Indoor range developers give it their best shot

Like so many other local shooting enthusiasts, Shad Knowlton one day found himself literally dodging bullets in the north desert, where lead often flies in multiple directions and many times safety can seem more of an afterthought. But unlike the everyday typical frustrated shooter, Knowlton is in a position to do something about it. He and his family are currently building a massive, multimillion-dollar, world-class indoor gun range along 31 Road, a facility that when completed will be ...

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Indoor range developers give it their best shot

Like so many other local shooting enthusiasts, Shad Knowlton one day found himself literally dodging bullets in the north desert, where lead often flies in multiple directions and many times safety can seem more of an afterthought. But unlike the everyday typical frustrated shooter, Knowlton is in a position to do something about it. He and his family are currently building a massive, multimillion-dollar, world-class indoor gun range along 31 Road, a facility that when completed will be ...

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TABOR
 ruling 
may be 
Monday

Mesa County commissioners could decide Monday to change course, away from a 2007 decision in which the county began excluding sales tax revenue from its collection limitation calculations mandated by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. If they do, they’ll be directing the county back into the mainstream, an analysis shows. It seems Mesa County is the only county in the state to exclude its sales tax revenues without having first gone to voters for approval. Mesa County’s ...

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2 Garfield County men killed in I-70 rollover

Two Garfield County men were killed Thursday night when the car they were riding in rolled over in De Beque Canyon, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The Mesa County Coroner’s Office on Friday evening identified the victims as 31-year-old Dustin Worley of Silt and 25-year-old Bruce Strand of Rifle. Coroner’s officials said the men died from multiple blunt force injuries and ruled their deaths an accident. The rollover of their black 1996 Honda Civic was reported just ...

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Fruita mailing survey on
 city government to residents

Fruita city officials are urging residents not to reactively throw out a mailer they’ll likely receive over the next few days. The 2013 Community Survey might look like junk mail, but it’s actually residents’ best chance to express concerns and give suggestions to their elected leaders and city staff. “It’s our chance to get a scientific representation of what the community is thinking, and it’s something that the (city) council really uses to do their ...

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Fruita mailing survey on
 city government to residents

Fruita city officials are urging residents not to reactively throw out a mailer they’ll likely receive over the next few days. The 2013 Community Survey might look like junk mail, but it’s actually residents’ best chance to express concerns and give suggestions to their elected leaders and city staff. “It’s our chance to get a scientific representation of what the community is thinking, and it’s something that the (city) council really uses to do their ...

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IRS Freedom Colorado response

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County commission weighs TABOR options

One way or another, the Mesa County Board of County Commissioners is headed toward making a decision regarding their continued exclusion of local sales taxes from Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights revenue limit calculations. The county decided in 2007 to begin excluding their sales tax revenue, based on a legal opinion that allows it because the county’s sales tax was voter-approved in 1981, well before TABOR was passed. By excluding sales taxes during record years of revenue ...

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Xcel: Cameo 
is prime spot 
for industrial

An update about demolition progress at Xcel Energy’s Cameo property in De Beque Canyon focused mostly on the property’s ideal qualities as a prime industrial site, despite an initial push from the community to site a large-scale shooting range there. “This could be an incredible property to put a nice industrial company into,” Fred Eggleston, area manager for Xcel, told Mesa County commissioners last week. “As we look and we listen to the community about ...

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Fire forecasters: 2013 should be better than 2012

What a difference a few strong, advantageously timed weather systems can make. With fresh memories of 2012—one of the most active wildfire seasons this region has seen in recent years—officials earlier this year were preparing for the worst, warning of the possibility of a repeat cycle this time around. But major precipitation events in April, and cool, wet weather to begin May, have local wildfire watchers more optimistic looking ahead to the 2013 wildfire ...

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County official to update public via social media

Mesa County Commissioner Rose Pugliese hopes to have constituents following her in droves — and also responding to messages she plans to send in 140 characters or less. For the uninitiated, Pugliese this week began actively posting to her new Twitter account — you can follow her @MesaCountyRose — as another way to reach out about her schedule and presumably important topics related to her job. It’s possible subject hashtags like #opengovernment, #transparency or ...

