Salt Lake City, Utah
Driving around Salt Lake City on a pleasant day last June in a plain white city government car, Doug Dansie pauses at the corner of two streets, 1300 South and 300 East. This is a residential neighborhood where old trees tower over the houses. But there’s no house on this particular corner lot. Instead, it’s occupied by a billboard.

The billboard isn’t a 10-story freeway giant or one of those garish cutting-edge electronic signs that constantly flash digital ads like imitation Las Vegas casinos. It’s only about 25 feet tall, with four angled faces that advertise a “Gem Faire” for dealers and jewelers as well as a nonprofit group that helps Iraq War veterans.

Still, “it’s inappropriate to have a billboard in a residential area,” says Dansie, a senior land-use planner for the city with decades of experience, who’s wearing a striped shirt with his sunglasses secured by a cord around his neck.

Beyond the question of whether a billboard should stand next to houses in the first place, some people resent this billboard for a different reason. For more than five years, neighborhood residents have been trying to create a park on this small lot to honor a police sergeant, Ronald L. Heaps, who was shot to death here in 1982. They’ve raised some cash, and the city has offered grant money, but they haven’t been able to strike a deal with the billboard company, which owns the lot as well as the sign. Dansie puts it bluntly: “The billboard is holding up the park plan.”

He drives on past other controversial billboards; there are many. Much larger signs emblazoned with hard-to-ignore ads for everything under the sun — office-furniture blowouts, lingerie, colonoscopy doctors, Rio Tinto mining, and a fast-food chain with a playfully illiterate slogan — Eat Mor Chikin — dominate long stretches of I-15, the main corridor through the string of cities along the scenic Wasatch Mountain Front. Other billboards punctuate the metro area, even in the midst of an active downtown renewal effort….Continue reading full article

What do you think about the highway 50 corridor Salida?

Family fun for everyone will be from 1:00 until 4:00 PM.  All ages are encouraged to come out and skate the track with members of the High Rollers.  Learn how roller derby is played with short demos and skating techniques throughout the event.

There will be baked treats made by the members of the league and Ark Valley High Rollers merchandise for purchase.  Get your photograph taken with your favorite derby girl at the photo booth for a small cost.

The Ark Valley High Rollers will also be supporting the Alliance Against Domestic Abuse by hosting a table at the 27th Annual Chocolate Lover’s Fantasy on Saturday February 11th from 5:30 to 8:00 PM.  This event will be held at High Country Bank in Buena Vista. Enjoy unlimited Chocolate Sampling, appetizers, wine tasting, live entertainment and a competitive silent auction. All proceeds go to the Alliance Against Domestic Abuse, a nonprofit agency serving victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in Chaffee County.

For more information on events, bout schedule and how you can be a part of this league visit our website at arkvalleyhighrollers.com.

The Ark Valley High Roller league is Chaffee County’s only roller derby league. This is your chance to support the women who represent your area in the fastest growing sport in the nation.

We’re slowly forming a strong community of skaters here and Frantz Lake has been great this year.  We have a set of ground rules that everyone pitches in on ice maintenance, shoveling when finished, and folks that go out after dark to flood the surface.  We had 20+ on sunday and the facebook page is popular.

See the facebook page for a big group shot of all us.

Take care,

Jon

There is an SMT meeting tonight at The Salida Cafe if you’d like to learn about the organization. The meeting starts at 7pm downstairs. Grab a pint and come on down!

This unit has collected over $50 this winter so far, roughly $3 a day. Does that seem like a lot, or a little to you? Let us know.

Salida Mountain Trails is an all volunteer organization commited to building and maintaining sustainable, non-motorized, multi-user trails on public lands adjoining the city of Saliida. We are a chapter of Salida Parks Open Space and Trails, a 501c3 not for profit.

Pridemore Construction will have G St from Third St to Fourth St closed from February 1st-February 2nd for construction on a new sewer service line. If any concerns arise please call Public Works at 719-539-6257. Thank you for your patiences.

Filed under Public Notices

Article source: http://cityofsalida.com/2012/02/road-closure-2/

Spring 2012

Topics covered:

• The physical environment and climate of the Rocky Mountains.
• Basic ecologic concepts.
• Life zones and communities.
• Natural history in our local environments.
• Life histories of representative flora and fauna.
• Diverse environments on earth.

Required text: Grassland to Glacier (approx. $30)  To register, please contact the Buena Vista campus at 719-395-8419 or visit http://www.coloradomtn.edu/ REGISTRATION ENDS FEBRUARY 2^ND

For your convenience a Grandparent Gathering will be held in both Salida and Buena Vista during the month of February.

