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February 2008
GJ sales tax up about 8 percent
Businesses in Grand Junction started out on an upbeat note as sales tax revenue was up nearly 8 percent in January, when compared with the same period a year earlier, a report showed this afternoon.
Sales tax receipts surged to $5.29 million in January from $4.91 million in January 2007, the Grand Junction Financial Operations Department reported.
Data reflects sales tax receipts from December that was collected through January.
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UPDATE: Phone systems back up at city offices
Phone systems at city offices across town are back in service, after experiencing a service outage this afternoon.
Facilities affected by the outage included City Hall, The Visitor’s Convention Bureau, and the city’s water plant, among others. But city spokeswoman Sam Rainguet said provider Qwest had fixed the problem.
— Sentinel staff
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Permits required for open burning
City residents are required to obtain burn permits from local fire departments before burning on their property.
Mesa County will issue permits for burning in areas outside of the city limits. Burning is allowed on dry weeds, garden waste, irrigation ditches, and tree or shrub trimming less than an inch in diameter.
The Grand Junction Fire Department encourages residents to find alternates to open burning, such as composting. Contact Mesa County’s composting facility at 263-9319.
— Sentinel staff
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Man on snow-removal crew dies after falling off hotel roof
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS (AP) — A Centennial man who’d served two tours of duty in Iraq is dead after falling from the icy roof of a Steamboat Springs hotel.
Authorities say 24-year-old Eric O’Hara was in Steamboat to help his brother-in-law, who operates a business that’s contracted to clear snow from roofs.
O’Hara was at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel and was standing on a piece of ice that broke loose about 4 p.m. Thursday. He had released a carabiner clip so he could move along a safety rope, and slid down the roof without being attached.
O’Hara grabbed the rope after sliding over the edge of the roof, but falling snow and ice knocked him loose.
He landed on his back on a lower roof and died at the scene.
O’Hara was a 2002 graduate of Steamboat Springs High School.
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UPDATE: Boulder tumbles on to mountain pass
This morning a massive chunk of rock, 30-foot long, 12-feet high and 12-foot wide, tumbled down McClure Pass and landed on the shoulder of Colorado Highway 133, said Nancy Shanks, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
“We do have a rock that came down on state Highway 133 — between Paonia and Carbondale,” Shanks said. The behemoth landed at mile marker 24 1/2 near the Paonia Reservior on the south side of McClure Pass, she said.
The boulder is out of the path of traffic and caused no injury to persons or property, she said.
“This rock is just inside the white line. It is not blocking traffic,” she said.
Crews are currently working to break up the rock and remove it, she said.
A CDOT geologist will be on site Saturday to examine the hill side for stability, she said.
On Thursday a 3-foot diameter rock came down onto Colorado Highway 139 in Douglas Pass, between Loma and Rangely, Shanks said.
The incidents may foreshadow a season of tumbling granite in the Rockies, which has seen a blustery winter.
“Just know that this is a time when we are beginning to see rocks and mud,” Shanks said. “It is not uncommon now.”
CDOT crews are continually monitoring areas that have seen devastating consequences from rock fall, such as the De Beque Canyon were just two years ago a truck driver was killed by falling rock.
“It is certainly not uncommon for our maintenance crews to be dealing with rock falls and avalanches at the same time — it is just crazy,” Shanks said.
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Arrest in alleged child sex assault
A 42-year-old Grand Junction man was arrested at Community Hospital early Thursday evening on suspicion of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department.
He was booked into the Mesa County Jail on sexual assault charges according to the Sheriff’s booking log. No bond has been set.
— Orchard Mesa thefts from vehicles reported
There have been a string of thefts from vehicles parked in the Orchard Mesa area, deputies said. At noon Thursday, the owner of a pickup reported that he was the latest victim. Several items were removed from his truck, deputies said.
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Bus stops where?
Two months ago Grand Valley Transit changed its routes, yet bus riders and drivers in Clifton and other areas are still not sure where the bus stops are.
Case in point, the GVT used to have a stop on 33 Road just south of F Road.
That was removed when the routes changed.
Now riders stand on a patch of dust at the intersection of F and 33 roads or in front of the convenience store on F Road, just east of the post office.
Sometimes the bus stops, sometimes it doesn’t creating confusion.
“If there is no sign they are not supposed to be stopping,” said Todd Hollenbeck, spokesman for the GVT.
Yet people wait at the unmarked stops every day.
Even GVT’s own bus route map — available online at www.gvt.mesacounty.us — shows several bus stops in the area.
“If there is no sign there isn’t a stop,” said Hollenbeck, contradicting the GVT’s own printed maps.
He said the problem is the Colorado Department of Transportation’s slow approval process for new stops.
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Mother gets 40 years
DENVER (AP) — A woman who gave birth in a bathroom stall at a Denver bar then stuffed her baby boy in a plastic bag and dumped him in the trash received the maximum 40-year sentence.
Erin Pendleton, 32, pleaded guilty Jan. 18 to child abuse resulting in death.
Pendleton, who was arrested in June 2004 after a janitor found the baby in the trash, received credit for 1,337 days served in jail.
In sentencing Pendleton Thursday, District Court Judge Anne Mansfield acknowledged Pendleton’s history of mental illness and called the case tragic.
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Bill gives Leadville tunnel cleanup work to Bureau of Reclamation
DENVER (AP) — Colorado congressmen Doug Lamborn and Mark Udall introduced legislation Thursday that makes a single federal agency responsible for removing up to 1 billion gallons of contaminated water trapped in a Leadville drainage tunnel.
The legislation comes two weeks after Lake County officials declared a state of emergency, saying water pressure in the tunnel could cause a blowout and flood the town.
Lamborn, a Republican, and Udall, a Democrat, say their bill gives the Bureau of Reclamation the power to remove and treat the contaminated water.
That would untangle a jurisdictional knot. The Bureau of Reclamation has said it has the authority to treat only the water coming out of the tunnel, while water backed up in a pool behind the tunnel is part of an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site.
“Interestingly enough, we not only have a physical blockage with the tunnel, we have a legal blockage,” Udall said. “This bill clarifies that.”
The tunnel drains water from hundreds of abandoned mine shafts. A collapse inside the tunnel, detected in 1995, caused the water to back up inside the shafts.
Lamborn said the bill will speed the removal of the water and prevent a “potential environmental disaster in the making.”
Udall has said some of the water could be pumped to a nearby well the EPA owns. But longer-term, Udall and Lamborn want Reclamation to build another well and transfer the water to its treatment facility.
Lamborn and Udall said they hope Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard will sponsor the bill in the Senate. On Thursday, Salazar also introduced a bill that seeks to authorize $40 million in funding for the fix. His bill also would direct the Secretary of the Interior, along with the State and the EPA, to study whether the water quality downstream from and in the Arkansas River has been affected.
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Forest Service increases fines for forest infractions
DENVER (AP) — Fines for building, maintaining or using a campfire on U.S. Forest Service lands during a fire ban have shot up 1,200 percent under a new fine structure.
The fine now is $300, up from $25.
Gil Quintana, Special Agent in Charge for Rocky Mountain Region Law Enforcement and Investigations, said Thursday the previous 15-year-old fee structure didn’t provide enough deterrence for would be scofflaws.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Notthingham recently approved the new fine structure. Other examples of the new higher fees include: Damaging a road or trail, $300, up from $75; operating a motor vehicle in a prohibited area, $250; setting off fireworks, $200, up from $75.
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