1. Ag Conference week
Water concerns will be front and center when the Southern Rocky Mountain Ag Conference opens Tuesday at the Ski Hi Complex in Monte Vista. The ag conference runs through Thursday, and it is on the closing day that the Colorado Division of Water Resources traditionally delivers its annual state of the Upper Rio Grande Basin report. The conference room will be packed for it. There are 50 educational sessions, with such topics as growing alfalfa more efficiently, and multi-generational farming and business succession. There are 65 different speakers on the 3-day agenda. You don’t have to be in agriculture to benefit from the ag conference, that’s for certain. Listen to The Valley Pod’s ag conference preview. Then maybe consider attending a session or two.
2. Something new: SLV Local Foods Directory
Just in time for the ag conference. Alamosa Citizen has been working with the SLV Local Foods Coalition and Jae Sanders to help build and now unveil a new SLV Locals Foods Directory. The goal of the local foods guide is to make it easier for Valley residents and visitors to find fresh, sustainable food right in their own back yard. It is easy to submit to add a location and operation as well. Just follow this link. The SLV Locals Food Directory will be kept up to date and can always be found on the homepage of AlamosaCitizen.com. It’s part of the service we aim to provide for the Valley.
3. Alamosa’s interesting weekend
Along Fourth Street in Alamosa on Saturday, a gathering of military veterans, friends and high school classmates of Paul Weaver came together for a special ceremony to recognize Weaver, lost in combat during the Gulf War and now remembered as a war hero, fighting for his country in a far away land. Seven Solemn Tolls of the Honor Bell rang out for the Alamosa native in a somber tribute hosted by American Legion Dickey Springer Post 113, with trumpeter Karilyn Espinosa sounding the notes and an attentive gathering looking on.
… A couple hours later on Main Street and State Avenue in Alamosa, another set of patriotic Alamosans and citizens of the San Luis Valley mobilized in protest of the immigration enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its federal ICE and Customs Border Patrol agents. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota have galvanized and pushed everyday Valley residents and Americans to get outdoors in protest as part of their own resistance and objections to the actions of the federal government. The Citizen’s Owen Woods was there for both.
4. Transforming the city’s parks
Andy Rice, the director of Alamosa Parks and Recreation, is executing the plan. Get more folks outdoors and on the trails that dot the Rio Grande through Alamosa, and more children playing in the city’s parks around the town. Here’s more on Alamosa’s public parks transformation from the weekend Citizen.
5. The Valley Pod: Life’s lessons with Aaden Valdez
Aaden Valdez is in his senior year on the mat for Adams State, wrestling at 157 pounds and on schedule for another appearance in the NCAA Division II National Wrestling Championships come March. He’s out of Pueblo and Pueblo East High, where his wrestling journey and outlook on life took a turn when in a sudden and tragic moment he lost an eye and four fingers to a fireworks accident on July 4, 2017. He gets into it all in this episode of The Valley Pod, his outstanding wrestling career at Adams State and the lessons he’s learned from an accident that opened a new window to how to see life. Listen in.
6. On the agenda: ASU Trustees
Adams State will welcome two new members to its governing board when the Adams State Trustees meet this week. Donna Wehe of Alamosa and Jon Barba of Henderson were each appointed to four-year Adams State Trustee terms by Gov. Jared Polis. The new trustees will attend their first meetings on Feb. 5 and 6 when the board meets in Alamosa. The new chair of the board is Tom Kim, founder and managing director of the Denver-based business consulting firm r2 advisors ll. Here’s the agenda.