Luther Propst, co-founder and director of the Sonoran Institute, kicked off the 2006 State of the Valley Symposium by encouraging participants to think big.

"We need to articulate a broad vision, a bold vision for a more sustainable, more benign society," he said. Just as author Wallace Stegner wrote about the goal of creating a society to match the scenery of the region. Propst believes the West will have to formulate a vision to match its views.

The West has a unique competitive advantage in the global economy, Propst said. Besides its economic opportunities, it offers its residents easy access to vast amounts of public lands where they can find recreation and solitude. The result has been a population boom that is expected to continue. Under one estimate, 40 million more people will live in the intermountain West by 2040, and Colorado's population will grow to 7.1 million then, from 4.7 million now.

"The question is how do we accommodate those people while still protecting what we all value about the West," Propst said.

That growth is threatening the quality of life on which the Western economy now depends, he said.

"The changes are occurring faster than the structures for dealing with them," he said.

Propst said that to achieve Stegner's goal, "we have to tap into the proclivity of the West for thinking big, the proclivity of America for thinking big."

Negative thinking won't cut it, he said.

Among other attributes, such a society would be less reliant on cars, would protect landscapes and watersheds, and would have well-planned communities with attainably priced housing, he said.

Examples of that big vision already can be found around the West, Propst said. Among them:

• Pima County, Ariz., undertook the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, originally to address conflicts over endangered species. Voters approved a $275 million bond issue to purchase open space, and other bonds for public transportation and other needs.
• Cities such as Denver and Phoenix are turning extensively to passenger rail transportation.
• Wyoming created a wildlife trust fund from energy development revenues
• Residents of Custer County, Colo., realized they didn't have the tax base to conserve ranch lands themselves, so they talked to ranchers and state and federal agencies and came up with a plan to protect 20,000 acres from the kind of fate that has met a lot of agricultural lands in the nearby Front Range.

Propst believes Healthy Mountain Communities provides an example of forward thinking in western Colorado.

"The work you have done in this region is an inspiration for people all over the West," Propst said.

Video of Luther Propst's and other State of the Valley Symposium presentations are available by sending HMC an email at hmclaird@hmcnews.org.

"How much of that new growth do you really want in unincorporated Garfield County?" Russell asked.

Council members approved an emergency moratorium on most new development applications by a 4-1 margin, known as a "supermajority," which is required for emergency legislation.

Smuggler Park, formerly known as Smuggler Trailer Park, received a wholesale exemption because it is a bastion of the local working class and not part of a speculative frenzy that has gripped Aspen for years. Some noted, however, that some homes are now selling in Smuggler Park for $1 million or more.

GRHD will not be appealing to voters for bond money or a mill levy. Expansion will be funded with capital reserves and operations money.

The high-speed fiber optics network, installed in Glenwood in 2002, has recently been updated throughout the city to provide better distance and coverage.

For more information about the Glenwood Springs Community Broadband Network, visit gscbn.com online.

The Trust chose the Aspen to Parachute area as one of 10 communities in the state to receive the funding. This year the area will get $100,000 - $75,000 from the Trust and $25,000 from the El Pomar Foundation. The $75,000 will continue annually for four years.

The SIRFI group has awarded grants to several local organizations that it hopes will stimulate community integration:

• $25,000 to Congregations and Schools Empowered (CASE) to bring members of the immigrant and receiving communities together to identify and address local issues.
• $10,000 to Colorado West Regional Mental Health Center to fund a bilingual mental health staff and a consultant to work with employers who offer mental health programs.
• $10,000 to Colorado Mountain College to add non- Spanish speakers to its Even Start preschool. The preschool currently is focused on children of immigrant families.
• $10,800 (From the Colorado Trust and El Pomar) to Access Roaring Fork to create a cooking television show that will include immigrants and English speakers from the local communities.
• $10,000 (from El Pomar) to English in Action to match immigrant learners of English as a second language with local nonprofits.
• $5,000 to the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club to encourage children of immigrants to join. The money will cover scholarships, free bus transportation and mentorship by current Spanish- speaking members.

More information and planning documents are also available online.

A section of the Rio Grande Trail slated for construction this summer got a financial boost this week. The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) received a $200,000 state trails grant, which will go toward financing construction of a 4.6-mile segment of trail between Catherine Store Bridge and Hooks Lane in Basalt.

RFTA property and trails director Mike Hermes said the grant was awarded because of local governments cooperating to fund the trail section and the high level of community involvement.

RFTA itself has contributed $800,000 for construction of the segment that is expected to cost about $1.2 million. The town of Carbondale and the Mid-Valley Trail Committee, based in Eagle County, both committed $10,000. Earlier this month, Garfield County promised $50,000 toward construction of the trial.

RFTA also recently received a federal grant for $850,000, which will go toward constructing about six miles of trail from the Glenwood Springs cemetery to the Colorado Mountain College turnoff on Highway 82.

The RFTA board hopes to have the Rio Grande Trail running from Glenwood Springs to Aspen by 2010.

The city took in $1.15 million in sales tax revenues, up 34.5 percent from the same month a year earlier. That comes after 40.5 percent and 39.5 percent increases in January and February, respectively.

The city is counting on the projected 2006 increases to help ease it out of a budget crunch that has come on over several years, as a result of the terrorist attacks of 2001, the city's Coal Seam Fire in 2002 and the national economic downturn.

Sales tax income fell significantly following those setbacks and the city needs to restore fund balances that helped it get through the lean years.

Along with restoring fund balances, Glenwood faces the prospect of having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Glenwood Meadows businesses under its economic development rebate program.

Rifle residents could see a new multi-plex theater in the next two or three years, thanks to a recent land swap between the city of Rifle and Valley Lumber.

The Joyce property is not expected to be ready for Valley Lumber until 2007 and it could be 2008 or 2009 before a multi-plex theater would be opened.

Hot off the presses is a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which compares the health of residents of the United States and the United Kingdom.

The findings are brutal. By basically every standard, Americans are sicker than the Brits. Diabetes, for instance is roughly double in the US than it is in the UK. The rates of other common ailments - hypertension, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, lung disease and cancer - are also all higher in the United States. And oftern a lot higher, despite the fact that the Brits smoke about the same amount and drink twice as much as Americans. So much for the best health system money can buy.

The district was defeated by 6,040 votes (53 percent) to 5,290 votes (47 percent), while the tax levy was defeated by 6,869 votes (60 percent) to 4,538 votes (40 percent). The district would have been funded by a 1.7 mill tax levy, which would have raised about $4.2 million in its first year. A seven- member board, including two members from each of three districts and one at-large member, would have overseen the use of the district's funds.

The proponents' service plan would have focused money on primary and mental-health care. Funds would have gone to Valley-Wide Health Systems, the San Juan Basin Health Department, the Southwest Colorado Mental Health Center and others.

The 11,539 votes represent about 43 percent of the ballots mailed.