THIS Monday is especially bright on the southern end of the San Luis Valley.
Congratulations to the state football champions from Centauri High School. The Falcons shocked the eastern plains of Colorado when they took down three-time defending state champion Limon High on Saturday to win the Class 1A state championship. It was Centauri’s first state football title. If you had watched the Falcons this season you wouldn’t be surprised by their success. This was a focused team with tons of talent and grit.
“It’s just something special we’ve been working towards for a long, long time,” Centauri senior Byron Shawcroft told reporters following the game. “It’s something for the community and something they’ve never had. So, I think it’s special for everybody to have it because this is the first one. It’s something I think that the little kids, parents, grandparents, everyone, will remember for the rest of their lives.”
You can read more about Centauri’s state title here.
Alamosa City Council public hearing on short-term rentals is Wednesday
If you have a position on short-term rentals in Alamosa, the type of stay you’d typically find on Airbnb or Vrbo, then you’ll want to attend the Alamosa City Council public hearing on the matter this week. The city council is entertaining an ordinance that would regulate short-term rentals in the city of Alamosa. Other communities across the San Luis Valley have already taken action to manage short-term rentals in their communities and counties. Alamosa is the latest to take up the issue.
You can read The Citizen’s earlier stories on the subject here:
CDOT heads up for Monday and Tuesday
The Colorado Department of Transportation will perform core and soil drilling operations on Monday and Tuesday on CO 112 from Del Norte, at the intersection of US 160 (MP 0) northeast to Center and the intersection of US 285 (MP 13). The drilling is required to test soil and rock composition at future highway improvement project sites. Drilling activity will occur, weather permitting.
Alamosa School Board meeting set for Monday
The Alamosa School Board meets on Monday to welcome in new school board members. Board members then head to Colorado Springs for a 3-day Colorado Association of School Boards meeting. It’s at CASB meetings that school board members learn about the roles of school boards, what they can and cannot do, and what role they play within the performance of a school district. The Alamosa School Board will hold a board retreat on Wednesday ahead of the CASB meetings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You can always stay up to speed on the Alamosa School Board here.
This graphic from Colorado Climate Center
Finally, we take note of the graphic below provided by the Colorado Climate Center headquartered at Colorado State University. We reached out to climatologists at the Colorado Climate Center to help illustrate the past 20 years of drought in the San Luis Valley. This graphic tells a story on its own.
In an email back to us after attaching the Rio Grande Drainage Basin graphic and two others, Russ S. Schumacher, Director of the Colorado Climate Center, wrote: “The intense drought periods of 2002-03, 2011-13, and 2018-20 show up clearly, with some gaps in between. The drought monitor incorporates a wide variety of data sources and impacts information and the result is a weekly map across the country.”
The Citizen, in a two-part series published Sunday and Monday, began exploring the impacts of climate change on the natural habitats and environments of the San Luis Valley. Biologists Cary Aloia and Jenny Nehring have been studying the impacts on the Valley’s wetlands and are concerned with how housing developments are adding to the challenges. State Sen. Cleave Simpson is battling climate change on two fronts, as general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District and in the state legislature. We hope you’ll take some time to read the stories. It’s a subject we will continue to present.