Join us in Salida on Wednesday, February 8, 8:30-9:30 AM at the Lighthouse which is located on 346 G Street, one block south of Safeway, next to Caring & Sharing.
OR
Join us in Buena Vista on Wednesday, February 15, 9:00-10:00 AM at the Buena Vista Public Library Conference Room, 131 Linderman Avenue.

Please call Elaine Arnold, 719-395-6368, if you have any questions or ideas. See you there!

courtesy of Bat Conservation Int'l

On Wednesday, February 8, the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association (GARNA) will host a program on bats following their annual association meeting. This year’s program will be led by GARNA Board Member Dr. Paul Robertson. The fact that 2011-12 has been declared the European and International Year of the Bat by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an affiliate of the United Nations, may come as a surprise to many people. The fact is that the more than 1,000 species of bats are immensely important both ecologically and economically to most of the world’s peoples via the control of crop pests and the pollination and seed dispersal of economically and ecologically important plant species. Bats also play a critical role in the natural restoration of ecosystems particularly in tropical forests and savannas. Dr. Robertson will introduce the audience to the world of bats both locally and in exotic locales, their value to humans and the world’s ecosystems, conservation challenges faced by their champions, and the story of how Bram Stoker, the original Dracula author, came up with a story that has fascinated many for over a hundred years. The program will be set against a back-drop of some of the best bat photography ever taken. Dr. Robertson is currently The Nature Conservancy’s San Luis Valley Project Director. He received his undergraduate degree in zoology at Louisiana State University, his master’s degree in evolution and his Ph.D. in ecology at the University of Kansas, and for several years was the Executive Director for Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas.

The event will be held at the Salida SteamPlant annex. The public is welcome to attend beginning at 7:00 p.m. for dessert and refreshments. The Bat program will begin at 7:30 p.m. and last about an hour. The event is free and people of all ages are encouraged to attend. For more information please call GARNA at 539-5106.

The students were participating in Shadow Day, a new educational initiative at the hospital designed to introduce high school students to health care careers. The program is modeled after the University of Colorado’s Rural Health Scholars Program, according to HRRMC Education Coordinator Peg Arnett.

This was the second of two sessions at the hospital for the students. They also attended a Career Day on January 13, which introduced them to various careers at the hospital. The students then selected one clinical area to shadow staff on January 27. Students visited the emergency, medical imaging, surgical services, intensive care, cardiopulmonary and rehabilitation departments.

Juniors Kayla Gobin and Rio Wintz spent the day with the medical imaging staff. They visited with radiologist Daniel Wardrop, M.D, and learned about different imaging modalities. Radiologic technologist Kris Cary explained how a CT scan works and let the students lie down in the scanning bed to imitate the scan experience so they could better understand the patient’s perspective.

Salida High School guidance counselor Robert Tressler helped arrange the student visits. Both sessions at the hospital were cosponsored by Salida Rotary Club as part of its educational efforts. Rotary provided liability insurance coverage for the students.

HRRMC plans to roll out this program to Buena Vista and Cotopaxi high school students in the future, said Arnett. “It is part of HRRMC’s commitment to give budding nurses, doctors and other health care providers a chance to learn about health care in a rural area and eventually practice there.”

HRRMC was designated a Center of Excellence in Rural Training by the University of Colorado in 2011.

The hospital hosts students in many disciplines, including medicine, nursing, nurse anesthesia, pharmacy and rehabilitation.

HRRMC Radiologic Technologist  Kris Cary explains how a CT scan works and gives a simulated demonstration for Salida High School juniors Rio Wintz (left) and Kayla Gobin during “Shadow Day,” a new educational initiative at the hospital designed to expose high school students to health care careers.

The 20 hour CERT training teaches individuals and families how to better prepare themselves and their communities for disasters and emergencies.  The curriculum includes classes on selecting preparedness supplies, family emergency planning, recognizing natural and human-caused hazards, fire prevention, an introduction to first aid, and terrorism awareness.

The CERT training will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Mt. Shavano Room of the Touber Building (old hospital) at 448 E. 1^st Street.  Students must attend all sessions.  There is no charge to attend and everyone over the age of 18 is welcome to participate.  We plan to offer the same class in the Buena Vista area sometime in the fall.

To sign up or for further details, contact Don Breece at 395-0344 or dbreece@chaffeecounty.org

Our school is working to pass an ordinance that would place a 5-10 cent fee on plastic bags in Salida stores. Consumers would have the choice to bring their own reusable bags (for free of course!) or pay a fee for each plastic or paper bag used. Similar fees have been passed in Ireland, Washington D.C, and Basalt, CO; these towns have reduced plastic shopping bag use by 50-90 percent!

Come learn more about the “Bag-it Salida” campaign and why plastic bags are so bad for us at a FREE showing of Bag-it  the movie, at 6:30 on February 2nd at the Community Center on 3rd and F st.  We hope to see you there!