sustained coverage: flooding

2 | Wednesday, April 6, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYlOcAl

YOUR LOCAL NEWS AND INFORMATION LEADER — ON TV, IN PRINT and ONLINE

YOUR GUIDE TO STEAMBOAT TODAYNEWSPAPER TELEVISION WEB MAGAZINES

BESTRADIO STATION

WINNER’S CIRCLE

Winner’s Circle features businesses voted in the top 3 in the named category.

For a complete list of winners, pick up At Home in Steamboat Springs magazine

or visit BestoftheBoat.com.

970-879-53682955 Village Drive

SAY HAPPYBIRTHDAY!Does your child have an upcoming birthday? Email your child’s photo, birthday and age to share@ SteamboatToday.com. The Steamboat Birthday Club is free of charge and open to children ages 1 to 12.

Happy birthday, Steven Tzerovski!Age: 1Birthday: April 6

STEAMBOATSTEAMBOAOAO TATA

BirthdayClub

Congratulations to Gail Hanley for guessing 8 photos correctly since the last prize was awarded! She is the lucky winner of a gift certificate generously provided by Photo Express House. Kristen Hockaday ran a close second place with 6 correct guesses. Congratulations also to the following for correctly identifying three or more photos since the last prize winner was announced: Madison Proper, Lee Cox, Matthew Ballinger, Barb Wheeler, Dena Bernett and Cathy Hutchinson.

Brought to you by Historic Routt County and Steamboat Today. Prizes by Photo Express House.

Where in Routt County?

Congratulations to Jessica Knight, Nikki Foust, Gail Hanley, Amanda Halder and Irene Meyers for guessing the photo correctly. Last week’s photo is of the Old Oak Creek Town Hall, 131 E. Main St,. in Oak Creek. Built in 1927, the Historical Society of Oak Creek and Phippsburg was awarded State Historical Fund grants to refurbish the building and convert it into a museum, which is now the Tracks & Trails Museum. Photo courtesy of Routt County.

LAST WEEK’S PHOTO

Tom RossPILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

On May 10, 1984, former Steamboat Springs residents Lenny and Gail Brooks and their young children felt secure that Butcherknife Creek had settled down where it flowed behind their home at 112 Hill St.

However, things changed suddenly at about 10 p.m. when a rain-soaked embankment slid into the creek and diverted the flow across the Brookses’ back-yard.

“I heard the water hit the cen-ter of the back of our house, and I rushed to the door to see at least two and a half feet of water rushing by,” Brooks later told the Steamboat Pilot. “I told Gail to get the kids out.”

Twenty-seven years have passed, and although Butcher-knife, Spring and Soda creeks have overflowed their banks since,

Old Town Steamboat hasn’t seen a flood quite like that of May 1984, when 447.5 inches of snow at the ski area, 70-degree tem-peratures and a warm rainfall conspired to cause an estimated $20,000 in property damage.

In 2011, the city of Steamboat Springs Public Works Depart-ment is taking steps to ward off a future Butcherknife Creek flood. Public Works engineer Ben Beall said the lengthy process of apply-ing for a federal grant to improve

the Butcherknife Creek flood-plain is under way. The creek flows mostly across private prop-erty as it traverses the city on its way from Strawberry Park to the Yampa River. And later this spring, Public Works will send letters to property owners invit-ing them to a meeting and ask-ing if they would allow a survey-or onto their land to shoot cross sections of the creek, Beall said.

The surveying work would be done at the expense of the

city and the State Department of Emergency Management, Beall added, as they build the case for a grant from the Fed-eral Emergency Management Agency. It would cover the costs of improving drainage ditches

and culverts where Butcherknife Creek intersects with city streets. Construction likely would not begin until 2013, Beall said.

The prospects of spring

Rain compounded snowmelt on Butcherknife Creek

1984 downtown f lood serves as reminder of risk

FIlE PhOTO

Volunteers sandbagged Butcherknife Creek in Old Town Steamboat Springs on May 17, 1984, after a landslide blocked the stream channel during peak snowmelt.

Bob Struble, director of the Routt County Office of Emergency Management, said property owners can take steps to guard against flooding early this spring by scanning drainage ditches and culverts to see whether they are blocked by brush and debris. Residents can call Steamboat Springs’ Public Works Department at 970-879-2060 or Routt County Road and Bridge at 970-879-0831 for help with badly clogged culverts.

Also, homeowners should make sure large propane tanks are secured to the ground.

Watch the newspaper later in spring for updates about where and when to obtain sandbags from the city. And look for the county’s 2011 High Water Preparedness Guide at www.co.routt.co.us and click on Emergency Management in the left-hand column. Scroll down and click on the link just below the Tweety Bird icon.

Prepare for Routt County spring floods

See Flood, page 23

STEAMBOAT TODAY Wednesday, April 6, 2011 | 23LOCAL

flooding are real this year, as the snowpack — the amount of water contained in the snow — stands above 130 percent of average in the mountains sur-rounding the city, according to the Natural Resources Conser-vation Service in Denver.

“For those river basins with their source in the northern mountains including the Col-orado, Yampa, White and North Platte rivers, this year’s April 1 snowpack is the high-est since back in 1996 at 135 percent of average,” NRCS Snow Survey supervisor Mike Gillespie wrote in an online report.

The snow on the west sum-mit of Rabbit Ears Pass was 101 inches deep Tuesday and contained 41.8 inches of water, 149 percent of the average of 28 inches of water, according to remote sensing devices main-tained by the NRCS.

Still, Bob Struble, director of Routt County’s Office of Emer-

gency Management, said April 1 snowpack alone isn’t a sure indi-cator of flood potential in May and June. The weather between now and mid-May, when runoff from the high country begins in earnest, will determine how it plays out.

“If we get a lot of cold rain, the snowmelt could come off really slowly,” Struble said. “But

if it gets hot and a (stream) drainage gets a strong thunder-storm, we could have a lot of problems.”

The Brooks family escaped the 1984 flood after the family car started despite the water ris-ing up to its fenders. And their lasting impression was of the neighbors who stood by their side and stacked the sandbags.

Flood continued from 2

Snowpack alone isn’t a f lood indicator

FILE PHOTO

Butcherknife Creek flooded in Old Town Steamboat Springs on May 17, 1984, after a landslide blocked the stream channel during peak snowmelt.

Support NCTRL (Non-Cigarette Tobacco Retailer Licensing) which will pay for sustainable enforcement of existing tobacco laws will limit youth access to tobacco. If you live in Steamboat Springs City Limits and want to sign our petition, stop by the VNA Offi ce or call Vicki Barron, RN, AEC at 970-875-1883. Birth Control, Pap Smears, Breast Exams STD Screenings at our Women’s Health Clinic for allages, all income levels, and all insurance status on a sliding fee scale. Walk-ins and new patients arewelcome. Need Health Insurance? Looking for a Medical Home? We can help you enroll in CHP and Medicaidand get you connected with a doctor for you and your family. Call Esther at 970-871-7616.

EVENING Immunization Appointments are available on April 5, 12 and 26. Many adult vaccines arejust $14 for a limited time. Call today to get your appointment!

745 Russell StreetCraig, CO 81625

Phone (970) 824-8233Fax (970) 824-2548

940 Central Park Dr. Ste 101Steamboat Springs, CO 80487

Phone (970) 879-1632Fax (970) 870-1326

Visit us online at www.NWCOVNA.org

Stay Informed

20719821This publication was made possible by Grant

Number H2PHS16502 from HRSA

Safety is No Accident, Live Injury-FreeColorado Celebrates National Public Health Week April 4-10, 2011

Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/nwcovna to get

our latest news and updates!

At Work

· Employees - Wear protective equipment to stay safe· Employers - Promote workplace safety by offering tips on your company bulletin board, website or newsletter

S t e a m b o a tWednesday

april 20, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Vol. 23, No. 94R O U T T C O U N T Y ’ S D A I L Y N E W S P A P E R

today

Matt StenSland/Staff

Routt County Road and Bridge Department workers install a culvert Tuesday to help alleviate flooding on Rick Myers’ ranch along Routt County Road 54 in North Routt.


SteaMBOat SPRInGS

Routt County Road and Bridge Department crews were kept hopping Tuesday as they were called to inspect numerous road culverts across the north-ern half of Routt County that were overwhelmed with rushing spring water that had begun to run across unpaved county roads.

The unusually heavy valley snowmelt this spring — com-

pounded with some sustained showers Monday and Tuesday — is just the first course, Coun-ty Commissioner Doug Mon-ger said.

“This is just the start for this situation,” Monger said. “Some of these situations could be resolved in two days. But as the snowmelt opens up at high-er elevation, the rivers are going to be interesting.”

Local weather observer Art Judson reported that 0.8 inches of rain had fallen Monday and

Tuesday with an additional 0.4 inches of moisture in the form of wet snow.

The combination of rain and snowmelt threatened to flood ranch buildings along Deep Creek in the lower Elk River Valley on Tuesday afternoon.

Crews working there on Routt County Road 54 were taking the unusual step of clos-ing the road for up to two hours to add a second culvert to the road in the midst of runoff.

Monger said the most that

road crews typically can do until the low elevation runoff subsides is remove any debris clogging the upstream side of a culvert.

Water was coming down from nearby hillsides and could not get through culverts under C.R. 54 fast enough to get to Deep Creek. Water had engulfed a horse corral and surrounded homes and build-ings on Rick Myers’ ranch. There was about 5 inches of

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com

■ IndexBriefs . . . . . . . . .10Classifieds . . . . .27Colorado. . . . . . .20Comics . . . . . . . .34Crossword . . . . .34Happenings . . . . .6

Horoscope . . . . .35Lotto. . . . . . . . . .26Movies . . . . . . . . .7Scoreboard. . . . .26Sports. . . . . . . . .24ViewPoints . . . . . .8

Follow Steamboatpilot on Twitter and like

Steamboat Pilot & Today on Facebook.

INSIDE: Colorado Mountain College gets approval to offer 4-year degrees; programs will begin in fall • page 3

Scan this code with your smartphone or

visit SteamboatToday.com/Events for a complete listing.

■ eventsRain or snow. High of 50.

5

■ weatherFor breaking

news and sports scores, visit Steamboat Today.com

■ onlIne

Mike LawrencePILOT & TODAY STAFF

SteaMBOat SPRInGS

Routt County’s unemploy-ment rate decreased to 8.3 percent in March, showing a slight improvement from Feb-ruary and mirroring state and national trends.

Data released Tuesday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment states that 1,262 people were out of work in Routt County last month, compared with 1,293 people in February and 1,322 people in January.

The data was not adjusted for typical seasonal changes.

Routt County’s total labor force was larger in winter, for example, but March’s unem-ployment rate of 8.3 percent still represented an improve-ment from February’s 8.4 per-cent and January’s 8.6 percent rates.

The March data suggests the local job market improved dur-ing the past year, as well. The county’s jobless rate was 9.3 percent in March 2010.

Sandy Evans Hall, exec-utive vice president of the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association, said that despite the recent improve-ments, unemployment rates could worsen in April and May — traditionally tough months for a local job market mired in mud season.

Unemployment rate in Routt at 8.3 percent in March

Jobless rate falls slightly

See Unemployment, page 14

Roads inundated as snowmelt gives taste of what’s to come

Routt f looding begins

See Flooding, page 14

14 | Wednesday, April 20, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

and $405 per credit hour for out-of-state students.

According to the college, in-district students who start as freshmen and complete their

bachelor’s degrees at CMC would pay $8,793 in tuition and fees, based on existing rates, during the four years.

Jensen praised the more than 150 faculty and staff members and administrators for their work as well as the board of trustees’ vision to create the pro-grams. In November 2009, trust-ees gave Jensen the go-ahead to approach state lawmakers, who approved legislation in spring 2010. Former Gov. Bill Ritter later signed the legislation into law, which allows the college to

offer five, four-year degrees.Those other programs, which

could include teaching and nursing, are further away. But Jensen said he was excited about getting the college’s first four-year-degree programs up and running.

“There’s a lot of work to do yet, but I’m confident this will be a great service to our stu-dents and our communities,” he said.

To reach Jack Weinstein, call 970-871-4203 or email [email protected]

Degrees continued from 3

Teaching, nursing degrees possible in future

water in the mudroom of one of the homes.

Myers said he has lived at the property 17 years and had never seen flooding like this so early in the spring.

“First part of May is when we get a good run, but this is very early,” Myers said. “I don’t remember snow being here on the (south-facing slopes) this late.”

Issues reported countywideRoutt County Undersheriff

Ray Birch said patrol deputies have been put on call and are ready to respond to incidents.

“Our deputies are out keeping

an eye on things,” Birch said.Birch said he has been in con-

tact with the fire departments and public works departments throughout the county.

“If it rains for another five days, we might have issues,” he said. “When water runs across roads, some roads become dan-gerous. Even vehicles can be swept away, so they need to be careful.”

Senior county road engi-neer Heather McLaughlin was keeping the commissioners apprised of the changing situa-tion throughout the day Tues-day with email updates.

At 8:15 a.m., there was a report that a bar ditch on C.R. 129 that is known for rockslides had filled and was beginning to encroach onto the road.

Officials at Steamboat Lake State Park called just before noon to say water was running down the middle of C.R. 62 near Red Creek and pooling at the bottom.

Trull Creek was flooding C.R. 44, and there were issues on C.R. 52 near the site of an old coal mine.

The incidences of roads inun-dated with water around the county continued to grow into the late afternoon.

Road and Bridge field super-visor Tammie Crawford reported at 3:20 p.m. that a road bank on C.R. 41 south of Steamboat and north of Colorado Highway 131 had slid into the ditch, causing

water to flow onto the road.And another rockslide stopped

both lanes of traffic on U.S. High-way 40 in the Mount Harris Can-yon at about 5 p.m.

Safety concerns resultCommissioner Diane Mitsch

Bush stressed that people should call Road and Bridge at 970-879-0831 or dispatch at 970-879-1090 in instances where water is running across or pool-ing on roads.

“We don’t want you to drive where you don’t feel comfort-able,” Mitsch Bush said. “We do want people to call. If you have an emergency, call 911. Routt County cannot guarantee roads will be passable, particularly in high-water season.”

John Price, who has lived on C.R. 62 just below Red Creek for eight years, said it was a challenge driving the 5.5 miles from the Clark Store to his house today.

“The equipment opera-tor cleaned out the bar ditch-es (Monday), and in my view that was effective,” Price said. “They do a fabulous job of snow removal in winter, but in my view if they took more care in summer to set up” for spring runoff, “they wouldn’t have problems of this magnitude.”

Monger said most rural resi-dents have some alternative access route to avoid flooding areas, but in the rare circumstance that someone might be cut off in a

medical emergency it’s possible that Routt County Search and Rescue would come to their aid.

“Our first priority is public safety and the second priority is preserving and maintaining our infrastructure,” Monger said.

Reporter Matt Stensland con-tributed to this story.

To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205 or email [email protected]

Flooding continued from 1

Commissioner: Residents should report water on roadsWest Acres hillside sags

City officials investigated a modest mudslide Tuesday on the north side of the Gloria Gossard Parkway that was completed in late fall on the west side of Steamboat Springs.

The slide occurred on the second and smaller of two road cuts on the north side of the unused parkway. There was a visible fracture about 40 feet up the hill, but the more immedi-ate evidence of the slide was a slurry of thick mud that ran into the ditch but did not block the flow of water.

Danny Paul, city engineer and proj-ect manager for the road, said a meet-ing has been set for next week with the private civil and soil engineering firms that worked on the road. The plan is to talk about how to remediate the situa-tion in summer.

Paul said that the hillside consists of clay soils overlaying slate and that there are a number of springs in the slide area. The water finds its way to the slate and runs down, he said.

“This is almost inevitable until some vegetative growth” takes place on the hill, Paul said. Had the heavy snowfall of the past winter held off for another season, the road cut might have been more stable, he added.

20614766

• Asphalt Sealing• Patching • Pressure Washing

• Line Striping • Pot Hole Repair • Crack Filling

Free Estimates/Fully Insured

Ben 970-846-9536 or 970-871-0078

Your BEST choice for asphalt maintenance!

206790519 7 0 - 8 7 9 - 8 0 2 6 • k i n e t i c E N E R G Y p t . c om

Nicole P. Rabanal PT, CSCS • Finn B. Gerstell PT, MPT, OCS

Kinetic Energy Physical TherapyFree Injury Screens

donations accepted all proceeds to bene� t

Let us SERVE YOU!

Lift Up

S T E A M B O A T

R O U T T C O U N T Y ’ S D A I L Y N E W S P A P E R

TODAY

MATT STENSLAND/STAFF

Steamboat Springs Department of Public Works engineer Ben Beall walks past a large rock Wednesday that was pulled down from alongside River Road.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

City officials have closed a stretch of River Road between the Brooklyn and Tree Haus neighborhoods at least until Friday after two boulders described as being half the size of a car slid onto the narrow road at about 8 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’re fortunate it didn’t result in any injuries,” Public Works Engineer Ben Beall said

Wednesday afternoon. “The road is going to be closed for a number of days. The earliest it might open would be Friday.”

Assistant City Street Super-intendent Ron Berig said Steamboat Springs police alert-

ed dispatchers of the rock slide Tuesday night and dispatchers alerted the street department. The road was closed shortly after.

Beall said it was apparent that the shale-like boulders had been sitting on soils saturated by moisture that had begun to slump toward the road. The site of the slide, in the canyon south of Brooklyn, is not in the same place where a mud-slide occurred on a slope below a home in Tree Haus in Sep-

tember 2007. River Road was closed off and on for a week after that event while crews cleaned up the mud.

The concern that more boul-ders might come down prompt-ed city crews to call in a track hoe from Duckels Construction at mid-morning Wednesday to pull down an even larger boul-der, one that nearly matched the size of the track hoe, Beall said.

®

FREE

■ INDEXBriefs . . . . . . . . .10Classifieds . . . . .16Comics . . . . . . . .22Crossword . . . . .22Directory. . . . . . .14Happenings . . . . .7




INSIDE: Steamboat Winter Sports Club’s Anna Marno recovering from injury • page 12

THURSDAYAPRIL 21, 2011

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Vol. 23, No. 95

SteamboatToday.com



■ EVENTSCloudy with rain. High of 53.

Page 23

■ WEATHERFor breaking

news and sports scores, visit SteamboatToday.com

■ ONLINE

S T E A M B O A T

TODAYTODAY®TODAY FREE

page 12

Threat of continued rockfall closes road after boulders tumble

Slide shuts River Road

See Rockfall, page 11

For the latest news, follow Steamboatpilot on Twitter and like


Jack WeinsteinPILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The Hayden School Board delayed consideration of a con-troversial change to the Second-ary Schools’ woodworking pro-gram Wednesday night.

About 45 teachers, par-ents and community members attended the meeting that last-ed more than six hours. Many spoke passionately about the program and several of them supported teacher Jeff Steins-berger. Had School Board members approved the pro-gram change, they would have considered laying off Steins-berger.

School Board member Tim Frentress didn’t attend the meet-ing.

Superintendent Mike Lup-pes reiterated that proposing the program change wasn’t based on Hayden’s finances. He said the district would like to create a building trades program for which the ultimate goal would be for students to build a house and study all aspects of doing so, from foundation work to plumbing.

Parent Jerry Sather, who graduated from a trade school, said it took his class of 15 stu-dents and their teacher a full year to build the shell of a house that didn’t any include

See Hayden, page 11

Troy Zabel to leave district for Bayfield

Hayden delays program changes

STEAMBOAT TODAY Thursday, April 21, 2011 | 11lOcAl

The two boulders that fell into the road were moved to the opposite side of the road, but Beall expected that a hydraulic breaker bar would be needed to break up the largest rock before it could be moved.

“We determined that there is no need to use dynamite because of the type of rock it is,” Beall said.

A still larger boulder that appears to have already moved a short distance down the slope was still poised above the road on Wednesday.

Berig confirmed that three private driveways are within the road closure and all three are at

the south end, close to the inter-section of Mount Werner and River roads. The residents will not have any difficulty accessing their property, he said.

Beall said he was pursuing a meeting with a geotechnical engineer to assess the potential for more rock slides and how best to stabilize the situation in the short term.

The National Weather Ser-vice in Grand Junction is fore-casting a 60 percent chance of rain showers today, increasing to a 70 percent chance of rain mixed with snow overnight into Friday. Less than an inch of snow is expected overnight.


Rockfall continued from 1

Forecast calls for rain today and Friday

Senior County Road Engineer Heather McLaughlin reported late Wednesday afternoon that the problems that popped up Tuesday with creeks and ditches overwhelming road culverts around Routt County had subsided.

“Everything has calmed down today,” McLaughlin said. “I have been inspect-

ing bridges on the Elk (River) and the creeks up north all day, and everything is looking very good.”

She added that work done to add a second culvert at a point on Routt County Road 54 to ward off flooding at the Rick Myers ranch was “holding and effective.”

County flooding calms down

specialty work. “If we do this to students,

are we putting too much on their plates?” he asked, adding that they already have a teacher to instruct them in trades, such as cabinetry. “Why do we want to lose a teacher who’s very skilled, communicates with kids and does a great job? I’ve seen his work with the kids and it’s excellent.”

Many parents cited the impor-tance of the woodworking pro-gram for their children. Luppes said to create the building trades program, woodworking would be suspended next year, with the exception of possibly adding a computer-aided design class, to plan for the program.

“My concern is once it’s gone, it’s gone,” high school English teacher Sonia Salberg said. “We don’t know if these budget cuts are going to con-tinue. Well, we do. I’m worried that it won’t come back. I teach every kid in high school. We have so many kinesthetic kids who need woods.”

Spike Reedy, who has grand-

children in the district, sug-gested a committee evaluate the woodworking program and whether to change it to build-ing trades. Reedy said he served on a similar committee about Hayden’s automotive and weld-ing programs.

“Don’t just can the program without heavy, heavy consider-ation,” he said.

By delaying action, School Board members have anoth-er month to consider the pro-gram change before their May 19 meeting, which will include another opportunity for dis-cussion.

Also at Wednesday’s meet-ing, the School Board:

■ Approved the resignation of Hayden Secondary Schools Principal Troy Zabel, who took the superintendent posi-tion with the Bayfield School District, a district of about 1,350 students less than 20

miles southeast of Duran-go. Zabel, a 1983 graduate of Hayden High School, began his teaching career with the district in 1990. He starts July 1 with Bayfield.

■ Renewed 2011-12 con-tracts of the district’s proba-tionary (8) and non-probation-ary (26) teachers, department directors and coaches.

■ Directed Luppes to pur-sue bids for demolition of the middle school gym, including securing the wall that connects to the middle school side of the building and hauling away the materials. The gym was condemned before the 2009-10 school year because it was deemed unsafe.

■ Decided it wouldn’t sup-port the Education Fund Board spending money to study con-solidation of Routt County’s school districts.

■ Approved a memoran-dum of understanding with the Northwest Colorado Board of Cooperative Educational Ser-vices to administer special edu-cation programs.


Hayden continued from 1

Condemned gym closer to demolition



`

MONDAY - FRIDAY$2 Games & $2 Shoes

DAILY 1PM - 5PMReservation Recommended • 879-9840 • www.snowbowl.net

On the Free Bus Route!20725056

`

SPRING BREAK SPECIALWE'RE OPEN!

Place your ad at SteamboatClassifi edsNow.com, E-mail classifi [email protected] or Call 970-871-4255

Savings!

2072

6502

We Deliver Results!

Buy a merchandise ad for one week and get the

2nd WEEK FREE!

*Up to 30 words FREE on 2nd week $40 Value!

Hop Into


HAYDEN

Troy Zabel said it wasn’t easy to decide to leave Hayden.

After all, he grew up there. Zabel graduated from Hayden High School in 1983. After earn-

ing his bachelor’s degree from West-ern State College and a master’s degree from Colo-rado State Univer-sity, he returned in 1990 for his first teaching job at the middle school.

He went to Yampa in 2000 to become principal at South Routt Elementary School but returned four years later to take the same job leading Hayden’s secondary campus.

Zabel is leaving to become the superintendent of the Bayfield School District.

“We have a lot of history here, a lot of good years,” Zabel said Wednesday. “Love the staff, love the kids here. This is where our home is. But (Bayfield) is one of those incredible opportu-nities I couldn’t pass up.”

Zabel will take over a dis-trict of about 1,350 students in a community less than 20 miles southeast of Durango on July 1.

The Hayden School Board voted unanimously to accept his resignation Wednesday night.

Matt StenslandPILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Snowmelt and rain have taken their toll on at least a couple of business owners, as they watched water soil their mattresses and threaten their marijuana crops this week.

“We lost all of our mattresses” except two, Harris Greene said. “It’s probably close to $15,000.”

Greene owns Mountain

Mattress and Furniture, which stores its mattresses in a mixed-use building at 2005 13th St. On Thursday morning, water once again had flooded the property. The flooding started Monday night and has continued after

snowmelt and rain and snow showers this week.

At the same building, the water threatened a marijuana growing operation for Rocky Mountain Remedies. It is esti-mated that water got as high as 10 inches inside the building because water wasn’t draining quickly enough through a cul-vert close by.

“We thought we had a total loss the other night, and five, six hours of work helped save it,”

said Kevin Fisher, co-owner of Rocky Mountain Remedies.

With rain in the forecast through Monday, property own-ers and officials across the county are closely monitoring the rising water levels and saturated soils.

River Road along the Yampa River south of downtown is expected to be closed through at least the weekend as work-ers continue to monitor the road

Businesses flood as rainstorms, snowmelt, snowstorms keep coming

S T E A M B O A TFRIDAY

APRIL 22, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Vol. 23, No. 96

SteamboatToday.com R O U T T C O U N T Y ’ S D A I L Y N E W S P A P E R

TODAY


Rocky Mountain Remedies co-owner Kevin Fisher pumps flood water Thursday from around the building that houses one of his business’s operations on 13th Street.

Rain not going away

®

FREE

■ INDEXBriefs . . . . . . . . .10Classifieds . . . . .31Colorado. . . . . . .23Comics . . . . . . . .38Crossword . . . . .38Happenings . . . . .6

Horoscope . . . . .39Lotto. . . . . . . . . .30Movies . . . . . . . .16Scoreboard. . . . .30Sports. . . . . . . . .27ViewPoints . . . . . .8



INSIDE: Find events for the week in Routt County with our Explore Steamboat calendar • page 15



■ EVENTSRain and snow. High of 46.

Page 39



■ ONLINE

Zabel leaving Hayden

Zabel

FREE


Town native takes superintendent job in Bayfield district

See Zabel, page 12

ON THE GO?

m.SteamboatToday.com

Read the latest news on your smartphone

12 | Friday, April 22, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

and remove large boulders from a cliff. The road was closed shortly after rocks were reported on the road Tuesday night.

Public Works engineer Ben Beall said a geotechnical engi-neer had visited the site and advised the city what rocks to pull down. Beall said the situa-tion would be evaluated again once the rocks are removed.

“Due to the weather expected over the weekend and the snow-melt flowing down the slope, the city will keep the road closed until it is evident that the slope has stabilized and all debris has been cleared from the roadway,” a city news release stated.

The city asks that drivers, cyclists and pedestrians respect the road closure along River Road because of the presence of heavy equipment and the poten-tial for instability.

Routt County Road and Bridge Director Paul Drap-er said workers are continuing to address high water threaten-ing county roads. Draper said the agency is dealing with “low water” flows from rain and low-

elevation snowmelt that are inundating the culvert system. The system is designed to han-dle water flows that occur every 20 years, on average.

Looking at the weather Thurs-day, Draper called it the calm before the storm.

“We anticipate another busy day,” he said.

In the coming weeks, Drap-er expects that the Road and Bridge Department also will be dealing with the “high water” flows resulting from snowmelt at higher elevations that feed through rivers and underneath bridges.

A stream flow monitoring sta-tion on the Yampa River down-town was reporting flows of more than 1,400 cubic feet per second Thursday. That’s more than double the 101-year median for the date.

“It’s going to be a pretty sig-nificant runoff,” Draper said.

Business owners Greene and Fisher said they think their flooding problems likely will be resolved by the time the high water becomes an issue. By then, the snow likely will have melted from neighboring hill-

sides, and they hope the ground will be less saturated.

“Once the hillside is dry, it’s done,” Fisher said.

Until then, employees of the two businesses are taking turns monitoring pumps and squee-geeing the floors.

Assistant City Street Superin-tendent Ron Berig said the city helped early on by delivering sand and sandbags.

Berig said he also rented a pump to quickly lower the water enough so the culverts could be inspected. The city is limited in what it can do because the flood-ing is affecting a private develop-ment.

“I pumped it down the first day just to give them a head start,” Berig said. “We feel con-fident that the culverts are clear and running well.”

Greene and Fisher said they think the culvert running under-neath 13th Street that provides relief to their businesses is too small.

“That’s up for debate,” Berig said.

To reach Matt Stensland, call 970-871-4247 or email [email protected]


Official: There will be significant runoff

Before School Board members voted, a couple of them spoke up.

“Hate to see you go,” School Board member Kurt Frentress said.

“Thanks for your service, and good luck,” School Board President Brian Hoza said.

Zabel said he always wanted to be Hayden’s superintendent. He was considered twice, most recently last year. The School Board eventually appointed Mike Luppes as the district’s half-time superintendent.

Because it didn’t work out in Hayden, Zabel said he decided to pursue other opportunities after 11 years as a principal.

“I’m just ready for a change, new challenges,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a while. I just

felt like this was the time to move to some other opportunities.”

At the meeting, Luppes told the School Board he would advertise the position by this weekend. Luppes said he would like to have applications back by the end of May with a hire announced as early as the School Board meeting in June.

He told the School Board that teachers, parents, students and community members would be able to participate in the pro-cess by volunteering for com-mittees to help review applica-tions.

Luppes acknowledged Thurs -day that replacing Zabel wouldn’t be easy.

“He went to school here; his first teaching job was here; he was principal here,” Luppes said. “Those will be tough shoes to fill, no doubt.”

Frentress, along with School Board member Tim Frentress, supported Zabel for superinten-dent last year. Frentress called Zabel an asset to Hayden and praised him for helping move the district ahead academically.

“Bayfield made a good selec-tion in selecting Troy as their superintendent,” Frentress said. “He’s going to do a good job there. Even though he hasn’t been a superintendent before, he’s ready.”

To reach Jack Weinstein, call 970-871-4203or email [email protected]

Zabel continued from 1

Zabel has worked 11 years as a principal





Kinetic Energy Physical TherapyPre-Surgical Program

•TotalHipandKneeReplacements • SpineFusion •ACLReconstruction •RotatorCuffRepair

FREE exam and take home packet. You have a choice in your PRE and POST Surgical care.

Let us SERVE YOU!

Next to the Holiday Inn • Hwy 40 • 870-0438facebook.com/SteamboatDining 20

725961

TONIGHT’SSEAFOOD

MENUFriday, April 22nd

Appetizer

Fish Sticks Crispy Cod & Chicken Fried Home Fries

Lemon-Caper Tartar Sauce

Entrée

Goat Cheese Crusted Artic Char Sauteed Thyme Scented Barley, Fresh Cucumber &

Pomegranate Salad, Rich Orange Butter

HomeLink magazine Fox Construction

Backyard FarmingTuesday, April 26th

L’Apogée & Harwigs5:00 - 6:30 p.m. (presentation starts at 5:30 p.m.)Complimentary appetizer sampling & drink specials

Come learn everything you wanted to know about doing your own

Backyard Farming including raising chickens,rabbits, goats, turkeys, having a greenhouse, etc. You could learn to sustain yourself on your very own land.

For more information, call 970-846-9015 or email [email protected].

2072

5130

Sponsored by

Talking Green

WineFlight Fridays

2072

6599

Excellent pairings of fine dinners and delightful wines

$25 for 3 courses paired with wine, $15 without wine


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

A lawsuit filed against the town of Oak Creek by former Mayor Kathy “Cargo” Rodeman has been settled for $25,000.

“This offer is less than an offer made early in the case for $25,000 plus paying for Ms. Rodeman’s costs and reason-able attorney fees,” Colorado Springs lawyer Gordon L. Vaughan said in an email Friday.

Vaughan was representing the town and town officials in the civil lawsuit, which was filed in federal court.

“The settlement recently entered into was made, by defen-dants, to avoid the cost of fur-ther litigation, trial and a threat-ened appeal by Ms. Rodeman that could have extended this matter for another several years,” he wrote. “Such further litigation costs would have greatly exceeded the amount of this settlement.”

Rodeman filed the suit in response to her 2008 arrest by for-mer Oak Creek police officer Erik Foster. He arrested Rodeman on July 19, 2008. Foster has said he tried to stop Rodeman in her car because she failed to use her turn signal and said she then fled to her home. Foster has said he pursued Rodeman into her home and used a Taser to subdue and arrest her because she wasn’t cooperating.

Kathy Rodeman to receive $25,000

in agreement


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The snow at the summit of Buffalo Pass never has been deeper than it was Friday morn-ing.

Mike Gillespie, Colorado Snow Survey supervisor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Denver, confirmed that the snow depth at the Tower measuring site stood at 180 inch-

es, or 15 feet, setting a record for measured snow depths there that go back to the mid-1960s. The previous record was the 175-inch snow depth recorded on April 25, 1978.

“It will be a welcome change when these storms let up,” Gil-lespie said Friday. “We certainly have enough water supply.”

He acknowledged that the heavy snowpack comes with the potential for flooding late in spring, depending on weather

patterns and how the deep snow-pack melts.

The National Weather Service in Grand Junction issued a flood advisory Friday morning for cen-tral Routt County and Steam-boat Springs, in effect until 10:30 a.m. Monday.

The advisory was based on continuing rain and snow show-ers with daytime temperatures above freezing.

“Excessive snowmelt run-off will cause minor flooding of

small creeks, streets and road-ways,” the Weather Service cau-tioned.

Although the snow depth is at record levels, the amount of moisture in the snow on Buffa-lo Pass, 68.2 inches, is less than what was measured on April 25, 1978, when it was 71.1 inches.

Fresh snow settles daily, and today’s reading likely differs after settling and the addition of fresh

Buff Pass snow depth at all-time high; weather agency issues flood advisory

S T E A M B O A TSATURDAY

APRIL 23, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Vol. 23, No. 97

SteamboatToday.com R O U T T C O U N T Y ’ S D A I L Y N E W S P A P E R

TODAY

LARRY PIERCE/COURTESY

Think spring has arrived? The Buddy Werner statue on top of Storm Peak at Steamboat Ski Area told a different story Thursday. Ski area officials say they can’t remember so much snow on Mount Werner so late into spring.