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Health board seeking volunteer

An expiration in April of the term of one of the five members on the Mesa County Board of Health has the county soliciting applications for people interested in serving on the board. The board — which sets public health policies and works closely with the county’s public health director — also advises the Board of County Commissioners “to ensure that appropriate and necessary efforts are in place so that public health policies are being ...

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Thieves make off with high heels

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Brainard no longer working at West Star

Embattled Grand Junction City Councilor Rick Brainard has disappeared from the contact directory for local aircraft services firm West Star Aviation Inc., prompting questions about whether he has been fired by the company. Brainard was sworn in Monday as one of four new members of the Grand Junction City Council, just weeks after he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence against his live-in girlfriend. Brainard’s name, listed on an online directory as West Star’s vice ...

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More than 400 answer survey on life, services in Mesa County

More than 400 Mesa County residents recently completed the 2013 Citizen Survey — the results of which were presented to commissioners Monday — and while there were areas identified as having room for improvement, the general perception of county services and safety seems to be positive. Most of the respondents answered positively when asked about Mesa County as a place to live and raise a family, at 93 percent and 91 percent, respectively. Thirty-five percent did answer ...

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Kennel repairs may get firms out of ‘doghouse’

Repairs to the kennel areas of the Mesa County Animal Services facility — built in 2010 on shifting soils in the Whitewater area at a cost of more than $3 million — are expected to begin later this month after county commissioners recently approved a contract for the work. The county filed suit last year against the primary contractor on the project, Denver-based CMC Group, and against local geotechnical contractor Huddleston-Berry and architectural and engineering ...

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Rowland, officials differ over county move on TABOR

In May 2007, Mesa County took the unprecedented step of deciding — without voter approval — to exclude its local sales taxes from revenue limit calculations set forth in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Six years later, current and former county staff say the county did so with unanimous consent of the three county commissioners. One of those commissioners, though, vehemently denies that she ever signed off on the plan, or that she participated in the meeting where, the ...

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Co-op bucks power supplier with stance on renewables bill

A bill that would require rural electric associations to boost the amount of power they generate from renewable sources is under vehement challenge by the association set to be most affected, Tri-State Transmission and Generation. But the only cooperative in the immediate region that gets its power from Tri-State views SB252 as a potential opportunity to expand its own portfolio of renewable power generation. The board of the Delta-Montrose Electric Association recently passed a motion to ...

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County secures funding to fix
 bottleneck at 32 and E roads

Work isn’t scheduled to begin until next year, but Mesa County has lined up the funding to improve the problematic intersection at E and 32 roads in the Pear Park-Clifton area. On busy days, vehicles headed east on E Road that attempt to make a left turn onto 32 Road have to wait for traffic to clear, meaning traffic behind them on the narrow two-lane road can be backed up for blocks. “Personally, I’ve seen a line of cars eastbound on E Road that goes back all the way ...

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Ex-official rips board over TABOR

Simmering citizen tensions about Mesa County’s approach to the state Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights boiled to the surface before county commissioners Monday when a former commissioner confronted the current board about its financial practices. Former commissioner John Crouch — who served on the board beginning in 1993, right as TABOR was being implemented as Colorado law — took direct aim at the previous board, which made a number of key changes to the way the ...

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Empty building catches fire

An early morning fire Sunday in an abandoned commercial building downtown drew crews from all five stations of the Grand Junction Fire Department, who knocked down the fire after it caused heavy damage to the building. The two-story red brick building at 202 S. Second Street, within a block of Two Rivers Convention Center, had heavy smoke pouring from the second floor and roof when responders first arrived after 6:30 a.m. Crews were able to attack the fire from the outside, dousing the ...

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Road projects soon may get a green light

Some major local transportation projects, including the proposed 29 Road interchange with Interstate 70 and a new double roundabout along Horizon Drive, could happen sooner rather than later, as officials last week finalized a list of projects they plan to submit to a new statewide transportation funding program. Last year, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, in conjunction with the state Department of Transportation, announced the Responsible Acceleration of Maintenance and Partnerships ...

