Day: December 8, 2023

Hinsdale County’s EMS Director Buffy Witt was honored last month, November 4, in Keystone Colorado, at the annual Colorado State EMS Conference where she received a state-wide award for 2023’s Best EMS Director from West Region EMS & Trauma Advisory Council.Hinsdale County’s Western Regional EMS and Trauma Advisory Council (WRETAC) representative, Danny Barela, nominated Witt for the honor. Although she is reserved about accepting such accolades the honors bestowed on her are far more than deserved. According to Wilderness EMT Katherine Heidt, who accompanied Witt to the awards ceremony, “Buffy is someone who leads with heart and pays attention to detail. Her ability to organize and distill a lot of information while keeping up with 50 different tasks has kept Hinsdale County EMS going in a professional and effective manner. She has brought to Lake City decades of experience, both in the back of an ambulance and on the administrative side of EMS, and that has been a huge asset to our community.”It is widely understood by locals, seasonal residents and visitors alike that Lake City is extremely fortunate to have the talented and dedicated medical and EMS staff the community enjoys, especially for such a small town; it should be further recalled that in 2022, Lake City Medical Technician Amanda Hartman received the state-wide award for EMT Provider of the Year at the same awards event from Emergency Services Association of Colorado (EMSAC). That’s two years consecutively that Hinsdale County has been honored with extremely prestigious awards for excellent in service, and this is unprecedented in Hinsdale County. In a letter penned to the EMSAC Award Committee in support of Witt by retired Hinsdale County Coroner, EMS Director and Emergency Manager, Jerry Gray, Witt’s EMS career began when — though she could not yet see the bigger picture — she was 11 years old with the death of her grandmother, Charlotte O’Toole Hurd.Buffy was alone with her grandmother, and at first, young Buffy hoped that maybe she was just asleep; but her instinct told her something was wrong. The year was 1986, before 911 was available in Lake City, so Buffy called the Sheriff’s Office, and an ambulance was paged out to the location. The ensuing minutes between the call and the arrival of the ambulance were formative for Buffy. She wanted to do something to help, but had no idea what. It was a great relief to her when the ambulance crew arrived, but a chord was struck in the impressionable young girl, and she knew she never again wanted to bein a situation where something needed to be done and she was powerless to assist because she lacked the knowledge. Unfortunately, according to Gray, there weren’t any training options for an eleven-year-old child in 1986. Years later, however, when Gray was canvassing the streets of Lake City in search of candidates to fill an EMT class in town, he came upon a 22-year-old Buffy Hurd, who signed up for the class at once. She found herself immediately hooked, and went on to be an excellent EMT for Hinsdale County EMS. According to Gray, “In order to change EMS from an avocation to an actual vocation, EMTs must leave Lake City and work in a busier service and make money doing so. Buffy did just that.” Earning her Paramedic Certification at North Suburban Hospital in Denver, she worked for Northglenn Ambulance in Northglenn, Thornton and Commerce City, eventually returning to Northglenn as EMS Director while still serving as a street medic. She also worked in Black Hawk, then returned to Northglenn as a Paramedic and administrator in charge of education and developing onboard and field training. She wound up leaving that position to return to Lake City in January, 2020, as Hinsdale EMS Director.While it is true that with her skill and dedication, Witt could earn as much as a basic EMT in a big city as she earns as Paramedic Director of Hinsdale County EMS, she grew up here, loves and is committed to this community, to her job and to her team.Gray, in his letter to the awards committee, explains that in Hinsdale County, an EMS Director will fail to build and retain a team if they are uninvested in this community. “Lake City has always been a difficult place to live and it is becoming more so; the pay scale is low and the cost of living is high. However, Buffy’s passion for Lake City and EMS community,” Gray said, “along with her city experience, has created a successful organization that she continues to lead.”Gray also said in his letter of recommendation that “Hinsdale County EMS is a system in which volunteers must respond at a moment’s notice, interrupting work, business, meals, family time, sleep, leisure time – that is to say, all aspects of life.Buffy is an exemplary EMS Director. She serves as a role model in the community, drawing in new team members with a new EMT class planned for this winter and sparking interest in the children of some of her current team members who have become Wilderness First Responders and have joined Search and Rescue. She also serves as a role model in the state. Other EMS Directors would do well to follow her lead in developing Peer Support Teams which not only benefit the mental health of individual responders, but build bridges, understanding and friendships between those agencies which must work together under stressful situations.”Gray concluded his letter by saying, “Please grant Buffy the honor of this award. She wholeheartedly deserves this recognition. She gives her heart and her soul and wears her scars on her psyche as a result of her unwavering commitment.”