Snow depth sets record

®

FREE

■ INDEXBriefs . . . . . . . . .10Classifieds . . . . .15Comics . . . . . . . .22Crossword . . . . .22Happenings . . . . .7Horoscope . . . . .23

Lotto. . . . . . . . . .12Movies . . . . . . . . .7The Record. . . . .10Scoreboard. . . . .12Sports. . . . . . . . .11ViewPoints . . . . . .8



INSIDE: Tammy Jacques-Grewal and Rishi Grewal to coach Winter Sports Club cycling team • page 11




Page 23

■ WEATHERCorrectionThe library screening of the Comm-unity Cinema Film “Bhutto” is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bud Werner Memorial Library in Library Hall. The event was listed under the wrong day in Friday’s edition of Explore Steamboat.

Ex-mayor, Oak Creek settle suit

Rodeman

See Snowpack, page 6

page 11

See Rodeman, back page

6 | Saturday, April 23, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAY

snow late Friday afternoon.Evidence of the unusually

deep April snowpack was clear in less scientific terms at the summit of Storm Peak at Steamboat Ski Area. The bronze helmet on the bust of the late Steamboat skiing great Buddy Werner was barely protruding from the snow Thurs-day, though it is mounted on a post that towers above a tall per-son on a summer day. And all but the crossbar on a large trail infor-mation sign was buried in a pho-tograph taken Friday by Steam-boat Ski and Resort Corp. pho-tographer Larry Pierce.

“Mountain crews have been up top over the past week, with one individual saying that the sum-mit stake read 160 inches” Tues-day, ski area spokesman Mike Lane said Friday. “Larry Pierce took a photo of the summit stake measuring 149 inches yesterday before any more snow fell over-night. I don’t think we have ever seen snow that high on the Buddy statue. I know I’ll never doubt tapping or touching Buddy’s stat-ue for good luck and good snow ever again.”

At Sunshine Peak, the ski patrol headquarters also was wearing a thick cap of snow rem-iniscent of a January blizzard above 10,000 feet.

The snowpack (moisture in the snow) at the Tower site is 134 per-cent of average for the date, but on a percentage basis only, some of the most profound measure-

ments are at sites below 9,000 feet. The most notable of those is near Dry Lake Campground at the base of Buffalo Pass, where melt-ing snow feeds streams including Soda and Spring creeks, which flow through Old Town Steam-boat Springs. The moisture near Dry Lake at 8,400 feet measures 171 percent of average, the equiv-alent of 35.5 inches of water on the ground.

“We’re really seeing snowpack that is well above average at lower elevations as well as up high,” Gil-lespie said.

Up north on the edge of the west side of the Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area, the Elk River measuring site stands at 160 per-cent of average. And in South Routt, Lynx Pass at 8,880 feet is at 148 percent of average, and Crosho Lake, outside Phippsburg

at 9,100 feet on the edge of the Flat Tops, is at 163 percent of average.

The west summit of Rabbit Ears Pass is at 157 percent of average with 105 inches of stand-ing snow.

Gillespie said the trigger that will signal the onset of spring runoff from high elevation snowfields, usually in May, is the arrival of overnight low tem-peratures that do not go below freezing.

“The thing that really helps to control runoff is cool night-time temperatures,” Gillespie said. “When we exceed 32-degree minimums, we’re getting melting around the clock, and there’s little to slow it down.”

That’s when the potential for flooding from historically high flows is at its greatest.

Larry Pierce/courtesy

Ski Patrol headquarters on Mount Werner remains inundated with snow nearly two weeks after Steamboat Ski Area closed for the season.

LOcAL

Snowpack continued from 1

Snowpack at high percentages in lower areas

871-8566 • 907 Lincoln AveThe store with a lot of “Sole”

907 Lincoln AveThe store with a lot of “Sole”

2072

6300

Walk-Ins/Reservations 879-1441 • Tuesday - Saturday NightsOld West Building • Corner of 11th & Lincoln • Entrance on 11th 20

724181

OPEN EASTER SUNDAY4:00-8:30 PM

Offering our Early Dining Specials ALL Night!!!

Including our 8oz. Prime Rib ALL for $15.95!!!

OPEN EASTER SUNDAYOPEN EASTER SUNDAYOPEN EASTER SUNDAYOPEN EASTER SUNDAY

Soles4Souls

20725759

Help Ski Haus support Soles4Souls with your donation of any gently worn footwear. With your donation you will receive a 15% discount* off any new pair of trail or road running shoes now through May 26.

Soles4Souls donates shoes to the less fortunate around the world. They are currently giving away a pair of shoes every 7 seconds...

Over 13 million pair so far.

For more information: www.soles4souls.com

Ski Haus is partnering with

to help change the world

one pair of shoes at a time.

Salomon . Saucony . Pearl Izumi . Mizuno . Asics Merrell . Newton . Scarpa

*No purchase necessary. We will gladly accept any pair of gently worn footwear. Thanks.

Highway 40 & Pine Grove Rd. 879.0385 Open EverydaySki Haus Ski Haus Conoco Ski Haus Liquor Ever Summer Bike Shop Zoom Coffee Shop

Vernon Yoder

970-824-1079Serving Moffatt & Routt County

Vernon Yoder

970-824-1079Serving Moffatt & Routt County

20568803

TODAYS T E A M B O A T


JOHN F. RUSSELL/STAFF

The snow-covered slopes of Mount Werner are reflected in the pools of water at Brent Romick Rodeo Arena in downtown Steamboat Springs on Monday. City and county officials are preparing for the possibility of significant flooding this spring.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Routt County officials are preparing to enter unknown territory as they contem-plate a spring runoff sea-son that has the potential to cause flooding like the val-ley hasn’t seen in decades.

Road crews already have been forced to deal with over-whelmed road culverts, and 15 feet of snow remains on the summit of Buffalo Pass. More than 100 inches remain on Rabbit Ears Pass.

County Road and Bridge Department Director Paul Draper said Monday that he and Emergency Manage-ment Director Bob Struble sat down last week to make plans for coming to the aid of rural residents who could potentially be cut off from road access by a mudslide or flooded roads.

“We’re talking about what to do in the case of a cat-astrophic slide that isolates families,” Draper said. “We’re asking ourselves, ‘How are we going to respond?’”

Struble said only a very small percentage of Routt County residents could be cut off by floodwaters, but he and Draper are refer-ring to maps to see where slides already have occurred and where people could find

®

FREE


Lotto. . . . . . . . . .12Movies . . . . . . . . .7Scoreboard. . . . .12Sports. . . . . . . . .11The Record. . . . .10ViewPoints . . . . . .8



INSIDE: Steamboat Springs High School senior Nicolas Hessenberger wins Daniels Fund scholarship • page 3

TUESDAYAPRIL 26, 2011


Vol. 23, No. 99

SteamboatToday.com




Page 23



■ ONLINE

Road official says spring is like none in 20 years

Routt on watch for slides

See Floods, page 6

Welcome home all of you spring break pil-grims who returned

home over Rabbit Ears Pass on Sunday night wearing your

tacky beach shorts and river san-dals. We missed you.

Fortu-nately, you brightened our snowy days with photo gal-leries of tro p ical des tinations

post ed on Facebook.Yes, while you were away

frolicking in the surf, here in the Yampa Valley the streets of Steamboat were desolate. Rob-ins were building their nests in spruce trees, and a few timid glacier lilies stuck their heads out of the ground on south-facing slopes while we watched boulders the size of studio con-dos tumble onto River Road.

Yes, the weather in Steam-boat was just plain ridonculous while you were away. When it wasn’t snowing, it was raining. And when it was doing either, it was doing both at the same time.

So, your Facebook post-ings made it bittersweet — like April snowshowers that prom-ise to bring flowers sometime in August. We all regret that you had to come back to this crud with sand still clinging to your sunburned scalps.

Jeff Ruff celebrated his birth-day on the bonefish flats of Pesca Maya last week with Steamboat-


Welcome home,

pilgrims

See Ross, back page

6 | Tuesday, April 26, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

themselves isolated.“We want to be sure they can

get to town,” Struble said. “The Sheriff ’s Office is being very vigilant on their patrols right now looking for slides.”

One option, when tradition-al vehicles cannot navigate a stretch of road, would be to call on Routt County Search and Rescue.

An area of particular con-cern is far North Routt Coun-ty where Routt County Road 129 is already closed beyond Columbine to the Wyoming state line. Routt County has a reciprocal arrangement in place with Carbon County, Wyo., for mutual aid, Struble confirmed.

Draper’s crews were called out again during the weekend to keep an eye on the defunct Appel Dam about eight miles from Steamboat on Routt County Road 33 (just beyond the Twentymile Divide), where the earthen dam structure had slumped to the edge of the county road.

“I don’t remember this much snow this time of year — ever,” Draper said. “This is a different animal. We don’t think it’s over by any means.”

Struble’s office has posted the updated 2011 edition of the High Water Preparedness Guide on the county’s web-site. It also is available with this story at SteamboatToday.

com. Among other things, the guide urges residents to check on elderly residents, pre-pack a grab-and-go kit, create an evac-uation plan and make plans for pets and livestock.

Crews stay on defenseDraper said he’s pleased with

the way his staff has responded to the rash of minor road emer-gencies this month.

“They’re doing really good. We want to keep the integrity

of our road systems intact if at all possible, and they under-stand that it’s less expensive to protect the infrastructure now than to replace it,” Drap-er said. “Sixty percent of my crew has been here 10 years or more.”

The 36 Road and Bridge employees have been working their base shift from 6 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and respond-ing to calls after hours and on weekends.

“We’re responding and addressing the immediate prob-lem, but we can’t fix anything when it’s this wet,” Draper said. “The ground has absorbed all the water it’s going to. It’s all going to run off now.”

Culverts on rural roads are built to handle 20-year floods, which can happen in any given year. It’s understood that the culverts sometimes will be inundated, and the reason the county hasn’t installed larg-er culverts is that it would require elevating the roads to an impractical degree.

The Road and Bridge De -part ment’s annual summer plan of work calls for it to begin summer maintenance and appl ication of the dust suppressant magnesium chlo-ride in the second week of May. Draper already is con-templating adjusting the sum-mer schedule.

He said that based on the advice of a wise old Routt County rancher and water developer, he’s preparing for a long spring runoff.

“When John Fetcher was alive, he told me to look at the number of inches of snow on top of the ski area on clos-ing day and plan on 1 inch (of melt) a day. That’s how many days it’s going to take to melt this year? Are we going to have 6 feet of snow up there on July 4?”


Floods continued from 1

Crews respond at night, on weekends

Residents concerned about a new after-hours flooding issue in their rural neighborhood should call Routt County Communications at 970-879-1090. Dispatchers there can reach road crews directly on their radios.

An orange road cone near a trouble spot is a sign that the Routt County

Road and Bridge Department is aware of the problem.

The weather forecast calls for a chance of snow through Wednesday before the valley sees clearing on Thursday, followed by a return to rain mixed with snow Thursday night and Friday.

City officials are consulting experts on how best to handle a large boulder precariously overhanging River Road near the Tree Haus subdivision before reopening the road that some motorists use to commute from the south valley into downtown Steamboat Springs.

City Public Works Engineer Ben Beall said Monday that a soils engineer has evaluated the problem and cost esti-mates are being prepared for removing the boulder from the hillside.

“We realize it’s an inconvenience, but there’s an alternate route (U.S. Highway

40),” Beall said. “We’ll work as speedily as we can to get the road open, but we definitely want to be cautious.”

One alternative could be using dyna-mite to blast the rock, and Beall said the city would notify nearby residents before taking that step.

The large boulder remained in place April 21 after smaller rocks slid off a steep embankment the night before and into the roadway. A track hoe was used to pull a monstrous boulder off the embankment. The rock still clinging to the hillside is even larger.

River Road closed indefinitely

In case of emergency

KEEP UP WITH THE CONDITIONS

at SteamboatToday.com

s h a u n a s t u d i o . c o m • 8 7 9 - 6 2 1 3

Looking to update your business image?Portraits for business, public relations, social networking, employment and many other uses created in a comfortable boutique style studio environment by a certifi ed professional photographer.

2072

4917

by

2071

9329

HarwigsTuesday is

Night

Haché Bar

Haché - 8 potatoes, roasted pork green

chili, local farm fresh egg

Sizzle Salads - 11

Sliders - 4

Harwigs/L’Apogee @ 911 Lincoln • 879-1919

Full menu always available

Featuring

2072

7439

Springtime is no time not to ride.Introducing the most ideal bike for Steamboat Springs...

Ski Haus Ever Summer Bike Shop • 879.0424Located at the Ski Haus Corner • Highway 40 and Pine Grove Road above the Ski Haus Conoco

Open Monday - Saturday 10AM to 6PM • Love the season you’re in...

Specialized CruXRide anywhere - anytime!

Pave. Dirt. Mud. Snow. Rain. Sunshine.

Ski Haus Ever Summer Bike Shop. Come by for a test ride.

Leave with a new perspective on Spring.

��Walk-Ins/Reservations 879-1441 • Tuesday - Saturday Nights

Old West Building • Corner of 11th & Lincoln • Entrance on 11th 20722708

$15.95 EARLY DINING SPECIAL5:00-6:30 PM

Two Filet SkewersOld West Ranch Steak

Homemade Chicken Fried SteakSteak Burger

Chipotle-Honey Grilled SalmonShrimp Scampi

Veggie Pasta PrimaveraChicken Santucci

�Walk-Ins/Reservations 879-1441 •

Old West Building • Corner of 11th & Lincoln • Entrance on 11th

$15.95 Menu Available all evening to prom Attendees

make your reservation

today!

comment &commentary

Viewpoints8 Steamboat Today • Wednesday, April 27, 2011

It’s typical for Routt County to receive late-spring snowfall. It’s also typical for areas of the county to

experience flooding issues during peak runoff.

But this spring and summer are shaping up to be anything but typ-ical here in the Upper Yampa Valley, and res-idents need to be pre-pared. With mid- and upper-elevation snow-pack at record levels and the weather fore-cast calling for contin-ued precipitation and overnight lows below freezing for the next week, the likelihood of extensive flooding

across the county later this spring con-tinues to increase.

We’ve already seen what can result when the snowmelt begins in earnest. A rockslide has closed River Road near the Brooklyn neighborhood in down-town Steamboat since early last week. Roads across the county are being mon-itored daily for erosion and stability issues. A culvert along 13th Street in Steamboat was unable to handle runoff last week, and that led to the flooding of several businesses.

Local government agencies and offi-

cials have been meeting in earnest in recent weeks as the spring runoff sce-narios begin to come into view. On Monday, Routt County Emergency Management Director Bob Struble and Road and Bridge Department Director Paul Draper updated the county com-missioners on their plans to keep roads passable and on how they’ll provide aid to any rural residents who might be stranded by flooding near their proper-ties.

The takeaway for all Routt Coun-ty residents is this: Be prepared for the potential impact of flooding on your property and personal safety.

The updated 2011 High Water Pre-paredness Guide issued jointly by the county’s municipalities is a good place to start. The free guide, available to download in PDF format at Routt County’s website or with this editorial at SteamboatToday.com, includes numer-ous tips about preparing for an even-tual emergency and what action to take should that arise. From how to fill and stack sandbags to keep floodwaters at bay, to putting together a grab-and-go kit for your home should you be forced to leave at a moment’s notice, the High Water Preparedness Guide is compre-hensive and easy to read.

Among the tips:■ Know if you live in a high-water

risk area. Call your town or city govern-

ment if you’re not sure.■ Buy flood insurance, if appropriate■ Prepare emergency supply kits for

your home, car and office■ Keep important papers in water-

proof containers and have a record of your valuables in a safe place to help with insurance claims

■ Watch for warning signs such as an increase in height and intensity of water flows, mudslides, debris in creeks, color changes in water and leaning trees

■ Teach your children about high water safety

■ Consider arrangements for your pets and livestock

■ Check on elderly or disabled neigh-bors to ensure they are aware of the sit-uation

■ Prepare an evacuation plan from your home to a safe area

■ Never try to drive, walk or swim through high water. Two feet of water can carry away most cars.

Don’t underestimate the chance that high runoff and flooding can affect you or your property. Many longtime Steamboat Springs residents recall Old Town flooding in 1974 and the wide-reaching impacts. Although it’s not clear whether the pace of runoff will create similar conditions this year, the potential exists. And that should be enough for heightened awareness from everyone.

Oak Creek pot shamThe opening paragraph of Sun-

day’s article about medical marijua-na in Oak Creek (“Oak Creek medi-cal marijuana debate continues”) is very enlightening: “Although the South Routt School District, Oak Creek Police Department, and several residents support a town ban on the sale and commercial growth of medi-cal marijuana, the Oak Creek Town

Board is looking at forging ahead with revisions to the ordinance that was passed just more than a year ago.”

In America we have a representative system of government, and at every level the representatives are voted in to represent the constituency’s view-points and not their personal biases, choices or agendas.

One really begins to wonder just who the Oak Creek Town Council is representing.

Just how many medical marijua-na patients are there in Oak Creek? Are there enough to justify a business that has the potential to be the largest marijuana grow factory in Colorado?

One trustee says “… but we’ve already started going down the road, and we don’t want to ruin the lives of these people who have a lot of money invested in this town for this specific

Flood danger is real; be preparedOur View

Mallard FillMore Bruce Tinsley

See letters, page 9

letters policyLimit letters to 600 words. All letters must include the phone number of the writer so that the authenticity of the letter can be verified. Email letters to [email protected] or send them to Letters at P.O. Box 774827, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477. By submit-ting letters to the editor, you grant the Steamboat Pilot & Today a nonexclusive license to publish, copy and distribute your work, while acknowledging that you are the author of the work. You grant the Steamboat Pilot & Today permission to publish and republish this material without restriction, in all formats and media now known or hereafter developed, including but not limited to all electronic rights. Solely by way of example, such rights include the right to convert the material to CD-ROM, DVD and other current and hereafter developed formats, the right to place the article in whole or in part on the Internet and other computer networks, and the right to electronically store and retrieve the work in electronic databases.

question of the week:

Should the Steamboat Springs City Council let residents out of deed restrictions on real estate

if they pay to compensate?

Vote at steamboattoday.com

News: 970-871-4234Sports: 970-871-4209Fax: 970-879-2888

P.O. Box 774827 • 1901 Curve PlazaSteamboat Springs, CO 80477

970-879-1502 • 888-499-3999

SteamboatToday.com

Steamboat Today is published Monday through Saturday mornings by WorldWest Limited Liability Company.

It is available free of charge in Routt County. Limit one copy per reader. No person may, without prior written permission of Steamboat Today, take more than one copy of each issue.

Additional copies and back issues are available for $1 at our offices or $2.50 to have a copy mailed.

2010 General Excellence winner, Colorado Press Association

Member of the Colorado Press Association, Newspaper Association of America, Inland Press Association

© 2011 Steamboat Today

TodAyS T e A m b o A T

®

Do you have something to say about a story we’ve written?

steamboattoday.com allows readers to submit comments on stories, to create their own blogs and to participate in our reader forum. each sunday, a selection

of the top comments from steamboattoday.com are published. Visit steamboattoday.com

and submit your comments.steamboattoday.com

letters tO the editOr

aT iSSueSpring runoff and flooding dangers

our viewPotential for flooding and related issues requires attention of all residents.

The opinion of Steamboat Today is expressed only in the space above.

eDitorial BoarDscott stanford, general manager

Brent Boyer, editortom ross, reporter

traci Day, community representativeDean Vogelaar, community representative

who to callSuzanne Schlicht, chief operating officer, ext. 224

Scott Stanford, general manager, ext. 202Brent Boyer, editor, ext. 221

Meg Boyer, advertising director, ext. 218Steve Balgenorth, circulation director, ext. 232

Suzanne Becker, creative services manager, ext. 243dan Schuelke, press operations manager, ext. 217

Blythe Terrell, city editor, ext. 234Nicole Miller, news editor, ext. 246

advertising: 970-879-1502Classifieds: 970-879-1502distribution: 970-871-4232

2 | Saturday, April 30, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

YOUR LOCAL NEWS AND INFORMATION LEADER — ON TV, IN PRINT and ONLINE

YOUR GUIDE TO STEAMBOAT TODAY

Coming Sunday

NEWSPAPER TELEVISION WEB MAGAZINES

Summer gear for 2011 is flooding local store shelves in Steamboat Springs. As area outdoors enthusiasts stash snowboarding and skiing boots and tire of their winter equipment, a whole season of other items dawns. The Outdoors page in Sunday’s Steamboat Pilot & Today will examine the newest must-have equipment available at some local shops in a two-part story, continuing next week.

TOP 3SECOND HAND

STORE

WINNER’S CIRCLE

Winner’s Circle features businesses voted in the top 3 in the named category.

For a complete list of winners, pick up At Home in Steamboat Springs magazine

or visit BestoftheBoat.com.

970-871-93272125 Curve Court

Near Cook Chevrolet

SAY HAPPYBIRTHDAY!Does your child have an upcoming birthday? Email your child’s photo, birthday and age to share@ SteamboatToday.com. The Steamboat Birthday Club is free of charge and open to children ages 1 to 12.

Elizabeth Ann PolucciAge: 1

Birthday: April 30

STEAMBOATSTEAMBOAOAO TATA

BirthdayClub

Karime Rubi RodriguezAge: 1

Birthday: April 28

LIFT-UP

I’ve been able to confirm through confidential sources that a North Routt woman,

Lola Daylooj, is building an ark on top of Grouse Mountain and is taking reservations for couples only, at her Facebook page.

“When the big flood final-ly arrives, Lola’s Ark is gonna deliver us to safety,” she told my secret source. “It’s made out of the best beetle-killed pine I could find. I reckon if everything goes well, we’ll all be bobbing around in Lake Powell come Indepen-dence Day.”

Daylooj reportedly has booked a pair of timber par-rots, two whistle pigs and a pair of virtuous coyotes to ride out the flood with her. I’m speaking about the flood that almost cer-tainly will spank us when the 93 inches of snow burying the Lost Dog Snotel near the confluence of the north and south forks of the Elk River finally melts some-

time in June.Speaking of dogs, Daylooj

already has booked male and female powderhounds on Lola’s Ark and is looking for a cou-ple of cowhands with a proven ability to get along with a tan-dem of Steamboat tree-huggers in the neighboring berth. She also needs a couple of veterinar-ians and two wildlife biologists to look after all the animals she intends to march two-by-two onto the ark so they can repopu-late the valley after the flood sub-sides.

The word snotel is govern-

North Routt woman prepares for floods

Lola builds an ark


April snow showersCrossing guard Karen Burin attempts to brighten up Friday’s glum weather with her colorful umbrella as children arrive for class at Soda Creek Elementary School. It might take more than an umbrella to brighten the weather forecast, which calls for a chance of snow and rain through the weekend.

Tom Ross

PILOT & TODAY STAFF

See Ross, back page

28 | Saturday, April 30, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL


Fun Run memorialFirst-grader Nikolas Keyek runs through the snow during the second annual Jenna’s Fun Run at Soda Creek Eelementary School. The run was a way to cel-ebrate the life of Jenna Gruben Morrill, who was a faculty member at the school. She died Feb. 13, 2010, in a car accident.

ment jargon for a snow-measur-ing site, but I find that for jargon, it has a nice ring to it — reminds me of a ski lodge.

In the mountains surrounding Lola’s Ark this spring, it’s still ski season, and there is so much snow that it’s difficult to mea-sure.

Vance Fulton, who has been checking snotels and measur-ing the depth of the white stuff around Steamboat since 1993, said he and a crew with the Nat-ural Resources Conservation Service set out in a mounting storm Friday morning to mea-sure the snow depth at the Tower Snotel at the top of Buffalo Pass. They didn’t make it.

“We got to within a quarter of a mile of Summit Lake and had to turn around because we couldn’t see anything,” Fulton said.

Fulton’s team had hoped to add an extension to one of weather observer Art Judson’s now-buried snow measuring stakes, but that will have to wait until early next week.

In the meantime, Fulton’s NRCS colleague Chris Pacheco used known snow density to esti-mate the depth of the snow at the summit of Buffalo Pass early Friday at 199.5 inches, and that

was a good seven hours before the latest snowstorm blew into the Yampa Valley. You can make your own best guess, but I’m calling it 17 feet deep.

Pacheco, who is the assistant snow survey supervisor with the NRCS in Denver, is a scientifi-cally inclined kind of guy. So he stopped short of predicting a flood of biblical proportions.

“A lot of it’s going to depend on how it comes off,” Pacheco told me. “The best case is if it warms up slowly and comes off over a long period. It’s a rapid transition to (summer temper-atures) that concerns me the most.”

If you haven’t made your res-ervation on Lola’s Ark yet, you’d best start building your own.


Ross continued from 2

Better make ark reservation“A lot of it’s going to depend on how it comes off. The best case is if it warms up slowly and comes off over a long period. It’s a rapid transition to (summer temperatures) that concerns me the most.”

Chris PachecoNatural Resources Convervation Service assistant snow survey supervisor

The bottom line on Steamboat real estate

www.steamboathomefinder.com

s t e a m b o a t

Site Sponsor:

8

Today!!!8

S T E A M B O A TTHURSDAY

MAY 5, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado


TODAY


Steamboat Springs skier Kerry Lofy hikes up a slope April 28 on Buffalo Pass. The snowpack on the pass is equivalent to 6 feet of water.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The 6 feet of water standing in the form of snow on the Con-tinental Divide near Steamboat Springs is unprecedented in the record books.

State conservationist Allen Green, of the Natural Resourc-es Conservation Service, con-firmed that the Tower measur-ing site at 10,500 feet on the summit of Buffalo Pass has set

an all-time record, not just for that location but for Colorado.

Tower “reached a total (snow) accumulation for this season over 200 inches deep, with 72.6 inches of water con-tent,” Green said. “This exceeds the previous record reading of

71.1 inches of water equivalent measured in 1978” on Buffalo Pass.

The 2011 figure at Tower sets an all-time record for any snow-measuring site in Colora-do, Green said, and snowpack measurements are strong across the northern tier of Colorado.

April might be close to anoth-er record for precipitation in Steamboat Springs. Unofficial collaborative weather observ-er Art Judson recorded 6.37 inches of precipitation, includ-

ing melted snow, at his weath-er station between downtown and the mountain. That is the most moisture since April 1909. A forecaster at the National Weather Service in Grand Junc-tion said the official April totals have yet to be turned in.

However, Judson had anoth-er noteworthy measurement to report: Of 30 days in April, 27 days saw at least a trace of snow, adding up to 42.9 inches

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com


Lotto. . . . . . . . . .18Movies . . . . . . . . .7Nation. . . . . . . . .15Scoreboard. . . . .18Sports. . . . . . . . .16ViewPoints . . . . . .8



INSIDE: Steamboat girls soccer sweeps season series against Moffat County with 2-0 shutout Wednesday • page 16



■ EVENTSSunny.High of 62.

Page 27

■ WEATHER■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow WednesdayNoon 626 cfsMidnight 753 cfsAverage for this date 1,160 cfsHighest for this date 2,450 cfs, 1920Lowest for this date 278 cfs, 1944Cubic feet per second measurements taken at Fifth Street and provided by U.S. Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov.

Water content on Buffalo Pass is most ever recorded statewide

Snowpack sets record

See Snowpack, page 12

CorrectionThe story “Budget has room for band” on page 3 of Tuesday’s Steamboat Today should have said Steamboat fifth-grade band teacher Mike Lewis uses a provision of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association that allows retirees to work fewer than 140 days a year. Lewis already is retired, has used the provision and plans to continue using it to teach band.

ON THE GO?




STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The man who admitted in Routt County Court on Wednesday that he stabbed a teenager’s hand during a fight April 4 at Bud Werner Memo-

rial Library has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Adam Huber, 40, agreed to a deal negotiated by his attorney, Routt County Public Defender Sheryl Uhlmann,

and Chief Deputy District Attorney Rusty Prindle. Huber pleaded no contest to misde-meanor third-degree assault. The District Attorney’s office had originally charged Huber with felony second-degree assault.

Exactly what took place April 4 at the library will not come forth in a criminal trial. After talking to witnesses and those involved in the incident, police believed three teenage

Man takes 6-month deal for stabbing

See Huber, back page

Huber

LOCAL12 | Thursday, May 5, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAY

the percussion be the rhythm guitar in some ways.”

Bunting, a full-time musi-cian and sound engineer based in Denver, plays hand drums, toys such as shakers and wood blocks as well as a tambou-rine hooked up to a foot pedal. With that setup, he can play three instruments at the same time.

At age 12, Bunting said, he started on a drum kit but found the hand drums much more lib-erating.

“I enjoyed the hand drum-ming a lot more because it

gave me freedom and the abil-ity to improvise,” Bunting said. “The percussion is going to add another layer and that worldly sound. It’s going to accent that idea (Young is) going for musi-cally. It’s more complementary than anything.”

Bunting said he’s used to playing shows on Cinco de Mayo for music-hungry revel-ers.

“There’s a lot of unity going on on these days for sure,” he said about the holiday, which is the traditional celebration of a Mexican victory over French forces in the 1862 Battle of Puebla. “Music is definitely

a major part of pretty much every culture, and on Cinco de Mayo, people really gravitate toward wanting to see music the whole day.”

Young said that in Steam-boat, there is the added celebra-tion of mud season coming to a close and the return of many locals from their shoulder sea-son hideaways.

“I hope it becomes a good, festive, ‘Hey, it’s good to see you again at the end of mud season’ kind of dance party,” he said.

To reach Nicole Inglis, call 970-871-4204 or email [email protected]

Young continued from 4

Party also to celebrate end of mud season

for the month.The biggest one-day snow

total of 7 inches was measured at 6:59 a.m. April 30. Judson also recorded a four-day period April 19 through 22 when 10.2 inches fell in town.

Locally, a record amount of water on the Continental Divide raises concerns about flooding, assures whitewater paddlers a memorable season and means tubers and fly-fishermen will have to wait until July for opti-mum conditions.

However, Green’s colleague Snow Survey supervisor Mike Gillespie said the snowpack across the American West rep-resents a banner year for irriga-tors, municipal water managers and reservoir managers.

“It’s great news for water sup-plies, not just in northern Colo-rado, but really the entire west-ern U.S. We’re sitting on above-average snowpacks,” Gillespie said. “It’s very unusual to see such widespread (high measure-ments) from the Pacific North-west reaching down to Colora-

do. It’s a remarkable year.”Gillespie said his agency and

the National Weather Service have collaborated on a stream-flow report for the West that sug-gests flows should remain high well into July.

In Colorado, snowpack is strong on both sides of the Con-tinental Divide. The snow mea-surement site on Cameron Pass west of Fort Collins crushed the previous record this month. Cameron Pass has 48 inches of water content. With continu-ous measurements taken since 1936, it is one of the oldest snow course sites in the state. The previous record there was the 42.5 inches of water, mea-sured in 1971.

“Even many of the old-tim-ers have never seen some of the depths measured across north-ern Colorado this month,” Green said.

The La Niña weather pat-terns this winter did not favor southern Colorado, where snowpack is below average. The lowest in the state is the Rio Grande Basin at 72 percent of average.

Snowpack continued from 1

Water f low should remain high into JulyFire chief assesses risk

STEAMBOAT SPRINGSSteamboat Springs Fire Rescue

Chief Ron Lindroth and Street Superintendent Doug Marsh dis-cussed the city’s flood risk Tuesday night, citing the potential for “a perfect storm” if warm weather melts snowpack quickly and accelerates flows in area creeks and streams.

“For our community, my big-gest concern is not necessarily the Yampa River, but the streams that flow through town,” Lindroth told the Steamboat Springs City Council.

Lindroth said the city’s utilities department is closely monitoring culverts, streams and creeks for blockages, which could build up sig-nificant water that could cause flash flooding if released suddenly.

“There’s a potential for flooding risk that is greater than what we’ve had in recent history,” Lindroth said Wednesday.

Along the Yampa River, Lindroth said, facilities including Routt County Communications, Ferrellgas, Yampa Valley Electric Association, the down-town fire station and the city’s waste-water treatment plant all are within a potential floodplain.

Lindroth said he also is preparing for the possibility of people getting swept up in a flash flood.

“The Fire Department is doing swift-water rescue training as we speak,” he said.

Marsh said property owners in need of sandbags can call the city’s street office at 970-879-1807 dur-ing business hours. After 4 p.m., he said, the city dispatch line at 970-879-1144 will take calls and notify city staff of requests.

“We have 13,000 sandbags, and the largest amount of sandbags we’ve ever used was 7,000,” Marsh said. “So far this year, we’ve used 900.”

He said another 5,000 or so sand-bags are available in Gypsum, should the need arise.

Sandbags are free for residents, except those who have had flood problems in the past and failed to mitigate them. Those residents will be charged, Steamboat Springs Police Chief JD Hays wrote in an April 20 email.

Commercial users are charged after 100 bags. The cost of 50 cents per bag includes sand. The city will deliver the bags and sand, but the user must fill and place the bags.

— Mike Lawrence

Call us first!� Business Cards� Rack Cards� Brochures� Post Cards� Letterhead� Envelopes

� Flyers� Newsletters� Bulk Mailings� Labels� Forms� Pocket Folders� Booklets

� Catalogs� Tags� Door Hangers� Posters� Notepads � Invitations

Great Service, Wide Selection,Convenient Location, Fast Turnaround,Experienced and Dependable, Since 1979

Call us today!879.5444

[email protected] or [email protected]

625 South Lincoln Ave next to Freshies Restaurant

Mon-Fri 8am-5pm

CE

LE

BR

AT

ING

O

UR

3

1S

T

YE

AR

2061

1789

2071

1914

879.4197 345 lincoln www.bistrocv.com

Join us for happy hour

5 - 6:30 every day1/2 price

small plates & drinks!

20728741

20690299

CARRY OUT/DELIVERYPIZZA BY THE SLICE

970-870-8600WWW.BLUESAGEPIZZA.COM

Use both handson our

DEEP DISH

S t e a m b o a tTuesday

may 10, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado


today

John F. Russell/staFF

Routt County Road and Bridge employee Roger Bratton uses a rubber-tired excavator parked on Routt County Road 179 to remove part of a culvert as fellow employee Larry Bond watches the operation Monday afternoon. The culvert, which used to run under C.R. 179 near the western intersection with C.R. 33, was removed along with part of the road to allow water that was threatening to breach C.R. 33 to flow downstream faster.


steaMBoat sPRInGs

Crews were deliberately cutting a 10-foot-wide trench through Routt County Road 179 south of Milner on Mon-day afternoon in a bid to pre-vent the rushing waters of Foidel Creek from damaging Routt County Road 33, an

important link to Twentymile Mine.

