” Horning says. “We’re dependent on air traffic to get here. And the planes aren’t—it’s just no realistic to think we’re gonna have a normal season.”

Low flight numbers, Horning explains, would stress the resort’s business margins, which he says are thin. But, even if the resort was at a risk of a financial loss this winter, he says they would still plan to open this season to maintain longer-term relationships with visitors.

“It isn’t just whether we can make money in one year,” he says. “It’s important long-term for this resort that we provide a consistency of experience that hopefully gets a little better each year.”

Horning adds if the resort opens, there are no plans to restrict the mountain only to season pass holders. He also says there are no plans to sell the resort.

“I’ve never met with anybody on a sale. We’re not for sale,” he explains.

Telski, he says, is in the process of hiring for the season. One empty position, though, isn’t getting filled just yet. Bill Jensen left his role as Telski CEO earlier this month. But Horning explains finding a new CEO isn’t high on his to-do list. He’s confident in the team he has.

“It’s probably the lowest priority on my radar screen right now,” Horning says. “Because I’m very comfortable getting in here and working with this team that’s been here for years and allowing them to do what they need to do. We’re not distracted at all.”

Ultimately, the coming ski season is as uncertain as everything else during the pandemic. Information is constantly changing, and a lot will hinge on what orders come from the government. But Horning is focused on controlling what he can.

“We’ve gotta carry the torch of Telluride—we ski. This is a way of life here,” he says. “So we’re gonna be open. We’re not gonna be stupid. We’re gonna make good, sensible decisions as we go along so we survive through the winter. But given the condition’s we’ve got, we’re gonna do the best job we can.”

Telski’s decisions, he says, will be based on what’s in the best interest of the resort and the community long term.

Bill Jensen Steps Down as Telski CEO

By Julia Caulfield

Bill Jensen

Bill Jensen has stepped down as CEO of the Telluride Ski and Golf Resort.

In a statement, Chuck Horning, majority owner of Telski, says “given the current situation, many organizations have been forced to make difficult decisions that have impacted key management positions.”

According to Horning, Telski is no different, and the actions were necessary to “reset our company’s direction”.

Horning says he is grateful for Jensen’s leadership, and “his graciousness in stepping down” from his role at Telski. Adding “we all wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”

In a text message, Jensen commented he will miss working with the Telski team and the community. He adds “Telluride is a truly special place and I’m proud I was able to be part of it the past five years.”

Jensen is a ski industry stalwart. He was inducted into the Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame Class of 2018 after 45 years working in the industry.

Jensen began his career in his 20s, at Mammoth Mountain, as a liftie. He has since worked at Sunday River Ski Resort, Northstar Tahoe, Breckenridge, and Vail.

Jensen joined Telski in 2015 as both a partner and chief executive officer. He officially left the position on Friday, August 7th.

Telski officials say department managers will help navigate through the winter season, and Horning will remain involved in day to day oversight and strategy.

Officials add they are in the process of determining winter operation plans, but the resort is scheduled to open Thanksgiving weekend.

LIV Urges “Fearless Conversations” Around Suicide

By Julia Caulfield

Tess Kunik and her sister, Liv, were best friends. But from a young age, Liv struggled with depression. When she was 19-years-old, she died by suicide. Following her death, Kunik created a documentary to discuss the struggles and stigma when it comes to mental health, and the effect suicide can have on the family and friends left behind.

Tri-County Health Network is hosting a film screening next week. KOTO’s Julia Caulfield spoke with Kunik, and Susan Caso, a consulting therapist on the film.

Julia Caulfield (JC): LIV is a documentary, it was shown at Mountainfilm, and Tess, it was described as a ‘love letter’ to your sister and best friend. I imagine this was, at times, a very difficult topic to discuss and film to make. Can you share a bit about the film, and what drew you to make it?

Tess Kunik (TK): I lost my sister, Liv, at age 19, last year to suicide, and when she passed we made a film to tell her story. You know, we wanted to create it to bring awareness, and to show that Liv is not just a statistic, but a human being. All of these statistics are human beings, and to really humanize the issue and get people talking. You know the film really is a love letter, and the letter came about because I was really struggling with connecting with Liv after she died. My mom felt comfortable talking to her and some of her friends were feeling her, and I just wasn’t connecting. I had a lot of anger and sadness about that. So, I decided to write a letter, and the letter really helped me in my grief, it was the first time I felt I could connect with her, and it also became kind of the road for the film. It was challenging, but it also helped my heart through my grief.

