In order to gather input, the City has developed a survey reflecting the priorities of the draft comprehensive plan.  There are many hard decisions made each year by the City Council which balance the priorities for maintenance and improvements in the city against limited budget funds.  The comprehensive plan should serve as a guiding document looking ahead 5 – 10 years.  The Council utilizes the comprehensive plan in selecting what projects to pursue and approving the annual budget.

The online survey is available at www.cityofsalida.com.  Paper copies can be filled out at the Salida Regional Library, local coffee shops, the Salida Community Center and City Hall.  Printed copies can also be obtained by calling 530-2626.  The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and will be open for three weeks, or until Wednesday, September 22^nd.

The Salida Planning Commission has spent the last year developing the draft comprehensive plan.  They have sought input through public meetings, advertisements and the 2009 Community Survey.  The entire draft plan is available for review on the City’s website:  www.cityofsalida.com/projects/comprehensive-plan.

Both the survey results and the draft plan will be discussed at an upcoming public meeting to be held Tuesday, October 14^th at the Salida SteamPlant.  The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m.

After Monday the Salida City Council will have to decide whether to spend City money on one of the following alternatives:

1. Stabilize the building by correcting building code violations, thus allowing time to develop alternatives.
2. Partial demolition – tearing down the theater portion in the back which is the area of concern for health and safety.  (This option may endanger the landmark status of the Unique)
3. Complete demolition.

Historic Salida Inc. (HSI)  urges the City Council to take the first approach because it buys time, costs less taxpayer money, maximizes the future development potential for the building and saves an important historic building in our downtown.

The Unique Theater, built as the Salida Opera House in 1888 was designated a local landmark because it has played a significant role in the city’s cultural and social history as a theater.  Demolishing this building would have a profound negative visual effect on the entire downtown – particularly on one of the primary entrances to Salida.  In recent years the downtown has seen substantial rehabilitation, including the spectacular A.T. Henry Building.   We at HSI know that preserving the historic character of downtown encourages economic vitality and demolition does not.

Estimates for demolition of the Unique are much higher than stabilization due to the painstaking brick by brick removal necessary to save shared common bearing walls of adjacent buildings.  We urge the City Council to proceed with plans to stabilize the building to allow time to plan for its future, thus preserving the historic fabric of First Street, and to save our precious taxpayer dollars.

HSI is willing to assist in any way in this endeavor, including applying for grants and fundraising.

If any reader wants to join this effort, email savetheunique@yahoo.com.  To become more involved in Historic Salida, Inc. check our website at www.historicsalida.org.

Destiny Meseke and Manda Ellison of Salida Circus perform the double back bend. Photo courtesy of Shutterbugz photography

Salida Circus was contacted by NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” last week. Casting producer Shweta Thakur contacted the troupe after organizers of Winter Park’s Cirque du Saturdays recommended them. Thakur has asked the Salida Circus to try out for the television talent show this November when auditions will be held in Denver.

Thakur said anyone else interested in auditioning for the show should contact her at (303) 312-9520 or email her at shwetaAGT@gmail.com.

Some decisions are made, such as the fact that it’ll be built on the current track, then after completion, the old school will be torn down, and a new (swankier) track constructed. There are other practical issues that have been decided, such as square footage, but the final look and interior features have yet to be decided. So, dig the plans.

No complaining alright? We know that you now have a pathetic excuse for a school. We’re on your side. You want a killer facility? Tell us about it.

Lastly, though it’ll be tempting to suggest a bunch of weirdness (like time traveling ports, Ferrari school buses and a tony salon for the ladies), but the people who are making these decisions, such as the architect and builder, will be reading your comments. Please use your real name, and tell us your grade. If your ideas are used, we’ll give you $25 (limited to a half dozen people or so). If you suggest a big idea that is incorporated, we may be able to do even better.

Lastly, if you are in eighth grade, we’d like to hear from you as well. Hit us, and please keep it brief.

Please forward the web site www.salidaschoolbond.com to your parents, and anyone you know over eighteen years old who lives in the district. They need to vote for the bond to make this new school a reality. Thanks’

Salida Mountain Trails is happy to introduce a new benefit for our hard working volunteers: the Trails Reward card.  A dozen of Salida’s fabulous restaurants and retail merchants have generously offered to support their efforts by offering significant rewards for completed cards.  The participating businesses include Absolute Bikes, Amica’s Pizza, Café Dawn, In the Current, Laughing Ladies, Moonlight Pizza, Salida Cafe, Salida Mountain Sports, Simple Foods, Talk of the Town – Merlin Trefethen Massage, Twisted Cork Café, and YOLO.