“To protect 33, we have to act right now — if we wait until tomorrow morning, it will be too late,” Road and

Bridge Director Paul Draper told the Routt County Board of Commissioners on Mon-day. “We don’t want water to go over the top of 33 tonight.”

A section of C.R. 179 was already closed to traffic after the creek washed out a five-foot culvert and began to eat away at the road base. But the creek was rising rapidly and threatening C.R. 33 near the

intersection of the roads. Also Monday afternoon,

the Colorado Water Conser-vation Board issued a “minor flooding” bulletin for Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Garfield and Eagle counties, all in the northwest part of the state. Meteorologist Nate Clem-ents wrote that as much as a

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com

■ IndexBriefs . . . . . . . . .10Classifieds . . . . .19Comics . . . . . . . .26Crossword . . . . .26Happenings . . . . .6Horoscope . . . . .27




INSIDE: Haymaker Golf Course plans to open driving range by the end of the week, weather permitting • page 16



■ eventsRainy. High of 54.

Page 27

■ weather■ rIver reportYampa River flow MondayNoon 1,570 cfsMidnight 1,950 cfsAverage for this date 1,360 cfsHighest for this date 3,560 cfs, 1974Lowest for this date 357 cfs, 2010Cubic feet per second measurements taken at Fifth Street and provided by U.S. Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov.

County crews cut trench to divert rushing Foidel Creek

Water threatens roads

Mike LawrencePILOT & TODAY STAFF

steaMBoat sPRInGs

A water attorney who has worked for Steamboat Springs for eight years has received an advisory position with the Interior Department, plac-

ing someone with firsthand knowl-edge of local and regional water issues close to the highest levels of national govern-ment.

Fritz Holle-man, a partner

with the Boulder legal firm Porzak Browning & Bushong, has received a presidential appointment to become dep-uty solicitor for water in the administration of President Barack Obama.

Holleman will report to Hil-ary Tompkins, solicitor for the Interior Department; Anne Castle, the department’s assis-tant secretary for water and science; and to Interior Secre-tary Ken Salazar, of the San Luis Valley.

Holleman has provided counsel to Steamboat Springs since 2003, when the city filed for its recreational in-chan-nel diversion, or RICD, water right on the Yampa River. The RICD mandates certain flow rates on the Yampa during spring and summer in an effort to provide enough water for

City water counsel named to national position

For moreLook for links to helpful government flood-related websites with this story at SteamboatToday.com.

See Flood, page 15See holleman, page 11

Holleman

localSTEaMBoaT ToDaY Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | 15

BuSinESS DirEcTorY

half-inch of rain was possible across the region.

C.R. 33 is among the best-paved roads in the county and carries vital traffic to and from the economic engine rep-resented by the underground Twentymile coal mine, County Commissioner Diane Mitsch Bush said.

Draper told the commis-sioners he intended to use a rubber-tired excavator to cut a 10- to 15-foot trench through C.R. 179, a tactic intended to let the backed-up stream escape harmlessly before it threatened C.R. 33.

County road crews were busy elsewhere in north and west Routt on Monday, Drap-er said. One crew was work-ing on a mudslide along the Little Snake River and C.R. 129 almost at the Wyoming state line. South of Steamboat Springs, Oak Creek also was kicking up, Draper said. It was about to overwhelm the con-crete culvert on C.R. 35, which is the back entrance to Sidney Peak Ranch luxury home sub-division off C.R. 14. The ris-

ing water of the creek was not threatening homes.

Within the city limits of Steamboat, Butcherknife Creek flowed over its banks overnight Sunday into Mon-day, and residents along the east end of Spruce Street placed sandbags where the creek ran close to their homes.

West of Steamboat off U.S. Highway 40, County Commis-sioner Doug Monger said the Yampa River has come over its banks and flooded a field.

“I’ve got a 40-acre lake out there,” Monger said.

With a rain shower add-ing to flooding woes Monday afternoon, Draper was urging residents to act as the eyes and ears of his crews.

“Call us without hesitation. It’s very helpful to us,” Draper said. “We need your eyes and ears. We’ve had great phone calls today, and we’re very appreciative of them helping us.”

Residents who observe a flooding incident should call

Routt County Communica-tions at 970-879-1090, Drap-er said. The dispatchers can reach road personnel on their radios. He added that the pres-ence of orange cones at a mud-slide or overflowing culvert are a sign that Road and Bridge is aware of the situation.

Draper urged people not to try to address road flooding issues on their own.

“Do not get in a culvert or into the water,” he said. “It is moving very fast, and it’s deeper than (you) think it is. We would also caution against driving through stand-ing water.”

Rising flowsThe problems being cre-

ated by Oak, Foidel and Butcherknife creeks Mon-day are indicative of low-lev-el snowmelt; however, the Elk and Yampa rivers rose dramat-ically during the weekend.

The Yampa, which had been flowing at a little more than 800 cubic feet per second at midday at the Fifth Street Bridge in downtown Steam-boat on Friday, shot above its seasonal average of 1,300 cfs

on Monday to 1,900 cfs. That’s still well below flood stage of about 4,700 cfs.

Last year, the Yampa peaked at 4,320 cfs on June 7, without causing harmful flooding. That was the highest peak since May 29, 2000, when the Yampa reached 4,620 cfs at the Fifth Street Bridge. In 1984, when Soda Creek flood-ed downtown Steamboat, the Yampa peaked at 5,670 cfs on May 25.

The Elk River at the U.S. Highway 40 bridge just above the confluence with the Yampa was flowing at 3,290 cfs and a level of 5.97 feet compared with flood stage of 7.5 feet, but that still was in the top 10 percent of flows for May 9.

Elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain region, the Bureau of Reclamation is letting unusual amounts of water out of Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Green River in extreme Northeast Utah to create extra storage capacity in prepara-tion for expected high flows from the Yampa merging with the Green in National Monu-ment.

Reservoir managers intend

to hold back releases on the Green later during the run-off season to reduce the over-all flow of the two rivers and prevent flooding in the Utah towns of Jensen and Green River.


Flood continued from 1

Yampa River in Steamboat is flowing high, but well below flood stageWet snowpack raises avalanche concerns

Spencer Logan, of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, cautions that high temperatures through the weekend sparked a round of avalanch-ing. Observers reported large, wet avalanches along Interstate 70 and U.S. Route 550. Less impressive but extensive was all the wet, loose ava-lanching.

“Wednesday has the potential to be a very challenging day for snowpack evaluation,” Logan said. “A potent spring storm could add a layer of wind slabs to the top of the snowpack. Underneath, wet, saturated, weak lay-ers will not handle the load well.”

Keep up with the Conditions


your community, your magazine

2066

6676

• Zero Waste Initiative

• Talking Green • Youth Education

• Green Building

• Renewable Energy

• Sustainable

Special Events

To get involved, donate or learn moreemail [email protected].

Building a sustainable future for the Yampa Valley through the following programs:

FREE WINDOW OR DOUBLE DOOR WITH

PURCHASE!

Your Complete Tile Specialist

QUALIFYING JOBS RECEIVE

UP TO10% OFF!JESUS NAJERA970.846.7390 970.870.9647

LICENSED & INSURED

BECKER TREE SERVICE

We have MORE:EXPERIENCE

• 2nd & 3rd Generation Arborists

• NO Greenhorns

• All workers legal EQUIPMENT

Our Fleet of Trimming & Removal Equipment surpasses all others.

INSURANCEOur liability coverage is for Tree Trimming & Removal.

NOT: Snow Shoveling, Carpentry, Marijuana Markets, Excavating,

Sky Diving, Etc.

970-879-5748

Steamboat’s Original Tree ServiceEstablished in 1994

970-819-460024 hour emergency service available

• Fire Mitigation • Beetle Kill Specialist • Stump Grinding • Sudden Aspen Decline • Clear Cutting • Slash Removal • Forestry Replanting • Free Estimates

ARBOR BARBERS

970-879-8028Fully Insured & Local References

ALL WEATHER SERVICES

Specializing in:

Custom Logging Fire Mitigation Beetle Kill Lot Clearing

Reforestation Slash Removal

The quality of our work speaks for itself

When you require the best, call AWS

Vacation Home CareSteamboat Springs Area

Experienced in home care, pets, plants,and garden.

2072

4023

to your own backyard.

Specializing in design, construction, repair and maintenance of residential water features

Call James your local pond guy

970.879.7665www.steamboatponds.com

Escape

2072

7160

out of town?don’t beout of touch.Everything you loveabout your hometownnewspaper—online.SteamboatPilot.com


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

One look at Steamboat Springs’ summer cycling calen-dar and it’s pretty obvious there are significant events coming to town with economic opportu-nities.

In another 10 years, local offi-cials think those opportunities could be even more prominent and generate an additional $7 million in sales-tax revenue.

Local merchants gathered Friday afternoon at Rex’s Amer-ican Grill & Bar to learn about the economic impacts of cycling and how businesses could profit.

The program was put on by the Bike Town USA Initiative and the Colorado Mountain College Small Business Resource Cen-ter and was attended by about 30 people.

“Can we leverage cycling to make it look more like what ski-ing and snowboarding does for Steamboat in the winter?” asked

Rich Lowe, who has been study-ing cycling economics for the Bike Town USA Initiative.

Lowe thinks cycling might be one of the ways Steamboat can help occupy the 25,000 pil-lows in lodging properties dur-ing summer.

Steamboat merchants discuss economic impacts of summer events

Steamboat Springs Police Chief Roger Jensen didn’t hesitate when he got the

call from Routt County Under-sheriff Ed Burch just before 10

p.m. on May 13, 1984.

Burch was relay-ing the news that employ-ees of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad working on flood-

ing issues in Oak Creek Can-yon were fearful that a “30-foot wall of water” was about to be unleashed on downtown Steam-boat Springs.

Jensen and Burch organized emergency responders to evacu-ate residents of Bucci Cabins, Fish Creek Mobile Home Park, Yampa Street and Dream Island. Steamboat Springs High School Principal Harlan Lear opened the gymnasium, and members of the Steamboat Springs City Coun-cil were there to help the evacuees get comfortable.

That night was almost exactly 27 years ago. Winter 1983-84 was the season of 40 consecutive days and nights of heavy snow, and the ski season ended with 447.5 inches of the white stuff. And like it has in spring 2011, the snow kept on coming into May.

All heck broke loose in the third week in May when the

Residents evacuated during 1984 flood


MAY 14, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado


TODAYBarely hiding


A black bear sits in a tree near Fiesta Jalisco Mexican restaurant in Steamboat Springs on Friday afternoon.

Eyeing cycling potential

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com



INSIDE: 3rd-place matches loom today after a frustrating Friday for Steamboat Springs girls tennis • page 13



■ EVENTSAfternoon storms. High of 62.

Page 27

■ WEATHER■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow FridayNoon 1,320 cfs11 p.m. 1,400 cfsAverage for this date 1,450 cfsHighest for this date 4,160 cfs, 1962Lowest for this date 450 cfs, 1953Cubic feet per second measurements taken at Fifth Street and provided by U.S. Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov.

ClarificationThe story “Special alert on cherry trees” on page 4 of the May 2 Steamboat Today should have listed Western Tree Management as a local tree sprayer. The business can be reached at 970-870-7987.

When the waters

raged

See Ross, page 11


See Biking, back page

STEAMBOAT TODAY Saturday, May 14, 2011 | 11LOCAL

temperatures jumped into the 80s and a summer shower fell on top of the rotten snowpack. Butcherknife Creek flooded backyards in Old Town, and city officials were constantly check-ing the old Ninth Street foot-bridge over the Yampa River. On about May 24, the water was within inches of the old bridge, and the river peaked the next day at 5,670 cubic feet per second.

The railroad workers had been struggling with Oak Creek (the actual stream) where a mudslide had backed up the spring runoff and threatened railroad bridges. The workers’ fear was that when the sponta-neous earthen dam collapsed, it would send a torrent of water rushing into the Yampa River.

Fortunately, the 30-foot wall of water never materialized, and residents soon returned to their homes.

I’m not predicting a 30-foot wall of water this runoff season, but it might be wise to take some precautions. Personally, I’m keeping my irrigation boots and my chest waders in the back of the vehicle for the rest of spring.

Jay Wetzler, owner and oper-ator of the Steamboat Hotel on the city’s south side, bought flood insurance last month to protect his property from the possibility that either Walton Creek or the Yampa River might show up this month for a repeat

performance.“It was expensive, but we’ve

seen so much development in the floodplain, there’s no way to tell what’s going to happen,” he said.

Wetzler wasn’t here in 1984, but he’s seen the photographs of a bearded man riding a Wind-surfer in the flooded parking lot of his hotel, branded as a Super 8 at the time.

Citizens pull togetherThe town of Oak Creek had

issues of its own in 1984. More than 150 volunteers turned out to help Police Chief Reggie Mayes and Public Works place 5,000 sandbags during the May 24 weekend. Still, the flood-ing near the headwaters of Oak Creek overwhelmed the town’s reservoir, and town folks had to get drinking water out of a tank-er truck.

Then-Mayor Nancy Stahoviak praised the community’s spirit.

“We’ve had a tremendous vol-unteer effort in fighting this run-off,” she said. “Without it, I’m afraid almost all of Oak Creek would have been inundated.”

Even with the pressure off for the moment, Public Works foreman Chuck Wisecup noted that there was still a good deal of heavy snow between town and Sheriff’s Reservoir, and all of that moisture had yet to flow down the creek.

Many of us might have to rely on one another by the time spring runoff 2011 is over. Now is a good time to make some

preparations. If you think your property might be in harm’s way this spring, make certain everyone in your household has packed an overnight bag in the unlikely case you need to evacu-ate.

Take time to visually inspect the drainage culverts in road ditches near your property. If they appear to be clogged, call the city offices at 970-879-2060, or if you live in rural Routt County, call Routt County Com-munications at 970-879-1090.

Finally, you might invest in a pair of irrigation boots.

FILE PHOTO

A man identified in newspaper files only as Cap’n Duncan steers his Windsurfer across the parking lot of the former Super 8 Motel in Steamboat Springs on May 24, 1984.

Ross continued from 1

May need to invest in irrigation boots

FREEBankruptcy

Consultations

Romney Law Offi ceWe are a debt relief agency. We help

people fi le for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

2072

7192

928 Lincoln St. Suite 104Steamboat Springs, CO 80477

871-0257We are a debt relief agency. We help

Anne Zoltani

Come One, Come All, Come Hungry!

Weekdays Breakfast 6am-11am Lunch/Dinner 11am-9pm

Weekend Breakfast 6am-12pm

871-0123

2063

3771

4pm-close All-You-Can-Eat

Pasta, Pizza, and Salad for only

$7.95

4pm-close

All-You-Can -EatSaturday Nights

Pisa’s Introduces

1560 Pine Grove Roadwww.steamboatspineandsports.com

970-879-7031

20724189

Considering a Joint

Replacement?

20724189

20724189 Stephanie Loomis, PT

Emily Harris, DPT

Let Us help you get Back on Track

Rehabilitating joint replacement patients for 20 years.

Come see us, we’re the experts!

4 | Wednesday, May 18, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYlOcAl


Steamboat SpringS

Local officials are hoping the weather trend continues and snowmelt steadily makes its way into the Yampa River and its tributaries.

“I think we’re in pretty good shape so far, but peo-ple are taking precautions,” S t e a m b o a t Springs Street S u p e r i n t e n -dent Doug Marsh said. “It doesn’t

hurt to be aware of the poten-tial, but I don’t think you need to panic over it. As long as we don’t have extreme weather for multiple days, I think we’ll be OK.”

The city has given out 3,000 of 13,000 sandbags on hand along with sand, Marsh said. The most sandbags the city has used was 7,000 during spring 1984.

Property owners in need of sandbags can call the city’s

street office at 970-879-1807 during business hours. After 4 p.m., Marsh said, the city dis-patch line at 970-879-1144 will take calls and notify city staff about requests.

Routt County Emergency Mana gement Director Bob Struble said he has been moni-

toring the forecast daily. He has been looking at river

water depth information avail-able on the National Weath-er Service in Grand Junction website.

On Tuesday, the site showed

Forecasts call for steady river flows, snowmelt this week

Residents prepare for f loods

John F. ruSSell/StaFF

Dream Island Mobile Home Park resident Aswaldo Almada fills sandbags and loads them into the back of his car Monday afternoon before transporting them to his home. Residents in the mobile home park, and many who live along the banks of the Yampa River, already have started preparing for expected flooding.

See Floods, page 18

OnlineFind websites related to water flow and flooding with this story at SteamboatToday.com

Mac....that’s what we do.Call us today! 970.879.1270

Sales

Service

Training

0% fi nancing

20736173

1030 Yampa Street • 879-3504 • Mon-Sat 9-7 • Sun 2073

6877

Live Soft Shell Crab $7.99 eaFresh Wild Caught Atlantic Swordfi sh $16.99 lb

USDA Choice T-Bone Steaks $9.99 lbGyro Sandwich SpecialChips & a Pickle $7.99

E-Z Meal: BBQ Baby Back Ribs $12.99

RISTORANTEBuon Appetito!

nightly Specials

Happy Hour 5-6pm

half price drinks, beer, wine and appetizers

entreeSeafood Pasta

Lobster, mussels, clams, sockeye salmon, rapini and roasted red peppers tossed with Gemelli pasta in

a lemon basil garlic sauce

2 for1 EntreesEvery night! All night!

Valid with purchase of appetizer

ww

w.r

igg

iosfi

neita

lian.

com

Please bring in coupon to redeem. Not valid with other offers. Valid through May 31st.Serving Dinner Monday - Saturday • Reservations Appreciated 879-9010 • 1106 Lincoln Ave • Downtown20

7350

37

18 | Wednesday, May 18, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

tiger-striped feathers in her hair. Hmmmm …

Bailiff: The jury will now hear testimony in the case of Mr. Fishy vs. the Hair Goddess.

Lawyer: Your Honor, my cli-ent, Mr. Fishy, has been search-ing for hackle dyed feathers for months. He ties his own flies, and he needed those feathers to pursue his passion for fishing.

Woman: He ripped the feath-ers out of my hair. It hurt!

I have a right to wear feath-ers. Steven Tyler on “American Idol” does it, and I want to do it, too.

Judge: Fashion vs. fishing, that’s an impossible decision. We’re gonna have to take it to a jury.

In the case of fashion versus fishing, what’s a girl to do? I was just about to get a feather, and now I feel guilty. Women can stop wearing feathers in their hair (highly unlikely), peo-ple can start raising more birds

for their plumes (somewhat likely) or trout will have to hun-ger for something else (really, really unlikely).

Plumage producer has a nice ring to it — it might be some-thing to consider adding to your resume. At the moment, it looks like a pretty recession-proof job.

In the meantime, until this fad is over, I’d like to put out an alert to birds everywhere to duck and cover. Birds of a feather flock together and then … hide!

Palmer continued from 2

Plumage producer seems recession-proof

up Thursday in Denver, at which time they’ll learn whether the sec-ond tumor is cancerous.

They hope to return to Hayden on Friday, Whiteside said. She said Trenten likely wouldn’t return to school this year; his last day was May 10.

Assistant track coach Barba-ra Manzanares said track coach Sally Brach-Morton came up with the idea to host Tracks for Trenten and pitched it to the

40-student team. In addition to today’s event, Manzanares said middle-school-age students could pay $1 each day this week to wear a hat.

She said the proceeds and those from another fundraiser selling cookie dough would be given to Trenten’s family to help offset medical costs. He is one of four children Whiteside has in the district.

“The kids have been very sup-portive,” Manzanares said. “The community has been great sup-

porting the kids in this. Hopefully we can make it fun for the kids.”

She encouraged members of the community to attend Tracks for Trenten and donate. White-side thanked the school and com-munity for supporting her son, whom she called athletic, upbeat, funny, outgoing and awesome.

“We appreciate all of them and everything they’ve done,” she said.


Kelley continued from 15

Students support Trenten in several ways

that the Yampa River was run-ning at about 4.75 feet through Steamboat Springs. The fore-cast calls for it to remain at that level or lower through Sunday.

“It’s running pretty steady,” Struble said.

Flood stage for the Yampa is 7.5 feet. The moderate flood stage is 8.5 feet, and the major stage is 9.5 feet. The Elk River has gotten above 7 feet but has not yet reached the first flood stage of 7.5 feet.

Like the Yampa, the Elk is expected to remain at its cur-

rent level of 6.6 feet or lower through Sunday.

“Their projections have been pretty accurate as far as where it’s going to go,” Struble said.

He said when runoff will peak depends on the weather.

“It could occur anywhere from here to mid-June,” Stru-ble said. “Most likely the first week of June.”

Struble said people should contact city, town or coun-ty planning departments for information about what prop-erties could be affected by flooding. Maps also are avail-able at www.fema.gov.

Officials across Northwest

Colorado have been monitor-ing conditions especially close-ly this spring because of the record amounts of water fro-zen at upper elevations.

Earlier this month, the Tower measuring site at 10,500 feet on the summit of Buffalo Pass hit an all-time record, not just for that location but for Colorado.

The snowpack held the equivalent of 72.6 inches of water, and that number has grown. But has it peaked? There was 74.2 inches of water measured at the site Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday, it was measured at 73.9 inches.

Floods continued from 4

Residents can call city for sandbag help

traditional, single-stream recyclableselectronics*yard waste

building materialsskis

bikesbike tires & tubesgently used shoes

wine corksprinter cartridges

cell phonesgently used children’s bookswrappers (candy, bars, etc.)

scrap metalworking appliances

non-working appliances**

phone booksplastic bagscooking oil*latex paint*motor oil*

shredded papervehicle batteries

compact fluorescent light bulbsfluorescent tube light bulbs

clothing and fabric not suitable for reusesports supplies and equipment

camping equipment and suppliesschool equipment and supplies

arts and crafts supplieslinens and other household items

new or gently used clothing

Comprehensive Community Recycling Drop-Off

Materials accepted:

*fees may apply, some electronics no charge **fees apply for Freon removalVisit www.yvsc.org or www.yampavalleyrecycles.org

for a full list of accepted materials and fees. residential recyclables only. No commercial materials.

Saturday, May 21 • 8:30 am – 11:30 am Howelsen Hill

recycliNg partNers:

20733595

Twin Enviro Services Home ReSource • Ski Haus • Sustainable Schools Program

• Macedonian Mission for HumanityCMC • NAPA Auto Parts • Cartridge World

your community,your magazine

CHAMPION AGAINHayden senior Chris Zirkle wins 1,600-meter run at stateSPORTS 11A

CHAMPION AGAINHayden senior Chris Zirkle wins 1,600-meter run at stateSPORTS

PATIENCE KEY FOR GOLF

Readying courses difficult with wet

spring weatherSPORTS 11A

On May 16, while driving home from a visit to his doctor “to find out what’s going on,” Bill Bowes

stopped by the grocery store to buy ber-ries for his great-grandchildren and fresh

bread for dinner.That was a week ago

Saturday. Bowes’ grand-daughter-in-law, Chula Beauregard, related the story and said that sim-ple trip to the store was

emblematic of the generosity, civility and grace with which the man who became Grandpa Bowes lived his entire life.

“He was taking care of everyone right up until the last moment,” added Tammie Delaney, of Hayden, one of Bowes’ seven children. “He was very healthy until the end.”

Longtime Strawberry Park resident William A. “Bill” Bowes went to the hos-pital the next day, last Sunday. He died Monday, at age 88.

The legacy that Bill Bowes leaves behind includes a family that has spread roots across Routt County and beyond; more than six decades of marriage and loving companionship with his late wife, Marie Rose Bowes; a lifelong love of ski-ing capped with a stint as an alternate to the 1948 U.S. Ski Team; and much more.

“How cool is it to have a rock-climbing, hiking, ski-racing, Harley-riding, water-skiing, sailboat-building, photographer

— with his own dark room — dad, who also happens to be a scientist and mining geologist with operations in three different states?” Bowes’ eldest daughter, Sue Rife, said last week. “Our dad encouraged all

SUE RIFE/COURTESY

Bill Bowes, an alternate to the 1948 U.S. Ski Team, carves a turn on Mount Shuksan in the North Cascades National Park in Washington state.


HAYDEN

When Hayden Secondary Schools senior Brian Hoza gets his high school diploma this afternoon, it will be the second such piece of paper he’s received this month.

Hoza received his associate’s degree from Colorado Moun-tain College on May 7. He is one of just two students in Routt County who have accomplished the feat this year, but he is part of a growing number who are graduating high school with col-lege degrees.

The Colorado General Assembly approved the Con-current Enrollment Programs Act in May 2009 to improve the quality of programs and increase access to them.

Before that, students partici-pating in programs to take col-lege classes while still in high school was “really murky,” said Danica Moss, Steamboat Springs High School’s career and college counselor.

“Since then it’s become more clear, which has been more sup-portive,” she said about the leg-islation. “It’s very progressive. It

opens up more doors and pro-vides more opportunities.”

In addition to an increase in the number and types of class-es that students can take, the legislation also opened up con-current enrollment to all high

JOEL REICHENBERGER/STAFF

Hayden Secondary Schools senior Brian Hoza is receiving his high school diploma this afternoon, but he also will be receiving his associate’s degree from Colorado Mountain College. He is just one of two students in Routt County to do so.

Nicole InglisPILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

An old satellite dish, running boards from a truck, a television, a printer — all the miscellaneous items in the back of Diane Cart-er’s car had to go. But they didn’t have to go into a landfill.

“We didn’t want to just throw it away,” Carter said. “Especially if it was harmful to the environ-ment. This stuff was just sitting around.”

So Carter became one of 412

cars to pull through the Com-munity Recycling Drop-off on Saturday morning to dispose of a variety of items in an environ-mentally friendly manner.

“We’re so lucky that we have so many people who care so much about the environment,” Carter said.

In three hours, volunteers at

More than 400 participate in community drop-off Saturday


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The view from Rabbit Ears Pass shows the Yampa Valley has begun to turn green, but it is still a winter wonderland at 10,500 feet.

At that elevation, the Tower measuring site on Buffalo Pass on Saturday was reporting 16 inches of new snow, bringing the total to 194 inches. The site has exceeded 200 inches of snow this season, and the melting trend

has yet to start on Buffalo Pass.“It should have started a cou-

ple weeks ago,” said snow survey supervisor Mike Gillespie, who works for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The Tower site was reporting that the 194 inches of snow mea-sured Saturday equals about 76.2 inches of water, crushing the state

Increasing number of Routt County high schoolers taking college courses

Buff Pass reports 16 inches new snow

MAGGIE STANFORD/COURTESY

There is still an abundance of snow at upper elevations in Routt County, and in some places, the snow is still accumulating.

Skier, geologist and WWII vet Bowes leaves legacy

FILE PHOTO

Geologist and longtime Routt County resident Bill Bowes enjoys the backyard of his Strawberry Park home in 2006. Bowes died Monday of a sudden illness.


Steamboat Springs resident Gary Gray drops off old skis during the Community Recycling Drop-off put on by the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council and Yampa Valley Recycles on Saturday at Howelsen Hill.

Readying courses difficult with wet

spring weather11A

SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011VOLUME 124, NUMBER 41 • STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO • SteamboatToday.com

$1.00

Classifieds . . . . . . . 3BComics. . . . . . . . . 13BCrossword . . . . . . 14BHappenings . . . . . . 2AMilestones . . . . 3A, 5A

Obituaries . . . . . . . 5AOutdoors . . . . . . . . 4ASports . . . . . . . . . 11AViewpoints . . . . . . . 6AWeather . . . . . . . . 14B

OUTSIDEINSIDETo report home delivery problems,

please call 970-871-4250 on Sunday from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Missed papers

will be delivered by 10:30 a.m.

SteamboatToday.com

R O U T T C O U N T Y ’ S N E W S P A P E R O F R E C O R D S I N C E 1 8 8 5

Partly cloudy. High of 66.Page 14B

DELIVERY PROBLEM?PAGE DESIGNED BY LAURA MAZADE

RIVER REPORTYampa River flow SaturdayNoon 1,820 cfs11 p.m. 1,800 cfsAverage for this date 2,010 cfsHighest for this date 4,180 cfs, 1984Lowest for this date 522 cfs, 1934Cubic feet per second measurements taken at Fifth Street.

Rain doesn’t deter event

Mining the most in life

Local studentsgetting ahead

Records breaking at upper elevations

REMEMBERING LONGTIME ROUTT COUNTY RESIDENT BILL BOWES

See Students, page 14A

See Bowes, page 13A See Flooding, page 14A

See Recycling, page 13A

SUNDAYFOCUSSTORY BY MIKE LAWRENCE

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY?Continue the conversation online


WANT MORE EVENTS?Visit our events calendar at

SteamboatToday.com/Events

For moreAn obituary for William A. Bowes is on page 5A.

ROUTT COUNTY BUILDING PERMITS SEE PROGRESS IN MAY | REAL ESTATE 1B

LOOK InsIde for

14A | Steamboat Pilot &Today • Sunday, May 22, 2011

Written by Liza KetchumILLUSTRATED BY C. B. MORDAN

THE STORY SO FAR: After their long and difficult journey, the children are almost home. But will they find their grandmother alive?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Where’s My Grandma?”July 25-26, 1828. On the banks of the Little Sandy River, Kentucky.

The last hill is steep, and we roll down slow. “No more run-away wagons,” Moses says. He and I hold Sadie back until our hands are blistered. We eat a cold, quick supper by the river. It’s getting dark, but Moses says, “Let’s keep traveling.” So we scramble into the wagon. No one wants to stop now.

Louisa and Solomon fall asleep in the back, and Moses and I take turns with the reins, singing to stay awake. The moon lights up the dirt track. Near dawn we pass the gristmill on Papa’s map. Even Sadie seems to know where we are. She trots at a fast clip. When the road forks, she takes the right turning with-out being told.

“We made it!” I cry, hugging Moses. His face turns red, but he doesn’t push me away. I shake Solomon and Louisa. “Wake up! We’re almost home.”

They squeeze in beside us on the seat. We pass the big oak tree, and Moses and I chant together, repeating Papa’s last instructions: “Not the first turning after the oak, but the second . . .”

Sadie trots so fast, she almost tips the wagon on the turn. We squeal, holding on tight. Sandy jumps out and runs beside us, his nose snuffling the ground.

We pull Sadie up in the clear-ing. It’s not quite light, but

smoke already streams from Grandma’s chimney. The cabin looks smaller than I remem-ber. We climb down and help Moses onto his crutches. Two geese come flapping from the shed, hissing and honking. Sandy yelps, and skitters under the wagon. Solomon and Louisa cling to my skirts.

The door swings open. “Grandma!” Solomon screams.

But it’s not our grandma at all. A tall, skinny woman with a baby on her hip steps out, squinting in the dim light. She shakes her head. “Land sakes,” she says. “Homer!” she calls over her shoulder. “Look what the cat dragged in!”

A man peers over the wom-an’s shoulder while we stand in a silent row, unsure what to do. My mouth is dry as dust. Sol-omon and Louisa clutch my hands. Finally Solomon blurts out, “Who are you? Where’s my grandma?”

The woman shakes her head and runs her eyes over all of us.

I’m ashamed of how shabby we look. We haven’t had a proper wash since we left the widow’s.

“My word,” the woman says. “These are Rebecca’s children. Who would have thought . . .”

“Don’t be rude, now, Etta,” the man says. “I’m Homer Peters,” he tells us. “Y’all come on in.”

“It’s safe,” Moses whispers. “Homer is some kind of cous-in to Grandma.” We stumble into the cabin. My heart is down around my ankles.

As we gather in the front room, the woman called Etta whispers, “Your grandma’s not in her right mind. About four or five weeks ago, she took to her bed. Hasn’t spoke since, and she don’t eat much. Doctor says there’s nothing wrong. We were afraid she was fixing to die — so we come on over to help.”

I can’t stand it anymore. “We need to see her.”

“She’s still asleep,” Etta says, “and she cain’t talk to you —”

I don’t care if it’s rude; we

push on past Etta to the closed door beyond the kitchen. I open it carefully. Grandma lies in the middle of her bed, her hands crossed the way Mama’s were in her coffin — but Grandma’s chest rises and falls under her faded quilt.

I can hardly breathe. The room is stuffy and hot. And Grandma looks so old! Her face is shriveled and sunken, like Louisa’s dried-apple doll. I blink hard, holding back tears. This isn’t how I pictured it. I thought Grandma would be waiting in the clearing, her arms open wide —

Louisa breaks the spell. “Grandma,” she sobs. She climbs onto the bed and pats Grandma’s cheek with her skin-ny hand. Grandma’s eyes flutter open as we cluster around her, nestling on the bed like baby chicks come home to roost. We grab her hands and hold on tight. Everyone is crying, even Moses.

Grandma raises herself to her

elbows and sits up so she can pull us all close. Her long white braid falls down her back, and her gray eyes, so like Louisa’s, spill over. She traces each one of our faces with her fingers, as if she can’t see. “I’m Jesse,” I tell her, when her hand flutters over me. “And Moses, Solomon, and Louisa — you remember us, don’t you?”

She nods. Then she goes very still and peers over our heads at the empty doorway, her eyes searching.

“They’re both gone, Grand-ma,” I tell her. My voice shakes.

She pulls me close. “I felt it inside.” Her voice is croaky, like a frog. “But no one believed me.”

“Grandma, you can talk like the rest of us!” Moses says, laughing and crying all at once. “You sure fooled your cousins.”

Footsteps scritch across the floor and Sandy rushes in, wrig-gling all over. He jumps up and plants his muddy front paws on Grandma’s quilt.

“Sandy, no!” I scold, but Grandma shakes her head.

“Let him be,” she says, and strokes his long ears.

“His name is Sandy,” Louisa says, “after your river.” And then she adds, in a brave voice, “You can keep him, if you want.”

Grandma smiles through the tears that trickle down her wrin-kled cheeks. “‘Bout time I got me a dog,” she says. “Now tell me. What happened?”

“You want to hear all of it?” I ask.

She nods. “Every last bit. From the very beginning — to when you pulled up at my door-step.”

I take a deep breath. “It’s a long story,” I say.

