The San Juan Conservation District will sponsor a half-day irrigation workshop Aug. 21. The workshop will be held at John Taylor’s ranch, 1-4 p.m.

Participants will be introduced to drop structures and pipe extensions for ditch erosion control. They will also be able to see a gated pipeline in operation.

Jerry Archuleta, district conservationist for the NRCS, will discuss the effects of excessive irrigation on plant species and soils and application techniques for PAM, a polyacrylamide, used to help seal leaky ditches and ponds.

Cody Regnier, soil conservationist for the NRCS, will demonstrate the use of atmometers, tensiometers and water mark sensors — instruments used to optimize the proper volume, frequency and application rate of irrigation water. These tools, used in conjunction with traditional methods, can improve irrigation efficiency. Bob Formwalt, water commissioner, will discuss water measuring devices, water accounting, water decrees, and abandonments.

Call to reserve a space, 731-3615.

National DUI crackdown begins Aug. 17

Law enforcement agencies across Colorado are joining a nationwide DUI crackdown that will last through the Labor Day holiday.

The stepped-up Heat is On enforcement begins at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17 and continues until 3 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4.

Last year, between Aug. 17 and Sept. 4, 18 people died in alcohol-related traffic crashes in Colorado — an average of one person killed each day.

“End-of-summer celebrations, in combination with drinking and driving, make this a very dangerous time of year on Colorado roadways,” said Pamela Hutton, CDOT Governor’s Representative for Highway Safety. “With more people expected on our highways leading up to Labor Day, law enforcement officers will be out in force to get drunk drivers off our roads to save lives.”

In 2006, 217 people died in alcohol-related traffic crashes in Colorado. Three-quarter of those killed were men and nearly one in six were riding motorcycles. Seventeen percent of victims were under age 21.

“Drunk driving is the number one killer on Colorado’s highways,” said Colonel Mark Trostel, chief of the Colorado State Patrol.  ”Law enforcement agencies have been working together since Memorial Day weekend to increase DUI enforcement and protect citizens from this deadly crime.  We’re at the point with public information and education where every motorist should know that they shouldn’t drink and drive.  If you’re celebrating with alcohol, have a designated driver or line up other safe, sober transportation.  And remember the best defense against drunk drivers is to buckle up yourself and your passengers.”

The Colorado State Patrol and more than 80 agencies have filed plans for increased patrols, saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints over the 18-day period. During last year’s national crackdown, Colorado law enforcement agencies made 1,969 DUI arrests. DUI violators often face jail time, loss of their driver’s license, alcohol-treatment classes and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.

The Heat Is On enforcement is in conjunction with the national Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest. campaign organized by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The campaign focuses on combining high-visibility enforcement with heightened public awareness through advertising and publicity. This year’s effort is supported by $11 million in paid-national advertising.

Nationwide in 2005, 12,945 crash fatalities involved a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher, amounting to approximately one fatality every 41 minutes.

For more information on Colorado’s enforcement plans and to view enforcement plans by agency, visit www.dot.state.co.us/trafficsafety/ and click Reports on the header. Choose Enforcement Period Plans, select Summer Checkpoints 2007 and National Crackdown Labor Day 2007 and click Report.

New hotel property slated for downtown site

Owners of the Springs Resort are preparing for construction of a new hotel wing and maintenance building — hence the chain-link fencing along the pedestrian path and around the large hot spring.

According to town planning department documents, Gulfstream Worldwide, LTD and Pagosa Springs Resort Co. (listed in the documents as owners of the property), plan to construct two structures: a 22,084 square-foot hotel wing adjacent to the hot spring and pedestrian path behind the existing hotel wing; and a 9,920 square-foot maintenance building south of the hotel and west of the Bank of the San Juans.

Although Gulfstream has not yet received a building permit for either structure, project manager Courtney King of the architecture firm Reynolds and Associates anticipates obtaining the building permit for the hotel by the end of August, and a permit for the maintenance building in late September. Once the respective permits are obtained, King said construction should begin soon thereafter.

King said the fencing is in place as part of staging operations for the forthcoming construction.

Town planning documents indicate Gulfstream has submitted conceptual drawings indicating how the hotel will connect — through design, pedestrian and vehicular circulation — with other potential development slated for the 29-acre parcel bordered on the north by the Springs Resort, on the west by the San Juan River, on the east by Hot Springs Boulevard, and on the south by the community center.