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Library opening expected in June

Construction of the newly expanded and hugely improved Central Branch of the Mesa County Library is in the final stages, and library officials are finalizing a timeline that will see the new facility open in mid- or late June. “We promised late spring for our opening, and spring officially ends at 1 am on June 21,” said Eve Tallman, libraries director. If all goes according to plan between now and then, the big grand opening event will happen June 20. “Right now, ...

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No wind beneath sales

An already fragile economic recovery could be at risk of reversing course, at least when viewed through the lens of the latest sales tax collection data reported by Mesa County and Grand Valley municipalities. Through the first part of 2013, Mesa County, the cities of Grand Junction and Fruita and the town of Palisade reported slides in the amount of revenue they are collecting via sales taxes, as compared with the same time period last year. The drop is especially significant for both ...

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Budget cuts mean less federal cash for Mesa County

Forced sequester cuts will decrease the amount of money Mesa County is set to receive in connection with the area’s high percentage of federal lands, finance officials told county commissioners this week. Each year, the county receives a sizable sum from the federal government via the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program, which is intended to offset losses in property taxes that counties would otherwise receive for their nontaxable federal lands. Mesa County counts more than 1.5 ...

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Library chief calling it quits, will retire soon

It’s a time of major change for the Mesa County Libraries, with a new multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion of the central branch expected to be ready in June. But the future of the libraries beyond this August will be guided by someone other than the group’s current director, Eve Tallman, who announced Friday that she is retiring from the job. “Mesa County citizens have been the tremendous beneficiaries of having Eve serve as the library director with her great ...

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Former director 
in Mesa County 
lands state job

Former Mesa County Administrator Chantal Unfug — forced out of the job by county commissioners in January — has landed a job as a division director with the state Department of Local Affairs in Denver. Unfug, who previously held a number of jobs with the city and county of Denver before being hired as Mesa County’s top administration official in July 2011, will now serve as director of DOLA’s Division of Local Government, state officials announced Thursday. The ...

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Contract final with county’s new manager

Mesa County will pay its new administrator $6,000 more a year than the previous top management official, according to contract details agreed to Monday. Tom Fisher will earn $131,000 in annual salary, versus the $125,000 that was paid to the previous county administrator, Chantal Unfug. Unfug was forced out of the job by commissioners in January. Fisher also will receive 10 additional days of paid vacation, over and above the 12 hours of monthly accruable paid vacation time he was ...

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Birdhouse auction to benefit bookworms

Mesa County library officials hope to hatch the imaginations of the area’s youngest readers, so much so that they’ve designed the entrance to the Youth Services area of the new central library to resemble a birdhouse. Continuing the theme, the all-volunteer Friends of the Library is holding an original fundraiser of its own in conjunction with the grand opening of the new central branch, soliciting artists and crafters to contribute creatively constructed birdhouses for a ...

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Fruita worries that BLM plan will limit recreation in north desert area

The North Fruita Desert area is a magnet for visitors and outdoor enthusiasts, so it’s little wonder that the city of Fruita is protective of the area in the face of possible changes from the Bureau of Land Management’s impending Resource Management Plan. The city penned a letter last week to Katie Stevens, director of the BLM’s Grand Junction Field Office, providing feedback about the agency’s sweeping management plan, which eventually will determine how more than ...

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Avalon Foundation scrambles for funds

A construction bid has been approved for a major rehabilitation of the historic Avalon Theatre, but a funding shortfall from the foundation backing the project has the group pressing for a quick infusion of cash to get the initial phase started soon. Robin Brown, development director of the Avalon Cornerstone Project, said three separate capital campaigns are being launched to get as much of the $1.5 million that is needed to begin the project. The city of Grand Junction has already ...