She pulls us close. “That’s just fine. We got all the time in the world.”

So we begin.

(The end.)

Text copyright © 2007 Liza Ketchum; Illustrations copyright © 2007 C. B. Mordan; Reprinted by permission of Breakfast Serials, Inc. www.breakfastserials.com

a breakfast serials story: Orphan Journey HomeOrphan Journey Home

When Jesse’s parents decide to abandon their Illinois farm and return to their first home in Kentucky, Jesse is happy at the thought of seeing her grandmother again. Then, just a few days into the return jour-ney, Mama and Papa die of milk sickness. Jesse and her brothers and sister now are orphans. They must make the long wagon journey on their own in a world where orphan children can be forced to live as indentured servants until adulthood.

Based on a true story that took place in 1828, Orphan Journey Home celebrates the courage, strength and resource-fulness of four pioneer chil-dren who were determined to honor their father’s wishes and make their way back to the safety of their Kentucky home.

Teachers guideVocabularyblistered adj. a local swelling of the skin that contains watery fluid and is caused by burning or irritationclip n. pace or rateforks v. to divide into two or more branchesshriveled adj. wrinkled and shrunkentraces v. to follow the outline

Questions1. Does the homecoming match the ending you hoped for?2. Who are Etta and Homer?3. Why didn’t Grandma meet and wel-come the children at the door? What is wrong with her?4. Etta says that Grandma took to her bed about four or five weeks ago. What was happening in the story about four or five weeks ago? Do you see any connections or is this a coincidence?5. This is a bittersweet story of courage and determination. What do you think was the most difficult problem the chil-dren faced?6. Will Grandma be able to care for them now?7. What will the future hold for them?8. What questions still remain for you?

school students, not just juniors and seniors.

Hoza — Hayden’s valedictorian, one of 38 seniors scheduled to grad-uate at 2 p.m. today in the school’s gymnasium — started taking college classes as a sophomore.

“I thought it was something that could really help me out down the road,” he said. “I had already worked ahead in a lot of my classes. It seemed like a logical step.”

Interest increasingAlthough Steamboat has a num-

ber of students concurrently enrolled — about 10 percent of juniors and seniors this semester — Moss said no senior would graduate with an associ-ate’s degree.

She said that’s difficult. Moss said she encourages the right students to take college classes, however. And the numbers show that.

In spring 2009, 13 juniors and seniors were concurrently enrolled. That increased to 29 in fall 2009 and 38 in spring 2010, before dipping slightly this school year to 36 in fall and 31 this semester.

Taking college classes has several advantages, Moss said. She said high school classes don’t challenge some students and college classes expose them to a more strenuous workload. Others want to get ahead. Moss said affordability of community college classes also is a factor.

In Steamboat, the district will pay for two classes, six hours, per semes-ter, Moss said. But she said students have to get approved for the classes, which must be taken during the year, replace a class the high school doesn’t offer and fit into the student’s individ-ual career and academic plan, which is state-mandated.

Moss added that students take classes that are guaranteed to trans-fer to Colorado’s four-year colleges and universities.

For Hoza, he’s always challenged himself with a rigorous academic schedule, Hayden High School Coun-selor Nicole Dolence said.

“The main advantage for Brian was that academically, he’s so much

more advanced than the courses we offer here,” she said. “Naturally, he had to be on a fast-paced, advanced path.”

Dolence said most Hayden stu-dents earn college credits by tak-ing Advanced Placement classes and tests. She said only a few opt to take CMC or other community college classes on their own time, like Hoza. Dolence said many of Hoza’s CMC classes replaced high school classes.

Not aloneSoroco High School senior Alex

Smith also has earned an associ-ate’s degree, having been awarded her diploma from Colorado Northwest-ern Community College’s Rangely campus.

Julie Hoff, director of the South Routt Center for CNCC, said Smith earned her associate’s degree with “grace and poise,” but it was far from simple.

She said about half of the 60 hours Smith needed to take to earn the degree replaced high school classes, and the other half she took in the eve-nings, on weekends and during sum-mers.

Hoff has advised two other Soroco students who have earned associate’s degrees while still in high school dur-ing her tenure, but she said it doesn’t happen often. Still, she said the num-ber of students concurrently enrolled is increasing in South Routt.

She estimated that one-half to three-fourths of Soroco’s graduating class will have earned some college credits by the time they graduate May 28.

For the few who earn associate’s degrees, Hoff said it takes a lot of planning.

“Kids that want to do that, they have to make that commitment early on,” she said. “It means you have to make some choices.”

Hoza said he had to work his college classes around varsity foot-

ball and basketball, FBLA, National Honor Society, Knowledge Bowl and the Hayden Community Action Net-work, a community service group.

But Hoza said he’s glad he did. He’ll be able to skip a lot of prereq-

uisites at Cornell, in Ithaca, N.Y., and jump right into the classes he wants to take to pursue an engineering degree. Hoza also said he’s learned about time management and what it will take to be successful in college.

“I think it will definitely make it easier to transition into college,” he said about earning an associate’s degree. “I think it will be more com-fortable and I’ll get off to a better start.”

To reach Jack Weinstein, call 970-871-4203or email [email protected]

Students continued from 1A

Steamboat district pays for 2 classes per semesterHigh school graduations■ Christian Heritage School: 2 p.m. today at the school■ Hayden Secondary Schools: 2 p.m. today at the school■ Soroco High School: 11 a.m. May 28 at the school■ Yampa Valley School: 1 p.m. June 3 out-side at the George P. Sauer Human Services Center■ The Lowell Whiteman School: 2 p.m. June 3 at the school■ Steamboat Springs High School: 2 p.m. June 4 at the school

6 will graduate from CHSAfter their last exam Thursday, the six

Christian Heritage School seniors decided to stay overnight at the private school just west of Steamboat Springs.

That “parting shot,” as Administrator Dave Entwistle called it, symbolizes the family atmosphere at Christian Heritage, he said. And Entwistle said those seniors are a big part of that family and will be missed by the rest of the K-12 school’s students.

Christian Heritage will send off its seniors at 2 p.m. today in a ceremony in the school’s cafeteria. They are Leah Berdine, Andre Buccino, Ryan Hall, Ashley Latham, David Robey and Kristen Williams.

Entwistle said Hall would be recognized for attending the school since kindergarten.

“This is my second year to work for most of them,” he said. “… I have really grown to appreciate them. They are a super group of young people. I am certainly looking forward to seeing how the Lord is going to use them in their futures. I think they’re prepared, ready to move on. And I’m excited to see what hap-pens.”

record that was broken May 1 when 72.6 inches of water content was measured. The previous Tower site record measure-ment was 71.1 inches of water content measured in 1978.

“It just continues to break the record every day,” Gillespie said.

The Tower snow water equivalent was 154 percent of average Saturday, and the above-average readings are sim-ilar to what has been seen this year across Northwest Colorado. It has Gil-lespie and emergency management offi-cials concerned.

“The longer we put off the melt, the more compressed the runoff season will be because we will eventually return to normal weather patterns,” Gillespie said. “We’re just hoping that things are orderly as far as melt-out.”

Routt County Emergency Manage-ment Director Bob Struble said the flood risk to the valley is largely in the hands of Mother Nature. He is hoping for a gradual melt void of high tempera-tures and heavy rains.

Looking at the weather forecast for this week, Gillespie is expecting more of the same with mild temperatures and precipitation.

It is apparent the melt has started at other measuring locations. At the Dry Lake site, at 8,400 feet, the snow water equivalent had dropped to 29 inches Saturday, down from the season high of 37.6 inches measured May 5.

The Rabbit Ears site, at 9,400 feet, was reporting 93 inches of snow and 46 inches of snow water equivalent. That’s down from a May 1 snow depth of 114 inches and 51.6 inches of snow water equivalent.

The Yampa River was flowing steady at about 4.5 feet throughout the past week at the Fifth Street Bridge, accord-ing to the national weather service. It’s expected to remain near that level through the end of the week. The action flood stage starts at 7 feet, and the mod-erate flood stage is 8.5 feet.

The record for the Yampa River was set June 8, 1905, when the river crested at 8.9 feet, according to the Weather Service. Last year, the Yampa saw the 11th highest crest June 7 when the depth was measured at 6.72 feet.

Fire forecastAs the melt progresses, wild-land

firefighters are training and preparing for the upcoming season.

“Fairly obviously, we’ll be off to a slow start, but I feel it will be similar to last summer when the onset of fire sea-son will really be late summer and early fall,” said Mark Cahur, zone fire man-agement officer for the Routt National Forest.

He expects the “green-up” period will last into late summer and early fall before things begin to dry out.

Forest Service public information officer Steve Segin said there is a below average potential for large fires west of the Continental Divide. By the time it starts to dry out in July, the area also should begin seeing the typical monsoonal weather patterns that bring moisture to the mountains.

Cahur and Segin suspect fire condi-tions will be more severe on the north-ern Front Range east of the Continen-tal Divide, where moisture has not been as prevalent.

“That’s kind of where our resources will be as far as assisting,” Cahur said.

Flooding continued from 1A

Firefighters prepare for seasonBy the numbersHistorical annual Yampa River crests in Steamboat Springs. Flood stage for the Yampa River is 7.5 feet.1. 8.90 feet, June 8, 19052. 8.90 feet, June 13, 19063. 7.65 feet, June 3, 19974. 7.50 feet, May 25, 19045. 7.44 feet, June 1, 20036. 7.12 feet, May 25, 19847. 6.96 feet, April 26, 19748. 6.89 feet, May 17, 19969. 6.83 feet, June 4, 195210. 6.82 feet, May 29, 200011. 6.72 feet, June 7, 201012. 6.64 feet, June 14, 192113. 6.63 feet, June 16, 199514. 6.53 feet, June 7, 195715. 6.51 feet, June 25, 198316. 6.40 feet, May 23, 200617. 6.34 feet, June 4, 200818. 6.33 feet, June 17, 199319. 6.20 feet, June 7, 199120. 6.16 feet, June 16, 1978

Source: National weather service

Flood stagesAction flood stage: 7 feetFlood stage: 7.5 feetModerate flood stage: 8.5 feetMajor flood stage: 9.5 feet

ON THE GO?



THE CLASSROOM CONNECTIONprogram provides complimentary copies of the Steamboat Pilot & Today to schools in Routt County.

Proudly sponsored by

2070

2422

Routt County's Daily Newspaper


Steamboat SpringS

The pine beetle epidemic may have peaked in Northwest Col-orado in 2008, but some of the long-term impacts are only now starting to surface.

It was known early on that the 4 million acres of lodgepole pine infested by the bee-tle in Colorado and southern Wyoming would drastically change the land-scape. The most obvious danger was the dead trees themselves, that unless removed,

presented falling hazards for for-est users. There also was signif-icant concern about increased wildfire activity because of the dead timber that surrounds urban areas like Steamboat Springs. Mil-lions of dollars have been spent locally to mitigate the impacts on areas such as Steamboat Ski Area, where logging efforts were under way Wednesday.

Some impacts of the epidem-ic, however, are harder to control.

“We will be dealing with the impacts of the pine beetle for years to come,” said John Twitchell, district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service.

About 90 percent of the

Loss of pines likely to affect water flow


Steamboat SpringS

A senior hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmo-spheric Administration in Salt Lake City said Friday that if forecasts of temperatures in the mid- to upper 70s come true next week, the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs is likely to

reach flood stage the weekend of June 4.

“We see a big warmup as a ridge of high pressure settles over Colorado next week and we’re projecting a strong chance that the Yampa there exceeds flood stage by next week,” Greg Smith said. “Temperatures could be 10 degrees above aver-age, and if that forecast verifies, we could see a lot of rivers off

to the races.”Steamboat Springs weather

observer Art Judson reports the average daily highs for the criti-cal period include 69.8 degrees Wednesday and 70.1 degrees Thursday.

Mike Chamberlain, a fore-caster with the National Weath-er Service in Grand Junction,

Yampa River expected to crest banks next week

S t e a m b o a tSaturday

may 28, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado


today

John F. ruSSell/StaFF

Sandbags line the Yampa River Core Trail near the Fish Creek Mobile Home Park on Friday afternoon. Residents along the river are bracing for the arrival of higher temperatures and possible flooding.

Flood stage coming

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com





INSIDE: Flying Wheels BMX to introduce new features and events at open house Monday • page 23


visit SteamboatToday.com/events for a complete listing.

■ eventsAfternoon storm. High of 55.

Page 35

■ weather■ rIver reportYampa River flow FridayNoon 2,260 cfs11 p.m. 2,230 cfsAverage for this date 2,290 cfsHighest for this date 4,360 cfs, 1984Lowest for this date 351 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Beetle epidemic troubles persist

streamflow recordsCubic feet per second as measured on the Yampa River at Fifth Street6,820 cfs: June 14, 19216,300 cfs: June 2, 19145,860 cfs: June 22, 19175,790 cfs: April 26, 19745,740 cfs: June 4, 19525,670 cfs: May 25, 19845,310 cfs: June 3, 1997

Source: U.S. Geological SurveySee Beetles, page 13 See Flooding, back page

Like us on Facebook and follow Steamboatpilot on Twitter.

36 | Saturday, May 28, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOcAL

said he foresees daily highs in the range of 75 to 77 degrees settling in by the middle of the coming week. He cautioned that the forecast could change, particularly if a southeast flow brings more clouds to North-west Colorado than currently anticipated.

Smith said a change of 4 to 5 degrees in temperature could significantly change the rate of snowmelt.

If the river floodsThe Yampa in its town

stretch was flowing at a moder-ate 2,270 cubic feet per second Friday afternoon, pegging the average flow for this date. But the 16 feet of lingering snow on nearby Buffalo Pass means the river basin is pregnant with the possibility of a flooding river.

Flood stage isn’t a place often visited in the town stretch of the Yampa based on record keeping during the past 107 years.

Aldis Strautins, a service hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junc-tion, said it’s important to note that when a river first reach-es flood stage, that milestone doesn’t necessarily signal wide-spread flooding of buildings.

“Flood stage (at the Fifth Street Bridge measuring site) is 7 feet, which would cause us to put out an advisory,” Strau-tins said.

A measurement of 7 feet at the Fifth Street Bridge means the river is literally 7 feet above the deepest part of its channel at that point. Flood stage varies widely up and down the river depend-ing on the width and depth of the channel. Changes in the channel and obstructions like logs wedged against bridges also make a dif-ference, Strautins said.

“At 5 feet, where the river is now, it’s likely there’s some water on the bike trail at Emer-ald Park,” Strautins said. “At 6 feet the baseball or soccer fields at Emerald might have water on them. At 7.5 feet, you’d see some flooding of properties along the river in Steamboat Springs. At 8.5 feet, the equivalent of a streamflow of 6,900 cubic feet per second, commercial build-ings along Yampa Street would be impacted.”

The encouraging news is that the river in downtown has never climbed to 6,900 cfs.

The two hydrologists stopped short of predicting floods on the Yampa next week, but they point-ed out that the makings are in place in the mountains, depend-ing on daily high temperatures.

“The Yampa in particular — it’s just a huge snowpack,” Smith said, “and it hasn’t been going off.”

Strautins said that given the

amount of snowpack held this late into the year, it’s not unrea-sonable to think Steamboat might set a new record for the peak flow.

NOAA’s forecast for the Yampa River in Steamboat assigns a 90 percent change that the river will exceed 5,200 cfs, a 75 percent chance that it will exceed 5,500 cfs, and a 50 per-cent chance that it will exceed 6,000 cfs. The chances of peak flows exceeding 7,000 cfs are 25 percent, and there remains a 10 percent chance the river could exceed 8,000 cfs.

The U.S. Geological Survey and NOAA differ on the all-time peak flow in the Yampa. The latter puts it at 5,870 cfs, but the USGS shows the Yampa peaking as high as 6,820 cfs (a gauge height of just 6.64 feet) on June 14, 1921. It’s almost a certainty that the channel of the river in the town stretch has changed during the intervening 90 years.

The highest peak in recent years was 5,310 cfs (7.65 feet) on June 3, 1997.

Snow storageThe snowpack at the Tower

measuring site at 10,500 feet on Buffalo Pass actually increased at times during the week that just ended. The snow depth jumped from 178 inches on May 20 to 194 inches the next day after a 16-inch snowstorm, according to automated gauges operate by the Natural Resourc-es Conservation Service. The snowpack there gave up 23 inch-es of depth due to settling and possible melting by May 25, then added a fresh 8 inches on May 26. The 79.3 inches of water stored there is 171 percent of average.

At the base of Buffalo Pass at Dry Lake Campground, the 27.8 inches of water is 772 per-cent of the typical 3.6 inches of water for this date. That mea-surement is influenced by the fact that snow at Dry Lake’s 8,400-foot elevation is usually all but melted by this date.

Smith and Strautins cau-tioned Steamboat residents that the streams coming off Buffalo Pass, notably Soda Creek and Spring Creek, plus Walton Creek draining Rabbit Ears Pass, pose at least as much flooding dan-ger as the Yampa. And Strautins urged people not to recreate on rivers at high water unless guided by a professional.


Flood stage varies widely“The Yampa in particular — it’s just a huge snowpack, and it hasn’t been going off.”

Greg SmithSenior hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Salt Lake City

Downtown Memorial Day

Weekend SaleFriday • Saturday • Sunday • Monday

May 27th – 30th Join these MainStreet

businesses for great savings!!All That Jazz

Steamboat Ski and SportSteamboat Art Company

Embellishments Home DecorFM Light and Sons

Zirkel Trading - menswearAllen’s Clothing

Moose Mountain Trading Co - women’s wearOff The Beaten Path Bookstore

Steamboat Shoe MarketKali’s Boutique

Deja Vu ConsignmentsRustique Home and GardenChez Nous - women’s wear

Quiksilver - Awesome Shirt Works7th Street BoutiqueKookaburra Kids Summit Shades

Talulla Boutique and SpaSew SteamboatArtisans’ Market

UrbaneSteamboat Art Museum

Steamboat Floral and Gifts Straightline Outdoor Sports

20737487

4 | Tuesday, May 31, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAY

BOB STRUBLE/ROUTT COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Ranch land adjacent to the Elk River was overcome by floodwaters Monday morning. Although the Elk typically surpasses its flood stage each spring, officials are concerned that lingering snowpack in the high country could cause widespread and more severe flooding than usual.

LOCAL


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The Elk River crested its banks near its confluence with the Yampa River in western Routt County early Mon-day morning. That the river

reached flood stage isn’t unusu-al, but Monday’s flooding of nearby ranchland and some buildings is the first incident in what forecasters predict could be a prolonged period of high runoff and potential flooding throughout the area.

Temperatures this week are

expected to reach the upper 70s by Wednesday, above the sea-sonal average. The overnight lows are expected to remain above freezing for much of the week.

Routt County Office of

Warm weather this week could lead to more flooding

Elk River tops its banks


Jump to the Front of the Pack

Fighting cancer globally and locally...

Register by May 31st for only $75

www.Ride4Yellow.comAugust 7th, 2011

1707 Lincoln Ave. • 870-8807Monday-Friday, 10-6

Saturday 10-4

Locally owned and operated going on 16 years. 20227535

Since 1995

20741516

Sale StartsTuesday May 31

Hurry in for the best

selection!

Locally owned and operated going on 16 years.

Since 1995

Storewide Clearance Sale20% to 70% Off Storewide!

STEAMBOAT TODAY Tuesday, May 31, 2011 | 5LOCAL

Emergency Management Dir-ector Bob Struble said warm weather and abundant snow-pack doesn’t necessarily mean the Yampa and Elk rivers and the creeks and streams that dissect Steamboat will flood. Rather, they could just result in a longer runoff period.

“I think we’re going to have high water into July,” Struble said Monday. “I don’t see all the snow melting in two weeks. Right now, I think everybody is speculating what is going to happen, even our weather people. There are record snow-packs, but no one knows how fast it’s going to come off.

“The potential is there for high water,” Struble added. “How high is it going to get? I don’t know. I don’t think any-body knows. We’ll find out this week.”

The National Weather Ser-vice’s office in Grand Junction issued a hydrologic outlook that said flooding was possible this week for creeks, streams and rivers in northwest and west central Colorado and northeast Utah. It said the waterways, including the Yampa River, could reach flood stage by mid-week and increase to above that level by the weekend.

The hydrologic outlook cited higher than average tempera-tures — the National Weather Service forecasts a high of 79 degrees Wednesday — during the day and overnight.

“This will result in rapid snow melt of the voluminous snowpack,” it said.

The snowpack at the Tower measuring site at 10,500 feet on Buffalo Pass was recorded at 174 inches Monday, with water content at 79.4 inches.

Manipulating storageThe Upper Yampa Water

Conservancy District attempt-ed, with little luck, to manipu-late its water storage at Stage-coach Reservoir in preparation for peak runoff. General Man-ager Kevin McBride said more water was released earlier this month than ever before — 250 cubic feet per second instead of the typical 100 cfs of less — but the reservoir filled right back up anyway.

McBride said a similar tac-tic was tried unsuccessfully at Yamcolo Reservoir near the Flat Tops, which the district also owns and operates.

“It certainly is a concern with the record snowpacks,” he said. “We tried to keep ahead of it, but we had such strong inflows into Stagecoach and we’re full. Unfortunately, the dam won’t be mitigating the peaks. … With the amount of water compared to reservoir size, we really don’t have flood

control here in the Yampa Val-ley.”

He said releasing any water now would only increase the amount of water already in the Yampa River.

At the Fifth Street bridge in downtown Steamboat, the Yampa was flowing at 3,350 cfs early Monday afternoon, which easily exceeded the May 30 historical average of 2,380 cfs, according to the U.S. Geo-logical Survey. But it’s still well shy of the record of 4,920 cfs.

City, county preparednessCity Manager Jon Rob-

erts said Steamboat adopted a plan to address high water and flooding. He said as part of that plan, the city bought high water emergency rescue gear for Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue.

Roberts said the city also bought bags and sand to pro-vide to residents for free — up to 100 bags — and to protect city buildings.

“Public Works has told me they definitely have enough sand bands and sand to provide for the protection of the public and facilities,” he said.

Every other USGS measur-ing site in Steamboat, Hayden and Craig also showed stream-flows exceeding the May 30 historical average, including at the convergence of the Elk and Yampa rivers near Milner, where Struble observed water

spilled over the banks early Monday.

On Monday morning, the river nearly reached 7 1/2 feet and flowed at 5,200 cfs, almost double the May 30 historical average of 2,700 cfs.

Struble said the Routt Coun-ty Office of Emergency Man-agement has provided educa-tion to the public about what to do in case of flooding, includ-ing protecting their homes and being ready to leave if flooding occurs.

Should flooding occur, he said the most likely time of day is between 2 and 3 a.m. Butcherknife Creek is safe, Struble said, but he said to watch out for Soda, Spring and Fish creeks and especially Wal-ton Creek.

Struble said the county uses a system similar to reverse 911 to alert residents about flood-ing. County staff also will knock on doors in affected areas. But he doesn’t think that will be necessary.

“I don’t think we’re going to see any property damage or anything like that unless some-thing really unusual happens,” he said. “We’ve gone up to flood stage before and every-thing’s been fine. … The valley is too big and too wide. I think you’re going to see the low-lying areas covered up like you did in ’96.”



Struble: Watch out for Soda, Spring, Fish creeksOnlineVisit SteamboatToday.com for a photo gallery of the Elk River at flood stage as well as the Routt County Highwater Preparedness Guide.

ON THE GO?



Protect Yourself from High Water this SpringINFORMATION

Refer to Routt County’s High Water Preparedness Information Guide located at http://www.co.routt.co.us/

MAPSVisit the front page of the City of Steamboat Springs’ website at www.steamboatsprings.net for instructions on finding out if your property is located within the FEMA designated floodplain or floodway.

SANDBAGSThe City of Steamboat Springs Streets Department will deliver sand and sandbags to residential properties that need them on a case by case basis. The property owner will need to fill and place the bags. Call Doug Marsh or Ron Berig at 970-879-1807 during normal office hours, or dispatch at 970-879-1144 after hours to request this service. Flooding emergencies, call 911. Commercial properties and residential neighborhoods with high needs will need to purchase their own sandbags.

CONTACT INFORMATIONPublic Works Streets Department (Doug or Ron) – 970-879-1807Police Department Dispatch (after office hours) – 970-879-1144

Floodplain Manager (Bob Keenan) – 970-871-8260Routt County Office of Emergency Management – 970-870-5551

20735683

2074

1181

Seafood Night

every Tuesday

Shrimp bruschetta ,tomatoes, basil, balsamic reduction

Rainbow trout, vegetable ozro, basil crëme fraiche, lemon aioli

Mahi mahi ,asparagus, gnocchi, mushrooms, garlic butter sauce

SUMMER ACTIVITY MIXER

If you are a concierge, retail staff, front desk staff, server, bartender, or a local who will host friends and family this

summer, come to the Summer Activity Mixer and learn about many incredible activities, restaurants and services!

For more information call 875-7006.

Wednesday, June 8 • 3:00-6:00pm The Sheraton Steamboat ResortFree admission, free food & prizes!

2073

8294

Sponsored by

S t e a m b o a twednesday

June 1, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Vol. 23, no. 130R O U T T C O U N T Y ’ S D A I L Y N E W S P A P E R

today


A Jeep drives through a flooded parking lot in front of the Steamboat Hotel on Tuesday morning. As temperatures continue to climb, more scenes like this are expected.


steamboat spRings

Clay Rogers says the water went from a just trickle to rag-ing in two hours Monday after-noon along U.S. Highway 40.

Rogers is co-owner of Snow Country Nursery, which is struggling to stay dry at its new location next to Steam-boat Christian Center on the city’s south side. He said he was working on irrigation lines when the water started to rise.

“I turned around and it just came like that,” Rogers said.

Temperatures are getting higher and so is the water in the Yampa River, which over-flowed its banks and flooded areas near the city limits on the southeastern edge of town.

Rogers said he had a big tree installation planned for Tues-day, but that would not hap-pen because of the water now inundating the nursery. Instead he was moving some of the 300 trees out of the water.

“It won’t damage the trees,” Rogers said. “We just don’t want them to float away.”

Several driveways near the Steamboat Hotel off U.S. High-

way 40 were under a foot of water Tuesday. The water was about 60 feet from the main entrance to the hotel.

“Definitely this is going to affect business,” hotel owner Jay Wetzler said.

He has owned the hotel for 30 years.

“The scary thing is we’re not even close to peak run-off,”

Wetzler said. “We’re at least two weeks away.”

Wetzler said that’s just his guess, but his may be as good as anyone’s when it comes to when runoff will peak and how high the water will get in local rivers and creeks.

“I don’t know how good, bad or anything it’s going to be,” city of Steamboat Springs Street Superintendent Doug Marsh said.

Marsh said flooding has not caused any major damage in the 33 years he has been here.

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com





INSIDE: The 1st of 5 Triple Crown tournaments planned for Steamboat starts play June 9 • page 3



■ eventsPartly sunny. High of 74.

Page 32

■ weather■ rIver reportYampa River flow TuesdayNoon 3,370 cfs11 p.m. 3,320 cfsAverage for this date 2,350 cfsHighest for this date 4,740 cfs, 1914Lowest for this date 710 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

onlineVisit SteamboatToday.com for flooding videos, photos and an interactive map. To submit your own photos and video, email [email protected].

Weather Service updates river outlook for end of week as runoff accelerates

Flooding on south side



steamboat spRings

The seeds of a group opposing the sale of medical marijuana in Steamboat Springs were planted Tuesday night.

About 50 people attended a meeting about the increasingly controversial issue in Library Hall at Bud Werner Memorial Library. Many who attended spoke, either asking questions or expressing their opinions. All but one voiced concerns about the presence of medical marijuana in the com-munity.

Steamboat residents Lisa Watts and Dr. Kelly Victory hosted the meeting. Watts said it wasn’t intended to debate the issue of medical marijuana but to provide information about medical mari-juana and to solicit community feedback.

At its core was bringing togeth-er like-minded residents, she said.

“Our intent is to be very involved from this point forward with a unified voice about how this has negatively impacted our community,” she said.

Colorado voters approved the use of marijuana for certain medical conditions with a doc-tor’s recommendation in 2000 by voting in favor of an amendment to the state constitution. The amendment was supported by a majority of Routt County vot-ers, as well. The industry didn’t

About 50 people at opposition gathering

Pot is a hot topic at library meeting

See Marijuana, page 16

STEAMBOAT TODAY Wednesday, June 1, 2011 | 17LOCAL

“That’s not to say it won’t hap-pen,” he said.

Routt County Office of Emer-gency Management Di r ector Bob Struble said with the forecasted high temperatures — today’s high is expected to reach 77 degrees — it’s safe to say the much antici-pated melting of record amounts of snow from upper elevations finally has begun.

The Tower measuring site at 10,500 feet on Buffalo Pass mea-sured another state record Sun-day with 80.1 inches of water con-tained in 178 inches of snow. By Tuesday, the snow water equiva-lent had dropped to 78.8 inches.

“With temperatures expected to go above average, you’ll start to see snowmelt accelerate and rivers rise,” said Jim Daniels, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junc-tion.

High temperatures through the week are expected to be in the low to upper 70s.

That is reflected in the Weather Service’s forecast for the Yampa and Elk Rivers.

The Yampa was measuring 6 feet Tuesday afternoon at the Fifth Street Bridge measuring sta-tion. By early Friday morning it’s

expected to reach 7.2 feet, which is above the 7-foot stage at which the Weather Service will send out flood advisories. By Sunday morning the Yampa is expected to reach 7.3 feet. The Yampa’s flood stage is 7.5 feet at the Fifth Street bridge location.

The Elk River already has reached the action flood stage near its confluence with the Yampa and is expected to rise to 8.1 feet by 6 a.m. Friday. The moderate flood stage at the mea-suring site near Milner is 8.5 feet.

“I think we’re going to see a prolonged (runoff) event,” Stru-ble said. “I think this will last most of June. I think we’ll see above average flows into July.”

Struble said the high water currently affecting parts of the county is not unusual.

“I can’t predict how high it’s going to go,” he said.

For many this spring, there is a sense of anticipation and uncer-tainty.

“I have no idea how high it will flood,” longtime resident Curt Weiss said. “It has some potential of getting big.”

Weiss has lived in Steamboat

for 35 years and owns the Wal-ton Pond Apartments near the area affected by flooding Tues-day. Weiss hoped the flooding was the result of a damaged river-bank. Instead, he found the water was coming over the banks of the Yampa in numerous places.

“This surprises me,” Weiss said while surveying the flooded areas Tuesday morning. “We haven’t had water get in over here before.”


Buff Pass sets another water content recordKEEP UP WITH

THE CONDITIONSat SteamboatToday.com

How Can I Prevent Type 2 Diabetes?

• Get more physical activity – 30 minutes/5 days per week can help. • Start a walking program wearing comfortable, well-fi tting shoes. • Drink plenty of water to stay well-hydrated. • See a healthcare provider before starting any exercise program.

To learn more about our “Diabetes Prevention Packs” today call Eveline in Craig at 970-871-7658 or Karla in Steamboat Springs at 970-875-1880.


940 Central Park Dr. Ste 101 745 Russell StreetSteamboat Springs, CO 80487 Craig, CO 81625

Call 970-879-0111www.steamboatdetailing.com 20

734803

Also offering Window Tinting

A professional detail isJust like getting a new

car without the 72 monthly payments

STEAMBOAT TODAY Thursday, June 2, 2011 | 3


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Yampa River water levels were similar Wednesday to what they were Tuesday, but they are on the rise and expect-ed to reach flood stage Mon-

day.The Yampa’s

flood stage is 7.5 feet at the Fifth Street Bridge. The river is expect-ed to rise above that level Mon-

day, when a depth of 7.7 feet is forecast for 6 a.m. If it reach-es expected depths, the Yampa will reach the third-highest water level ever recorded at the measuring station.

The Elk River is forecast to reach the moderate flood stage of 8.5 feet of water on Mon-day at the measuring site near Milner. On Monday the river reached 7.5 feet.

Flooding on the southern edge of Steamboat Springs receded slightly, but driveways near the Steamboat Hotel along U.S. Highway 40 still had standing water Wednes-day. Snow Country Nursery also was still experiencing flooding.

According to a measur-ing station at the Fifth Street Bridge, the river stayed at about 6 feet deep during the day Wednesday, similar to what it was Tuesday.

The Yampa is forecast to reach 6.8 feet by 6 a.m. today, according to the Nation-al Weather Service in Grand Junction. It’s expected to be at 7.2 feet at 6 a.m. Friday, 7 feet at 6 a.m. Saturday and 7.3 feet at 6 a.m. Sunday, which is above the 7-foot stage at which the Weather Service will send out flood advisories.

The high water levels are the result of higher temperatures beginning to melt the record snowpack at upper elevations. Temperatures are forecast to remain in the 70s through Sun-day, except for Friday, when the forecast calls for a high temperature of 63 degrees.

The Tower measuring site at 10,500 feet on Buffalo Pass on Wednesday was measuring the equivalent of 78.7 inches of water in 173 inches of snow. That’s down from the newest

state record set Sunday, when 80.1 inches of water was mea-sured in 178 inches of snow.



The Yampa River has left its banks west of Steamboat Springs as waters con-tinue to rise along with the temperatures.

LOCAL

Water remains high; flood stage forecast for Monday

Yampa River holds steady

Call (970) 871-4249 for advertising opportunities


For moreResidents con-tinue sandbag efforts along Yampa. See page 5

Just ListedBeautiful Townhome in Aspen View Estates

Close to Town, Trails, Schools....2564 sf, 3/2.5Fantastic Views, Amazing Sunsets, Fabulous Yard

Low Maintenance, Low Utilities, Quiet Neighborhood$637,500 ID#131577

2074

1979

Nick MetzlerCRS, GRI, Broker/Owner

[email protected]

www.SteamboatSunsets.com

STEAMBOAT TODAY Thursday, June 2, 2011 | 5LOCAL


Kyla Yennie fills sandbags at Backdoor Sports on Yampa Street on Tuesday afternoon. The downtown business was preparing for higher water on the Yampa River and possible flooding.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

As the Yampa River contin-ues to rise, downtown business-es are filling sandbags with the hopes of keeping their establish-ments dry — of water, at least.

The booze will still be flowing at Sunpie’s Bistro if owner Mike Miller has his way. On Tuesday, about 10 people worked quick-ly to stack sandbags along the edge of the backyard next to the Yampa.