Town Planner Tamra Allen said a master plan that set zoning and overlay districts for the property was adopted in 2001, although the plan does not include site specific development components. Allen said once those components are decided, in part or in whole, they will go before the town’s planning commission, or design review board, when applicable, for approval.

Allen explained when subdivision of property does not occur, the town’s design review board reviews and approves, or denies, development applications. When subdivision plays a factor, a project goes before the planning commission.

In either case, a project is subject to the town’s land use and development code, zoning restrictions, design guidelines, and other requirements.

Planning documents indicate the hotel wing received design review board approval in September 2006, while the maintenance building received approval in May 2007.

King said the hotel wing is being designed and constructed with adherence to “green building” standards.

“The biggest item is energy efficiency,” King said.

The hotel will use geothermal energy for heating. In addition, King said careful attention has gone into materials selection in order to reduce toxicity and off-gassing and to minimize construction waste.

King said when complete, the project should achieve a “gold standard” from LEED, The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.

 LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

Hopi Connections, a Pagosa-based charity founded in early 2004, has been providing clothing and household furniture and other goods to needy Hopi families on their northern Arizona reservation.

School supplies for Hopi children have been provided each year. Health care providers have donated their services to the ill and the elderly.

Now, the charity is committed to replacing a badly leaking ancient roof on the home of a Hopi elder in which four generations of his family live. The home’s interior and scarce appliances are also badly deteriorated or broken, with moldy walls and non-functioning bathroom facilities.

Volunteers donating their labor will replace the roof in mid-September, and later will repair the walls and replace appliances to provide a comfortable home for the family members, including the elderly and the children.

Hopi Connections needs to raise $2,500 for materials to replace the roof prior to traveling to the Hopi Reservation before it can do the work. In addition to accepting financial donations for this and other special projects past and present, HC continues to accept donations of used clothing, furniture, appliances and household goods, for delivery to needy Hopi families. The cost of gasoline for these deliveries has skyrocketed. Volunteers wash and sort clothing, repair used donated furniture and help load large volumes of goods onto trailers and trucks for periodic deliveries.

Other Hopi homes are badly in need of repair and HC hopes to assist these families in the future, as funds permit. Items needed immediately for delivery are twin mattresses, small chests of drawers, roll-away beds, folding chairs, benches and small sofas.

Later this year, HC will produce a catalogue of Hopi artists’ work, such as baskets and jewelry, to enable the artists to sell their fine authentic handiwork directly to buyers, to avoid paying high commissions.

Financial contributions to pay for building materials and gasoline for deliveries are urgently needed now.

For further information or to make a donation, call Wilma Sawatzky at 731-4846 or write to Hopi Connections, 124 Hackamore, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147.

Humane Society continues work on campus, fund-raising

When SUN readers last read about the Humane Society of Pagosa Springs’ ongoing activities, the organization had just broken ground on the Phase I building for the new shelter campus at 465 Cloman Blvd.

Following the groundbreaking in April, we held a very successful fashion show in May to raise funds for the campus. Though articles in The SUN may have been sparse since then, the activity has been nonstop at the building site as have our endeavors to raise the amounts needed to finish the Phase I and Phase II buildings.

The move from 300 Paws Court to 465 Cloman Blvd. may be a short distance overland, but it involves a huge change in accommodations. The Cloman site will include two buildings: the intake and isolation building (Phase I) and the main shelter (Phase II).

Phase I is a quick construct shell from LeFever Building Systems, yet it’s anything but a “temporary” building. After construction of Phase II, this building will become the impound and isolation facility while the Phase II building will house adoptable dogs and cats. The building will conform to all the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CODA) requirements for an animal shelter, and until Phase II is completed it will house all the cats and dogs. Phase II, which must be completed within one year according to CODA regulations, will eventually house all the healthy and adoptable animals.

The impetus for the Humane Society’s move is, of course, the increased population in Archuleta County as well as the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) expansion project at Stevens Lake. Originally, we had negotiated a shelter move date of July 1, 2007. Fortunately, PAWS has been very lenient in granting extensions as our building schedule has suffered from rock, rain and new regulations. If, as seems possible, we cannot move into the new facility when the PAWSD construction gets underway, we will ask people’s patience with our contingency plans for accommodating both adoptable animals and impounded animals.

