As Healthy Mountain Communities enters its 12th year, there is much to be thankful for .... and much to continue working toward.

As the year comes to and end, we wish you and your family health and happiness in 2006. Next year looks to be an exciting year for HMC as we have several projects and ideas either underway or brewing. They include:

• Assessing child care needs in Pitkin County
• Building a community based health insurance model
• Working to create a community development corporation (CDC)
• Hosting the 4th Annual State of the Valley Symposium
• Expanding our community indicator database

The Western Slope oil and gas boom, coupled with surges in the region's retail development and construction markets, has left many Roaring Fork Valley employers desperate for help and the helpers looking for housing.

Facing an unanticipated housing crunch, officials in Aspen are looking to open churches as emergency shelters for seasonal workers.

This year's housing vacancy rate in Aspen is the lowest in the state, at 1.6 percent, down from 11 percent last year, according to a recent report by the Colorado Division of Housing.

All of the city's estimated 2,500 affordable and temporary housing units are full and the city is scrounging to find workers housing "down valley," even as far as Rifle, more than 60 miles away.

While the upper valley scrambles for housing, downvalley in Glenwood Springs the opening of a new Target, Petco and Lowe's, (which employ more than 300 people) have local businesses scrambling for employees. Some employers are offering bonuses to employees who find new help.

Creating further worker demand is the region's energy boom. A record number of new drilling permits have been issued this year in Garfield County, and demand is high for mechanics and rig workers.

Needless to say, the short-term downturn in the region's economy seems to be over.

Growth projections by the town planning staff indicate Basalt's population could soar to 15,000 people (in 2004 the population was 3,051) based on current zoning and land-use regulations in and immediately surrounding the town.

Staff looked at potential development in three areas: within the town itself, right outside its current boundaries in an area regarded appropriate for urban- style growth, and within a three-mile planning area from those current boundaries.

There was no definitive time on the growth projection. Much of that will depend on market forces. Some of that development has been or will be approved by Eagle and Pitkin counties, where the Town Council doesn't have any input. But a significant amount - nearly 700 dwellings - either has already been approved or is planned infill within Basalt.

Frustrated with current state oil and gas regulations and tired of the lack of planning at either the state or county level, a number of citizens directly impacted by the oil and gas boom in Garfield County have taken a different approach - they have negotiated directly with the industry. Their efforts over the last several months are on the cutting edge of ways to plan for natural-gas development in the Intermountain West.

The Rifle/Silt/New Castle Community Development Project began earlier this year when residents in and around these communities realized that drilling in their neighborhoods was inevitable given the gas reserves in the county, current state regulations, and the nation's insatiable demand for natural gas.

Organized under the auspices of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, community members began talking with Antero Resources, which has purchased leases in the area, to encourage them to work with neighborhoods and communities in crafting their drilling plans, not just surface and mineral owners.

The resulting plan recommends clustering drilling on pads spaced from 640 to 160 acres apart. Clustering would minimize construction of roads, pipelines and other accouterments of drilling and thereby lessen impacts. The plan would also include best management practices for natural-gas drilling such as placing pipelines alongside or in existing roads, piping water to wells rather than trucking it in, and installing equipment to reduce toxic emissions, reduce noise and light. Drilling rigs would also be at least 500 feet from the nearest homes.

Antero Resources has adopted this collaboratively created plan, and citizens are beginning talks with other gas operators as well as local governments.

More children were born to Hispanic mothers in Garfield County in 2004 than ever before.

According to state health department statistics compiled by Garfield County's Human Services Commission, nearly 44 percent of all 2004 births in the county were to Hispanic mothers, most of whom had less than a ninth-grade education.

Sandy Swanson, director of the Family Visitor Program and the early childhood services representative to the commission said she worries county agencies and child-care providers aren't equipped to handle the growing number of Hispanic children and prepare them for school.

"In terms of developing services for this population, we don't have much," Swanson said. "We don't have preschools that cater to moms who speak Spanish. ... We just need to address the fact that we have new babies here. They're U.S. citizens. They're not going away."

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Office of Smart Growth in the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) have announced the release of a new publication entitled The Colorado Brownfields Handbook: A Local Government Guide to Site Reuse and Economic Redevelopment.

The Colorado Brownfields Handbook is the culmination of a three-year partnership between CDPHE and the Office of Smart Growth to promote the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites around the state. The project partners enlisted the help of a number of state, local and non-profit agencies, including the Colorado Brownfields Foundation, to help analyze and document the roles and interrelationships of various levels of government and identify and overcome potential institutional obstacles to reuse.

The handbook incorporates lessons learned from pilot brownfield cleanup and redevelopment efforts in Rangely and Alamosa. The handbook also provides a comprehensive list of the technical and financial resources available, frequently asked questions and a suggested methodology for brownfield cleanup and redevelopment.

The project was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The handbook is available online at www.dola.state.co.us/smartgrowth or www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/bfhandbook.htm.

For most people, Colorado is a good place to work, live and raise a family. But for many low-income residents, the state of opportunity in Colorado ranges from fair to poor.

Bell Policy Center's new report, "Colorado: A State of Opportunity 2005," looks at 39 indicators within nine gateways that define the cycle of opportunity, from birth to retirement.

The 102-page report also makes 55 recommendations to legislators and the business community for improving opportunity.

The report makes other recommendations, all aimed at breaking down the barriers that stand in the way of Colorado residents who want to achieve the American Dream.

Order a free copy of "Colorado: A State of Opportunity 2005 Report" by calling (866) 283-8051 toll-free in Colorado.

The Sierra Business Council recenlty released a new publication. Building Vibrant Sierra Communities: A Commercial and Mixed Use Handbook brings together useful tools, language and code concepts that communities can use to reinforce or catalyze commercial and mixed use (CMU) development; innovative, real-life projects in the Sierra that can be used as models; and valuable information about traditional Sierra town patterns.

This is a publication that communities across Colorado can learn from.

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference is the "premier" smart growth conference in the U.S and this year the venue is Denver.

If you are interested in how to shape growth in ways that build communities and local economies, this event is well worth your time.

Each year, the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute puts on the largest land use law conference in the United States.

The 2006 conference includes speakers such as Dr. Patrick Gregory Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace; Dick Lamm, former Governor of Colorado; and, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean of the University of Miami School of Planning and a Principle of the New Urbanist planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ).