A 1-cent sales tax slated for parks and recreation improvements throughout the city was overwhelmingly passed 878 to 370 in a municipal election September 13th.

The passage of the sales tax will now mean that the current Metropolitan Parks District will dissolve as of Dec. 31, 2005, and a Parks and Recreation Commission formed on Jan. 1, 2006, which will oversee the funds and use them for projects such as upkeep of the public pool at Metro Park and various parks and recreation programs throughout the city.

A mill levy currently put on property owners by the Metro Parks District will go away and the sales tax increase will be paid by all those who shop and use services in Rifle.

A dream team of consultants will work on a new study to understand the effects of a water plan that has been dubbed a “global solution” for water disputes between the Western Slope and the Front Range.

The April 2005 Colorado River Basins Proposal, which has not been released to the public, was drafted by Western Slope individuals as a legal settlement with Denver Water.

The water quality, cost, and hydrology aspects of the Basins Proposal will be complete in 10 months and cost about $200,000. The study will be managed by the Colorado River Water Conservation District. Half of the study will be paid for by Western Slope groups, and the other half will come from the Front Range.

The study will evaluate components of the Basins Proposal such as the creation of a new reservoir near Wolcott, a new way of operating Green Mountain Reservoir, the timing of a Shoshone Call reduction, changes due to the Moffat Collection System project and changes to the Windy Gap Firming Project.

With the opening of a new 125,000 sq. ft. Target this month, Glenwood Springs becomes one of the smallest communities in the U.S. with the three retail giants duking it out over the region's retail purchases. Glenwood's population is only 8,500.

Both Wal-Mart and Kmart have been in town longer: the 40,318 sq. ft. Kmart store opened in 1982, followed by Wal-Mart in 1987. Wal Mart doubled the size of its original store to 111,000 sq. ft. a few years later. Now comes a bigger Target store, which is part of the Glenwood Meadows development - a commercial and residential development that effectively doubles commercial space in the town.

Traffic in Aspen hasn't just inched through the S-curves this year. It has inched past 1993 levels - the benchmark by which the town assesses traffic levels.

Through August, annual average daily traffic stood at 24,442 vehicles coming in and out of Aspen, up 0.58 percent from the first eight months of 1993.

Although a seemingly small increase in traffic, it was enough of an increase to put the already strained transportation infrastructure over the edge into inexplainable gridlock. This summer, the 3 mile trip from downtown Aspen to the aiport often took commuters 40 minutes. Starting next summer, City Council voted to eliminate parking on much of upper Main Street next summer to create an outbound buses-only lane.

Council members also agreed to proceed with the permanent closure of several side street and alleyway intersections with Highway 82 in the S- curves to help ease traffic flow through the two 90- degree turns at the edge of town. The closures and the bus lane will cost an estimated $318,000. The move awaits final approval from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Eagle County Commissioners adopted a temporary moratorium on new subdivision and zoning changes in the county by a 2-1 vote.

The nine-month halt stops new subdivisions or zoning changes that would increase the already-allowed number of homes on a piece of property. However, the moratorium more a of a way to slow things down rather than bring construction to a halt.

People can still apply for, and receive, building permits on already-zoned property and there are built in exemptions for “hardship case” and re-zoning property for employee housing, either rentals or for-sale units that have restrictions on how much they can increase in value. There are already close to 16,000 approved but un-built units in Eagle County.

Commissioners Arn Menconi and Peter Runyon want to give staff time to complete work on new or revised regulations governing building in wildlife habitat, building on ridges and hillsides, and requiring water conservation and “environmentally friendly” building materials for new construction.

Pitkin County may soon be asking its 200 or so employees to dig into their own pockets to help pay for its skyrocketing health insurance costs, which are projected to rise by about $1 million next year.

The price spike represents an increase of 67 percent over this year's insurance costs; the county had budgeted for an increase of 23 percent.

County Manager Hilary Smith said costs have soared beyond expectations partly because employees had made an unforeseen amount of large claims. Also contributing to the price rise is a statewide and national trend of soaring medical and prescription costs.

Officials have a number of options to counter cost increases. The county could switch medical plans to one with a higher deductible or co-pay. It could also implement Health Savings Accounts, where employees pay money into a tax-friendly personal account to help cover premium costs.