JC: Susan, you’re a therapist and a consultant on the film. When you’re working on a project like this, how do you go about balancing recognizing and honoring the subjects, while also maintaining the seriousness of the subject that you’re discussing?

Susan Caso (SC): You know, the first time I saw the first cut of the film, I was so taken aback. It really is just the raw grief and vulnerability that Tess and her mother, Honey, show in the film, [it] is so powerful and so courageous and I felt from the very beginning how this would impact people in such a big way. Not only to get the conversation started, but also for individuals that are struggling. We’ve had people that were currently struggling with thoughts of suicide and depression, and they come away after seeing the film, thinking that suicide isn’t an option anymore. It’s “I’m not better, but I’m not going to take my life anymore. I’m not going to do that to my family and my loved ones.” And that is the power of the film, that is something I could feel right from the beginning. We did have meetings with the director and the producer, making sure that the theme was “do no harm”, and really what’s that line of showing the experience of grief, but not dramatizing it in a way that would make it look attractive in a way to take that option of taking their life.

JC: On a similar note, you’ve both touched on the importance of starting these, potentially tough, conversations. How do you suggest people who watch the film, or want to get involved, bring these conversations into their daily lives?

SC: When somebody is having thoughts of suicide it can be very scary. They’re experiencing a lot of pain and they can see no other way out, other than taking their life, and they’re often sitting in it alone, afraid and ashamed to tell anyone. Coming back to the film again, I think shows that we need to have these conversations in any environment that we’re at. For example, Tess and Honey spoke very openly with Liv about how she was feeling, but when [Liv] went to college, there was this barrier of sharing how she was doing or what her diagnosis was with her new environment, with her new people. Having open conversations is really what we do know helps relive someone. I think we all have good intuition when someone’s really not doing well, I think it’s really about listening to our gut and going “wait a minute, I’m thinking maybe something isn’t right”. And often times sharing your own struggles gives someone that door open to share their struggles with you.

TK: When you’re worried about someone the first thing to do is ask them. Ask them if they’re having thoughts of self harm, or suicide, and not being afraid to say that word, suicide. And then listening, and not being afraid to listen. I think that is a huge problem in our society, is not really listening. Having fearless conversations, it’s not just fearlessly speaking, it’s fearlessly listening to the answer, and then working together to find a way to build a plan for whoever is struggling, together.

JC: What do you hope that people take away from watching the film.

TK: I hope that they take away that if they’re struggling, they’re not a burden. That no matter how dark of a place they’re in, there is someone out there (and maybe many someones out there) who cares very deeply. There is always someone.

JC: Tess and Susan, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.

- - - -

Tri-County Health Network will host a virtual screening of the film, LIV, on Monday, July 27th at 5:30. There will be a virtual discussion with members of the film’s team, and a therapist following the film. To register for the screening, go to tchnetwork.org.

If you, or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Liveline at 1-800-273-8255, or call the Center for Mental Health’s Crisisline at 1-844- 493-8255.

Raising Babies During COVID

By Matt Hoisch

Left: Patrick Latcham. Picture courtesy of Carly Latcham. Right: Gavin Dohnal. Picture coutresy of Zoe Dohnal.

While a pandemic reshapes the world, Zoe Dohnal and her husband Ryan have been raising a one year-old named Gavin. Flexibility, she says, has been key. Especially in the early weeks of the pandemic. They still had jobs, but they also had a toddler who couldn’t be left alone and a house they couldn’t leave much.

“So I would have to wake up at five in the morning to do some work before it would be my turn to look after Gavin, and then he would do some work,” she says. “You know, we’d switch off. But our full workday would probably start at five and end at midnight.”

Balancing a pandemic and a job and a child, they say, was hard.

“COVID has been really hard from a mental health standpoint for a lot of people,” she notes. “But when you’re raising a kid and trying to do a full-time job, you feel like you’re failing at everything.”

“Took me a while to learn how to be flexible on a daily basis,” Ryan adds.