Here’s how it works:  get your card when you show up for a trail work day (or pick one up from Absolute); have it punched every time you come participate in a work session; when all 8 wheels are punched out, take it to one of the participating businesses & get your reward.  Cards can just be used one time, so the business will keep your card, but you can get another one & start all over again.  Specific rewards will be posted on  and on trailhead kiosks.

It’s easy!  It’s fun!  You get great new trail plus a bonus reward!  Come get your card & help build some more of Salida’s environmentally sustainable, user friendly, non-motorized trail system.

This link will take you to an informational web site intended to educate voters on the school bond initiative, which will be on November’s ballot.

I built the site because I believe in the cause, and felt the web was the perfect location to dispel myths and misinformation about the project. Additionally, I have watched the board, the facilities committee, teachers and staff work hard to get this grant —and the amount of research that has been done is staggering. I also believe that the amount of attention paid to transparency in this process has lead to significant support in the district. To this point, most of the facts presented on the web site have been gathered via well-attended public meetings intended specifically to gather input about the community’s desires, rather than “sell the project.”

The site is loaded with facts and information, as well as many stunning pictures of the current school’s condition, sample plans of the new facility, and pictures of other schools to help spark discussion about our potential new building’s details and aesthetic.

Here on The Citizen I set up a few comment areas to gauge community response. After reviewing the School Bond Web Site pages, you can go to these comment streams to give input on the project. One comment stream is specifically about the FACILITIES, while another is for a general discussion. The third is for students only.

Please be warned, if you have not toured the high school, or seen any current pictures, you may be surprised by the condition of the school.

I am humbled by the amount of people involved in this campaign, and the level of expertise that has come to the table to move this project forward. I look forward to your comments and input.

Thanks to all involved for making my part of the project a lot easier. -bd

If you wish to write more than 250 words on this, or any subject, let us know. We’ll be happy to post a separate, unedited, article for you of any length. Just shoot us your article, edited please, to salidacitizen@gmail.com.

Comments below are general thoughts and questions about the bond. If you’d like to talk to the Superintendent, Darryl Webb, feel free to call him at 719-530-5252. He’s an easy guy to talk to.

If you’d like to discuss the value of making this bond happen in general terms, or discuss any other aspect of the bond aside form the facilities, please make your comments in the General School Bond Comment area. The reason we have two comment streams is simply that many proponents of passing the bond have valuable and more practical input about the facilities.

If you wish to write more than 250 words on any subject, let us know, we’ll be happy to post a separate, unedited, article for you —of any length. Just shoot us your article, edited please, to salidacitizen@gmail.com.

Comments below are facilities specific. If you’d like to talk to the Superintendent, Darryl Webb, feel free to call him at 719-530-5252. He’s an easy guy to talk to.

Stew Brown in a Mountain Mail letter to the editor wrote,  (Do) “Not just stand back and constantly criticize current leadership.  Working shoulder to shoulder, there’s nothing this county, state and country can’t accomplish”.  It is not possible to work  “shoulder to shoulder” with someone who treats you differently than they would desire to be treated.  In how  we choose to discuss issues we determine our ability to actually create something of which to be proud.

To facilitate a true discussion based upon real fact, not trumped up fears, I would like to compliment Merle Baranczyk when he denied the request for a moratorium on “Over the River” letters.  It is not the media’s responsibility to demand the courtesy so necessary in our world while we converse through letters to the editor.  It is ours.  If you want to anger the opposition and further polarize everyone’s views continue to communicate in a way that disrespects those who hold a different view.  If you want to put the long term good of the community  first  do unto others as you want others to do onto you.  There is no excuse for discourtesy while disagreeing!

It is worth noting that many of my previous City of Salida, Mayor articles have quoted famous names in American history.  It pleases me that I can quote local citizens that obviously understand their responsibilities as citizens of our democracy.  It is the many small acts of true citizenship, which do not make the history books, that make this country great.

