Physicians from Colorado Springs Cardiologists (CSC) see patients at the HRRMC Buena Vista Health Center on the first and third Thursday of each month. The group has been coming to the hospital in Salida for 30 years.

“We are fortunate to have built a strong relationship with CSC over the years,” said Greg Messmer, vice president of ancillary services. “The fact that CSC has agreed to see patients at our Buena Vista Health Center in addition to seeing patients at the main facility fits into our mission of providing personalized and exceptional care, now, even closer to home for our northern county patients.”

CSC is associated with Penrose Hospital and Penrose-St. Francis Hospital in Colorado Springs, both Centura facilities. “HRRMC’s association with Colorado Springs Cardiologists is strengthened through our affiliation with Centura,” said Messmer. HRRMC is an independent affiliate of Centura Health, a network of care that connects Centura hospitals and resources with residents and health care providers across Colorado.

To make an appointment to see a cardiologist at the HRRMC Buena Vista Health Center, please call 719-634-6671. First-time patients need a referral from their primary care physician.

This year’s legislative session has come to an end…again! Although the last day of the 2012 session was May 9th, with the extra three days of the “special session” the legislature officially adjourned this past Wednesday, May 16th. We all welcomed the end of session and the Senate Democrats were proud to look back on our legislative accomplishments focused on Colorado’s economic recovery through a host of jobs bills in our ‘Colorado Works’ initiative.

Along with rural economic development, much of my legislation focused on resource management and environmental stewardship. Many of my jobs bills, such as the “Local Foods, Local Jobs Act,” the “Electronic Recycling Jobs Act,” and the “Forest Health Jobs Resolution” were passed with strong bipartisan support. During the special session, we finally passed my Water Projects Bill, which allocates $61 million in reservoir projects and watershed protection, among other initiatives. Senate District 5 is receiving important funding for local projects – $30M in funding will go toward the rehabilitation of the Rio Grande and Beaver Park Reservoirs. I teamed up with Rep. Pace to pass the Agriculture Land Tax Credit bill, which will help preserve our rural ag. communities and, as the senate sponsor of the Colorado Parks & Wildlife Commission bill, I worked to protect stakeholder interests and a create a balanced commission for stewardship of our state’s outdoor recreation and natural resources.

During the upcoming summer and fall interim, I will remain busy with interim committees, conferences, community events and town halls throughout Senate District 5. As always, please advise me of local events that I can add to my district tour this summer! Since my district is changing due to last year’s redistricting process, I’ll be touring the eleven counties of my current district along with Eagle County and Lake County, which both join SD5 in 2013. While it will be bittersweet to lose the San Luis Valley counties under the new SD5 map, I have many visits planned for this summer and plan to keep in touch long after the district changes are finalized!

Concert pianists Joyce Yang and John O’Conor have wowed audiences here before and other artists are making their debuts.

All concerts will be staged in Salida’s historic downtown—five at the SteamPlant Theater on the Arkansas River and one at the United Methodist Church —because the usual venue, Held Auditorium, is being replaced as part of new high school construction, which will not be finished until later this year.

July 7, Lera Auerbach, piano, www.leraauerbach.com

The series opens Saturday, July 7 with Lera Auerbach, a virtuoso pianist and composer with Russian-American roots. A prize winning writer, Auerbach’s poetry and prose is required reading in Russian schools. Her music compositions are some of the most widely performed works of the new generation.

Auerbach wrote her first opera at age twelve and moved to New York in 1991 while still a teenager to study at Juilliard School. Since then she has played with some of the best orchestras in the world and collaborated with many established artists. Beginning the 2011/12 season, she became composer in residence with the Staatskapelle Dresden.

The Film Production Activities in Colorado Act is the first of its kind in the country. The bill creates a loan guarantee program for production activities and will also make Colorado more attractive for movie production by increasing the existing film incentive from a 10 percent rebate for production costs to 20 percent, allowing Colorado to meet or exceed similar programs in other states.  This rebate will apply to production costs for films, television series, commercials, documentaries, music videos, and video game creation.

Senator Newell offered the following comment on the signing of the Film Production Activities in Colorado Act today:

“They said this couldn’t be done, but here we are.  This legislation brought us together as Republicans and Democrats, urban, suburban, and rural to show our solidarity and belief in our dream to recognize and recapture film jobs in Colorado.”

(from right to left) High Noon Entertainment CEO Jim Berger, Senator Linda Newell, COO Duke Hartman, and Senior V.P. of Finance John Hardy

The combination of diverse and scenic landscapes, the availability of experienced film crews, and an existing infrastructure make Colorado a desirable state for film production.  More than 400 films have been filmed in the state, including feature films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Catch and Release, True Grit and City Slickers. However, incentive programs in other states have lured movie production to other regions in recent years.

The Film Production Activities in Colorado Act works to reverse this trend. The legislation has wide support from film and creative industries all over the state, including the CINEMA (Colorado Innovators of New Entertainment, Media, and Arts) Colorado Coalition. The creative industry is the fifth largest employment sector in the state, and one of the fastest growing in the country.

Donald Zuckerman, Director of the Colorado Office of Film, Television, and Media offered the following comment on the importance of the HB 1286:

“This bill is so important for Colorado’s content creation industry.  Content creation is one of America’s fastest growing industries and one of its greatest exports.”

Under the Film Production Activities in Colorado Act, an in-state production company’s local expenditures must be at least $100,000 and an out-of-state company must spend at least $1 million to qualify for the performance-based incentive program. In addition, 50 percent of the jobs must be filled by Colorado residents, an increase over the existing 25 percent requirement.