“It’s never come over, so who knows,” Miller said about the river. “We weren’t even going to do that much.”

He said the water was flowing 18 inches below the bar’s back-yard grass Tuesday.

“I don’t think there is any-thing you can do to stop it,” Miller said.

The bets are on to see when and if the water spills into the bar’s yard, and hopefully, Miller said, not into the building.

“I’m going to say Saturday it will be up to the grass,” bartend-er Steve Tompsett said.

Tompsett’s guess is in line with what is being forecast by the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.

The river was flowing at about 6 feet deep at a nearby measuring station Wednesday. It’s forecast to rise 20.4 inches by 6 a.m. Monday.

A few doors down at The Boathouse Pub, cook Rory Kriz was doing the tedious job of fill-ing sandbags.

“It’s what you would imag-ine,” Kriz said. “I’d rather be cooking, but I don’t want the place to flood and not have a place to work. That’s for sure.”

General Manager Ryan Ulep

said employees had been fill-ing sandbags during their down time, but they picked up the pace starting Tuesday as the river rose.

“We’re pretty unsure what to do,” Ulep said. “We’ve never really experienced anything like this.”

Restaurants near river start filling sandbags as Yampa rises

Businesses shore up banks

Filling sandbagsThe 2011 High Water Preparedness

Guide offers detailed instructions for placing sandbags. The guide is avail-able with flooding-related stories, including this one, at SteamboatToday.com.

Trying to determine how much sand and how many sandbags you might need? According to the guide, to con-struct a levee 1 foot high and 20 feet long, it takes 7 cubic yards of sand to fill the required 100 sandbags. It typi-cally takes two people one hour to fill and place the 100 bags.

See Sandbags, page 19

Saturday June 11, Sidney Peak RanchNew this year...Games (no silent auction!)

and Fun for Everyone! www.communityagalliance.org

SAVE THE DATE

20

74

21

39

INDOOR MULTI-FAMILY GARAGE SALE FUNDRAISER

1955 Bridge Lane, Suite 1500 ∙ By the James Brown Bridge

Saturday, June 4th 8:00am-12:00pm

20

74

27

66

20742820

MUSSEL & MARTINI

EVERY THURSDAY

Reservations RecommendedOpen Nightly for Dinner at 5:00pm 50 Eighth Street, Downtown Steamboat Springs970-879-3131

MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI MUSSEL & MARTINI

EVERY THURSDAYEVERY THURSDAYEVERY THURSDAYEVERY THURSDAYEVERY THURSDAY

8 ENTREES @ $15.95

INCLUDES UNLIMITED

SALAD BAR &

TEXAS TOAST!

$3 MARTINIS OVER 20 FLAVORS

“WE DARE YOU TO TRY THEM ALL!” TO TRY THEM ALL!”

MUSSELS $5 PER LB.

“THAT’S A LOTTA MUSSELS!”

Open Nightly for Dinner at 5:00pm 50 Eighth Street, Downtown Steamboat Springs

“WE DARE YOU “WE DARE YOU TO TRY THEM ALL!” TO TRY THEM ALL!” BUTCHERS

SPECIAL$5 OFF 16 OZ. PRIME NY STRIPMON. - SAT. 9:30 - 6:00

SUN. - 11:00 - 4:00PARKING IN THE BACK

817 LINCOLN AVE • DOWNTOWN 879-5880 20

739056

Castelvetrano Green Olives

Lamb Chopper Goat CheeseCut to order

In Stock!

Steamboat’s Old Fashioned

Soda Fountain...

Lyon DrugCorner of 9th & Lincoln, Downtown • 879-1114

See us at ExploreSteamboat.com

Where memories are made!

STEAMBOAT TODAY Thursday, June 2, 2011 | 19LOcAL


Rory Kriz fills sandbags in front of The Boathouse Pub on Tuesday morning. The downtown business is preparing for higher water on the Yampa River and possible flooding.

Ulep said the biggest concern was Butcherknife Creek, which empties into the Yampa right next to the Boathouse.

“Hopefully the water will flow into the street and not into the building,” Ulep said.

Kriz showed Ulep what remained of the unfilled sand-bags.

“We need like 200 more, don’t

we?” Ulep said.Sunpie’s and Boathouse

are two of the businesses on the river side of Yampa Street that sit in the 100-year flood-plain. The plain extends up Seventh Street from the river about half a block on each side of Butcherknife Creek as it works its way into Old Town. The floodplain also surrounds Soda Creek through Old Town before it enters the Yampa near

13th Street.An interactive map showing

the 100-year floodplain is acces-sible at www.steamboatsprings.net.

Much of the Dream Island Mobile Home Park is in the plain, along with the River-side neighborhood in western Steamboat. A majority of the Brooklyn neighborhood along the Yampa is in the floodplain, as well.

Sandbags continued from 5

Boathouse manager: Butcherknife a concern

when it comes to the EFB, it’s rubber-stamped,” he said. “That concerns me.”

Berry added that the commis-sions could vet which requests for funding were most important.

Fund Board President Kristi Brown said commission members will research the specifics, such as how many members will sit on the commission and whether it will have subcommittees to vet requests, before the next meeting in August.

She said it is the Fund Board’s intention to have the single com-mission in place by next school year.

Fund Board members also dis-cussed whether they should fund programs that are considered core or extras. They didn’t reach a consensus.

Several Fund Board members said that historically, gifts were provided for extra programs, but that has changed the past few years as statewide K-12 education funding has been cut.

Fund Board member Don Schwartz offered a different per-spective.

“It seems to me, philosophical-

ly, it’s not necessarily core versus extra,” he said, “but what’s in the best interest for students.”

Brown started the meeting by recognizing outgoing Fund Board members Andersen, Schwartz, Jill Boyd and Sue Mac-Carthy during their last meeting.

“Those are some pretty big shoes to fill,” Brown said. “Each of you have made significant contributions to the commis-sions and the board. Thank you for your service, and I encourage you to come back to the meet-ings.”

Brown also recognized Steam-boat Superintendent Shalee Cun-ningham, who also was at her last Fund Board meeting. Her last day is June 30; she will become superintendent of the Novato Unified School District in Marin County, Calif.

In other action, the Fund Board:

■ Approved officers for 2011-12. Brown will remain president, and Dean Massey will serve another term as treasurer. Roger Good will become vice president, and Paige Boucher was named secretary. Terms start July 1.

■ Approved a 2011-12 con-tract for Fund Board accoun-

tant Linda Johnson that will pay her $900 a month, up from $750 this year, based on a bet-ter understanding of the work involved.

■ Approved shifting $851.86 from reserves to make up for the Fund Board overspending its administrative budget this year.

Fund Board continued from 1

Board debates funding extra programs

Summertime Healthy Snacks for Kids!

Eating Healthy can help prevent Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

The American Dietetic Association offers this tasty and healthy snack suggestion for kids - Peel a banana and dip it in yogurt. Roll in crushed cereal and freeze




Harvey’s Huddle

Sports, politics, talk with a local twist on Mondays and Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m.

...and on the world wide web at KBCR.com

2072

2879

“Where it’s cool to ride the pine”


970-879-703120724189

Considering a Joint

Replacement?Let Us help you get Back on Track

Rehabilitating joint replacement

patients for 20 years.

Come see us, we’re the experts.


Emily Harris, DPT

Pot Holes? We’ll fi x it!

Your BEST choice for asphalt maintenance!

Free Estimates/Fully Insured

Ben 970-846-9536 or 970-871-0078 2072

3001

6 | Friday, June 3, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL


On Wednesday, Steamboat Springs resident Cedar Beauregard used his remote-controlled airplane equipped with a high-definition video camera to film high water in south Steamboat.

High views of the high waterMatt StenslandPILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Steamboat Springs resident Cedar Beauregard is providing a bird’s-eye view of flooding in Routt County.

On Wednesday, Beauregard used a remote-controlled plane equipped with a high-definition video camera to show the high water on Steamboat’s south side.

“It’s essentially my own pri-vate predator drone,” Beaure-gard said Thursday.

He started doing aerial pho-

tography in 2005. He said he knows there is an application for the technology in emergen-cy situations, but he has mainly stuck to commercial work such as aerial photos and video for real estate agents.

Beauregard’s company website is www.steamboataerials.com.

Goggles allow him to see video from the plane’s perspec-tive while he is flying, which

has allowed him to fly the plane four miles away from where he is controlling it.

Beauregard said he plans to regularly film the rising rivers in Routt County.

“I love how it works,” he said.

Rivers risingThe depth of the Yampa

River remained steady Thurs-day at about 6 feet at the Fifth Street Bridge measuring site, and it is expected to peak at

Steamboat resident provides aerial view of flooding

See Aerial, page 13

VIDEO ONLINESteamboatToday.com

Freshies!

Dinner?

starting June 10Freshies ‘For the love oF FooD’

970-879-8099Open from 7am-2:30pm Daily ∙ Sun 7am-2pm

Between Town & Mountain on Hwy 40

20

73

81

70

www.yvmc.org/people 970.879.1322

Extraordinary People

… personalized careGeri Crosby has more than 25 years of experience in getting people back on their feet. She works with patients in YVMC’s New Mobility Program helping them begin their recovery from hip, shoulder or knee surgery.

Geri says, “The patients I work with enter the hospital frightened and immobile. I get them on their feet and give them confidence. I’m the first step in their rehabilitation.”

It’s Geri’s job to teach patients how to use crutches or a walker in the hospital, but she says it takes a team effort to make sure the patient has the skills to be safe at home. “It’s a family. We all care about each other and the patient. In a big city hospital, patients might be a number, but at YVMC they are a person. Our team goes above and beyond.”Geri Crosby

Inpatient Physical Therapist

SteamboatSpaNails

Scheduled Appointments and Walk-Ins Accepted

Mon-Sun 9am-7:30pm

601 Lincoln Ave # 104970-871-7920O

pe

n 7

D

ays

a W

ee

k

2074

3067

Acryllic Nails $35 Fill $20Pink & White Gel Nails $40 Fill $20Color Nails $40 Fill $20Mani & Pedi Combo $40 Deluxe Pedi $40 Spa Pedicure $30 Manicure $15 Eyebrow or Underarm Wax $10 Face Wax $35 Leg Wax- Half $30 & Up Brazil Bikini Wax $40

Now Offering

Shellac &

Crackle Nails

Excellent Quality Nail Care for Ladies and Gentlemen

Deep Tissue Massage

per hour$50

VOTE!

Tom Foxfor YVEA Board

of Directors

20737553

∙ NW Colorado Business Leader∙ Chairman of a diverse selection of state and local boards. ∙ 58 years of combined board experience.∙ Fiscally sound decision maker∙ Transparent and accessible∙ A Director for its members∙ Forward thinking-while respecting the past and advancing the future.

STEAMBOAT TODAY Friday, June 3, 2011 | 13lOcAl

O’Hara he wanted Herman to serve jail time.

“Mr. Herman is getting off with effectively no punishment,” he said. “He purposely and will-fully tortured a member of my family and has the opportunity to walk away from this entire situation with minimal crimi-nal history, some community service, and a pittance of a fine with a charitable contribution. … The only remaining punish-ment that can be doled out is for this court to sentence Mr. Her-man to jail.”

After the hearing, Arnone said O’Hara listened and that a mes-sage was sent to the community.

Herman had his attorney speak on his behalf, and Her-

man declined to comment after the hearing. His attorney, Sandy Horner, told the judge that Her-man was trying to scare the dog and not to kill it.

The dog was wandering off leash in the Indian Trails neigh-borhood, which is owned and managed by the Herman family.

“It was an act that Mr. Her-man didn’t think a lot about but now wishes he had,” Horn-er said.

Herman repeatedly denied to police that he had shot the dog, but he was arrested after a wit-ness linked Herman to the crime. Herman was taken to jail and later confessed to police, who recovered the .22-caliber gun used in the shooting from under-neath insulation in the attic of Herman’s shop building.

Court continued from 3

Herman reportedly trying to scare dogMore pleads not guilty, trial is set for October

Kati More, 38, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in District Court to felony theft, and a three-day jury trial was scheduled to begin Oct. 26.

The Routt County District Attorney’s Office has filed a charge of felony theft against More. She was arrested March 9 by Steamboat police, who say she stole $25,000 in cash from a safe at her ex-boyfriend’s home. More is free on bail and was represented by Steamboat lawyer Larry Combs.

More is on probation for stealing and then returning more than $60,000 when she was treasurer of the Loggers Lane Owners Association.

On Thursday, Combs said More maintains her innocence.

“She never took the money because it never existed,” Combs said. “If any-thing, I think this is a lover’s quarrel that ended up in the hands of police.”

6.7 feet today, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.

An above-average tempera-ture trend is expected to con-tinue into Monday and Tues-day, with the forecast calling for high temperatures in the 70s.

The Yampa is forecast to reach 7.7 feet at Fifth Street by 6 a.m. Monday and rise to 8.2 feet by 6 a.m. Tuesday. The flood stage at that location is 7.5 feet. The third-highest recorded depth at that loca-tion is 7.65 feet, set on June 3, 1997. The record crest was June 8, 1905, when the river reached 8.9 feet. A year ago, the Yampa crested at 6.72 feet on June 7.

In terms of cubic feet of water per second, the Yampa was flowing at about 3,500 cfs early Thursday. That is about 150 percent of average and shy

of the June 2 record of 4,860 cfs set in 1914.

The Elk River was mea-sured at 7.3 feet near Milner on Thursday morning and is forecast to reach 9 feet by 6 a.m. Tuesday. Moderate flood stage at that location starts at 8.5 feet, and the major flood stage starts at 9.5 feet.

Aldis Strautins, a service hydrologist with the Nation-al Weather Service in Grand Junction, said last week that flood stage varies widely up and down the river depending on the width and depth of the channel. Changes in the chan-nel and obstructions such as logs wedged against bridges also make a difference, Strau-tins said.

At 7.5 feet, there would be some flooding of properties along the river in Steamboat, he said. At 8.5 feet, commer-cial buildings along Yampa Street could be affected.

The U.S. Geological Sur-

vey shows the Yampa peaking as high as 6,820 cfs (a gauge height of just 6.64 feet) on June 14, 1921. It’s almost a certainty that the channel of the river in the town stretch has changed during the inter-vening 90 years.

The highest peak in recent years was 5,310 cfs (7.65 feet) on June 3, 1997.

“My word for the run-off this year is ‘biblical,’ but nobody really knows,” Peter Van De Carr said.

Van De Carr has lived in Steamboat since 1978 and was here for the floods in 1984 and 1997. He also owns Back-door Sports along the banks of the Yampa downtown. He has been at that location since 1990.

“I think I have a 30 or 40 percent chance of flooding,” Van De Carr said.


Aerial continued from 6

Yampa forecast to hit 3rd-highest flow

970.879.5667 | 3rd & Lincoln Avenue, Steamboat | Open Monday - Saturdaywww.davidchaserugsandfurniture.com

2074

0652

COMFORT SLEEPERS NOW ON SALE!




20743866

Get plenty of fi ber High fi ber foods can help prevent Diabetes by improving blood sugar control, lowering your risk for heart disease and promote weight loss by helping you feel full. High Fiber foods include – fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds.


2071

1914





INDOOR MULTI-FAMILY GARAGE SALE FUNDRAISER

1955 Bridge Lane, Suite 1500 ∙ By the James Brown Bridge

Saturday, June 4th 8:00am-12:00pm

20

74

27

66

Helping Gardeners Grow Since 19991801 Lincoln Avenue 879-2403

M-F 9 to 6 • Sat 9 to 5 • Sun 9 to 4

Celebrate Summer!

2074

3213

Spring time is excellent for planting!

Colorado Blue Spruce, Hoopsi, Fat Albert

4' to 8' 25% offNursery Grown Aspen

1-7gallon 30% off

EXCELLENT selection of fruit bearing

trees & shrubs apple, pear, cherry,

raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries & currants

GREEN HOUSE IS BLOOMIN’ FULL OF ANNUALS,

HERBS & VEGGIES


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

High water from the Elk River forced a Routt Coun-ty family to evacuate its home along U.S. Highway 40 on Fri-day morning.

Andrew George said he woke up at 6 a.m. to his daughter tell-ing him there was water in her room. George rents the house at Saddle Mountain Ranch at

Routt County Road 44 and U.S. 40 with his pregnant wife and their three children.

George said the word spread after just one phone call. Soon, 10 trucks and a dozen people showed up to help them evacu-ate the house eight miles west of Steamboat Springs.

“We moved basically 5,000

square feet of house in four hours,” said George, who owns the Mambo Italia-no restaurant in Steamboat Springs. “It

was amazing.”George said he had been

watching the river forecast and expected to have to leave the home.

“Last night I came home and said to my wife, ‘We’re going to move tomorrow,’” George said.

A caretaker unit at the prop-erty also was flooded.

George said they were able to save their property and are going to stay with friends. He thinks it might be a while before the family can return home because the water level has not peaked.

Rising rivers force family to evacuate west of Steamboat

It’s June 3, and we’re getting ready to move our house-hold for the fourth time in

three years. Yes, I’ve got them old moving man blues again,

but I’m not gonna let it get me down.

It’s just that I’ve come to the sud-den realiza-tion that the same moisture associat-ed with the

January blizzard that torment-ed us during our last move is now conspiring to complicate our latest cross-town move. The Yampa River and Walton Creek are busting loose on the south side of Steamboat Springs and doing their darnedest to cre-ate a modest moat around my three-story castle. As I write this, I remain confident that our crack moving team will be able to drive their van through the shallow flood in our entry drive. Cross your fingers.

After living in the same house for 20 years, we’re com-ing to the end (we hope) of a three-year migration around Steamboat. And I have to say we’ve had great support from friends and strangers at every step. When we pulled up to our new driveway on Conestoga Circle with loaded trucks back in January, there was 11 inches of snow in it.

A neighbor we hadn’t even met yet volunteered to plow out the driveway.

“Welcome to the neighbor-

S T E A M B O A T


TODAY


Friends of Andy George load containers into the back of a pickup at the home he rents at Saddle Mountain Ranch west of Steamboat Springs. George, in the blue shirt, and his family woke up to water in their home, called friends and evacuated the residence as quickly as possible.

Flooding makes impact

®





INSIDE: Find the summer 2011 edition of Steamboat Homefinder with this newspaper

SATURDAYJUNE 4, 2011


Vol. 23, No. 133

SteamboatToday.com



■ EVENTSBreezy with sun. High of 66.

Page 24

■ WEATHER■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow FridayNoon 3,640 cfs11 p.m. 3,940 cfsAverage for this date 2,280 cfsHighest for this date 5,120 cfs, 1914Lowest for this date 296 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Got themoving

man blues


See Ross, page 13

For moreHigh water and other river issues are affecting North Routt County See page 3



14 | Saturday, June 4, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAY

“This is just the start,” George said.

Flood warning issuedThe National Weather Ser-

vice in Grand Junction issued a flood warning for the Elk River at Routt County Road 42 on Friday.

“Significant rises have occurred along the Elk River near Routt County Road 42 as a result of recent warm weather increasing snow melt over the higher mountains,” the warn-ing states. “This river will con-tinue to rise through this week-end and into early next week as warm temperatures continue to melt off the higher snowpack.”

The river peaked early Friday at 7.88 feet at a measuring sta-tion near Milner.

The Office of Routt Coun-ty Emergency Management noted that water was up to some houses at C.R. 44 and U.S. 40. High water also reached homes around C.R. 42.

Agricultural land east of that area looked like a lake Friday morning, Emergency Manage-ment Director Bob Struble said. That is not unusual during years of high runoff.

The Elk River is expected to reach 9 feet at the measuring station by Monday morning. Moderate flood stage starts at 8.5 feet, and major flood stage is 9.5 feet.

Struble said high water would not affect Sunday’s Steamboat

Marathon course on C.R. 129.

Yampa prediction adjustedThe Yampa River reached

nearly 4,000 cubic feet per sec-ond Thursday night, and the water level continues to rise.

The river where it crosses under the Fifth Street Bridge in downtown Steamboat reached a maximum depth of 6.42 feet Thursday night. Flood stage at that location is 7.5 feet. The National Weather Service in Grand Junction had lowered its forecast for how high the river will rise early next week. Hydrologists now expect the river to rise to crest at 8 feet early Tuesday and begin to recede thereafter.

The Yampa spilled its banks in several Steamboat locations that typically experience flood-ing in high runoff years. The red barn behind the Brooklyn neighborhood that is visible from U.S. 40 just east of down-town was surrounded by Fri-day morning. The Yampa also flowed into Little Toots Park at 12th and Yampa streets Thurs-day night, but the floodwaters had receded Friday morning.


Roan Marshall and a friend finish loading some of Andy George’s possessions onto a flat-bed truck Friday morning. George, who lives in a home at Saddle Mountain Ranch, woke up to water in the house. He and the family quickly evacuated the residence to avoid the rising waters of the Elk River.

LOCAL


Experts expect Yampa to crest at 8 feet

OnlineSee a photo gallery, including aerial views, with this story at SteamboatToday.com. Also posted are hydrographs for the rivers, Yampa River Core Trail closures and sandbag-ging tips.

each of them. But they all had something in common.“They all follow through,” Lowe said.

Mayhew gave a quick stu-dent address — all three of the students were shy, teacher Dan Juba said — but he touched on how YVS was a good fit for him as the crowd of about 40 parents and fellow students cheered him on.

“I want to thank all the teachers because I didn’t like school before I came here,” Mayhew said. “You made me like school again.”

Medina said the school also was great for him, because at Steamboat Springs High School he was a “bad kid” and a negative influence on others.

But in the past year, Juba said Medina, after he finished his final credits last fall, would return to YVS regularly to check on and motivate the other students.

Medina is not sure exactly what lies ahead. He’s consid-ering college, but for now he’ll continue to work at La Canti-na and help support his family.

And even if it took an extra few years, he’s proud to finally hold a diploma in his hand.

“It feels good,” Medina said as he walked toward the post-ceremony reception. “It feels that I really made it.”


Yampa Valley continued from 5

Graduate: I want to thank all the teachersHAVE SOMETHING TO SAY?

Continue the conversation online at SteamboatToday.com

Open 7 Nights at 5:30pm

871-0508

sunday

night is

appetizerdinner • dessert

$28.95 per person

Date Night!

The rest is up

to you..

at

2074

3321

Reservations Welcome!www.cafediva.com

Only twO left!

Get 3 print ads per week for as

little as

New busiNess? Or Never Advertised with us befOre?

$84This 3 month program gives you the exposure you need

to grow your business.Call us today for the

New Advertisers Package

plus discounts on internet advertising

CAll 879-1502

20737626

this 2 COluMN bY 2 iNCh sPACewill Get the wOrd Out tO 11,000

steAMbOAt tOdAY reAders everY dAY

tell theM AbOut YOur busiNess

tOdAY

New Hours:

M-F 8am – 7pmSat 9am – 2pm

Sun 9am – 12pmOPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK!

970-879-0203

Announcing EVENING hours atSTEAMBOAT MEDICAL GROUP!!

2070

0647

Get Ready for a great summer of riding with Whispering Willows Ranch:

JUNE 16th-18th Horsemanship and Confidence on the trail Clinic with Jason PatrickJUNE 19th- 20th Cow Horse/Ranch Horsemanship with Jack McCumber JULY 11th-13th Horsemanship and Confidence on the trail Clinic with Jason Patrick JULY 15th-15th Cow Horse/Ranch Horsemanship with Jack McCumber Take the clinics as a 5 day or take either section by itself!

www.whisperingwillowsranch.com, 970-879-9489

2074

4199

STEAMBOAT TODAY Saturday, June 4, 2011 | 3

BOB STRUBLE/COURTESY

Water from the Elk River was rising rapidly near this home Friday on Routt County Road 42. Routt County Road and Bridge crews were dealing with issues along the Elk to the north.

LOCAL


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

As the Elk River moved beyond flood stage Friday, Routt County officials and resi-dents at either end of the swollen stream were reacting to water on roads and snags that threatened bridges.

Routt County Road and Bridge Director Paul Drap-er said at mid-afternoon that earlier in the day the water on Routt Country Road 44, not far from the confluence of the Elk and Yampa rivers about eight miles west of Steamboat, was 8 to 10 inches deep. It was action taken by the Colora-do Department of Transpor-tation to build a berm out of barrels, Draper said, that kept water from running across the highway. But the same action deflected more of the flow onto C.R. 44.

CDOT officials were not avail-

able to comment on the situation at the Elk River and U.S. High-way 40 late Friday afternoon.

Property owners in the neigh-borhood had sent a written appeal Tuesday to federal, state and local agencies asking for immediate evaluations of the hydrology on the lower Elk River where it flows under the highway. Their fear was that the river was poised to carve a new channel, inundate box culverts that were inadequate to handle the flood and threaten the high-way and the Union Pacific Rail-road tracks on the south side of U.S. 40.

“It is our opinion that if the bank is not immediately armored with rocks and stabi-lized, that the river will break out and create a new channel flowing to the west of the cur-rent channel. If this were to

happen, it is our feeling that the highway, railroad embankment and RCR 44 going north would be inundated and closed,” the appeal states.

Draper said although he is not a hydrologist, he thinks the

Residents along the Elk River react to flooded conditions

Water woes hit North Routt

Affected roads■ C.R. 80 — As of 4:30 p.m. Friday, the road had slid into the canyon at Barnes Hill in California Park north of Hayden. County crews were assessing the damage.■ As of 11:30 a.m. Friday, crews had removed snags from the Elk River at Moon Hill Bridge (C.R. 129) and in Hinman Park (C.R. 64)■ C.R.129 is closed 5 miles north of Columbine, where it washed out near Midnight Ranch. ■ C.R. 44 — As of 4:45 p.m. Friday, the wing walls on the Roper Bridge were observed to be failing.■ C.R. 52E — Also at 4:45 p.m. Friday, 52E near Deep Creek in the mid Elk River Valley, Salt Creek was eroding the road near its bridge.


See North Routt, page 12


970-879-7031

20724189

Considering a Joint

Replacement?

20724189


Emily Harris, DPT




2074

4307

Sunny Townhome, Great Views, 2 Garages!

532 Tamarack Dr, Unit 601, Steamboat SpringsDon’t miss this beautiful Suncrest Townhouse at a terrifi c price.

3 bedrooms, 2 baths, oversized deck, bright end unit with extra windows, and 2 car garage. Call for a showing!

www.TownhouseSteamboat.com$298,000 MLS # 131479

Kelly BeckerBroker Associate

[email protected]

www.ItsWhyWeLiveHere.com970.846.2300

Sunday, June 5 • 10am-3pm @ Marabou Ranch

TEST RIDE

Come ride the latest fromTrek and Gary Fisher!

5th & Lincoln Ave • 970.879.9144 • Quality Old Town Service at Low Prices

12 | Saturday, June 4, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

producing music, it was the real thing.

“I’m just discovering now how special it is, that it really makes people happy and gives people joy. A lot of musicians take that for granted.”

“North of Farwell” was recorded at First String Music during the past three years with Steve Boynton and features sev-eral local musicians.

The album, available for pur-chase at All That Jazz, features tracks written throughout three decades; songs that were just lying in wait for Wood’s musical evolution to take him down this road of personal expression.

The songs are clearly inspired by local features, including the title track about Farwell, the mountain that separates North Routt from the rest of the county.

An easy local favorite will surely be “Skiing,” and “Rocky Mountain Time” harks back to a John Denver-esque appre-ciation for the culture of the mountain lifestyle.

Wood, who runs a log home building business, sings about his travels across the world and his love of the outdoors and the hiking, biking, skiing and kay-aking that the Routt lifestyle affords him.

Boynton, who also plays guitar and harmonica on the album, said the songs do exact-ly what good acoustic music should do: remind him of the songwriter.

“It’s a perfect reflection of Tom,” Boynton said. “That’s what any recording project or artistic endeavor should be.”

He called Wood a “writing machine” and said that as soon as he sent off the first album for duplication, he already was scheduling recording sessions for the next one.

“Tom is a 100 percent com-

mitted as a songwriter and as a performer,” Boynton said. “He’s fearless in doing what he wants to do. He’s not so concerned about what other people might think.”

He is, however, concerned with what others feel, and it’s that motivation that has him enjoying playing and singing now more than he ever has before.

“It’s been transformed,” he said. “I’m really motivated to touch people with music and say something.”

Once a member of cover band Blissful Mayhem, Wood recently launched a new project called Sound Scoundrels with vocalist Kate Park, who sang on the album.

And he already has two tracks in working progress for his next album. The songs adhere to his new sense of musical introspec-tion by paying homage to the town of Steamboat and Colo-rado sunsets.

“I feel like I’m touching people rather than entertain-ing them or making them drink beer,” he said.

Wood continued from 2

Wood has tracks in progress for next album

broad floodplain along the Elk near the confluence will cause the water to spread out rather than cutting a new channel.

To the north, Draper said, Road and Bridge crews have succeeded in removing tree trunks from the abutments of two bridges over the Elk. The first was at the Moon Hill Bridge just below Clark, and the second was a U.S. For-est Service Bridge on C.R. 64 (Seedhouse Road) in Hinman Park.

Snagged tree trunks tend to collect more debris and, by deflecting the streamflow, can

put pressure on bridges where they weren’t designed to with-stand it, leading to damage, Draper said.

Snowpack persistsThe Elk River is being fed

by persistent snowpack above 8,000 feet in North Routt Coun-ty.

Longtime resident Leslie Lovejoy said the snow in her yard north of Columbine on

C.R. 129 is still 2 feet deep and firm.

“I went for a run on top of the (frozen) snow this morning,” she said Friday.

Remote snowpack monitor-ing sites maintained by the fed-eral Natural Resources Conser-vation Service suggested Friday that little melting was occur-ring. At the Lost Dog snotel at 9,320 feet elevation along the headwaters of the Elk River, the temperature at 2 p.m. Fri-day was just 37 degrees. There was still 62 inches of snow on the ground containing 36 inches of water.


North Routt continued from 3

62 inches of snow on ground at Lost Dog



“Tom is a 100 percent committed as a songwriter and as a performer.”

Steve BoyntonMusician

20743451

The store with a lot of “Sole”

907 Lincoln Ave871-8566

Everything’s Coming Up Sandals!

Steve DownsBroker Associate, gri

Certified residential Specialist

879-7800 • www.steamboatvillagebrokers.com

2062

4484

Private, Panoramic Log HomeThis beautiful Montana Log Home was built in 2005/2006 to capture amazing views of the Yampa Valley and Steamboat Ski Area. The home offers a main level Master Suite, a large Loft & Two additional bedrooms, all designed with many windows to bring in the outdoors! A floor-to-ceiling fireplace highlights the Living Room. The kitchen and dining areas are over-size for Family Gathering! The property is over 9 Acres and features a spring-fed POND that supplies a professionally designed water system. The land is adjacent to a private ranch with 1200 acres under conservation easement. Water rights to two springs are adjudicated and shared with only one other property. This home is 7 miles from the gondola base on year-round roads. An aerial photographic tour is available! #129047, $1,250,000. Contact Steve Downs

Experience counts...35 Years Locally

Located in Curve Plaza | Downtown | 879.8712 | www.haciendacollection.net 2074

0990

HaciendaCollection

WelcomeSummer with

Willow

MON. - SAT. 9:30 - 6:00 SUN. - 11:00 - 4:00

PARKING IN THE BACK 817 LINCOLN AVE • DOWNTOWN

879-5880 20739056

Castelvetrano Green Olives

Lamb Chopper Goat CheeseCut to order

In Stock!

RIDE THE ROCKIES2,000 riders

coming to Steamboat

SPORTS 18A

RIDE THE HOOKED ONSTEAMBOATRoutt County

running keeps crew coming backOUTDOORS 4A


Christopher Barounos and his classmates, the 2011 seniors of Steamboat Springs High School, toss their caps in the air Saturday as they celebrate at the end of their graduation ceremony at the high school.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

A prolonged runoff likely will have significant impacts to local businesses that thrive on waterways.

Tim Kirkpatrick, co-own-er of Steam-boat Flyfisher at Fifth and Yampa streets in Steam-boat Springs, said high river levels will limit where his customers can fish.

“The only mov-ing water that’s even fishable is the Yampa River below the Stage-coach Reservoir,”

Kirkpatrick said.It might be several weeks

before the Yampa and Elk riv-ers drop to levels that allow for fishing.

Typically, Kirkpatrick’s cus-tomers can start fishing the Yampa in mid-June. The Elk usually slows down by early July, he said. With the expect-ed prolonged runoff, Kirkpat-rick said it might be early July before the Yampa is accessible.

That will have a signifi-cant impact, Kirkpatrick said, because 75 to 80 percent of the fishing outfitter’s busi-ness occurs during June, July, August and September.

“It’s a bummer because there are people who are in town who want to fish, but there isn’t anywhere to fish,” Kirkpatrick said. “From a fish-erman point of view, it’s nature being nature.”

For now, he said anglers are limited to lakes and ponds such as Steamboat and Pearl lakes.

To help offset the interrup-tion in business, Kirkpatrick

High water could stall river operations


Steamboat Springs Police Department Detective Nick Bosick, right, and Capt. Joel Rae investigate the scene where a 15-month-old is thought to have fallen into Butcherknife Creek on Saturday morning in an alley between Oak and Pine Streets and Sixth and Seventh Streets.

PILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

If you plan to be out and about on something besides your feet or a bike this morning, beware: It’s going to be busy out there.

The 30th annual Steamboat Marathon starts this morn-ing at Hahn’s Peak Village in North Routt County and will come down Routt County Road 129, hanging a left at U.S. Highway 40. The course leads

through down-town Steam-boat Springs to the finish in front of the Routt County Courthouse on Lincoln Avenue at Sixth Street.

Road closures start at 6 a.m.The marathon, half-marathon

and 10K start at 7:30 a.m. A fun run starts at 11:45 a.m. at the Routt County Courthouse.

If you’re expecting only a smat-tering of athletes, think again. Race Director Paul Sachs said the Steamboat Marathon returns this year as healthy as ever. The 26.2-mile marathon has about 440 competitors.

The half-marathon, which begins halfway up C.R. 129 at Moon Hill, is bulging with 1,100, and the 10-kilometer race, which weaves through down-town Steamboat, into Strawber-ry Park and back to the down-

town Routt County Court-house, will have about 500.