Colorado House District 58 candidate Kathleen Curry, from Gunnison, will be in Lake City this Saturday, speaking as a guest of Hinsdale County Democratic Party.The public is invited at a meet and greet with Curry at Lake City Public Library starting 2:30 p.m. this Saturday,December 9. A Denver native, natural resources, and particularly water issues, have been near and dear to Curry’s heart since moving to the state’s Western Slope from metropolitan Denver in 1998.Curry served as Manager of Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District from 1998 to 2004, including stressful times with the water district during the drought of 2002.From 2005 to 2010 she was elected as State Representative from House District 61 representing Hinsdale and Gunnison, Pitkin, and portions of Garfield and Eagle Counties.For the past five years she has worked as lobbyist at the State Capitol in Denver focused on natural resource issues which she terms as “top priorities” in the state. Her clients at the State Capitol have included have included agriculture and wildlife interests, as well as West Slope water districts.Curry, a Democrat, is to date the sole announced District 58 candidate running to fill the seat now held by Republican Mark Catlin of Montrose. Catlin is term limited and will not seek re-election.House District 58 is a large district representing not only Hinsdale and Gunnison Counties but also the entirety of Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel and Dolores Counties, and portions of Montezuma and Delta Counties.

At Hinsdale Commissioners’ upbeat meeting Wednesday, November 15, board members Greg Levine, Robert Hurd, and Kristie Borchers discussed at length improved cell telephone reception as a direct result of tower improvements on Hill 71 and, in an unrelated discussion with Buckhorn Engineering’s Dan Quigley during the workshop portion of their meeting, impending chip and seal paving along a four-mile section of County Road 30 at Lake San Cristobal.Commissioner Hurd was optimistic as he described greater cell phone coverage during the commissioners’ open discussion shortly after 8 a.m. on November 15. Hurd referenced the new 80’-tall AT&T-ComNet communication tower on Hill 71 — visible on the horizon from Lake City — which became operational in November this year, dramatically extending cell coverage in combination with another new AT&T-ComNet communications tower which has been erected at Bristol Head on the Upper Rio Grande.As a result of the new Hill 71 tower, according to Commissioner Hurd, numerous “black holes” where cell phone communication was non-existant have now been remedied.Sharing obvious pleasure in the cell reception expansion with his fellow commissioners, Hurd told Borchers and Levine that cell telephone reception now extends down the Lake Fork Valley, lower Lake Fork residents Tom and Jeannie Russell, and Becky Weeks, for instance, now able to pick up two to three bars on their cell phones, indicative of reception in an area where no reception previously existed.Continuing, Hurd said there is now cell phone reception on Highway 149 near the Whinnery Ranch in Gunnison County, with coverage also reported 24 miles distant at the start of Lake City Cutoff on Sapinero Mesa.Elsewhere in the area, the extent of the 80’-tall cell tower at Hill 71 also allows cell service at the Ute-Ulay Mine on Henson Creek and upper reaches of the Lake Fork Valley past Lake San Cristobal.When warmer weather returns with the advent of late spring and summer, 2024, Hurd confidently predicts that upper Lake Fork cell service may reach as far as Silver Creek in Burrows ParkNot totally content with blank spots in cell phone reception which still exist down valley, Hurd said he is already lobbying for yet another new communications tower — potentially funded in part through the Federal First Net emergency communications program — which could conceivably be erected on Rose Ridge adjacent to Blue Mesa Subdivision on the lower Lake Fork. He optimistically states that the few remaining blank spots where reception is unavailable could potentially disappear with a third tower at Rose Ridge in combination with the Hill 71 tower.Continuing in an optimistic vein, Hinsdale Commissioners in workshop session Nov. 15 met with Dan Quigley of Montrose-based Buckhorn Engineering.Buckhorn has been engaged to produce detailed plans for next summer’s long-awaited paving of a four-mile section of County Road 30 extending from the county road’s start at Highway 149 and extending up valley to the inlet of Lake San Cristobal.The lake road chip & seal paving project is funded through a no-match $900,000 Colorado Department of Transportation Multi-Modal grant which emphasizes recreation as a key component of road improvement projects.As explained by Quigley, detailed specifications for the project will