As we plan for next year, we need your help in evaluating how the four-day week has affected you. Therefore, we would appreciate your ideas about improvements that we can make so we can improve upon what we currently have.

You can complete this survey anonymously in either a paper form and then return it to the school office of your choice or you can complete it on-line by going to:  http://fs8.formsite.com/R-32-J/form36/index.html

Please respond to this survey only once, regardless of the number of children you may have in school.

2011-2012    Scholarships

Alessandra Rae Vigil Memorial Scholarship given by the Salida Chamber of Commerce- Danyel Enz

Frank Braswell Memorial- Shelby Carothers

Frank B Williams Auto- Joe Coffman

David Curtis scholarship- Joe Coffman   $1000

Epsilon Sigma Alpha Memorial scholarship- Danyel Enz, Katie Davis, Shelby Carothers

Knights of Columbus Scholarship-  Lexi Trujillo $1000;  Shelby Carothers $1000; Rich Mancuso $500

Salida Masonic Lodge #57- Danyel Enz $1000;  Outstanding Junior Girl Brooke Love $300; Outstanding Junior Boy Brandon Coleman $300; Band scholarships of $300 to Hannah Sites, Brooke Love and Jamie Treat

Elks #808 Scholarship -Dominica Alloy $1000; $1000/yr Katie Davis

Sons of Italy Scholarship- $250 Katie Davis and Dillon Granzella

Salida Spartan Athletic Scholarship -$500 Katie Davis $500 Justin Giorno

Topaz Chapter 27 Eastern Star Scholarship- Lexi Trujillo

Frank Braswell Auto Scholarship- Cole Hiser

Frank Braswell Memorial Golf Scholarship – Shelby Carothers

Elsie Stallworth Memorial Scholarship -Travis Clark

Holiday Park Scholarship- $1000 Lexi Trujillo $1000 Travis Clark

Angel of Shavano VFW Post 3820 Scholarship -Danyel Enz, Sara Simko, Heidi Gilmore, Kendra Johnson

Ted and Helen Argys Memorial Scholarship- $500 Cordell Wintz

Upper Arkansas service Club scholarship -Lexi Trujillo, Danyel Enz

Nestle/SOSS Science Scholarship -$1000 McKinley Witty, $1000 Lexi Trujillo, $1000 Danyel Enz

Shavano Academic Booster Club Scholarship- $500 Heidi Gilmore, $500 Danyel Enz, $500 Michaela Weber

Carl Larson Scholarship -$750 Lexi Trujillo

Heart of the Rockies Medical Center Foundation-William G. Mehos Scholarship -Lexi Trujillo, Danyel Enz

Rotary Scholarship- $1000 Dominica Alloy; $750 Bethany Higgins, Jared McDonald, Shelby Carothers, Travis Clark, and Katie Davis;  $250 Michaela Weber and Kendra Johnson

SHS Skills USA Scholarship- $500 Cole Hiser

Anthony Marchase Memorial Scholarship- Kendra Johnson

Sons of Salida- $2000 Dominca Alloy

High Country Bank -Travis Clark

Anna Mae Marchi Service to Humanity – $1000 Travis Clark

Dr. Bixby Fund Scholarship – Cordell Wintz and Dominca Alloy

Arkansas Valley Car Club -Cole Hiser

Youth Advisory Council – $500 Travis Clark

PEO Scholarship -$1000 Heidi Gilmore

GI Bill – Fabian McGlassen

Mid-Mountain Farm Bureau – Travis clark

SEA Future Teacher Scholarship -Dominca Alloy, Heidi Gilmore

Honeywell Scholarship –  $500 Joe Coffman

Climax Mine Scholarship – $1500 Travis Clark

Senators and Representatives are meeting now to create a final transportation bill, and we need your help to protect the funds that the Senate designated for local biking and walking programs.
We are working to preserve the Cardin-Cochran agreement. This agreement was part of the Senate bill passed two months ago with bipartisan support. It allows local governments and school systems to access much-needed funds to make bicycling and walking safer and more accessible, in response to local needs. The agreement does not increase the overall size of the transportation bill, it simply maintains a funding stream that local governments have used for over 20 years to provide their citizens with a variety of safe transportation options.
Funding for bicycling and walking has popular support—a recent Princeton survey found that 83 percent of Americans support federal funds for sidewalks and bike lanes.
Please act now. Fill in your zip code, below, or, if you’re seeing this in an email, click here to go to our action center.

“Much of this legislation had significant bipartisan support and addressed subject matter crucial to the people of Colorado and the effective, efficient operation of state government.”

The seven specific subjects that the Governor has called for consideration of in the special session are·

• Funding of Colorado Water Conservation Board projects.
• Administration of the unemployment insurance program to stabilize unemployment insurance rates, facilitating the issuance of unemployment revenue bonds and accelerating the creation of the Division of Unemployment Insurance in the Department of Labor and Employment.
• Creating “benefit corporations” in Colorado.
• Penalties for persons who drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
• Authorization of civil unions.
• Registering Special Mobile Machinery Fleets.
• Submitting to the registered electors of the State of Colorado an amendment to the Colorado Constitution repealing provisions deemed obsolete.

Senate President Brandon Shaffer offered the following comment on the special session which began today:

“These bills concern the economy, water infrastructure and rights of Coloradans, and they need to be debated and voted on. I’m glad we’re getting a second chance to consider these pieces of legislation.”

Click here to read some frequently asked questions about the Colorado special session process. This information was prepared by the Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services.