The San Luis Valley has never experienced a February like this. The month started out with daily temperatures in the 60s and will see temps in the mid-50s, stretching to 60 in the early part of this week. Overnight temperatures have been strange, as well, for the dead of winter. The Valley has only had five days where the overnight temperature was in single digits in a month where below-zero temperatures are the norm. Here’s more for Monday:
1. Rail to trail
Colorado Pacific Rio Grande Railroad is planning to seek authorization from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to abandon a 26.55-mile stretch of rail tracks between Monte Vista and South Fork. If all goes as planned, the railroad tracks would be removed with an intention to convert the right-of-way into a recreational trail, according to a Feb. 4 notification letter the railroad company sent Rio Grande County officials and state and federal agencies. SLV GO! with its visionary and ambitious executive director Mick Daniel is in the middle of all of this. He’s been courting Soloviev Group about the idea ever since it purchased the railroad at the end of 2022.
2. The Valley Pod x2
Skip Schoen is career military, and now two years into his job as administrator for Rio Grande County. In this latest episode of The Valley Pod, he talks about the railroad’s plans to abandon tracks through Rio Grande County in favor of developing a recreational trail corridor, a proposal by a group of residents to establish a special taxing district to fund an aquatics center, and Rio Grande County’s reliance on state grant funding.
Another veteran, Craig Rauwolf with the SLV Veterans Advisory Committee, was in the podcast studio last week to talk about upcoming events for the Valley’s veterans community, and their families and supporters. The SLV Veterans Advisory Committee will host a veterans family resource fair on June 28-29 at the National Guard Armory in Alamosa.
3. Big game and Hwy 160
Colorado Department of Transportation and its contracting partner Capital Paving and Construction will begin construction in March on a series of big-game underpasses through a seven-mile stretch just east of Fort Garland and onto La Veta Pass. The state transportation agency sent notice last week that the construction project will begin in mid-March, weather permitting. The $9 million project will construct wildlife mitigation features including three wildlife underpasses, high deer fencing with earthen escape jumpouts, and deer guards or gates at access points. Intersection improvements will also be constructed at Trinchera Ranch Road. The project is expected to last for 8 months, over two construction seasons. Here’s a QA with CDOT biologist Mark Lawler on the reasons for the project.
4. MV police chief resigns
It’s official. Monte Vista announced last Friday the resignation of its police chief, Sean McDonagh. The resignation came after months of closed-door negotiations on his departure after his relationship soured internally with the city administration and police department. McDonagh started the job on Ski Hi Stampede Day in July of 2024, not even a year ago. Monte Vista named Tyler Harford its acting police chief. City Manager Gigi Dennis said it’s “likely” a full search will be conducted.
5. Plight of federal workers
If you’re a ranger at the Great Sand Dunes National Park or work for any of the other federal agencies in the San Luis Valley or anywhere across the U.S., you may have gotten an email ordered by Elon Musk that gives you until 11:59 p.m. this evening to reply. Federal employees who work for agencies under the executive branch received an email over the weekend asking them to explain what they accomplished in their work the previous week. “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the email stated. Failure to reply would result in an employee’s firing, Musk threatened on his platform X. These are tactics of intimidation by an executive branch gone mad. Agency heads on Sunday, including federal judges who got the email, were telling employees to ignore it and the threat of job loss.
6. From The Sports Page
The Adams State women’s basketball team stomped on CSU-Pueblo, 84-54, over the weekend and in doing so clinched a spot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference postseason tournament. The Grizz are 12-6 in conference play with two games left on the schedule. The RMAC women’s tournament opens March 4.