be complete in December, after which the county will advertise for a contractor starting in February, 2024. A successful contractor will then be selected and work on the project could start as early as May or June depending on prevailing temperatures.Engineered specifications for the project on a section by section basis total 65 separate sheets.County Road 30, for the four-mile distance, will consist of two 11-foot vehicle lanes in combination with two four-foot bicycle and pedestrian lanes on both sides of the road.Toward that goal, Hinsdale Road & Bridge utilized an excavator last year to widen key portions of the lake road, specifically easing a sharp curve on the road just above the county boat dock at Peninsula Park, and widening a sharp S-curve which exists in the vicinity of Pioneer Point at the Ward boat house.Certain elements of the lake terrain prohibit a full 30’ vehicle and bike lane surface, and in those areas the bike lanes may be 3’-width rather than 4’.Road surfacing on the lake road will be a two-layer chip & seal surface, starting with the compacted dirt and gravel road surface onto which a layer of 3/4”-diameter rock chips will be applied. This in turn is solidified with a coating of .50 oil which solidifies in less than a day, after which a second layer comprised of 1/2”-circumference chips is installed, the whole in turn then coated — similar to frosting on a cake -with a “fog coat” layer of oil.Total depth of the new road surface including both layers of chips with oil emulsion is estimated to be 1-1/4” to 1-1/2” thick.A similar chip and seal road surface in Town of Lake City extending from 3rd Street to the mouth of Henson Creek was cooperatively installed by Hinsdale and Gunnison Road & Bridge personnel in 1986 and — 37 years later — has the appearance of asphalt and is remarkably well preserved.Hurd and fellow commissioners are in hopes the new lake road chip & seal paving will hold up in similar fashion given the extent and speed of traffic using the county road at Lake San Cristobal. “We’ll be extremely happy if we get 10 to 15 years’ use from this chip & seal project,” says Hurd.Work on the lake road is scheduled to start in June, potentially May with fair weather and last a maximum of 90 days. The chip & seal application requires temperatures in the 45-degree and above range. Traffic disruptions will be kept to a minimum, with traffic control a part of the contractor’s bid; CDOT will provide two electronic messaging boards to be placed at the start of CR 30 off Highway 149 and on CR 30 at the lake inlet at the opposite end of the four-mile project.

Six-year-old Cake Walk winner Dennis Kaminski, right, was contemplative as he pondered which cake to select for his winning prize during last Saturday’s Christmas in Lake City festivities. Below right, oohs and ahhs echoed into the night as the town park Christmas tree was illuminated. Saturday, December 2 was a fun-filled, eventful day in Lake City as the annual Christmas in Lake City festivities commenced, marking the true start of the holiday season.1) Packer Saloon’s Josh Votruba driving his lighted OHV in the Parade of Lights.2) Frosty the Snowman on the GCEA float. 3) Spectators at the Parade of Lights, eagerly anticipating the candy being thrown from all the floats. 4) Town of Lake City’s Public Works float brought the Darth Vader vibe. 5) Winning float showcasing a presents-hoarding Grinch, designed by Brogan and Heather Rodenbaugh, who received $50 for their creation. 6) Tigger waving to the crowds. 7) There were many shopping opportunities around town during Christmas in Lake City and it’s always good to buy local – here we see Glenn Heumann showcasing the history-related Christmas gifts available at Hinsdale County Museum. 8) Tracy Toler-Lanktree, owner of Cabin Fever Mercantile, offering her sweet treats to a young shopper.9-12: Wonderful Fling to be Flung! 9) Fruitcake flingers line up in Town Park. 10) Nathaniel Menzies cocks his arm back for a mighty fling. 11) Micah Humphries, who won first place in the age 13-21 fruitcake fling category; second place went to Joseph Schultheis. 12) Adult fling winner Nick Arbogast, showcasing his flinging talent; second place went to Chamber of Commerce’s Kate Hopson. In the 8-12 year old category, first place winner was Henry Shepherd and second, Elliot Hartman.13, 14 & 15) Whimsical Christmas-themed treats and treasures up for grabs at the annual Silent Auction at Lake City Arts. 16) Lake City Children singing carols as the tree in Town Park is lit. 17) Sue Brix crafting with children in the Armory during the morning crafting event. 18) Town of Lake City’s Rec. Department employee Danny File teaching his crafting skills, and 19) File really getting into the Christmas spirit. 20) The always charming and hilarious Becky Leugemors at the crafting event getting her HOHOHO on.