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Crops looking good, despite 
frigid nights

The cold snap that has accompanied the unseasonably wet April in the Grand Valley claimed another record Friday, as weather-watchers at Grand Junction Regional Airport reported a low temperature of 25—two degrees colder than the previous record, set April 19, 1975. The back-to-back chilly nights—Thursday morning’s low of 24 was two degrees off the record—had many area fruit growers checking temperatures, running wind machines, spraying fruit trees and cranking up ...

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Donate a good book to curl up with

Volunteers who support Mesa County Libraries are gearing up for one of their top annual fundraisers — the Spring Book Sale starting May 16 — and hope you’ll donate your gently
used books, CDs, DVDs and videotapes to add to their wide selection. “We’re going for a record — we’re trying to get 20,000 books,” said Maggie Lopez, president of the Friends of the Mesa County Libraries, adding that last year the group offered more ...

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Cold, wet weather to keep grip on Grand Valley

Sorely needed rain returned to the Grand Valley overnight Monday, and the unsettled weather and precipitation trend appears likely to stick around through at least Wednesday. Regional fruit growers should be aware that weather watchers are predicting temperatures could descend into the teens on both Wednesday and Thursday nights. “This is kind of a prolonged event, with a few systems in it. It looks like this is the first part of it,” said Dennis Phillips, meteorologist in the ...

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West Slope runners see devastation firsthand in Boston

At least seven people from the Western Slope were registered to run in the Boston Marathon Monday. A few of them crossed the finish line before explosions ripped through the crowd. One of them was Christine Gieszl, doctor of internal medicine at the Montrose Veterans Affairs center. She finished about 20 minutes before the explosions, and was hanging around the runner’s village with her husband about a quarter-mile from the finish line. “We heard the blast, turned around and ...

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Shooting-range plans stall on questions over availability of property

The state parks and wildlife agency is solidly behind the idea of building a state-of-the-art shooting and outdoor education facility at the old Cameo power plant property, but a recent meeting between agency officials and local leaders revealed just how difficult the project would be to pull off. The idea for a large-scale shooting facility in the area has been swirling for years, but it’s only with the impending availability of the property at Cameo — about 3,000 acres ...

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Taxing decision puts opponents at loggerheads in decades-old tiff

Mesa County has been skirting Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights for more than 20 years by excluding sales tax revenue from its revenue limit calculations, according to a resident who has been pressing county officials on the matter. The constitutional amendment, approved by voters in 1992, essentially says that taxes cannot be raised, and governments can’t spend tax revenue that outpaces growth, without going to voters for approval. Revenue collected over established ...

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New energy mandate rattles rural co-ops

Flush with Democrat majorities in Denver, state lawmakers have fast-tracked a bill that will more than double the amount of energy that rural cooperatives are mandated to get from renewable energy sources. The bill, if signed into law, could mean cost increases for customers of Tri-State Generation and Transmission, whom analysts say the legislation primarily targets. “It could have huge financial implications on Tri-State and our member co-ops in Colorado,” said Jim Van ...

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Buds chilled but not killed

Fruit growers get nocturnal this time of year, vigilantly watching the nighttime weather when dropping temperatures threaten the fruit trees flowering in their orchards. And while records were set for low temperatures Wednesday morning — the mercury dipped to 21 degrees in Palisade and 22 degrees on Orchard Mesa, both record lows for the date — many sleep-deprived orchardists were fairly upbeat when assessing the damage later in the day. “I believe, at this point in ...

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Grand Junction Incubator named best in global arena

Fledgling local businesses who use the resources of the Business Incubator Center of Grand Junction to launch their enterprises are doing so at an internationally renowned facility, according to one national organization. The National Business Incubation Association on Tuesday named the area’s local incubator the 2013 Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year during an international conference in Boston. In announcing the award, the association said programs like the Business Incubator ...

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Orchardists bracing for hard freeze

What a tease the warm weather and abundant sunshine last weekend turned out to be. Winter-like conditions blew into the area in a big way Monday, delivering a cold dose of springtime-in-Colorado reality. That chilly reality is expected to continue today, and into Wednesday, as weather-watchers expect low temperatures below the freezing mark both days. By Wednesday, the local office of the National Weather Service predicts temperatures will fall to about 27 degrees near the airport — ...