For motorists who have to put wheels to pavement, there will be one lane of traffic in each direction on Lincoln Ave-nue downtown during the race. Traffic on C.R. 129 southbound will detour onto C.R. 44. North-bound traffic will not be affected. The Steamboat Springs Cham-ber Resort Association encour-ages people to walk, bike or use Steamboat Springs Transit.

Some downtown Steamboat streets to see closures today

SUNDAY, JUNE 5, 2011VOLUME 124, NUMBER 43 • STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO • SteamboatToday.com

SEE PHOTOS OF YAMPA VALLEY AND LOWELL WHITEMAN SCHOOL GRADUATES, 14A, 15A $1.00

HOOKED ONSTEAMBOATRoutt County

running keeps crew coming backOUTDOORS

Classifieds . . . . . . . 3BColorado . . . . . . . 12BComics. . . . . . . . . 10BCrossword . . . . . . 11BHappenings . . . . . . 2A

Milestones . . . . . . . 3AObituaries . . . . 3A, 5AOutdoors . . . . . . . . 4ASports . . . . . . . . . 18AViewpoints . . . . . . . 6A




SteamboatToday.com


Sunny and breezy. High of 78.Page 11B

DELIVERY PROBLEM?PAGE DESIGNED BY MATTHEW DOXTAD

RIVER REPORTYampa River flow SaturdayNoon 3,730 cfs11 p.m. 3,990 cfsAverage for this date 2,280 cfsHighest for this date 5,190 cfs, 1952Lowest for this date 280 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at Fifth Street.

NICOLE MILLER/STAFF

N▲

Steamboat Marathon road closures

Lincoln Avenue

Third

Stre

et

Fifth

Stre

et

Seve

nth

Stre

et

Nint

h St

reet

11th

Stre

et

Yampa Street

Oak Street

Downtown Steamboat SpringsClosures from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. today■ Westbound Lincoln Avenue closed from Fifth to 11th streets■ Sixth through 11th streets closed from Lincoln Avenue to Oak Street

North RouttOne-way traffic from Cullen’s Corner to the half-marathon start near Moon Hill■ Northbound Routt County Road 129 diverted to left lane just past Elk River Estates■ Southbound C.R. 129 diverted at Cullen’s Corner onto Routt County Road 44

ClosedOne-way

Extended runoff to impact industry

See High water, page 20A

Marathon to affect trafficFor moreOne group of runners is hooked on the Steamboat MarathonSee page 4A


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

A 15-month-old child who fell into Butcherknife Creek on Sat-urday morning is in critical condi-tion at The Children’s Hospital in Denver, police say.

Police responded to a report of a missing child at 10:51 a.m., Police Capt. Joel Rae said.

It appears that the child fell into the creek near the alley between Oak and Pine streets and between Sixth and Seventh streets. The child was pulled out by his grand-father behind the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant about 400 feet downstream. From there, the creek goes underground travel-ing below Lincoln Avenue before

daylighting at the Ghost Ranch Saloon near the Yampa River.

Witness Denton Turner said he came out of his house when he heard the child’s grandfather yelling. Turner said he started performing CPR on the child, and water came out of the boy’s mouth.

“I don’t know how long the kid was in the water,” he said.

Steamboat Springs Fire Res-cue emergency responders arrived and continued CPR before taking the child to Yampa Valley Medi-cal Center. The boy was then flown to Denver.

Police would not release the

child’s name.Higher temperatures are melt-

ing the area’s deep snowpack, resulting in swollen rivers and creeks around Routt County. The flows on Butcherknife Creek peaked several weeks ago and have since receded.

“Although there is high water currently in Steamboat Springs and within Routt County, Butcherknife Creek is at a rela-tively low flow at this time,” Rae said in a news release. The maxi-mum depth of the creek at that location was 18 inches with an estimated flow of 20 to 25 cubic feet per second.

“The case is under investiga-tion, and it appears at this time that this is a horrific accident,” Rae said.

15-month-old critical after fall into creek

Writing their own futureSteamboat graduates celebrate

As 160 Steamboat Springs High School graduates filed out of the gymna-

sium Saturday afternoon, they unzipped their gowns, handing

them back to school fac-ulty as their last act as SSHS stu-dents.

But they never shed their smiles.

There were whoops of joy and hugs among the graduates,

who embodied the gravity and excitement present throughout the two-hour preceding cere-mony.

“I’m just so stoked,” said Alex Bashan, giddily smiling with two of his best friends.

Next to him, graduate Jack Massey said what he learned in

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY?Continue the conversation online


STORY BY NICOLE INGLIS

SEE GRADUATE PHOTOS ON

PAGE 8A

SUNDAYFOCUS

See Graduation, page 19A

Like us on Facebook and follow Steamboatpilot on Twitter.

LOOK InsIde for

20A | Steamboat Pilot &Today • Sunday, June 5, 2011

said Steamboat Flyfisher would be offering more clinics like those geared toward families.

“We’re trying to get as cre-ative as we can,” Kirkpatrick said.

High water also could affect commercial tubing operations on the Yampa.

“We don’t go if we don’t think it’s reasonable,” Back-door Sports owner Peter Van De Carr said. In the heat of summer, his tube service serves as many as 400 people each day, but the flow of the Yampa has to drop to 700 cubic feet per second before he can start inflating tubes. Even at that level tubing is limited to adults, and they are required to wear a life jacket.

“We are accountable for the safety of our clients,” Van De Carr said.

He said typically the water will drop to safe levels by July 4 or soon after, but who knows this year. On Saturday after-noon, the Yampa was running

at 3,770 cfs and is expected to rise through Tuesday.

“I’m losing sleep seeing how as a river company I can accommodate all the people who want to get on the river,” Van De Carr said.

There will likely still be tubers on the river, but they will be doing it outside commer-cial tubing operations. They will be buying their own tubes and will crowd put-in locations upstream of the Fifth Street Bridge, Van De Carr said.

“When the temps hit 80, 85 degrees, it’s going to be pretty enticing,” he said. “I hope peo-ple stay safe.”

High water has affected other business, as well.

Jay Ginther, with Steam-

boat Flood Suckers, said high water a month ago resulting from lower-elevation snowmelt kept them busy, but they are not dealing with flood damage currently. He expects that to change, though.

“In the next month once it gets to that point, we will get a lot of calls for crawl spaces and stuff like that,” he said.

Some Routt County property owners are taking steps to avoid having to call for help from companies like Flood Suckers.

During the past two months,

Elk River Farm & Feed has sold 6,000 sandbags, and they had about 1,000 left, said Colby Townsend, who owns the business with his wife, Michelle. At the same time, property owners have been so busy dealing with high water that they have been putting off other projects, Townsend said.

“They’re not so concerned with doing landscaping or other projects they may be doing,” he said.



Tim Kirkpatrick, co-owner of Steamboat Flyfisher, works with 8-year-old Finn Ridings during a clinic Saturday at West Lincoln Park. A prolonged runnoff likely will have an effect on numerous local business such a Steamboat Flyfisher.

LOCAL

High water continued from 1A

Elk River Farm & Feed has sold 6,000 sandbags in past 2 months; 1,000 bags are left

STEAMBOAT SPRINGSCooler weather kept the Yampa River

flowing Saturday at levels similar to those seen Friday.

Overnight, the river peaked at about 4,000 cubic feet per second, and the depth at the Fifth Street Bridge remained at about 6.5 feet. At 8:15 a.m Saturday, the depth had dropped to 6.3 feet.

The Elk River had receded Saturday since Friday. It was measured at 7.31 feet Saturday morning, down from 7.88 feet observed Friday at 3 a.m. The high water forced one family to evacuate its home at Saddle Mountain Ranch about eight miles west of Steamboat Springs along U.S. Highway 40.

“It receded and gave us a chance to repair some of the berms and wait for the bigger water,” ranch owner Tony Connell said Saturday.

The Elk River was expected to reach 8.6 feet at the measuring station this morning, 9 feet Monday morning and 9.1 feet Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. Moderate flood stage starts at 8.5 feet, and major flood stage is 9.5 feet.

“So far we’ve seen water before at this level, but what is predicted, never,” Connell said.

The Yampa also is forecast to get higher along with temperatures. It was sunny all day and temperatures reached the upper 70s in Steamboat on Saturday, aiding the melting of record snowpacks.

By 6 a.m. today, the National Weather Service predicted the Yampa would be 6.8 feet at Fifth Street. On Monday, it is expected to reach 7.4 feet, and on Tuesday, it is forecast to reach 7.9 feet.

According to the Weather Service, with the Yampa at 8.1 feet, water will reach the foundations of buildings near Yampa and Ninth streets, specifically Backdoor Sports.

Property owners along Soda Creek in downtown Steamboat are watching the creek closely and have sandbags filled in preparation for higher water.

“They’re all ready to go, and we’ll put them up as soon as we need to,” said Lynn Worrell, who owns the home at 850 Aspen St. with her husband, Larry.

She said the creek will spill its banks some years and they are used to it. Water has never reached her home, Worrell said.

“The neighbors all get together and help each other out if it takes place,” she said.

What rising levels meanHere is what the Weather Service

says happens when the water reaches certain levels, in feet, at Fifth Street.

■ 5: Portions of the Yampa River Core Trail, especially in Yampa River Park and Emerald Park, are flooded.

■ 6: Portions of the baseball and soc-cer fields in Emerald Field are flooded.

■ 6.2: Out-of-bank flow begins in Dream Island Mobile Home Park on U.S. Highway 40 on the west end of Steamboat Springs.

■ 6.5: The Yampa River has reached bankfull in several places, and some flood-ing of undeveloped land is occurring.

■ 7: Some minor flooding of low-lying agricultural land along the Yampa River upstream and downstream of Steamboat is occurring.

■ 7.5: Minor flooding is occurring along the Yampa River in Steamboat. Water is flowing across some properties adjacent to the river and is approaching buildings.

■ 8.1: Water reaches the founda-tions of buildings near Yampa and Ninth streets, including Backdoor Sports.

■ 8.4: Water is approaching build-ings along Yampa Street between Fifth Street and Seventh Street.

■ 8.69: Portions of Yampa Street are beginning to flood. The intersection at Yampa and Ninth streets is flooded.

■ 9.8: Water reaches the bottom of the Fifth Street Bridge over the Yampa River.

■ 10: Water reaches the railroad crossing near the intersection of Fifth Street and Howelsen Parkway.

■ 10.5: The intersection of Howelsen Parkway and Fifth Street near Howelsen Park is flooding.

■ 12.5: Water is flowing over the Fifth Street Bridge and other bridges along the Yampa River in Steamboat, including at 13th Street.

■ 13.5: Many portions of Yampa Street are flooded. Buildings adjacent to the river are flooded. Water has reached some buildings between Yampa Street and Lincoln Avenue.

■ 19.5: The intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Ninth Street is beginning to flood.

■ 25.5: Water is near the intersection of Fifth Street and Lincoln Avenue. Major flooding and flood damage is occurring.

— Matt Stensland


“When the temps hit 80, 85 degrees, it’s going to be pretty enticing. I hope people stay safe.”

Peter Van De CarrOwner of Backdoor Sports

Routt County rivers expected to rise today

2063

9962

970-879-1402

Exceptional access, parking and room to grow! Flexible uses for building, natural light and open

floorplan! Garage for vehicles or storage. Creative space for creative business use! $850,000.

Medora Fralick, The Commercial Property Group, LLC (970) 879-1402

Price reduced

970-879-7800 • www.steamboatvillagebrokers.com

2054

9574

714 Sandhill CirCle - Five BedroomS!Great Value for this 3,000 square-foot home on corner lot! Living, Dining and Kitchen create a Great Room feel. Master Suite & 5th Bedroom/Office/Baby’s Room(?) are on top level. Family Room and large Garage. Price Reduced! $631,000. #122108

Experience counts...35 years!Steve Downs

Broker Associate, gri, CrS

Large H

ome!!!

20744348

Farewell Sadie

July 21, 1997-May 28, 2011Thanks for all the memories

and all the smiles.

S t e a m b o a tTuesday

June 7, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Vol. 23, no. 135R O U T T C O U N T Y ’ S D A I L Y N E W S P A P E R

today


Dream Island resident Jorge Torres throws a sandbag into the back of his pickup Monday evening as he prepares for a long night in the mobile home park on the edge of downtown Steamboat Springs. Many residents in the neighborhood spent the evening filling and stacking sandbags in front of their homes as the waters of the Yampa River began to spill into the area. For more about Dream Island flooding, see page 5.


steaMBoat sPRInGs

Federal hydrologists predict-ed Monday that Routt Coun-ty’s raging Yampa and Elk riv-ers were due to stabilize begin-ning today. Soda Creek didn’t get the message.

The creek, which drains por-tions of Buffalo Pass on the Continental Divide and emp-ties into the Yampa River between Little Toots Park and

Bud Werner Memorial Library, was behaving itself as of 3 p.m. Monday, but by 7 p.m. it was acting up.

A crowd gathered in Little Toots Park at 12th Street to watch the creek pour out of a tunnel under Lincoln Avenue

and gush over a concrete retain-ing wall. The result was flood-ing in the park as well as at the corner of 12th and Yampa streets in front of Orange Peel Bicycle Service.

“I’ve lived here 12 years and I’ve never seen that happen,” Kieran Pidgeon said. “That concrete wall is pretty high, but it’s coming over completely unabated.”

Vehicles passed with arms of passengers hanging out of windows and holding cellphone

cameras to record the action while some people couldn’t resist wading in the frigid flood-waters. Most of the overflow was finding its way harmlessly to the Yampa River.

The jolt of extra current in Soda Creek was pushing the wave in the kayak feature known as Charlie’s Hole to new heights.

“The wave is bouncing the bow of my kayak,” Chris

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com

■ IndexBriefs . . . . . . . . .10Classifieds . . . . .21Comics . . . . . . . .19Crossword . . . . .19Happenings . . . . .6Horoscope . . . . .20




INSIDE: Haze hanging over Steamboat Springs is the result of a huge Arizona wildfire • page 4



■ eventsSunny and windy.High of 68.

Page 20

■ weather■ rIver reportYampa River flow MondayNoon 4,180 cfs11 p.m. 4,630 cfsAverage for this date 2,310 cfsHighest for this date 4,940 cfs, 1921Lowest for this date 227 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

onlineVisit SteamboatToday.com to view photo galleries of Routt County flood-waters. Send your high water photos to [email protected].


steaMBoat sPRInGs

The Steamboat Springs School Board decided Monday night not to ask voters to con-sider a property tax increase in November.

The School Board first start-ed discussing in April whether to ask voters to consider a tax increase, or mill levy override, to generate about $900,000 addi-tional revenue annually. The dis-trict would have used the fund-ing to address the statewide K-12 budget cuts it expects to continue in future years.

The district has cut its bud-get each of the past three years, including a more than $732,000 reduction, about 3.5 percent, in the 2011-12. The School Board voted, 4-0, to adopt that budget Monday. School Board member Laura Anderson didn’t attend the meeting.

School Board members spoke against a mill levy override.

“I don’t think there’s a very legitimately strong case for a mill levy override right now, con-sidering the state of the state,” School Board member Lisa Brown said. “I think our ener-gy should be focused on other things besides raising money through taxes right now.”

The School Board didn’t take

Flood potential revised downward, but not before river spills banks

Soda Creek pops off

See Flooding, page 12See school Board, page 21

District will not ask for mill levy bump

School Board nixes tax idea

12 | Tuesday, June 7, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

Arniss said. “It’s like you’re a rock skipping across the water.”

Upstream on Soda Creek, where the water courses past historic homes, the stream was over its banks in some lawns near the junction of Aspen and Yahmonite streets. The water was not immediately threaten-ing any structures as of late Monday evening.

Two blocks downstream, where the creek blasts through tunnels under Oak and 11th streets in rapid succession, small logs had jammed against the entrance to the 11th Street underpass, threatening to back up the roiling water.

A break in the weatherWhen the weather cools off

abruptly today, so should the threat that Routt County flood-ing will get worse this week.

Today’s high temperature in Steamboat Springs is forecast to be 70 degrees, a 12-degree drop from Monday’s high.

Kevin Werner, a hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Salt Lake City, said Monday that streamflows near Steam-boat will stabilize at least tem-porarily this week. He said that based on a forecast for moder-ate temperatures the rest of the week, his agency had revised flow projections for the Yampa and Elk rivers.

“This is probably the best we could have hoped for given the snowpack that remains in the mountains,” Werner said. “This is the best way we could be melt-ing the snow — sustained high streamflows but relatively cool weather.”

Werner said he expects the Yampa and Elk rivers to remain at high levels throughout the week, but he doesn’t expect them to jump drastically this week as was previously projected.

Aldus Strautins, a service hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junc-tion, said he expected the Elk River to reach a new peak over-night Monday before settling down for the rest of the week. Beyond that, he was less certain.

“I’m not ready to say it’s ‘the’ peak,” Strautins said. “Looking at my snow sites in the moun-tains, there are still places with 30 inches of snow-water equiva-lent up there.”

At one point, the Colorado Basin Forecast Center thought that flows in the Elk River could approach 10,000 cubic feet per second near its confluence with the Yampa.

Now, the agency projects a potential spike this morning fol-lowed by a modest flow of 5,500 cfs from Thursday through Sun-day. The Yampa River at Fifth

Street will flirt with 4,500 cfs through June 14 before poten-tially rising again sometime around June 15.

Residents’ rude awakeningThe Elk River still was tor-

menting some rural residents near the stream’s confluence with the Yampa River west of Steamboat Springs early Mon-day morning.

Victor Medina awoke at 5 a.m. Monday to find one of the plastic containers he had packed the night before floating across his bedroom at Saddle Mountain Ranch.

“The water didn’t come up until 8 a.m. yesterday, so I stayed here and packed my stuff last night,” Medina said. “I thought I would have plenty of time to get out in the morning.”

The Elk River near Milner was flowing at 6,210 cfs at 4:30 p.m. Monday after peaking at 6,860 cfs at 2:30 a.m.

The five-day forecast shows cold overnight lows and highs in the range of 74 degrees through Friday, when the high is expect-ed to dip back to 70 degrees.

Time to leaveJust after 7 a.m. Mon-

day, Medina was standing by his truck at the entrance of the guest ranch located near the confluence of the Elk and Yampa rivers. He was watch-ing 8 to 10 inches of water flow across the property and through the buildings.

“I was laying on my bed when one of the plastic con-tainers I had packed was float-ing around the room,” Medina said. “I ran outside in my stock-ing feet to turn the power off and then I decided it was time to get out of there.”

The ranch began flooding Fri-day, when several other residents elected to move their stuff out. Medina, who is a caretaker there, decided to stay a few more days to see what was going to happen.

Rafting conditionsAround Steamboat, the

Yampa River was rising close to the bottom of the Fifth Street Bridge as well as the railroad bridge spanning the river at Snake Island behind the Iron Horse Inn. Kayak instructor Barry Smith said he had a man walk into his shop and ask to rent a raft. Smith, who does not rent rafts, said he explained that rafting was dangerous right now because rafts do not fit under some of the local bridges. He urged people not to recreate on the river unless they are experts.

Photographer John Russell contributed to this story.



Cooler weather to slow flow

S T E A M B O A TWEDNESDAY

JUNE 8, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado


TODAY


Water flows over the fields at the Davis Krouse Ranch on Tuesday morning near U.S. Highway 40 and Routt County Road 44.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The Elk River broke its all-time record early Tuesday, according to provisional data recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey.

A measuring station at the Routt County Road 42 bridge measured the peak at 7,520 cubic feet per second at 4:45 a.m.

“Preliminarily, that is a new peak of record,” said Michael Lewis, associate director of the

USGS Colorado Water Science Center.

Lewis said there was a 1 per-cent chance that Tuesday’s flow would be exceeded in a given year, meaning the Elk River experienced a 100-year event.

The record is based on about 40 years’ worth of data. The data are from 1904 to 1927 and 1990 to 2010. The gap repre-sents a period when the mea-

suring station was not operated, Lewis said.

The record breaks the record that was set last year, when the Elk peaked at 6,970 cfs on June 8.

“It was back-to-back big years,” Lewis said.

The 100-year flooding event

was apparent west of Steamboat Springs, where property owners repeatedly reported never seeing the water this high.

“This is 7,000 cfs, give or take,” Bob Struble said while driving along C.R. 44 overlooking the flooding. “I can’t imagine what 10,000 cfs would be like.”

Struble, Routt County’s emer-gency management director,was bracing for that number after seeing an earlier forecast.

Struble surveyed the flooding

Elk River breaks record

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com





INSIDE: ReTree Steamboat set to return Saturday, plant 4,000 trees on Mount Werner and Emerald • page 12



■ EVENTSPartly sunny.High of 69.

Page 36

■ WEATHER■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow TuesdayNoon 4,610 cfs11 p.m. 4,680 cfsAverage for this date 2,300 cfsHighest for this date 5,100 cfs, 1957Lowest for this date 238 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

River peaks with 100-year flood; waters expected to recede until weekend

See Flooding, back page


Flood coverage■ For a photo gallery of Routt County flooding and updates on water levels, visit SteamboatToday.com. ■ For a story about the state using the flood to design a bridge, see page 3.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Steamboat Springs voters will decide in November whether to allow medical marijuana busi-nesses to continue to operate in the city. Now they have a question to consider.

The City Council, by a 6-0 vote, approved a ballot question Tuesday night that, if approved by voters, would ban the opera-tion of medical marijuana dis-pensaries, grow operations and infused product makers in Steam-boat. It wouldn’t prohibit the cul-tivation and use of medical mari-juana by patients and caregivers in compliance with Amendment 20.

The ballot question was one of two issues City Council members considered relating to the future of medical marijuana businesses in Steamboat during a meeting at Centennial Hall that remained tame. Unlike the May 17 meet-ing, when the City Council unani-mously supported putting a ques-tion on the ballot after defeating a motion to ban medical marijua-na, few supporters and opponents were in attendance.

City Council members dis-missed, by a 5-1 vote, two other possible ballot questions. One would have imposed an addition-al 5 percent sales tax on medi-cal marijuana sales. The second would have imposed the tax and dedicated the revenue to youth

Council approves marijuana question

Members delay action on city law

See Council, back page

44 | Wednesday, June 8, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYlOcAl

early Tuesday and visited with affected property owners.

“A little bit of water this morn-ing,” Connie Fry said, looking at the river water inundating her yard and coming within feet of her home near C.R. 44 and U.S. Highway 40. “I’ve been here 30 years, and it’s never been this high.”

Fry also owns a small cabin across the road that was sur-rounded by water. Her aunt used to live in the cabin, which was built in 1949.

“There is only one time they had to bring the chickens in because the water was so high,” Fry said.

Tom Peretic rents the cabin now with his family, and they were prepared for the high water, which breached their sandbags but did not reach the floor of the home.

“We’ll wait until it goes down today, fix some sandbags, and hopefully we’ll be OK,” Peretic said.

Struble told the Peretic and Fry families that the Elk is expect-ed to drop, but they should expect similar river behavior. There is still a lot of snow in the high country, Struble warned, and it

could peak again.“As long as it’s high and strong,

that’s fine,” Fry told Struble. “Just as long as it doesn’t get any high-er.”

Nearby, water had engulfed the meadows at the Davis Krouse Ranch and made the driveway impassable. Sandbags and berms helped protect the structures at the ranch.

“We’re high and dry,” caretak-er Yuri Goldstein said.

That was not the case to the west, where high water was again pummeling Saddle Mountain Ranch at U.S. 40 and C.R. 44. A family renting a home on the ranch evacuated Friday along with horses.

A large piece of plastic pipe three feet in diameter or larg-er was sticking out of a culvert going underneath U.S. 40 at the ranch.

“That used to be here,” Stru-ble said, pointing to the gushing water running through a trench intersecting the driveway at the ranch.

Farther west, Struble visited with Kent Osteen, who owns a home directly next to the Yampa River after it merges with the Elk.

“You always have an exciting day or two in the spring, but this year has been exceptional,”

Osteen said.About a dozen men from

Anchor Way Baptist Church came over Monday to help him fortify his house with sandbags.

“We either needed to do noth-ing or do a lot, so we did a lot,” Osteen said.

Sandbags were the only thing keeping the river from reaching his deck and foundation. Osteen’s structures were not damaged, but he and other property owners have similar concerns.

Struble said they are worried

that the flooding is eroding their banks and the river is eating their land.

“I can fish from the hot tub now,” Osteen said. “I don’t need it any closer.”

After surpassing a gauge height of 8 feet early Tuesday at the C.R. 42 bridge, the Elk is forecast to drop to about 7 feet before edging back toward 8 feet on Sunday, according to forecasts from the National Weather Service.

The Yampa River in down-

town Steamboat is expected to remain close to its current Fifth Street Bridge height of 7 feet through Sunday. The river was flowing at about 4,500 cfs Tues-day afternoon, shy of its peak so far this spring of 4,780 cfs at 11:15 p.m. Monday. The record for the Yampa, according the USGS, is 6,820 cfs.



Elk forecast to drop tonight before coming back to near 8 feet SundayCore Trail closures■ From Dougherty Road to River Creek Park at Walton Creek Road■ U.S. Highway 40 underpass at Walton Creek■ From Stone Lane and Chinook Drive to U.S. 40 underpass■ The railroad underpass upstream of Fetcher Pond■ From Fetcher Pond to Trafalgar Drive■ From Snake Island to the Ninth Street Bridge■ 13th Street underpass

Source: City of Steamboat Springs

Emerald Park closedThe City of Steamboat Springs Parks, Open Space and Recreational Services Department has closed Emerald Park because of high water. The city advised people to use caution in Little Toots Park, Dr. Rich Weiss Park and all parks adjacent to rivers and streams.

education and programs to miti-gate the impacts of medical mar-ijuana in the community. They opted to review those issues if the ban fails.

And, by a 5-1 vote, the City Council delayed action to the June 21 meeting on the second reading of a revised ordinance to regulate Steamboat’s medical marijuana businesses. City Coun-cil member Scott Myller opposed the motion. Council member Meg Bentley didn’t attend the meeting.

Colorado voters approved the use of marijuana for certain med-ical conditions with a doctor’s recommendation in 2000 by vot-ing in favor of Amendment 20. It also was supported by a majority of Routt County voters.

Medical marijuana dispensa-ries have operated in Steamboat since 2009, when three opened late that year. The City Council approved an ordinance in Janu-ary 2010 that defined rules for their operation in Steamboat.

There was some confusion about the revised medical mari-juana ordinance council mem-bers were being asked to consider Tuesday.

City staff attorney Dan Foote said that since last fall he had been preparing a revised ordi-nance that put the city in compli-ance with Colorado House Bill 1284, legislation created to regu-

late the state’s burgeoning medi-cal marijuana industry. But Foote said he changed the ordinance after the idea to ban medical mar-ijuana businesses came up April 5. At that meeting, Steamboat Springs Police Department Capt. Joel Rae and Dr. Brian Har-rington, of Yampa Valley Medi-cal Associates, voiced support for a ban.

Foote said the new ordinance would permit the three existing dispensaries to operate in com-pliance with Amendment 20 as well was zoning and land use regulations imposed by the city. He said it did not recognize the definitions of medical marijuana commercial operations created by House Bill 1284.

City Council members ex -pressed concern that the new ordinance would make it difficult for the dispensaries to operate legally after July 1, the deadline imposed by House Bill 1284 for municipalities to act on medical marijuana.

“I guess my intent as we moved through this process of getting out and letting the vot-ers decide was keeping the sta-tus quo until the November elec-tion,” City Council member Bart Kounovsky said.

City Attorney Tony Lettunich said if the City Council approve an ordinance allowing the com-mercial operations defined by House Bill 1284, it could place Steamboat in a difficult legal

position if the voters approved a ban. Lettunich said he would try to craft an ordinance that allowed the existing dispensaries to operate while legally protecting Steamboat.

Also Tuesday, the City Council:

■ Approved $49,600 in addi-tional funding for the Bike Town USA Initiative, including $19,600 to pay an executive director and to host another bike summit and $30,000 for marketing efforts. The funding will come from excess revenue collected to date. City Council opted to review a $103,000 request for road striping for bike lanes and increased sig-nage for city streets.

■ Denied a request for supple-mental funding for the Steam-boat Springs Chamber Resort Association’s summer marketing plan.

Council continued from 1

City Council funds Bike Town USA effort

Matt StenSland/Staff

Kent Osteen checks on a pump Tuesday morning at his home along the Yampa River after it merges with the Elk River.

Ballot questionShall the city of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, ban the cultivation, manu-facture and sale of medical marijuana, including the operations of medical marijuana centers, optional premises cultivation operations, and the manu-facture of medical marijuana-infused products, unless such person does so as a patient or primary caregiver as authorized by Art. XVIII, Sec. 14 of the Colorado Constitution and pursuant to regulations enacted by the city; further authorizing the city to codify this ban in the municipal code.Yes or No.

skills needed to work as a vol-unteer in a Red Cross shel-ter. The emergency scenarios range from a blizzard shel-ter for stranded travelers; an apartment fire or gas leak shel-ter and information center; or a shelter for evacuees during a major disaster.

■ Introduction to disaster action team: insights into the role of volunteers who serve as first responders for the Red Cross.

The classes are from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Centennial Hall. Those inter-ested need to preregister by contacting Sarah Cher-ry at 401-855-3888 or cherry [email protected], or Danielle Sul-livan at 970-226-5728, ext. 228, or [email protected].

Cherry said she has taken

great satisfaction from helping with disaster response around the country, and formed last-ing friendships in the pro-cess. The role of Red Cross is to step into the breach when disasters first happen, she said.

“It is not just about what you can do nationally,” Cher-ry said. “Our communi-ty is great at helping those in need, but sometimes in the case of a disaster like a single-family fire here in Steamboat, they need that help immediately — even in the middle of the night. That is what we are here for. The Red Cross can come in and assist with immediate disas-ter needs to bridge the gap until the community organi-zations can help.”


Red Cross continued from 11

Volunteers need to register

Please recycle this newspaper.

STEAMBOAT TODAY Wednesday, June 8, 2011 | 3LOCAL


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The forecasts late last week that the Elk River west of Steamboat Springs might reach the unheard-of flows of nearly 10,000 cubic feet per second where the river flows beneath the U.S. Highway 40 bridge didn’t come to pass. But they were enough to make Stuart Gardner, a hydraulic engineer with the Colorado Depart-ment of Transportation, con-template what might happen if the river flowed across the highway on either side of the bridge.

“It could happen,” Gard-ner said Monday morning after inspecting the highway near

the confluence of the Elk and Yampa rivers. “The highway is in good shape, but the surface is only about a foot above the water.”

As it turned out, the forecast for unseasonable heat moder-ated, and although the Elk set a record Tuesday with a peak of 7,520 cubic feet per second, water did not go over the high-way. Had that happened, Gard-ner said, it would have been up to senior maintenance offi-cials with CDOT’s Grand Junc-tion office to make the call and determine how to handle vehicle traffic.

Gardner’s worry had been

that because the south edge of the highway pavement was high-er than the north edge, water might pool in the roadway.

Planning a bigger bridgeUltimately, the Elk River

flood of 2011 may be more important to CDOT officials such as Gardner for the guid-ance it provides on how to rede-sign the U.S. 40 bridge, due to be replaced after 2014. The design phase for a new Elk River bridge has just begun.

The 53-year-old bridge is structurally sound, CDOT spokeswoman Nancy Shanks said in late March, but is also among 63 bridges statewide that made the list of Colora-

State engineers have chance to see flow during heavy runoff

Flood benefits bridge design

See Bridge, page 37

CEDAR BEAUREGARD/STEAMBOATAERIALS.COM/COURTESY

Crews work to remove a log from a railroad bridge over the Elk River last week.


Register & Prepay with Google Checkout online or stop by1280 13th Street, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477

870-0384 www.steamboatartsandcraftsgym.com

2074

5197

PAINTING THE WEST – PLEIN AIR PAINTINGwith Artist Tricia Spencer

Friday July 1st & Saturday July 2nd ∙ 9:30am-2:30 pm both daysCLASS FEE $125.00 – Bring your own materials

(oils, acrylics, pastels) or buy what you need at our retail store

ADULT BEGINNING/INTERMEDIATE POTTERY WHEEL CLASS with Ceramic Artist Julie Anderson

August 16, 18, 23 and 25 --Tuesday & Thursday Evenings ∙ 6-9 p.m.CLASS FEE $150; Materials $50

SUMMER RAKU AND HAND-BUILDING CERAMICS CLASSCOME EXPERIENCE THE OLD TRADITION OF A RAKU FIRING

With Ceramic Artist Julie AndersonJuly 16 & 17 – Saturday & Sunday AND July 23 (Saturday) for Raku fi ring

10am -1:00 p.m. all daysCLASS FEE: $135; Materials $50

DRAWING LEVEL 1 CLASS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL, TEENS & ADULTS

With Artist Nicki DollardBEGINS July 12 – TUESDAYS – 4 week series

July 12, 19, 26 & August 2nd ∙ 1-3 p.m.CLASS FEE: $120 Class Fee per person; Or use your

punch card (1) punch per classBasic Drawing Materials: INCLUDED – buy extra at our retail store.

ACRYLIC PAINTING FOR BEGINNING/INTERMEDIATES With Artist Nicki Dollard

Saturday & Sunday – August 6 & 7 ∙ 10:00am - 2:00 pm (bring lunch) CLASS FEE: $100 for both days/or $55 per day

MATERIAL COST: $30 or bring your otwn supplies:

ADVANCED MOSAIC WORKSHOP USING CERAMIC TILESWith Artist Barbara Cohen

Saturday & Sunday – August 6 & 7 ∙ 10:00am - 2:00 pm (bring lunch) CLASS FEE: $100 for both days; MATERIALS $25

(project not included) bring your own table, or project of your choice.

YampaValleyARTInstitute

Bring Your Imagination to Life!

2011 SUMMER ADULT ART WORKSHOPS AT THE YAMPA

VALLEY ART INSTITUTE TAUGHT BY LOCAL AND REGIONAL ARTISTS!



20745397


Eat whole grains Make at least half of your servings of grains whole grains. Substitute white bread or pasta to whole grain bread and whole grain pasta. Make sure the package says “whole” on it!

To learn more about our “Diabetes Prevention Packs” or our upcoming Tai Chi for Diabetes and Healthier Living Diabetes classes call Eveline in Craig at 970-871-7658 or Karla in Steamboat Springs at 970-875-1880.