But Zoe and Ryan aren’t just raising a one year old during COVID. They’re also expecting another child in October. 

“I know I have not given this pregnancy the same attention I gave my first one,” she explains.

For newer parents and expecting parents, COVID has changed everything. And that’s on top of a baby changing everything. 

“Having a baby was a joyous time,” says Camilla Baca. She’s a local doula, lactation counselor, and childbirth educator. “You had a blessingway, you had a baby shower, you were surrounded by people. And these moms are really isolated now, and I think that’s really hard for them. This joyous time has now become kind of a stressful, isolated time.”

Baca says having a baby is already an uncertain time. COVID just adds to that. She says she’s checking in more than usual with new parents she works with and hearing, predictably, that it’s a challenge.

Emily McGough is hearing similar things from parents she’s checking in with.

“There is definitely more anxiety,” she says.

McGough is an RN at the Telluride Medical Center and a certified pediatric nurse. According to her, isolating with a new baby during the pandemic can be both good and bad. It’s given parents a chance to really connect with their newborns. But they also haven’t had the usual support that rallies around new parents.

“Like you want your mom and your friends and your siblings to hold your new baby. But you’re terrified your baby might get COVID.,” McGough explains.

Carly Latcham is a local who gave birth to Patrick at the end of March and says no family saw him in person for the first two months. So, for the most part, it was just her and her husband, also named Patrick, taking care of their new child.

“In the beginning it was isolating,” Latcham says. “I remember getting in my car to go to the grocery store for the first time. Patrick stayed home with the baby, and I was giddy.”

But, McGough says one other consequence of the pandemic has been an unexpected chance for dads to bond with their newborns. Because, she points, most men in the area don’t get paternity leave. That’s what happened with Carly and her husband. They thought he would only get two weeks off. Instead, he got two months.

“We got to just the three of us stay home and really sort of just—I don’t even know how to describe it,” she says. “It was just nice.”

So, like parenthood, COVID has been a mixed bag for newer parents. And a pandemic is a steep price to pay to be with your child. But babies also have this ability to make you forget everything.

During shelter in place at the start of the pandemic, McGough was doing home visits in PPE to check on newborns so parents didn’t have to go to the med center. She says during those visits, the overwhelming sense she got with those families was a feeling of calm.

“Even if they’re experiencing anxiety about their new baby, they’re in this little bubble of joy where they’re just so engulfed in being new parents and tending to their new babies and learning how to be in this new role that it almost seems like COVID takes back burner,” McGough says.

Of course, the experience is entirely different for parents of older kids. Parents of the youngest kids don’t have to worry about schooling and education. Or teenager stuff. But, with a new baby and a pandemic, they’re learning to live in a world that’s changed—two times over.

Sounds from the San Miguel Junior Livestock Auction

by Julia Caulfield

It is a hot and sunny day on Wright’s Mesa. At the San Miguel County Fairgrounds in Norwood, dozens of people fill in to the outdoor events center for the 2020 Junior Livestock Auction.

“Today is the culmination of about 34 kids’ hard work over the last year. They have taken on various projects ranging from beef, lambs, goats, we even have some turkeys, ducks, and hogs this year,” says Regan Snyder, President of the San Miguel Basin Fair Board.

All the young people participating are members of 4-H of Future Farmers of America – or FFA – programs working to get young people involved in agriculture and animal husbandry.

The auction is truly a community affair. Parents, and community members sit in bleachers, as the you people walk their livestock around a ring filled with sawdust, showcasing their animals. Little kids run around, a dog finds the shade under the bleachers.

As bidding gets underway, buyers are showing up for the young people. The first steer goes for $9,000. Most animals are upwards of $2,00 to $3,000.

Cimmy Alexander is the leader of 4 Stars 4-H Club in Norwood. She says this year is one of the best turnouts she’s seen in years.

“I think people realize it’s time to get back to basics, and go see where your meet is coming from. Go see where your freezer is being filled,” she says.

In a year when everything has been turned upside down, Alexander says having the auction, and filling your freezer with local meat is a nice way to bring some normalcy.

She adds, for the kids, raising animals helps them appreciate where their food comes from.