The urgency of the move (we’re moving before we acquire all the funds necessary for the whole campus) occurs because PAWSD was able to gain all its required documents for creating the lake expansion from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a little ahead of time. So, we estimate our project has had to move 1.5 years before we had imagined it would

We have been fortunate in our fund-raising effort to have accumulated more than half of the required $1.2 million. Current levels show us at approximately $700,000. While this is over half the required amount, it still leaves us short of the goal.

The Humane Society of Pagosa Springs is a (501)(c)(3) charitable organization — all donations are deductible to the extent allowed in federal and state tax codes. We’ve had incredible grass roots support, as evidenced by our “PAWs” wall at both the Thrift Store and the shelter. And, of course, we have bigger donations in hand. Please consider the building fund in your charitable organization donation plans.

To make a donation or find out more about the Homeward Bound campaign, visit our Web site at www.humanesociety.biz, e-mail directly to homewardbound@centurytel.net or call our administrative office at 264-5549. We welcome any and all donations for this important capital campaign.

Fabric art donations on exhibit at
San Juan Historical Society Museum

The beautiful stone walls at the San Juan Historical Society Museum make the perfect backdrop for display of fabric arts.

This was seen with the “Pieces of Time: Quilts from the Hand of Cindy Vermillion Hamilton” exhibit earlier this summer. Now, the museum walls provide the backing for the Pines of Pagosa Springs quilt and red work community coverlet that were donated to the museum earlier in the summer.

These pieces made their public debut at the Archuleta County Fair the first weekend of August. Now, they are back at home in the museum and are on display.

These two pieces are very special to the Pagosa Springs area. They were donated by Hazella Haptenstall, a granddaughter of early Pagosa Springs pioneers Joe and Hazel Macht.

Red work
The coverlet that was donated to the museum by Haptenstall is a red work coverlet, framed with a red fabric binding. It is made of 20 blocks, each depicting a different aspect of the early Archuleta County and Pagosa Springs community.

Dates on the blocks range from 1889 to 1905, thus it is very fragile. This community coverlet has been conserved by being hand basted to a muslin backing to give it strength and protect the back of the embroidery stitches.

This red work community coverlet features delightful embroidery work of musical instruments, a lady stitching, a government building and more. It also features names of early settlers to the area — in this case hundreds of names.

Early dyes used in dying threads were not very stable and tended to lose their color. In the mid to late 1800s, a red dye was created in Turkey that was much more stable and held its color. At this time, embroidery became more popular. Much work was done using “Turkey red” on inexpensive muslin fabric. This type of needlework has become known as “red work.”

Pines of Pagosa Springs
The donated quilt is a friendship quilt. This type of quilt is traditionally a simple, pieced block with a signature block incorporated into it or under it. The signatures may be written in ink, or embroidered.

This quilt is done in a traditional pine-tree block. At the base of each tree is a signature block with the names embroidered on it. There are 82 names of early families that settled in this area and include Fern Hott, Charles Day, E.M. Taylor Phil Burns, Lenna Catchpole, Ida Born and more.

The pine tree block friendship quilt was made in 1935 by Hazel Macht; she gave it the name “Pines of Pagosa Springs.”

Collecting history
A binder was available at the fair for people to note if they had information about the hundreds of people stitched into these pieces. A number of people took the time to make notations in the book and the next step in the process will be to begin contacting these people to gather more information.

The museum
Pagosa Springs’ history museum is located at the old town waterworks site at the corner of U.S. 160 and First Street. The town offered this location to the San Juan Historical Society when it was first formed in 1970. About the same time, the Job Corps was being phased out and one of the buildings there was determined to be about the right size for the site. It was dismantled, cut into two pieces, relocated to the new site and reconstructed.

The rock building which houses a portion of the museum was constructed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration. It was constructed to cover the water wheel that pushed the water through the town’s system. The large, open-topped tanks that are behind the museum once served as settlement and holding tanks for the town’s water supply.

Volunteers have been working for more than three decades to collect and preserve the history of the area. The collection that has been amassed is varied and informative. Special exhibits depict life in early day Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for children. Be sure to stop by and see these remarkable pieces of Pagosa Springs history that have been returned home.