∙ Soils, Bark Nuggets, Mulch∙ Pavers, Edging, Landscape Rock∙ Irrigation, Hoses, Sprinklers, Watering Cans∙ Seeds, Peat Pots, Ceramic Pots, Planters∙ Garden Gloves,Garden Tools, Sun Protection∙ Fountains, Fire Pits, Sculptures ∙ Bird Baths, Bird Houses,Bird Feeders,Bird Seed

Home & Hardware • West of downtown in the Curve PlazaMon-Fri 8 - 8 • Sat 8 - 5:30 • Sun 9 - 5 • 2155 Curve Plaza • 970-879-8014

at theCurve

T h e h e l p f u l p l ac e

Hanging baskets, annuals, Herbs and veggies galore!

2074

5810

2 for1 Entrees

Every night! All night!Valid with purchase of appetizer

Serving Dinner Monday - Saturday • Reservations Appreciated 879-9010 • 1106 Lincoln Ave • Downtown20

7437

90Entree Special

Fresh Porcini mushroom tortellini sauteed salmon and mussels with prosciutto, peas and roasted red peppers finished in a truffle butter.

Happy Hour 5-6pm

half price drinks, beer, wine and appetizers

RISTORANTE

970-870-1480 • 601 Lincoln Ave. Suite 5

2073

1972

Talulla Boutique offers so many beautiful gift options

from handbags to scarves to jewelry to loungewear

to spa services.

Come see us today.

Get Something Special for Someone Special

STEAMBOAT TODAY Wednesday, June 8, 2011 | 37lOcAl

do’s worst bridges. The bridge is deemed structurally obsolete for traffic safety reasons — it has no shoulders, making col-lision avoidance more difficult. However, Gardner said the Elk River bridge made the list in part because the structure is vul-nerable to scouring around its base during floods.

The piers of the bridge were previously shored up with stone riprap, meant to protect it in anything shy of a 500-year flood.

“I don’t think we have any real concerns about the high-way bridge,” Gardner said. “It’s experienced a lot of high flows in its life.”

Well-timed floodThe timing of this year’s

flood is “fortunate,” Gardner said, because it allows him to stand next to the bridge and observe the hydrology first-hand. On Monday he could watch in real time how the floodplain handles the water during a record runoff scenar-io. Already, he said, the flows are suggesting a bigger bridge, because CDOT’s goal would be to build a bridge that doesn’t impede the flow of the Elk dur-ing unusually high water events. Based in part on this year’s floods, CDOT engineers will construct mathematical models that will allow them to visualize how a new bridge would man-

age flows.“When we plan our new

structure, we want it to have zero effect,” Gardner said.

The new U.S. 40 bridge at the Elk isn’t at the top of Colo-rado’s priority list. The state is issuing bonds to work its way through the list of 63 bridg-es that need to be repaired or replaced, and the timing of the new bridge over the Elk, esti-mated to cost almost $12 mil-lion, will be affected by market conditions, including interest rates, CDOT Public Relations Director Stacey Stegman said in March.


Bridge continued from 3

Elk River bridge is not state’s top priority

.com

The Holiday Inn in Craig is now hiring servers, hostesses, part time banquets servers,part time banquet set up and ex-perienced line cook.Apply at the front desk.

Is seeking Experienced underground coal mi-ners with a longwall background.Must have ex-perience in longwall Setup and recovery. Good pay, medical insurance and 401(K). Immediate work available. Apply online at:www.gmsminerepair.com or emailresume to:[email protected]

Auto Mechanic Immediate Opening! Full Time.Must have at least five years auto experience.Must be very reliable and have own tools. Flat rate pay based on experience.Top pay for the right person.Apply in person at Co-op in Hay-den - 193 E Jefferson Ave. Questions:970-276-3313.

Summer Job, housekeeping/ child care during summer break,7 miles from oak creek,15 from steamboat. 970-819-3115.

Looking for experienced spa therapists! Nail technicians, Esthetician, hair stylists and mas-sage therapists.A great opportunity awaits you! Please email resumes to:[email protected]

Big O Tires is accepting new applications for Tire Techs. Apply in person at 2440 Lin-coln Ave.

20744798

MOBILE MECHANICSRIO TINTO/COLOWYO COAL COMPANY

Colowyo is seeking motivated individuals that possess a high regard for safety, a positive attitude, and a personal value for individual/team performance and

accountability. These positions are full-time, permanent employment, offering a competitive salary and benefits package, eligible first day of employment. Colowyo is currently hiring for:

MOBILE MECHANICS: Responsible for preventative maintenance, lubrication, basic welding, equipment component repair and ordering parts for large mobile mining equipment including, but not limited to, large haul trucks,

dozers, loaders, graders, and on-highway trucks. The role will involve working 12-hour rotating shifts.

Applicants must perform all work in a safe, healthy and environmentally compliant manner according to MSHA and environmental regulatory requirements and Rio Tinto Colowyo standards. Must be at least 18 years of age and have a valid driver’s license. Please apply through the Craig or Meeker Colorado Workforce Centers on or before June 20, 2011. Telephone number 970-824-3246.

RIO TINTO COLOWYO IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/MFVD EMPLOYER

Steamboat Rodeo/ Ballfield concession for the summer season. Fun fast paced work.July 4th weekend a must. Clean neat appearance 18 or older. $10.00 hr.970-879-9678.

Immediate Openings/Paid Job Training Colorado Army National Guard.970-986-9206.

Wastewater Treatment/Collection Manager.City of Craig, CO. Wastewater Department.Full-time with exceptional benefits.$55,316/yr.- $70,851/yr. DOE. Supervisory position that operates, maintains and supervises the munici-pal wastewater treatment plant and collection system and the personnel who are involved in those processes. HS grad/GED. B.S. in Sci-ence or related field pref. Valid Colorado driver’s license and CDL “B” with tanker en-dorsement. Minimum Class B Colorado Waste-water Operator’s license and min. Class 2 Col-lections Operator’s cert. req. Category #113 Pesticide Applicator Cert. req. On record with CDPHE as operator in responsible charge. On call/call outs. Job description/packet available from [email protected], H. R. dept.970-826-2010 or employment link @ www.ci.craig.co.us. Deadline: June 17th.EOE.

Yampa Valley Regional Airport, Field Mainte-nance: Details: http://www.co.routt.co.us Click on Employment. Deadline: June 14, 2011. Routt County is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Moffat County Social Services seeking appli-cants to test for future openings for fulltime Caseworker. Requires behavioral science BA.Job description available at Colorado Workforce Center, 480 Barclay, Craig, CO 81625, (970) 824-3246 or connectingcolorado.com. Online application, resume and certified transcripts must be submitted by June 13,2011. Qualified applicants required to take written test on June 22 at 2:00 p.m. at Social Services in Craig.Moffat County is an EEO Employer.

Yard work $10hr. 5 hours per week.970-879-1867.

Tire/Lube Technician Needed Immediate Opening! Full time. Must have experience. Must have own tools and be able to work well inde-pendently. Looking for a reliable person who is also willing to work Saturdays.Apply in person at Co-op in Hayden - 193 E. Jefferson Ave.Questions: 970-276-3313

PIECE RATEHOUSEKEEPERS,

INSPECTORS,AND FRONT DESK AGENTS

The Village at Steamboat is looking for talented individuals to join our team for the upcoming summer season. All posi-tions are seasonal and offer a potential for growth within the Wyndham Worldwide organization. Resort experience preferred and bi-lingual in Spanish and English a plus. Please apply in person at 900 Pine Grove Circle,across from the tennis bub-ble. EOE, VETERANS, DV, M, F.

Speech Language Pathologist needed full time at NW BOCES. Please find more information and apply online at www.nwboces.org.

Hydronic Technican for alternative heating and cooling systems. Quality-not quantity.970-879-6555.

Steamboat Springs School District -Superintendent of Schools, SSHS, Choir Teacher - SSHS/SSMS, Severe Needs Para-professional - SSMS,GATE SS/LA Teacher -SSMS, Classroom and Special Education Teachers - Elementary levels, Music Teacher - Soda Creek Elem.,Custodian - SCE,Dance Showcase Sponsor - SSHS, Substitute Bus Drivers. Please complete district application at http://www.applitrack.com/sssd/onlineapp/ All positions-Bilingual preferred but not required.Questions: 970-871-3199. EOE.

The Hayden School District has the following position open for the 2011-2012 schoolyear:Secondary School: Building Trades/ Industrial Arts Teacher.Coaching Positions: High School Head Volleyball, High School HeadWrestlingHigh School Assistant Boys’ BasketballHigh School Assistant Girls’ BasketballMiddle School Head VolleyballMiddle School Assistant FootballMiddle School Assistant Boys’ BasketballMiddle School Head Girls’ BasketballMiddle School Head WrestlingApplication Deadline: Open until filledTo apply, visit the district website at www.haydenschools.org and click on the em-ployment link or call 276-3864 for further infor-mation.

4th Annual Northwest Storage GarageSaleand Flea MarketFriday June 10th 9-5Saturday June 11th 9-3Booth Space Available970-824-6464

GARAGE SALE! Saturday 7:30 - ? 942 PineSt.Tools, clothing, snowmobile. Lots of stuff!

the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camped.”

Pollert, a massage thera-pist and acupuncturist, said she treasures the time she spends with her father.

“My dad is my hero,” Pol-lert said. “I want to be as active as he is when I am his age. It’s great for me to see how many people are inspired by my dad. When people see him on Ride the Rockies, you can see them thinking, ‘Hey, this is possible.’”

Elken’s favorite expression is “attitude is everything.” He thinks a positive attitude is key.

“I hate being around neg-

ative people. I just want to walk away.”

He is grateful his health allows him to participate in this year’s ride.

“I am so thankful to be healthy. So many of my close friends are gone. I am fortu-nate to be able to do what I do. I wanted to do Ride the Rock-ies again this year to come back to Steamboat and spend time with my daughter.”

Palmer continued from 2

Rider: Attitude is everything





STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Forecasters are calling for the high water on the Yampa and Elk rivers to continue for another three to four weeks, creating the opportunity for multiple stream-flow peaks.

Jim Pringle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Ser-vice in Grand Junction, said that prediction was stated during a weekly conference call this week with forecasters and emergency managers.

The Yampa is expected to remain steady through the week, but the Elk River was expected to possibly break another record this morning. The U.S. Geologi-cal Survey revised its preliminary numbers to show the Elk actually broke the record at 5 a.m. Tues-

day with water flowing at 8,250 cubic feet per second, or cfs, and a gauge height of 8.14 feet at the Routt County Road 42 bridge. The forecast Wednesday evening estimated the Elk would reach a depth of 8.2 feet this morning.

Pringle said the forecast takes into consideration factors such as how high the temperatures are during the day and whether they dip below freezing at night.

The Yampa’s high flow so far this season was 4,820 cfs, set at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. The record for the Yampa, according the USGS, is 6,820 cfs.

Large amounts of melting snow at upper elevations contin-ue to feed area rivers and creeks,

and no end is expected in the near future. Upon examination of one piece of local folklore, that holds true.

Some longtime Routt County residents look to the top of Storm Peak for the two brown spots that appear as the snow melts. Peak runoff is signaled when the spots merge.

“I think that’s true most years, but it might be a little bit different with the extraor-dinary amount of snow we see up in the Park Range,” said

Another 3 to 4 weeks of high water expected in Steamboat

Plenty of snow left to melt


A few inches of water didn’t stop Steamboat Springs resident Ben Ratliff from riding his bike along the flooded Yampa River Core Trail on Wednesday afternoon in Steamboat Springs. The rising water crosses the trail in several places, and it is not advised to ride or walk past trail closed signs.


Watch video of Routt County floods

Flooding coverage■ Read about flooding at Steamboat Christian Center on page 5■ Read about flooding in Craig on page 12 ■ View photo galleries from across the area at SteamboatToday.com




20745398

Summertime Healthy Snack for Kids!

Eating Healthy can help prevent Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

Stuff a whole-grain pita pocket with ricotta cheese and Granny Smith apple slices. Add a dash of cinnamon.

To learn more about our “Diabetes Prevention Packs” or our upcoming Tai Chi for Diabetes and Healthier Living Diabetes classes call Eveline in Craig at 970-871-7658 or Karla in Steamboat Springs at 970-875-1880.

www.yampavalleybank.com

Steamboat: 970.879.2993 | Craig: 970.824.3600

You want peace of mind. No brainer.Personal Loans for the things you want. Low Rates and Flexible Terms you need.

Local decision making that makes it fast. Experience that makes it easy. Personalized service that makes it fun. We’re Lending!

Jr. wants a new

New Listing4 BD/4 BA Ski in/out - 2397 sf Beautiful furnishings includedAttached garage - Creek-sidePerfect nightly rental chalet

$1,090,000 ID#131683

2074

4956

Nick MetzlerCRS, GRI, Broker/Owner

[email protected]

www.SlopesideTownhome.com


Steamboat theme, however, the event will showcase a variety of local style and design options that the town has to offer.

The clothes will come from Urbane and Chez Nous, which Helm said are each hip and sophisticated in their own way.

On Wednesday, Helm visited the two stores to see the out-fits they had picked out for the show.

For the segment of the fash-ion show titled “Wild Things,” Urbane manager Kelly Proud-ley had picked out a casual but funky animal print outfit.

“I was thinking white shorts with this silk cami,” Proudley said, “and this sexy brassiere with it.”

“Oh I love it, I love it,” Helm replied. “And I think we need a pair of tall boots to go with that. Very sexy.”

But it’s not all about the clothes: Helm, who has orga-

nized several fashion shows in Southern California, wasn’t going to stop at anything less than extravagant.

“I wouldn’t want to go to a wimpy fashion show,” she said. “I want crystals and orchids, and I want to sip on a glass of champagne.”

And she’ll have all that and more.

Think red carpet event, Steamboat style, with decora-tions by Tall Tulips, food by the Drunken Onion and introduc-ing DJ Crazy Carl, a local resi-dent.

Even the models represent the local culture.

Olympians Todd Lodwick and Nelson Carmichael will walk the runway, along with dance instructor Renee Fleisch-er and Wildhorse Marketplace Sales and Marketing Director Kerry Shea, among others.

The models were treated to full complementary makeovers from Wildhorse Salon, which

means Lodwick will be there this week getting a manicure, a pedicure and a new hairstyle.

“I’m thinking highlights for Todd,” Wildhorse Salon co-owner Kim Johnson said.

Lodwick said he’s not sure how he got talked into the event, but he’s glad to have an opportunity to give back to the Steamboat community.

“I heard Gisele was com-ing,” he joked. “No, it’s fun to have an opportunity to support locals. I love giving back and to venture out to the Arts Council, which is a huge asset … when an opportunity comes your way, you have to take it.”

He said he’s walked the run-way before in benefit shows, and said it’s not much different from competing at Nordic combined skiing on the world stage.

“It’s like jumping off a jump,” he said.

To reach Nicole Inglis, call 970-871-4204, or email [email protected]

Glam continued from 2

Lodwick: Runway walk is like a ski jump

Doug Allen, Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp.’s vice president of mountain operations.

The brown spots are not even beginning to appear. At the ski area, 120 inches of snow was measured Wednesday at Sun-shine Peak, and there was still 46 inches at mid-mountain.

Allen pointed out that snow-

making at the mountain would not affect the two brown spots on Storm Peak.

“We did not make any snow up there this year or do we ever really ever make snow in the proximity of those dots,” Allen said.

The Tower measuring site located at 10,500 feet on Buffalo Pass was reporting 150 inches of snow containing 74.4 inches of water Wednesday.

That’s down from the May 29 statewide record high of 80.1 inches of snow water equiva-lent.

The site at 9,400 feet on Rabbit Ears Pass was reporting 47 inch-es of snow containing 27.9 inches of water.

The Dry Lake campground site at 8,400 feet was reporting 20 inches of snow containing 11.1 inches of water.


150 inches of snow reported on Buff Pass

Thank you for 10 Great Years Steamboat!We will be closed Sundays during Mud Season

Exclusive Nails &Tan

Come Visit us Monday- Saturdays

9am - 7pmCentral Park Plaza Next to City Market 870-7870

2072

5504

2071

1914





20745157

Finding out about CHP+ and Medicaid saved my family thousands in medical bills.

It was easy and it is affordable.

I used to make $50,000.Now, I’m unemployed. I’ve never had to think about fi nding health insurance for my family.



STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

When the cold water of the Yampa River found its way into the crawl space beneath the par-sonage at the Steamboat Chris-tian Center on Tuesday after-noon, the damage was modest yet significant.

“It ruined our suitcases and my wife’s (Tausha’s) wedding dress,” Youth Pastor Jon Gagnon said.

For a man whose home was being threatened by a flooding river, Gagnon was remarkably upbeat Tuesday night, perhaps because so many members of the congregation had come out to help put sandbags around the parsonage and a nearby building used for youth gatherings.

Kim Folkestad, executive administrator for the church on the city’s southern boundary, said the call for help first went out via email and text messages late Friday afternoon. Sixty to 80

members of the church congre-gation turned out over the week-end to place the full allotment of sandbags from the city of Steam-boat Springs. By Tuesday night, the men and women were done placing the last of $900 worth of additional sandbags bought from Elk River Farm and Feed, Folkestad said.

“We placed 1,000 bags in three hours,” one of the crew members said.

As it has almost everywhere upstream from Mount Werner Road to the intersection of U.S. Highway 40 and Colorado High-way 131, the Yampa has jumped its banks above the church and spread out over its floodplain with disregard for its usual bends and oxbows.

The Steamboat Christian Center is off U.S. 40 via Dough-erty Road, just beyond the River Place subdivision. The church itself is situated on slightly high-er ground than the parsonage and was unaffected by water as of midday Wednesday.

The volunteers consult-ed with the owners of Mingle-wood Timbers, immediately west on Dougherty Lane, and they agreed on a strategy of using sandbags to force the sheets of water coming downstream into a channel leading to the open field above the Mount Werner Water and Sanitation horizontal well field just downstream.

Five pumps were put to work sucking water away from the parsonage, and the strategy was working Wednesday afternoon.

However, Gagnon said the church drinking water well had been inundated and was no lon-ger usable.


Congregation rallies to protect parsonage


Youth pastor Jon Gagnon checks a pump near the driveway of the home he lives in with his family behind the Steamboat Christian Center. High water from the Yampa River is flowing around the home and has flooded the crawl space and well. The family is living in another location until the water recedes.

Worship uninterruptedThe parking lots at Steamboat Christian Center were mostly dry as of Wednesday afternoon, and church offi-cials said the plan was to host Sunday worship services as usual.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

In his ninth election as a member of the Yampa Valley Electric Association Board of Directors, one might think Bill Haight is used to being chal-lenged.

Haight, the representative for District 6, which covers Steam-boat Springs and northern Routt County, has served on the cooperative’s board for nearly 25 years. But he still doesn’t think it’s easy being the incum-bent.

“I always worry about the challenge,” Haight said. “When you talk about politics, it’s pret-ty easy to realize there could be a defeat every time.”

This year Haight faces Thom-as Fox, owner of Fox Construc-tion and a longtime Steamboat Springs resident. Fox touts his sustainable business practices as evidence of his commitment to a push for increased alternative energy options.

YVEA spokesman Jim Chappell said three seats are up for election on the nine-mem-ber board each year. This year’s trio, two of which feature con-tested races, will be decided at the YVEA Board of Directors annual meeting June 18 in the Hayden High School audito-rium.

The consumer-owned coop-erative provides service from Yampa to Baggs, Wyo.

Any member of the coopera-tive receiving service can attend and vote at the meeting. Active members also can drop off bal-lots by 5 p.m. June 17 to the Steamboat Springs office at 32 10th St, Chappell said. He said ballots can be mailed but must arrive at YVEA offices by the June 17 deadline.

Larry Ellgen, Colorado Group Controller for Peabody Energy, is facing Moffat Coun-ty Tourism Association Execu-tive Director Marilynn Hill for the District 2 seat. That dis-trict includes northern Moffat County.

Former Moffat County School District Finance Direc-tor Mike Brinks, who retired in 2006, is running uncontested for the District 3 seat, which cov-ers Craig.

“I wouldn’t say every year there’s a contested race, but we’ve had some,” Chappell said. “It’s not typical, but it’s also not unusual. Several years ago, we had three contested races.”

Haight, a 1952 Steamboat Springs High School graduate, is a past YVEA board chairman

Members can vote until June 17 or at June 18 meeting

3 YVEA board seats up for grabs

HillHaightFoxBrinks Ellgen

See Electric, page 6

Next to the Holiday Inn • Hwy 40 • 870-0438facebook.com/SteamboatDining 20

746134

Thrs 6.09 Jesse Christensen with John Gibbs

Fri 6.10 Trevor G. Potter with Walt and ol’ 37

Sat 6.11 Pat Waters

Live Music 5-8 p.m. On the Patio

S T E A M B O A T


TODAY


Residents of Dream Island Mobile Home Park were busy filling sandbags Monday evening as the Yampa River began to flood streets in the neighborhood.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Residents of the Dream Island Mobile Home Park are feeling a reprieve from high water, but they don’t think it will last long.

“This weekend it could be a big problem,” said Bill Peck, a geology professor at Col-orado Mountain College’s Alpine Campus who has lived in Dream Island for five years.

Peck, along with sever-al other residents, is frustrat-ed by how the community has handled the high water from the Yampa River this spring. On Thursday morning the water surrounded several trailers.

“This is a group crisis if this

place floods, but it’s not being handled like that,” said Peck, who has started posting the daily river forecast in front of his home for neighbors to see.

“Everyone is kind of look-ing out for themselves.”

To illustrate this point, he pointed to sandbags filled by a neighbor that he said were serving no purpose.

“There is zero plan,” Peck said. “We need a cohesive plan.”

Peck said he and other members of the community needed help and guidance for fortifying their neighborhood from the river. The Yampa was flowing at 3,610 cubic feet

®


Horoscope . . . . .40Lotto. . . . . . . . . .38Movies . . . . . . . .16Scoreboard. . . . .37Sports. . . . . . . . .35ViewPoints . . . . . .8

INSIDE: Plan your weekend with music, events and fun in today’s Explore calendar • page 15

FRIDAYJUNE 10, 2011


Vol. 23, No. 138

SteamboatToday.com



■ EVENTSPartly sunny.High of 66.

Page 40

■ WEATHER■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow ThursdayNoon 3,850 cfs11 p.m. 3,730 cfsAverage for this date 2,230 cfsHighest for this date 5,020 cfs, 1921Lowest for this date 200 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Moots Cycles President Rob Mitchell told the City Coun-cil on Tuesday that Steamboat Springs always has struggled with its identity after ski sea-son ends.

Speaking on behalf of the Bike Town USA Initiative, Mitchell said biking presents an opportunity to change that.

“Simply, skiing and biking is what Steamboat becomes,” he said. “That’s the marketing. That’s the focus. That’s what you need to do to build a lead-ing brand.”

Mitchell’s presentation intro-duced the Community Cycling Plan, which outlines the move-ment to make Steamboat a summer biking hub. Specifical-ly, the plan identifies existing infrastructure, future opportuni-ties and an approach to achieve results to benefit Steamboat eco-nomically.

City Council members sup-ported the plan in a 6-0 vote; council member Meg Bentley was absent. They also approved nearly $50,000 in requests for Bike Town USA-related initia-tives. That brought what the City Council has approved relat-ed to Bike Town USA to more than $2.1 million in the past 12 months.

“In business, you talk about having an unfair advantage,” City Council member Bart Kou-novsky said. “I think this is

City Council funds Bike Town plan

Finding a summer identity

See Bike Town, page 13

Some residents say city should help more with sandbag effort

Dream Island calls for planOnlineSee a photo gallery of Thursday’s high water with this story at SteamboatToday.com




LOOK InsIde for

14 | Friday, June 10, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

per second at 6:15 p.m. Thurs-day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Yam-pa’s high flow so far this sea-son was 4,820 cfs, set at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Dream Island Manager Monica Mackey said Thurs-day that the high water this spring has been overwhelm-ing and created a lot of work. She said she has lived in the community for 22 years and has never seen this much water enter Dream Island.

So far she said she had bought 2,400 sandbags and seven dump trucks full of sand.

“I’m thinking 500 more (sandbags) hopefully should do it,” Mackey said. “If not, I don’t know.”

Managing the flood miti-gation project has presented problems and disputes among neighbors. The Steamboat Springs Police Department has helped mediate several of the incidents where tempers flared.

“I was trying to get people to put sandbags on the back, and they weren’t doing it,” Mackey said. “It was a mess.”

Mackey said the city has been helpful and even loaned Dream Island 1,000 sandbags until Mackey could pick up more from Gypsum. Mackey said she understands why the city hasn’t offered additional help.

“We are a privately owned

company,” she said. “I don’t have any problems with the city.”

The city gives sandbags and sand to Steamboat residents for free with the exception being residents who are steady users, such as the residents of Dream Island.

“By that I mean residents that have had flooding in the past but have done nothing to mitigate the problem,” Steam-boat Police Chief JD Hays said in a recent email about the city’s sandbag program.

Residents including Peck wish the city could help more. Some Dream Island residents have bought sandbags and rented pumps on their own.

The city “spent 30 grand on

the C-Hole, and the city can’t pay for sandbags,” Peck said.

The city spent about $27,000, including a $1,000 donation from Friends of the Yampa, for work on the Charlie’s Hole river feature in November.

On Thursday a fresh load of sand was dropped off at Dream Island, and Mackey was headed to Elk River Farm & Feed to buy more sandbags.

The water was flowing under a few trailers because of several breaches in the wall of sandbags.

“We’re not over the hump yet,” Mackey said.



Manager: I don’t have problems with city

JIM STEINBERG PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY

Flooding on the Elk River surrounds three homes. The Elk was flowing at 5,630 cubic feet per second near Milner as of 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Quality | Friendly | Reasonable

Garden Centeroffi ce: 870-3299 | nursery: 871-4280

2624 Copper Ridge Circle • in Copper Ridge Business Parkemail: [email protected]

20%-50% OFF Select Shrubs

20% OFF Crabbapples

20746808

Stop in and check out our fantastic selection of new inventory.

Flirty dresses, skirts and tops... Fabulous NEW jewelry, hats, scarves, purses and sunglasses! Always friendly staff and fun fashion accessories

for all... See You Soon!Open Daily Located at 7th & Lincoln by the bus stop! 970-879-2355

We’ve MissedYou!

Stop in and check out our fantastic selection of new inventory.

Flirty dresses, skirts and tops... Fabulous NEW jewelry, hats,

We’ve Missed

20112011SEASON PASS

2073

8723

Sales locations: Steamboat Chamber • All that JazzF.M. Light and Sons • 879-1818 • www.steamboatprorodeo.comRodeo series: 7:30pm Fridays & Saturdays • June 17 - Aug 20

A $330 VALUE!

ONLY $4520112011SEASON PASS20112011

Sales locations:

A $330 VALUE!

Gets you 18 rodeos& 4 buddy passesDeadline: June 18

SEASON PASS ACCESS:

∙ Southside concrete bleachers only∙ May not be used on July 2, 3 or 4 2011∙ Non-transferable. ID required at the gate.∙ June 18 deadline for “Locals’ Special” Season Pass

One of my best wilder-ness memories after 30 years of casual wilder-

ness hiking stems from a short hike we took in June 2010.

Less than a mile from the parking lot at Trappers Lake, in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area, we paused to watch cut-throat trout trying to leap up a small water-

fall in the creek that flows out of Little Trappers. The fish were good sized for wilderness trout — still, it was like watching mini salmon struggling to reach their spawning grounds in the Pacif-ic Northwest. Best of all, the drama took place in Northwest Colorado, just a few hours’ drive through dusty roads.

One of the good things (and challenging qualities) of the Flat Tops and Mount Zirkel wilderness areas is that they are accessible — in some places they actually lack the desirable buffer zone between the near-est parking lot and the wilder-ness boundary. The same can be said of the pocket wilderness at Sarvis Creek, on the edge of Pleasant Valley. They may lack buffer zones here and there, but they don’t seem to have suffered unduly for it. And at least this year, persistent drifts of snow will give the wilderness a chance to flourish without the usual human and livestock traffic.

Taking care of the wilderness


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Officials are urging residents to exercise caution around gush-ing creeks and rivers that are expected to remain high for three weeks or more.

The flows in the Elk and Yampa rivers have dropped con-siderably since the beginning of the week, but they are forecast to rise again early next week.

Two major incidents already have occurred in Routt Coun-ty involving the Yampa and Butcherknife Creek.

On Wednesday, a woman who is suspected of being drunk drove her car off Colorado Highway 131 and crashed into the Yampa about 320 feet away just south of Phippsburg. She sustained minor injuries.

On June 4, a 15-month-old boy reportedly wandered

away from home and fell into Butcherknife downtown. The creek previously had peaked, but the flows were enough to carry the toddler about 400 feet downstream, where his grand-father found the boy and pulled

Authorities warn caution, vigilance around rivers, creeks


JUNE 11, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado


TODAYPool days


Frank Ruppel and his sister Maddie play on the newest attraction at the Old Town Hot Springs on Friday, the first day of summer vacation for Steamboat students. Frank just finished sixth grade at Steamboat Springs Middle School and Maddie finished her freshman year at the high school.

Fast water poses danger

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com





INSIDE: New bluegrass band Old River Road hits the ground running with slew of summer gigs • page 4



■ EVENTSPartly sunny with rain. High of 72.

Page 23

■ WEATHER■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow FridayNoon 3,370 cfs11 p.m. 3,140 cfsAverage for this date 2,180 cfsHighest for this date 5.020 cfs, 1921Lowest for this date 175 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

See Water, page 24

Sign on to wilderness memories


See Ross, page 14

24 | Saturday, June 11, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOcAL

him out. The boy, Edwin Rodri-guez, was in critical condition Friday at The Children’s Hospi-tal in the Denver area.

A dog also reportedly disap-peared this week after entering Fish Creek near the Sanctuary neighborhood.

Steamboat Springs Fire Res-cue Lt. Michael Arce urged people to be careful around the water.

“Keep an eye on the little ones,” Arce said.

Children should not be allowed to play around drains, creeks or rivers, Arce said.

“Six inches of moving water can cause a person to fall,” he said.

People also should stay away from the banks of creeks and rivers because water may have eroded pieces of the bank that are not visible.

The Routt County Office of Emergency Management advises people to avoid driving on roads overtaken by water.

More deaths occur because of high water each year than from any other thunderstorm or hur-

ricane-related hazard, according to the agency. Many of these casualties are a result of careless or unsuspecting motorists who try to navigate flooded roads.

“Two feet of water can carry away most cars,” the agen-cy states. “The most danger-ous thing you can do is to try

walking, swimming or driving through high waters.”

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the Yampa was running at 3,270 cubic feet per second Friday afternoon. The Yampa’s high flow so far this season was 4,820 cfs, set at 8:45 p.m. Tues-day. The record for the Yampa,

according the USGS, is 6,820 cfs.The Elk was running at 5,370

cfs Friday afternoon. The Elk broke its all-time record at 5 a.m. Tuesday with water flowing at 8,250 cubic feet per second.



Water from the Elk RIver runs across Routt County Road 44 on Wednesday morning into a overflowing drainage ditch.

.com

Garage Sale.Furniture,electronics, lots of misc.stuff. Come check it out, before it’s all gone! Saturday 8am to noon. 35 Spruce St.

MULTI-FAMILY GIGANTIC SALE! Saturday 8am-12pm.306 7th St. (Corner of 7th & Pine) Ceiling fan, LOTS of furniture, Strollers, clothing of all kinds, framed art work, toys, luggage,trolling-motor, kids stuff. TONS MORE!

MULTI-FAMILY YARD SALE! Household items,tools,doors and windows,beanie babies,small freezer, much MUCH more! Before strawberry park schools, 800 Amethyst Dr. Saturday 8am -1pm.

LARGE GARAGE SALE! Saturday June 11,8am-12pm. 332 Cherry Dr. ( Take Fish Creek,to Tamarack, to Cherry ) A little bit of everyth-ing!

HELPERZ AFRICA GARAGE SALE. Saturday June 11,8am- Noon? Held at Wells Fargo Bank park-ing lot. Furniture, plumbing, clothing, toys,housewares, bikes, ice cream, cookies, and MUCH MORE! Benefits educational mission trip to Zambia.

YARD SALE. 1450 BLUE SPRUCE CT (Fish Creek Falls Rd to Blue Sage to BlueSpruce).Household items,Kid’s Mtn Bike,Mens and Kids Clothes, etc. etc. etc. SATURDAY8AM-11AM

Saturday 6/11 Storage Unit #103 Weiss Circle.(Next to shell station). Must Down-size.Furniture, art & decor, air conditioner, etc.. 9-12 only. No early birds please!

960 Confluence Court (by Walton Pondcabins)Saturday, Sunday if needed. 9am. Mickey Thompson rims 6-hole. Kayak and gear, t.v’s,stereo speakers, furniture and lots of misc.items.

At REPS community sale. Sat. 8-12High end AirSoft gear, guns, reptile cages,heaters, mister, Zagi R.C. gliders Office chairs,tables etc. Held at the Middle School parking lot!

Multi-Family! Double Bob Revolution, Burley,kids bikes/scooters, 2 Pottery Barncribs,strollers, high chair, exersaucer,Baby clothes/toys/gear, Guitar, etc.7:30-11 Sat., 3329 Willowbrook Ct.846-9235.

Garage sale - Single and double Kelty strollers.Pedestal sinks. Beautiful Delta faucets. Artisan Mexican furniture.Computers and accessories.Kids clothing and toys.And much more. 8-4 Saturday and Sunday (if there’s any left). 1435 Park Court, Steamboat - near Whistler Park.846-6078.

Annual Young Tracks Yard Sale! Lots of kids stuff, clothes, toys, books, sports equipment,and much more! $20 donation to “Guess the amount”to win round of 4 golf at Catamount or prizes from Steamboat Ski & Bike Care. Satur-day 8am-12pm. (Behind Staples)

4th Annual Northwest Storage GarageSaleand Flea MarketFriday June 10th 9-5Saturday June 11th 9-3Booth Space Available970-824-6464

Huge Garage Sale. Power tools new in box,Mantis Tiller, bikes, furniture, much more. 835 Bridger Cir. (w. off of Ashley), Fri & Sat(6/10-11), 8-1 (No early birds Please).

Huge Garage Sale.Fri.& Sat.9-2.1182 Lincoln Street. Refrigerator, lots of baby stuff, nice stereo, lots of toys, X-box 360, Playstation 3 and Wii video games, and DVD’s.