“My son is 16 years old,” she says, “and I remember when he was in kindergarten, they’d all talk about their lunches. They’d all be like, ‘I have a peanut butter and jelly’, ‘I have this’. My son would say ‘I’m eating pig’s butt’, which was a ham steak, but they know that comes from the side of the butt. From little, when we eat something, it’s ‘okay, where is that on our animal?’.

But in addition to a sense of normalcy for the buyer or knowing where your food comes from, Alexander and Snyder say the auction is also about supporting the young people, who have been working hard for the last 10 months to raise their animals.

One of the young people showing at the auction is Alexander’s daughter, Dylan. Dylan is 14 years old.

“I showed a steer and a heifer this year, but I just sold my steer. I won’t sell my heifer. My heifer will go out to the field to become a mom,” she says.

Dylan has been participating in the auction for five years. In addition to steer, she’s also shown lambs, rabbits, goats.

“I like the animals. The animals are fun to deal with and they teach you a lot of responsibility,” says Dylan.

Hailey Hibbert aggress.

“It’s a lot of hard work put into these animals,” Hibbert says, “and you build passion for them. For me, it’s going to be really hard to let go of my animals – as it is every year – but it teaches you time management and hard work on how to take care of, not only yourself, but you have two animals to take care of.”

Hibbert is a recent high school graduate. She’s 18-years-old, and headed to college in Grand Junction this fall. Like many of the young people, the money she earns from the auction goes right into a college fund.

Hibbert has been participating in 4-H for 11 years. She says she keeps coming back each year because she likes seeing the younger kids find their passion for raising animals.

“I would tell the younger generation to go out there and give it your all, and if you see passion in it, the buyers see that and they go for the people that actually care for your projects,” she says, “and the community support, they’ll always be there to make it happen.”

At the end of the day, all the animals are sold. They’re either taken home by the buyer to be put out to pasture, or on their way to a processing plant. A year’s worth of a work is over in a few short hours…but only for a moment. Come fall, the young people will be picking out their new projects and starting the process all over.

Valley Floor Project Remediates Toxic Mine Tailings

By Julia Caulfield

Drive along the Spur, and you may see a large construction truck near the roundabout. You may hear a bulldozer beeping. What a person driving may not know, is behind a small group of trees, a multi-million-dollar project, years in the making, is underway to restore the Valley Floor landscape, and cap acres of toxic mine tailings.

Walk along the river in this area, and there are places where a chalk like soil – which is actually tailings – sluffs of into the water. Nothing is growing out of it.

“Right now we’re standing on the north bank of the river as it goes by the current tailings pile, and what we’re seeing is the clear tailings, there’s no vegetation on the tailings, it has that white color and the bank is essentially calving off into the active stream channel” says Lance McDonald, Telluride Project Manager.

The project – officially called the Society Turn Tailing Remediation and River Restoration project – is a collaboration between the Town of Telluride, Idarado Mining Company, and the State of Colorado. It was originally scheduled to occur last summer, but high river levels pushed it to this year.

The project is twofold: 1) remediate mine tailings by capping them and move the river away from tailings and 2) restore a portion of the San Miguel River to a more natural pattern. It had been straightened in the past for mining purposes.

“One of the primary objectives of this is to get the interaction of the stream flows away from the tailings. So one of the first things that we looked, and worked with the Town on, is trying to get the river as far away from the tailings as possible,” says Dave Blauch, Senior Ecologist with Ecological Resource Consultants – the company assisting with the project.

Blauch adds “then it was trying to figure out, how can we consolidate the tailings into a safer area and get that revegetated and capped and stabilized?”

The project dates back to 1992, when the Idarado Mining Company entered into an agreement with the State of Colorado to cleanup a number of tailings piles on the Valley Floor. The original remediation agreement, or consent decree, required that Idarado cover and cap the tailings.

It also states the landowner can propose a “alternative plan” for the project. After the Town of Telluride purchased the Valley Floor in 2009, it began working on a new plan.

The original agreement between Idarado and the State would cap roughly 26 acres of tailings with a foot of clean soil.

“That’s this whole area. That was going to be capped. All the trees would be taken out, and there would be one half or two feet of dirt on top of this whole thing,” says Lance McDonald as he walks along the river.

In the new plan, McDonald says “What we’re doing is we’re consolidating the tailings into a smaller capped area so it’s taller, but it’s much less of a footprint and we can keep a lot of the existing vegetation.”