In the meantime, when I have had about enough of the negative and angry comments I stop and look up.  In that moment, I realize how lucky I am to be alive at this time and this place.  Chaffee County is God’s Country.  I hope we act worthy of its grandeur.

George Hardgrave (left) and Richard Fisher, Jenn Fisher's father, prepare to install the soffit near the roofline at the CC Habitat duplex. Move-in date is scheduled for mid-October for the Jenn Fisher and Cristyl Nuzum families.

Build volunteers continue to complete major milestones toward an October 30th  duplex dedication for the Jenn Fisher and Cristyl Nuzum families, with move-in scheduled for mid-October. The duplex, located at the Starbuck’s Dairy subdivision in Salida, is Chaffee County Habitat for Humanity’s 7th and 8th build.

Since groundbreaking on May 22nd, 100 volunteers (out of 270 who have signed up) have put in over 2,000 build hours to make this dream a reality. Though the build is progressing steadily, there is still plenty to be done, and funding for the build is not yet complete.

“We still need volunteers to help even if it’s only for a couple of hours,” says Jon Quedenfeld, Construction Manager.

Now that the duplex is dried-in, in the last couple of weeks, the build team has gotten all the windows and exterior doors installed, 1-inch exterior blue board and house wrap installed, interior insulation started, and 90% of the metal soffit and fascia installed (thanks to Hylton Lumber for the quick and early delivery on materials). The final grading and initial landscape planning were also completed in the last two weeks, as well as flooring choices.  All rough electrical and plumbing have also been completed along with the roofing. 

”I want to extend a special thanks to Dale, George, Jim, Shirley, Mike, Charlie, Dennis, and many others who show up every day and work there tails off to help the Nuzum and Fisher families achieve their dreams,” says Quedenfeld.
Habitat has also benefited from generous gifts-in-kind as the construction continues. A donor board will be erected soon at the duplex site to recognize these individuals and companies.

During the last week of August, the construction team plans to install interior insulation, interior doors, and complete the soffit and fascia so the exterior will be ready for stucco. They also will proceed with sidewalks and partial landscaping–maybe even starting that first layer of stucco–once the electric and gas lines are hooked up to the mains.

Quedenfeld says, “As you can see we are moving right along and are on track for the dedication date of October 30th, 2010.”

Riley Donavan, incoming Freshman, rails a turn at the Pump Farm

Mountain bike racing is coming to Colorado’s High Schools and more specifically the Arkansas Valley in the form of the SBV Cycling Team and the Colorado High School Cycling League.

The SBV Team is made up of five schools in the Arkansas Valley: the Salida and Buena Vista High Schools, the Horizons School, Chaffee County High School, and the Link School in Buena Vista. The Team will compete with High Schools from across the state in four cross-country races that will be comprised of a mix of singletrack trails, double track trails, and dirt roads.

This is the first year of the Colorado High School Cycling League which operates under the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. Students will have the opportunity to race in one of six classes: Boys and Girls Freshmen/Sophomores, Junior Varsity, and Varsity.

The first race of the year will be held in Nathrop at the Chalk Creek Ranch on September 19, 2010. The second race will be October 3 at the Devils Thumb Ranch in Fraser, and the third race is October 17 at Bear Creek Lake in Lakewood. The fourth race and the State Championships will be held on October 31 at Peaceful Valley in Elbert.

It is the goal of the Colorado High School Cycling league and the SBV Cycling Team to teach sportsmanship, bike handling skills, basic bike maintenance, and most importantly to have fun. The team will practice in Salida and Buena Vista three times a week beginning August 30. The Team will also be attending a bike handling skills clinic in Colorado Springs on August 29.

All interested 9th to 12th grade students are encouraged to visit the informational booth during the first day of school for freshman in Salida or contact Mr. Fred Maxwell at (719) 221-5985.

The Team has received an outpouring of support from the Arkansas Valley including sponsorships from the Boathouse Cantina and Monarch Community Outreach, Absolute Bikes, Subculture Cycles, and the Trailhead. The Eddyline Brewery, Amica’s Restaurant, SCR Racing, Jeremy Petersons, the Dangerous Collective/Salida Citizen.com. Many other businesses and individuals have also helped to sponsor the team.

The Team is looking for volunteers to help with the first race of the year on September 19 in Nathrop. All interested parties should contact Zach Moore at (719) 530-1187.