If the health-care plan were to be left alone, employees on the family plan would be asked to pay an extra $330 a month, making the total cost to the worker $811 each month.

Imagine taking all the money a state spends on Medicare and Medicaid and spreading it out to provide basic health insurance to all the residents in the state? Former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, architect of the Oregon Health Plan, wants to see his home state take such an approach.

He likens his approach to public education, in which all children 5 to 18 are entitled to a pubilcly financed eduction. We believe public education is a public good that benefits not just inidivuals by society as a whole - no one is left out. Kitzhaber believe the same should be true for health care and health insurance - everyone get a basic benefit. Individuals can always purchase more (just like they do in attending private schools and private universities), but this approach creates a baseline of services and coverage rather than the implicit "rationing" of coverage we have today.

HMC is currently working to bring Gov. Kitzhaber to the region. For more info contact us at 963-5502 or email claird@hmccolorado.org.

For those interested in forming the Watershed Collaborative Water Group Education/Outreach Committee. The an initial meeting is November 3rd at 8 am at the Village Smithy in Carbondale.

As discussed at the 10/20 Water Collaborative meeting, coordinating some water education and public outreach efforts seems to a high priority. Tim O’Keefe of the Roaring Fork Conservancy is taking the lead to get things organized. Please contact him with questions (927-1290 or tim@roaringfork.org ) or join the group on November 3rd.

As discussed at the 10/20 meeting – please forward any further thoughts you may have on changes to the Mission Statement and Objective (as originally presented at the meeting) to Rose Ann Sullivan ( roseanns@co.pitkin.co.us) by October 28th. She will collect the comments and present revisions for the group’s review.

The existing Mission Statement is: To assist local, state, and federal agencies and organizations in planning and managing for land and water uses within the Roaring Fork Watershed with the objectives of protecting riparian and aquatic resources while providing for a sustainable economic community.

The existing Objective is: Efficiently use agency and organization resources to:

• provide information and data sufficient to guide land and water management and planning decisions
• competitively apply for major grants supporting watershed studies, planning and management efforts,
• collaborate on public outreach efforts on water resource issues within the watershed, and
• provide a mechanism to transfer information between state water-related forums (i.e., SWSI and HB 1177) and stakeholders.

A $65,000 study will assess the health risks associated with the oil and gas industry. The Saccomanno Research Institute in Grand Junction will conduct the study, aided by Mesa State College environmental science professor Russell Walker.

The two year study is funded out of the $371,000 fine levied against EnCana last year for a natural gas leak from an EnCana in West Divide Creek south of Silt.

Teresa Coons, senior scientist with the Saccomano Research Institute, and her team will interview people living in the county who feel they have developed health problems from living near oil and gas activity. They'll also convene focus groups and go door to door to households in the county and survey them about their general health. The team will review the results of two other current countywide studies looking at air and water quality and state data on disease rates as well.

The Draft version of the new Garfield County Development Code is up on the County Web Site at www.garfield-county.com under Building and Planning for review and comment. The site has a special e-mail response capability to log your comments in for review. Everyone is encouraged to go to sections of interest and provide comments. Three larger review meetings have already been held to date, two specifically for the municipalities and one with the Planning Commission.

The next scheduled meetings with the Planning Commission include:

• October 26, 6:30 PM, Rifle Fairgrounds Arena Conf. Room
• November 3, 6:30 PM, Courthouse Plaza, Glenwood Springs
• November 21, 6:30 PM, Courthouse Plaza, Glenwood Springs
• December 1, 6:30 PM, Courthouse Plaza, Glenwood Springs

The two major immigrations into our region, Baby Boomers and Latinos, will be the focus of attention at the 16th annual Headwaters Conference at Western State College in Gunnison, Nov. 4 – 6.

Presenters will come at the topic from historical, cultural, legal and institutional perspectives. Headwaters always mixes in poetry, some theater and plenty of small group interaction. The conference is affordable, fun and informal.

A high-level conference to discuss the impacts of a peak in world oil production will be held in Denver, Colorado on November 10-11, 2005. The two-day forum is sponsored by the City and County of Denver, ASPO-USA, and the Roaring Fork Valley's Community Office for Resource Efficiency.

Keynote speakers include Matt Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert, a study of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum resources, and Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, (R-Md.). Other speakers will include Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and The Honorable Tim Wirth, President, U.N. Foundation.