McDonald also notes the Town is using manmade berms already on the Valley Floor to cap the tailings. He says using the berms limits truck traffic into the area, and lowers the cost of the project.

“And then it has the benefit also of restoring the landscape to its pre manmade condition. These berms that were out here, at one point a north channel was dug across the Valley Floor, so the spoils from creating that new channel were placed on the side,” McDonald says.

Once the tailings have been capped, all the disturbed soil will be vegetated with native plants.

The Town is also moving the river further south of the tailings so even if the river floods its banks, the water won’t hit the capped tailings.

According to Ross Davis, Idarado Mine Site Project Manager for Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, after a number of conversations with the Town of Telluride, the State felt comfortable with the new plan.

“We felt like this was probably a better solution than what was originally outlined in the consent decree. It just so happens to be that the tailings remediation will coincide with some river restoration, so we see it as a win-win for the State and Idarado fulfilling their obligations, as well as improving the waterways and improving some habitat as well,” Davis says.

That river restoration piece of the project sits just upstream from the tailings. It doesn’t have anything to do with the tailings project per se, but McDonald says given the fact that all the machinery would already be on site, it made sense to pull it in to the project.

“The river alignment is being reestablished across this wetland area, reconnecting the river to its historic flood plain. Whereas where it is right now, south of the railroad grade, in a straight line. The river naturally would have meandered out across this meadow, so what this is doing is reestablishing the river into this area, and then once the river is established in this area it can meander or reshape itself however it would like to in the future,” says McDonald.

The entire project will cost roughly $3.4 million. A number of partners are involved in the project including Valley Floor Preservation Partners, Colorado Water Conservation Board, and Trout Unlimited. The Town of Telluride is contributing around $700,000 from the Open Space fund; however, those funds are only used for the river restoration project.

The project is the final piece in Idarado Mining Company’s consent decree on the Telluride side.

The Society Turn Tailing Remediation and River Restoration project is scheduled to be completed in November.

The San Miguel River will be closed to recreational use from Eider Creek to the Society Turn starting Monday, July 13th and continuing until the project is finished.

Local Real Estate Booms Amidst COVID

By Matt Hoisch

View of Telluride from the gondola. Picture by Matt Hoisch.

The real estate market in the Telluride area is seeing a surge amidst the coronavirus.

“We’re seeing unprecedented activity this summer,” says Ellen Williamson, a broker with Telluride Properties. “Typically we don’t see any activity until the end of the season. And it just started gangbusters, June first.”

 Teddy Errico, a realtor with LIV Southeby’s, also sees the rise. “We are seeing a little bit of a frenzy right now as people are looking to either escape more dense areas in the cities, or they’re finally prioritizing their purchase in Telluride,” he explains. “So the activity has never been greater since—since pre-recession.”

And that increased interest is translating into quicker sales and higher prices. Often, Williamson says, people can take years to think about buying property in the area. Now, sales are contracting quickly—in a matter of days. She also explains typically buyers negotiate down from a list price. Sellers try to get within 10% of the ask and settling around a 5% decrease is good. But now, she says, they’re seeing properties contract within 1% of the ask price.

“We’re seeing things go under contract at near full price,” she explains. “And that just has been unprecedented.”

And, Williamson notes, people are buying for different reasons. Thanks to the coronavirus, more and more buyers see Telluride as a safe, stable place. They don’t just want to rent out their property. They want to live in it.

“There are a lot of people who are real estate investors here, and they’ll buy as an investment,” she says. “But [now] we’re seeing a lot of buyers who really are just buying for themselves.”

Technology has helped overcome the challenge of distance. Thanks to pandemic-induced working from home, Williamson explains, people are more comfortable considering living in more remote areas like Telluride. Errico notes tech has also helped boost buys in other ways.

“With virtual tours and lots of really professional photography,” he says, “people aren’t scared of making offers site unseen.”

He anticipates local realtors will continue using those new tech methods beyond the pandemic.

The recent boost, however, hasn’t come out of nowhere. According to Scott Benge, Chief Operations Officer with Telluride Consulting, the regional real estate market has been really strong for the last year. Telluride Consulting’s monthly real estate report for June shows that San Miguel County closed out the first half of 2020 with a 26% increase in dollar volume of real estate sales compared to the prior 5 year average. So, Benge says it’s more that the region is continuing a trend that’s been building since pre-COVID. But even continuing the trend has been a bit of a surprise.