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Councilor-elect stays extra night behind jail bars

A technological problem with a jail video system kept Grand Junction City Councilor-elect Rick Brainard from appearing before a magistrate Sunday morning — meaning he’d spend an additional night in the Mesa County Jail. Brainard — who won election last Tuesday with nearly 58 percent of the vote for the council’s at-large seat — was booked into jail Saturday morning on suspicion of misdemeanor counts of third-degree assault and harassment. People arrested ...

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Rebuilding Exit 26 begins today

The big reconstruction of Exit 26 at Interstate 70 gets under way today, with the start of a preparatory project that will realign 22 Road — a spot eyed for at least two future truck stops. About one-third of a mile along U.S. Highway 6 will be rebuilt, between Valley Court and the Exit 26 Interchange. Traffic will still be able to travel through the work area in both directions, but lanes will be shifted and speeds will be reduced to 35 mph. The intersection will be moved 500 feet ...

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Proposed trail from Grand Mesa to valley floor generates excitement

Palisade may today look enviously down valley when it comes to attracting mountain biking tourists to the small town. But in reality, it’s sitting on a natural asset that neither Fruita nor Grand Junction can claim — the potential of a long, gravity-aided ride that would cover a massive elevation change, from the top of Grand Mesa to the Colorado River below. Consider it Palisade’s peachy alternative to the famous “Whole Enchilada” ride in Moab — ...

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Zoo organizers face deadline for funds

If a new zoological facility is to be built in Fruita, the group backing the idea will first need to raise a half-million dollars by the end of next year, according to an agreement with the city. Grand Valley Zoological Quest envisions building an indoor rainforest and animal education center on the former site of two city wastewater lagoons near the Interstate 70 exit in Fruita and the Colorado River. The city essentially said it will consider entering into a favorable lease with the zoo ...

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Fruita board alters fees for two programs

The Fruita City Council signed off on two separate rate adjustments this week, the result of feedback from citizens that ended up spurring the changes. First, the city has decided to broaden its “couples” fee structure for the Fruita Community Center, which offered a discount to two adults who live in the same household. Under the previous rate structure, a “couple” could get a pass for $45 a month, versus the $30 charged for a single person. Last year, Fruita ...

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Organizer scraps shooting contest

A regional shooting competition that would have brought hundreds of folks to Montrose later this year has been scrapped—a direct casualty of new Colorado gun laws set to kick in just a few days before the competition, organizers say. Local members of the International Defensive Pistol Association—a group with more than 17,000 members in at least 50 countries worldwide—had been planning a regional championship for July 4-6 at the San Juan Shooting Range in Montrose. But ...

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Mesa County eyes long trial
 over animal shelter

A lengthy trial appears inevitable in the county’s dispute over construction of the $3 million Animal Services facility, built in 2010 on shifting soils in the Whitewater area. A status conference is scheduled for April 12 before Judge Valerie Robison. Mesa County Attorney Lyle Dechant briefed county commissioners that a two-week jury trial is likely. “We’re kicking it into a litigation pattern, for sure,” Dechant said. “Everybody’s in, ...

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Shooting complex at Cameo in sights

The idea to develop a large-scale shooting and outdoor education complex — primarily being pressed by the town of Palisade for the Cameo area — is gaining some heft with the support of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “We’re looking at developing a range that is more than just a rifle range. What we would like it to be is a complex,” said Ron Velarde, co-manager of Parks and Wildlife’s northwest region. “We are moving forward. We have (the ...

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Mesa County eyes Wagner for airport panel

Local attorney, radio host and Daily Sentinel columnist Rick Wagner is poised to become the latest addition to the Grand Junction Regional Airport Authority board. Mesa County commissioners are expected to make his nomination official at their regular public meeting Monday, naming him as one of their three appointees to the seven-person board. “I’m more of a consumer of air services,” Wagner said, explaining what sort of perspective he might bring to the body. “I ...

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