“I don’t think we saw the slowdown that people expected due to COVID,” he notes.

Still Benge won’t predict whether the boom carries on through the rest of the year. A lot is uncertain, especially, he notes, whether an increase in COVID cases when the weather cools leads to increased restrictions in the region.

“So for now the new normal seems to have pushed buyers to our local real estate to escape the big cities and enjoy the outdoor actives,” he says. “So I think that’s kind of why we’re continuing to see that here in the summer. Winter could be a different story, potentially.”

For now at least, Telluride’s summer of sales is thanks to two things: a pandemic and location, location, location.

"The Jungle Book" Moves Online

By Julia Caulfield

Telluride’s Young People’s Theatre presents “The Jungle Book” via Zoom

If you’ve been to a production from the Sheridan Arts Foundation’s Young People’s Theatre, the sound of an overture is familiar.

But unlike most YPT productions, when the actors arrive on stage, it’s not on the stage of the Sheridan Opera House. It’s in a small screen, on Zoom.

This year, YPT is performing the musical The Jungle Book is based on Rudyard Kiplings 1894 book about a young child – named Mowgli – raised by a pack of wolves in the Jungle. Throughout the musical, Mowgli goes travels through the forest, and comes across a number of animal characters including a black panther named Bagheera, a bear called Baloo, and Queen Louie, queen of the orangutans.

YPT was originally scheduled to produce The Jungle Book in May.

“Unfortunately because of COVID, we had to call that off, because that would have not been safe or smart or legal,” says Leah Heidenreich, Artistic Director for the Young People’s Theatre – a non-competitive children’s theatre company in Telluride.

But COVID or no, Heidenreich was adamant that the show must go on.

“I just didn’t want to completely shut it down. You know, there is so much technology nowadays, where you can make anything work,” she says, “and there’s no wrong way to create art, because it’s subjective.”

So she turned to Zoom.

Heidenreich says, “Zoom has just kind of taken over the world since COVID hit, and I was seeing a lot of theatre companies put together these Zoom productions, and I thought ‘you know, I think we can do that too’”.

It may be hard to envision what a Zoom version of a musical looks like, but in this iteration of The Jungle Book, actors (grades 3 through 5), pull it off flawlessly. Actors pop in and out of their screen in costume, with backdrops hanging behind them to create the ambiance of a jungle.

Musical numbers are scaled back when it comes to chorography, but characters sing and dance their way through the story, finding ways to incorporate the technology into the plot line – picture a cast full of actors peering deeply into their computer camera when they spot Mowgli for the first time.

It’s clear The Jungle Book on Zoom isn’t the same as performing on a stage in front of a live audience.

Evan Strogner is 11 years old and plays Baloo, the bear. He’s been performing with YPT for years, but like everyone else, this is the first time performing YPT over Zoom. Strogner says even he was a little concerned about how performing them musical was going to work over zoom.

“’How are we going to do this. Oh no, what are we going to do?’ Strongner remembers thinking, “and then I got in and Leah started explaining and I thought ‘oh, this is actually really cool.’”

And he says performing over Zoom has helped to show just how much is possible…even during a pandemic.

“Even though there is a pandemic where you can’t get closer to people, you can still do things,” Strogner says, “It’s going to be a little different, but it’s not going to be super super different.”

Ruby Chechu agrees. Chechu is 10-years old and plays Queen Louis. She says even with the constraints of an online platform, the cast – with Heidenreich’s guidance – has been able to create a full production that feels like a proper show – complete with entrances, exits, and blocking.

“That’s kind of the best aspect of the show this year because even though we’re not doing it all together in the same place, we still have that aspect of a real show,” Chechu says.

Strongner adds, traditional stage or no, the trill of acting is still there.

“When you’re in that moment,” he says, “and you’re in there moving, you do feel you’re on stage. Which is really cool.”

YPT’s The Jungle Book will take place Tuesday, July 7th through Thursday, July 9th at 6 p.m. on Facebook Live. Search for Young People’s Theatre Presents: The Jungle Book. The performance is free; however, donations are welcome.