Huge Sale! Sat June 11 9:00 - 2:00, Jogger,Antiques,Furniture,Crib Set ,Bike Chariot.Toddler clothes & toys,TV’s, Queen Bed & twin mattress. D Bar K Storage, Hwy 40.

GARAGE SALE. 132 Sand Gulch Rd(cnty rd 220) Saturday 6/11 8:30 to3:00,light fixtures, gas range, household and misc.items, north of Craig off of cnty rd 103.

Town Board on Thursday:■ Approved, 4-0, the

transfer of Tim Geiger’s water and sewer tap fees on an undeveloped property to another property in town he does not own. The town assessed a $200 transfer fee.

■ Approved, 4-0, accounts payable for May 2011 through June 15, 2011.

■ Approved, 4-0, Addi-tional Services Agreement No. 2 from the Drinking Water Revolving Fund Grant for mitigation of disinfectant byproducts.

■ Approved, 3-1, hold-ing cleanup day this sum-mer at a cost of $2,050 and charging $10 per truckload to haul off trash. Trustee Wendy Gustafson opposed offering clean-up day.

■ Approved, 4-0, an ordi-nance granting the town the option to increase fees for public records requests annually via resolution.


Town Board continued from 11

Fee increase approved

Dog swept away by creek

Water continued from 1


S T E A M B O A T


TODAY


Jackson Creagan uses the trail that passes through Butcherknife Canyon on his way home from Strawberry Park on June 7 during the final week of school. School children will get a helping hand when they head back to school next fall from the Safe Routes to School map, released June 6 at the Routt County Riders meeting. The map is the culmination of three years of work that helps children identify the safest way to get to and from school.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Nearly three years of work culminated last week with the completion of the Safe Routes to School map.

The maps, which were paid for by a Colorado Department of Transportation Safe Routes

to School grant, illustrate the safest way Steamboat Springs students in kindergarten to eighth grade can get from their homes to school and other locations across Steamboat.

They were distributed at Soda Creek and Strawberry Park elementary schools and Steamboat Springs Middle School before school ended last week. The maps also are available at local bike shops.

“If we want kids to ride or walk to school, we need every kind of education tool and safety tool that we can get,”

Routt County Commission-er Diane Mitsch Bush said. “And parents and kids then can use this at home or when they’re out riding. It can real-ly, I think, be helpful for both the kids and parents. It can also give us a sense, this sum-mer and into the fall, what

®

FREE



INSIDE: Steamboat’s Splash and Dash for Andy Caress attracts more than 2 dozen participants • page 20

MONDAYJUNE 13, 2011


Vol. 23, No. 140

SteamboatToday.com

Partly sunny. High of 72.

Page 24

■ WEATHER■ GAS PRICESCost of a gallon of fuel SundayLocation Unleaded DieselFuel Stop $3.73 $4.07West Kum & Go $3.69 $3.997-Eleven $3.69 N/APetro West $3.69 $4.06Phillips 66 $3.75 $4.12

Bob’s Conoco $3.76 $4.17Space Station $3.72 $4.12Western Convenience $3.66 $3.96Anglers Kum & Go $3.69 $3.99Ski Haus $3.73 $3.99Loaf ‘N Jug $3.69 N/AShell $3.74 $4.04Shop & Hop $3.69 N/AState average $3.66 $3.98

■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow MondayNoon 2,470 cfs11 p.m. 2,790 cfsAverage for this date 2,080 cfsHighest for this date 5,100 cfs, 1921Lowest for this date 127 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

OnlineVisit www.saferoutessteamboat.org to see an interactive version of the map.

Biking, walking map distributed last week to local students

Identifying safe routes

See Routes, page 13


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Routt County Office of Emer-gency Management Director Bob Struble called the recent mild weather a “blessing” that has kept flooding concerns in the Yampa Valley at bay despite significant high water last week.

The Yampa and Elk riv-ers receded Sunday afternoon. According to the National Weath-er Service, the Yampa was down to 4.46 feet as of 5:15 p.m. after peaking at just more than 7 feet last week. The Elk near Milner was down to 7.17 feet at 5:30 p.m. after exceeding flood stage of 7.5 feet much of last week.

But with higher forecast tem-peratures this week, the rivers are expected to rise again. Struble said he thinks water levels will continue to be erratic as the tem-perature changes.

“I think we’ll see this for the rest of the high-water season,” he said, adding that the rivers and streams will calm down after cool weather and rise again after warm weather. “I hope we won’t see 8.14 on the Elk again.”

Struble was referring to the peak flow at the confluence of the Elk and Yampa rivers Tuesday morning.

Tom Renwick, a meteorologist

Forecasters predict resurgence this week

Routt County rivers recede


14 | Monday, June 13, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

with the Weather Service’s office in Grand Junction, said day-time high temperatures should be in the mid-70s this week with overnight lows in the mid- to high 30s.

“Now that things are slack-ening off a bit, people might say, ‘Thank God it’s over,’ but with all that snow with precipita-tion in the mountains, that might change fairly quickly,” he said.

And it could happen this week.

Because of the higher tempera-tures, Renwick said the Elk is fore-cast to reach 8.5 feet Friday morn-ing, which is moderate flooding stage and a foot below major flooding stage. He said the Yampa is expected to reach 6.7 feet.

The Tower measuring site at 10,500 feet on Buffalo Pass was reporting 141 inches of snow containing 68.8 inches of water Sunday.

Struble said during a “nor-mal” snow year, peak runoff would end by next week, but that’s not the case this summer.

He said with the first of the bald spots starting to become visible on Storm Peak, peak runoff is on its way. He reminded resi-dents to remain vigilant near rivers and streams.

But for now, Struble said Sun-day was a good day to help miti-gate the water issues.

“The Yampa really dropped. The Elk, last I looked, was just flirting with action” stage, he said. “The weather is a blessing.”



141 inches of snow still on Buffalo Pass


A sign in front Steamboat Hotel encourages customers to drive through the flood waters that have been in front of the hotel for the past couple of weeks.

Ben McCannaCRAIG DAILY PRESS

CRAIG

A study of 2010 patient num-bers indicates The Memorial Hospital in Craig gained market share from other hospitals in the region.

The study was commis-sioned by Tennessee-based Quo-rum Health Resources, a hospi-tal management and consultant group. The study tracked num-bers of discharged patients and the services they’d received from regional hospitals.

The Memorial Hospital’s data was derived from hospital charg-es with billing addresses that included a Craig zip code.

Aside from zip codes, patient names and detailed addresses were kept anonymous.

The hospital’s market share for 2010 was 52.8 percent, up from 49.1 percent in 2009.

The 3.7-percent jump is sta-tistically significant, said Bryan Chalmers, the hospital’s chief financial officer. And the jump corresponds to significant annu-al revenue increases.

“For every 5-percent growth of market share, there is an addi-tional $5 million in growth in revenue,” he said. The dollar fig-ure is estimated, he said.

Chalmers said more area resi-dents are choosing The Memo-rial Hospital because it has expanded services in recent years.

And if market share continues to increase, so will services.

“You look at putting services into place that are going to retain and hold that market share,” he said. “As they’re added, they become self-sustaining.”

The report also includes mar-ket share percentages for 10 indi-vidual services in 2009 and 2010. Those percentages contain a broad range of large and moder-ate increases and declines.

Gynecology, for instance, increased by 28 percent at the hospital from 2009 to 2010.

Patients who went elsewhere for medical services chose St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junc-tion, Pioneers Medical Center in Meeker, Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, and Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steam-boat Springs.

Hospital in Craig gains market share

Always Fresh, Fast & Most Affordable

in the Valley!!!Free Delivery at 5:00pm

57 10th Street

2074

0766

in the Valley!!!BES

TBOA

TOFTHE

STEA

MBOAT TODAY PRESENTS

2011 • STEAMBOAT SPRIN

GS, COLO

RAD

O

Your Taste Buds Will Thank You!

2074

7460

BAP! : 735 Oak St. : Mon - Fri 9-5:30, Sat 10-5, Sun 11-4 : 970.879.7507 : wearBAP.com

(when you mention this ad)

Bap is a Dad’s Best Friend... 20% off all his favorite brand’s

Big AgnesHoney StingerBapJetboil Smith & Smartwool

Register & Prepay with Google Checkout onlineKids Classes • After School, Preschool & Summer Sessions

870-0384 www.steamboatartsandcraftsgym.com

A Place to Workout your “Inner Artist”

2073

1978

A Place to Workout your “Inner Artist”

2011 SUMMER Mix & Match Pottery, Drawing & Art Sessions

for Kids Ages 5 and up –Camps all begin Monday June 20th - August 19th

Half Day Camps 9-12 or 1-4 or stay all day and bring your lunch!

PUNCH CARDS AVAILABLE Buy 10 sessions get two free or Buy 5 sessions get one free.

NEW: Middle School and Teen Programs

Get Ready for a great summer of riding with Whispering Willows Ranch:

JUNE 16th-18th ∙ Horsemanship and Confi dence on the trail Clinic with Jason PatrickJUNE 19th-20th ∙ Cow Horse/Ranch Horsemanship with Jack McCumberJULY 11th-13th ∙ Horsemanship and Confi dence on the trail Clinic with Jason PatrickJULY 15th-16th ∙ Cow Horse/Ranch Horsemanship with Jack McCumber

TAKE THE CLINICS AS A 5 DAY OR TAKE EITHER SECTION BY ITSELFwww.whisperingwillowsranch.com ∙ 970-879-9489 20745583

comment &commentary

Viewpoints8 Steamboat Today • Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The city of Steamboat Springs’ Public Works Department was dipping its paddle in the right

stream back in late April when city engineer Ben Beall launched the pur-

suit of a Federal Emergency Man-agement Agency grant. The city hopes, with cooperation from landowners, to make floodplain improvements where Butcherknife Creek flows through Old Town residents’ back-yards on its way from Strawberry Park to its confluence with the Yampa River between

Sixth and Seventh streets.After watching the behavior of area

creeks and rivers over the intervening six or seven weeks, we think the community needs more initiatives of a similar nature.

We cannot know with certainty this morning if we’ve already seen the peak seasonal flow of the Elk and Yampa rivers or if this is only halftime of a very wet football game.

Routt County Emergency Manage-ment Director Bob Struble said Tuesday that he can’t be certain that four days

of unseasonably hot weather wouldn’t push the Elk beyond flood stage again this month. It’s time to take stock.

We’ve been impressed with the dedi-cation with which public employees all over the county have carried out their duties during this year’s unprecedent-ed runoff. However, in spite of consis-tent and determined efforts by city and county officials to keep roads, bridges and culverts intact and functioning, resi-dents don’t have all the information they need to take on more responsibility for protecting their neighborhoods.

The High Water Preparedness Guide published by Routt County and the municipalities within its boundaries tells property owners everything they need to know about how to build an effec-tive sandbag dike and provides some guidance on how to place one around a building. If you haven’t read it, it’s dis-played prominently at the top of the city and county’s websites.

The guide also tells readers what to expect from law enforcement and pub-lic works departments in case of flood, and by implication, what not to expect. Their primary focus is life, safety and protecting public infrastructure. It’s incumbent on all of us to be prepared to protect our own property.

We’ve also seen that whatever we do

in terms of placing sandbags to pro-tect our own property often has a direct effect on our neighbors downstream, and in some cases even our neighbors upstream. When a flooding river is thwarted in one spot, it has a way of finding the new path of least resistance.

Struble agreed and said it would be worthwhile for local officials to sit down with groups of neighbors to talk over what happened this spring.

“I’d like to see the city look at prop-erties in the 100-year floodplain and contact the owners, then sit down and have a conversation,” he said.

It’s human nature to think in terms of the span of our own lifetimes when we plan for flooding rivers. It’s more dif-ficult to prepare for what might be a once-in-100- or once-in-200-year event.

This month we’ve experienced a flood event that likely transcends our life-times, and it has given us a new apprecia-tion of what our valley looks like when the mountains hold an unprecedented amount of snow into early June.

In 2012, our best bet might be to give the city’s Butcherknife Creek study our full support and come up with a gameplan for the strategic placement of sandbag dikes at known trouble spots around town and the county’s rural neighborhoods.

Use, then reclaim landI must shine the light of truth on

Soren Jesperson’s editorial “Wild lands policy is good public policy” (Steam-boat Pilot & Today, June 12). He says, “It is time that balance be restored to our public lands. We can have our … energy and wilderness too.”

This gives the impression the Wil-derness Society really does want energy and the jobs energy production creates, along with wilderness. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mr. Jesperson says he works for the Wilderness Society

as the Northwest Colorado Wildlands Coordinator. He is in a position to know full well what their true agenda is in Routt, Rio Blanco and Moffat coun-ties, and it isn’t about energy or jobs.

Let’s take a look as some facts. Google “Wilderness Society lawsuits” and you get 146,000 hits in less than half a second. They have filed 149 law-suits in federal court. Two of these were filed in U.S. District Court in Colo-rado seeking to halt oil shale develop-ment here. They join a coalition of eight like-minded groups that has filed 1,596 environmental suits in the past 15 years.

These suits are a financial gravy train. The big eight splits up an average of about a billion dollars a year in attor-ney’s fees and recoveries. Every penny comes from taxes we pay, or money the feds borrow from China. Scan the titles and get a feel for their true agenda. It sure isn’t about “balance.”

The Wilderness Society and simi-lar groups are what I call imperial envi-ronmentalists. I have previously written about the successful restoration of Col-orado lands that have produced energy

High water guide is a good startCommentary

Mallard FillMore Bruce Tinsley

See letters, page 9

letters policyLimit letters to 600 words. All letters must include the phone number of the writer so that the authenticity of the letter can be verified. Email letters to [email protected] or send them to Letters at P.O. Box 774827, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477. By submit-ting letters to the editor, you grant the Steamboat Pilot & Today a nonexclusive license to publish, copy and distribute your work, while acknowledging that you are the author of the work. You grant the Steamboat Pilot & Today permission to publish and republish this material without restriction, in all formats and media now known or hereafter developed, including but not limited to all electronic rights. Solely by way of example, such rights include the right to convert the material to CD-ROM, DVD and other current and hereafter developed formats, the right to place the article in whole or in part on the Internet and other computer networks, and the right to electronically store and retrieve the work in electronic databases.

question of the week:

What’s your favorite recurring summer activity in Steamboat?

Vote at steamboattoday.com

News: 970-871-4234Sports: 970-871-4209Fax: 970-879-2888

P.O. Box 774827 • 1901 Curve PlazaSteamboat Springs, CO 80477

970-879-1502 • 888-499-3999

SteamboatToday.com

Steamboat Today is published Monday through Saturday mornings by WorldWest Limited Liability Company.

It is available free of charge in Routt County. Limit one copy per reader. No person may, without prior written permission of Steamboat Today, take more than one copy of each issue.

Additional copies and back issues are available for $1 at our offices or $2.50 to have a copy mailed.

2010 General Excellence winner, Colorado Press Association

Member of the Colorado Press Association, Newspaper Association of America, Inland Press Association

© 2011 Steamboat Today

TodayS T e a m b o a T

®

Do you have something to say about a story we’ve written?

steamboattoday.com allows readers to submit comments on stories, to create their own blogs and to participate in our reader forum. each sunday, a selection

of the top comments from steamboattoday.com are published. Visit steamboattoday.com

and submit your comments.steamboattoday.com

letters to the editor

aT iSSueGetting better prepared for future spring runoffs

our viewNeighborhoods needs strategic guidance.

The opinion of Steamboat Today is expressed only in the space above.

eDitorial BoarDscott stanford, general manager

Brent Boyer, editortom ross, reporter

laura schmidt, community representativeJim Miller, community representative

who to callSuzanne Schlicht, chief operating officer, ext. 224

Scott Stanford, general manager, ext. 202Brent Boyer, editor, ext. 221

Meg Boyer, advertising director, ext. 218Steve Balgenorth, circulation director, ext. 232

Suzanne Becker, creative services manager, ext. 243dan Schuelke, press operations manager, ext. 217

Blythe Terrell, city editor, ext. 234Nicole Miller, news editor, ext. 246

advertising: 970-879-1502Classifieds: 970-879-1502distribution: 970-871-4232

STEAMBOAT TODAY Monday, June 27, 2011 | 3LOCAL

Scott FranzPILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The National Weather Ser-vice is predicting that the high-er temperatures forecast for Steamboat Springs this week will cause rivers to rise again, bringing the Elk River near Mil-ner above flood stage during its

peak later in the week.The Elk was running at just

under its flood stage of 7.5 feet at about noon Sunday, and it briefly rose above it to 7.64 feet early Saturday. Hydrolo-gists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association have forecast the river to peak

Elk to peak above f lood stage Friday

Rivers to rise again

SCOTT FRANZ/STAFF

Farmland near the East Fork of the Elk River still was flooded Sunday afternoon. The Elk and Yampa rivers are expected to peak Thursday night and gradually recede heading into July. While the Elk is expected to rise above its flood stage Friday, the Yampa is forecasted to remain well below flood stage this week.

See Rivers, page 14

Register or donate today at

www.ride4yellow.com

Liana Gregory rides for her mom.

WHO do you ride 4?Aug. 5-7, 2011Steamboat Springs

RIDE 4 YELLOW

Fighting cancer globally and locally

14 | Monday, June 27, 2011 STEAMBOAT TODAYLOCAL

at about 8 feet early Thursday. Their forecast is weather depen-dent and is not as dependable as a short-term prediction.

Chris Cuoco, a meteorolo-gist for the Weather Service in Grand Junction, said tempera-tures are expected to reach 82 degrees in the Yampa Valley today, 86 degrees Tuesday and 80 degrees Wednesday before a chance of thunderstorms on Thursday are expected to usher in some cooler temperatures.

“We believe that our ongo-ing warming trend will cause rivers to rise again because of accelerated snowmelt,” Cuoco said. “We’re waiting for what we believe will be the final peak of river levels in the area early this week.”

Routt County Emergen-cy Management Director Bob Struble said Sunday that rivers and streams in the area should flow steadily around their cur-rent levels this week until they

begin a slow, gradual decline heading into July.

The Elk was flowing at 5,370 cubic feet per second Sunday afternoon, well below its peak of 7,000 cfs a couple of weeks ago. However, hydrologists at the National Weather Ser-vice are forecasting that the flow could increase to 7,810 cfs briefly when the river is forecast to reach a peak of 8 feet early Friday near Milner. After that, the Elk and the Yampa are expected to gradu-ally recede.

“They’re coming off nice and easy, and everybody is very well prepared on the Elk,” Struble said. “It’s just going to be a steady flow, and I don’t expect we’ll see any problems.”

He said the Yampa is peaking between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. and isn’t expected to rise above its action stage of 7 feet this week. The river is forecast to peak in Steamboat at 6.6 feet at about midnight Thursday.

North Routt Fire Chief Bob Reilley said his district had one resident whose home has been partially affected by flooding near where Big Creek feeds into the Elk, but he doesn’t expect any further problems from flooding.

“I would be surprised to hear if there were any adverse prob-lems other than the ones we’ve already seen,” he said.

West Routt Fire Chief Bryan Rickman said that there were no reports of problems caused by flooding and that none were expected this week.

The continued elevated river flows of the Yampa in town caused the Routt County Sher-iff ’s Office to forbid recre-ational floating in single-cham-ber inflatable boats — which includes inner tubes — until July.

Residents are advised to keep a close eye on the water levels of creeks, rivers and streams and to exercise caution while using paths close to high water.

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210 or email [email protected]

Rivers continued from 3

Yampa not expected to spill over its banksKEEP UP WITH

THE CONDITIONSat SteamboatToday.com

Quality | Friendly | Reasonable

Garden Centeroffi ce: 870-3299 | nursery: 871-4280

2624 Copper Ridge Circle • in Copper Ridge Business Parkemail: [email protected]

20%-50% OFF Select Shrubs

15% OFF Annuals

20747246



20753591


Pop corn! Pop corn is a great snack for everybody, including people with Diabetes. 94% fat free, with no butter. Still tastes good and it’s only 100 calories.

To learn more about our “Diabetes Prevention Packs” and our Tai Chi for Diabetes and Healthier Living Diabetes Classes call Eveline in Craig at 970-871-7658 or Karla in Steamboat Springs at 970-875-1880.



Kinetic Energy Physical TherapyFree Injury Screens

donations accepted all proceeds to bene� t

Let us SERVE YOU!

Lift Up

1 HR $4590 MIN $65

DEEP TISSUE $10 MORE*LIMITED TIME ONLY*

Fun in the sun – Relax – Repeat

Phone 970.819.6955625 S Lincoln Ave · Steamboat Springs, CO (next to Freshies)

Have a Massage • Relax • You Deserve It!

2075

2573

FAR & AWAY Massage

at Bella Salon

625 S Lincoln Ave · Steamboat Springs, CO (next to Freshies)

Winona’s

Jumpstartyour busy day with a

healthy heartybreakfast at

Open for Breakfast & Lunch Mon - Sun 7am - 3pm

Serving breakfast till noon on Sat & Sun879-2483

Downtown between 6th & 7th

20750262

COW PIE IS BACK IN TOWN

Steamboat Rugby Club captures

championshipSPORTS 8A

LEARNING RODEO’S

ROPESTravis Darling

dreams bigOUTDOORS 4A


Routt County Office of Emergency Management Director Bob Struble visits with Routt County Road 44 property owner Connie Fry on Tuesday morning as water inundates her property.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

To keep people like Dale Morris in Routt County, some say enhancing the area’s broad-band network is the only way to go.

Morris is a location-neutral professional. His job as a com-puter architect for Hewlett-Packard doesn’t require him to be near the company’s corpo-rate headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. It doesn’t really require him to be anywhere specific.

He’s among a growing num-ber of location-neutral profes-sionals who have chosen to call the Yampa Valley home.

“Their presence and growth

is helping diversify the local economy in ways we did not anticipate 10 years ago,” Scott Ford, former director of the Routt County Economic Devel-opment Cooperative and an adviser to data mining nonprof-it Yampa Valley Partners, said in an email. “The catalyst for this important change to the economy of Routt County has been broadband.”

According to data from the U.S. Census American Com-

munity Survey, an average of 12 percent of the county’s work-force from 2007 to 2009 was location-neutral, said Yampa Valley Partners Executive Direc-tor Kate Nowak, who compiled the information. She said that’s up from 6 percent in 2000 and 3 percent in 1990.

Nowak said an estimat-ed 1,421 employees of the 15,350-person county work-force of 16- to 64-year-olds are location-neutral — a percentage twice as high as the state and higher than Boulder, the next closest county.

“We’ve got a lot of that, and I think we can grow it,” Nowak said.

She added that according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta-

tistics’ preliminary estimates for 2010, the average annual wage for the professional/technology/scientific industry sector that location-neutral professionals typically fall into is $53,538. The average for all industries is $39,283.

Economist Carl Steidtmann told the audience at the 2011 Economic Summit in May that attracting location-neutral pro-fessionals was “probably one of the most under-realized oppor-tunities” for Steamboat and the valley.

Steidtmann, chief economist and director of consumer busi-ness for Deloitte Research, also is a location-neutral professional

Experts: More broadband needed to attract location-neutral employees


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

This spring has proven to be a memorable season for run-off, and local officials say there are lessons to be learned going into future years of high water.

“The length of how long it was was probably the high-light,” Routt County Emer-gency Management Director Bob Struble said. “Instead of a two-week (high-water period), we’re still kind of in it. The riv-ers are starting to go down, but they are still high.”

Flooding concerns started to brew even before Steamboat Ski Area closed April 10. Peo-ple began to talk about the last time Routt County saw major flooding, in 1984.

In early April, the snow-pack stood above 130 percent of average in the mountains surrounding the city. By mid-April the first round of flood-ing occurred as low-elevation snow melted and overwhelmed culverts in parts of the city and county and flooded sever-al businesses downtown.

The spring stayed cool, and the snow kept coming. On May 1, the Tower measuring site at 10,500 feet on Buffalo Moun-

tain measured more than 200 inches of snow with the equiv-alent of 72.6 inches of water. It was a new statewide record. The record continued to get broken until the snow water equivalent peaked May 29 with 80.1 inches of water.

Property owners took action with sandbags and shovels and prepared for all that water to make its way to the valley floor.

“I think the residents of Routt County took the threat of floods and high water very seriously,” Struble said. “I think we got the message out, and I think the public took it to heart.”

How quickly the snow melt-ed and how high the rivers and creeks would get was up to Mother Nature.

“I think we were very fortu-nate with the weather,” Stru-ble said. “We would get two or three hot days and then it would cool off for three or four days.”

City, county officials reflect asarea nears the end of snowmelt


Art in the Park attendees walk through West Lincoln Park while enjoying Saturday’s festivities. Art in the Park continues from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. For video from Saturday’s event, visit SteamboatToday.com.


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

The groups of children who frequent the sprawling acres of Yampatika’s Environmen-tal Learning Center at Lega-cy Ranch can often be found engaged in an activity that wasn’t originally on the summer camp’s lesson plan.

Before learning how to build a solar oven that harnesses the sun’s power within sheets of tin foil to bake cookies, Roy Lun-

deen and James Bradley were seeing who could pluck the most slugs out of the ground.

“We’re learning a lot,” James said. “Last week we learned about predators and prey.”

“And this week, we’re learn-ing about geology and igneous rocks and sedimentary rocks,” Roy added before snatching a

worm out of the ground. At a table nearby, camper

Sam Kitchen held a bobcat skull and asked what types of food it ate while it was alive. And as she observed a geology lesson Wednesday, Yampatika sum-mer intern Hanna Kurowski said that often, it’s these simple things that keep the kids enter-tained.

“When the kids are searching for four-leaf clovers and climb-ing trees, they’re happy,” she said. “It’s all about appreciating the outdoors. It’s the little things

that count out here.”When she’s not helping devel-

op lesson plans for the children at the summer camp, Kurows-ki is leading nature tours at Fish Creek Falls. She’s one of three summer interns working at Yampatika whose paycheck is being funded by a $13,600 grant the camp received this year from the Colorado Kids Outdoors Initiative.

Yampatika Executive Direc-tor Sonja Macys said the grant

Yampatika’s summer interns appreciate the possibilities of their outdoor curriculum

SCOTT FRANZ/STAFF

Sam Kitchen observes a bobcat skull Wednesday at a Yampatika summer camp at Legacy Hills Ranch. The camp received a $13,600 grant from the Colorado Kids Outdoors Initiative that they used to fund three interns who are working at the camp this summer.

COW PIE IS BACK IN TOWN

Steamboat Rugby Club captures

championshipSPORTS 8A

SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2011VOLUME 124, NUMBER 48 • STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO • SteamboatToday.com

$1.00

Classifieds . . . . . . . 3BComics. . . . . . . . . 10BCrossword . . . . . . 11BHappenings . . . . . . 2AMilestones . . . . . . . 3A

Obituaries . . . . . . . 3AOutdoors . . . . . . . . 4ASports . . . . . . . . . . 8AViewpoints . . . . . . . 6AWeather . . . . . . . . 11B




SteamboatToday.com


Partly sunny with a storm. High of 78.Page 11B

DELIVERY PROBLEM?PAGE DESIGNED BY LAURA MAZADE

RIVER REPORTYampa River flow SaturdayNoon 3,000 cfs11 p.m. 2,970 cfsAverage for this date 424 cfsHighest for this date 4,300 cfs, 2011Lowest for this date 11 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at Fifth Street.

Enjoying the simple things

Saturday stroll through Art in the Park

Drawing a new kind of worker

Wet season gives lessons



See Broadband, page 5A

ON THE GO?



See Yampatika, page 7A

See Flooding, page 7A


Watch a video of the Yampatika camp.

dreams big4A

$1.00HISTORY LINKS 2 HOMES FEATURED AT ANNUAL TOUR | REAL ESTATE 1B

LOOK InsIde for

Steamboat Pilot &Today • Sunday, July 10, 2011 | 7A

Ricardo Alonso-ZaldivarTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON

A debt-busting deal on the scale that President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner had talked about would have all but guaranteed that peo-ple on Medicare would feel at least some of the pain.

But on Saturday evening, Boehner said he wouldn’t seek the $4 trillion deficit reduction deal, but would seek $2 million

in reductions. The exact effects of that shift

by Boehner weren’t immediately clear.

Low-income people on Medic-aid wouldn’t have escaped totally under a major deal, either. If a deal ultimately led to overhauling taxes, workers and their families could be on the hook also, fac-ing potential limits on the tax-free status of job-based health insurance.

Health care was a main ingre-dient on both the spending and

tax sides of the elusive agree-ment that Obama and Boehner, R-Ohio, had been trying to reach.

The president has scheduled a meeting Sunday with congres-sional leaders to keep pushing for a compromise that would reduce future deficits in exchange for lift-ing the $14.3 trillion cap on the national debt. Action is needed so the government can keep paying its bills beyond Aug. 2.

With Congress political-ly polarized and skittish about next year’s elections, it’s unclear

whether there’s any combination of Democratic and Republican votes to pass major deficit reduc-tion that cuts benefit programs and raises revenue. Boehner’s shift Saturday suggested there was not.

But many of the health-care options that negotiators were considering have been available for months. Proposals have come from the Obama administration, congressional advisers and bipar-tisan groups, such as Obama’s debt commission.

For Medicare, possibilities included higher premiums for upper-income retirees and new copayments and deductibles that affect all but the poor. For exam-ple, seniors do not currently face a copayment for home care. That could have changed if there had been a major deal.

Obama’s health care law already cut about $500 billion from projected payments to pro-viders, and some experts say there’s not much fat left there.

The smaller deficit-reduction

deal, could reduce the likelihood that older people will take a hit.

Although Social Security pre-viously had been considered untouchable, one measure under discussion would bring in close to $200 billion through a tweak that reduces benefits and increas-es the amount collected from pay-roll taxes.

A major proposal that would affect Medicare beneficiaries calls for changing the current cost-shar-ing rules, a hodgepodge of varying copayments and deductibles.

and the additional interns it funds have allowed the camp to accept more children into its programs. She also said it would benefit the interns, who hope to pursue careers in environmental education.

“The grant allows us to con-nect with an older audience who will become future leaders of environmental education in the community,” she said. “It’s a field I think is underrepresent-ed.”

She said the camp received 25 applications from six states for the paid internship position, and Yampatika was one of four organizations that received the funding.

Harrison Weinberg gradu-ated from Steamboat Springs High School in May and is in the third week of an internship with Yampatika. He said devel-oping 10 weeks of programming for the children has been a chal-lenge and an interesting task for a summer internship.

“It was overwhelming at first,” he said. “You write your own curriculum and have to plan to teach for seven hours. But I’ve started to get into a groove, and it’s a lot easier now that I’m used to working with the kids.”

He said the camp focuses on a different theme every week and began with a look at the history of the Yampa Valley. Children experienced a day in the life of a Ute Indian by learning how to follow animal tracks in a mead-ow outside the ranch. Campers also have already learned about weather patterns and compost-ing, and how to identify flora and fauna native to the area. As cars whoosh by the front of the ranch on U.S. Highway 40, the kids are looking west, to open

acres and the site of a camping trip they have planned.

“The kids have so much fun, they don’t realize they’re learn-ing something,” Yampatika Pro-gram Coordinator Melissa Cal-hoon said.

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210 or email [email protected]

SCOTT FRANZ/STAFF

Yampatika summer intern Cassady Roberts, right, helps children identify different types of plants Wednesday at the Environmental Learning Center at Legacy Ranch. Roberts is one of three interns who are being funded by a grant the camp received from the Colorado Kids Outdoors Initiative.

SCOTT FRANZ/STAFF

Sam Kitchen plays with a bobcat skull at the Yampatika summer camp at Legacy Hills Ranch. The camp focuses on different themes every week that deal with history and the outdoors.

NATION

The Elk River just west of Steamboat peaked for the season at 5 a.m. June 7, when it reached a gauge height of 8.14 feet at the Routt County Road 42 bridge. The water was moving at 8,250 cubic feet per second, breaking the all-time record 6,970 cfs set June 8, 2010. It was a 100-year flooding event.

“I thought the Elk would give us more trouble than the Yampa, and that was the case,” Struble said. “The Yampa River came close, but it never hit flood stage at the Fifth Street Bridge.”

The Yampa peaked the same day as the Elk, but was far from breaking its all-time record of 6,820 cfs. At 8:45 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. on June 7, it reached 4,820 cfs.

“Here in Steamboat it han-dled itself pretty well,” Struble said.

Lessons learnedStruble said the areas that

were affected by high water this year were essentially the same areas affected in previous years.

Monetarily, Routt County’s rural roads, bridges and drain-age systems were likely dam-aged the most this spring, but it was not directly because of the gushing water.

“While we thought that most of the problems would come out of the rivers or streams, it came out of the landslides, which will create problems for years to come,” said Paul Draper, the county’s road and bridge director.

Repairing the damaged roads and bridges could cost more than $1 million, Draper said, but no engineering work has

been done, so he did not want to speculate further about the cost.

“It’s just me going, ‘Holy cow,’” Draper said. “We’re try-ing to get some dollar amounts together.”

To Steamboat City Manag-er Jon Roberts, it was apparent this spring that some buildings were built “a little low” and did not adequately handle the run-off. He said the city’s engineer-ing department should focus more on those issues.

“During the city’s permit-ting process and review for new development, we need to ensure that proper runoff facilities are constructed,” Roberts said.

The city also should enhance and maintain its relationships with agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Weather Service to better enable the city to pre-dict and prepare for high water, Roberts said.

Officials hope private-proper-ty owners took something away from the flooding this spring, as well.

Dream Island Mobile Home Park Manager Monica Mack-ey said there likely would be discussions in the future with the owners of the mobile home park about mitigating flooding.

“It could have got pretty bad,” Mackey said. “I think we could have got more water.”

Property owners along the Elk such as Saddle Mountain Ranch owner Tony Connell also are looking to mitigate the risk in the future. His ranch was devastated by high water, and it forced a family living there to evacuate the building.

Mitigating future risk there will likely involve cooperation

between the county, the Colora-do Department of Transporta-tion and property owners, Stru-ble said.

“Who has responsibility, I think that would be decided above my head,” he said.


Flooding continued from 1A

Officials hope private-property owners learned from flooding

Yampatika continued from 1A

Yampatika camp focuses on different themes each week

“It was overwhelming at first. You write your own curriculum and have to plan to teach for seven hours. But I’ve started to get into a groove, and it’s a lot easier now that I’m used to working with the kids.”

Harrison WeinbergYampatika intern

Medicare recipients could be affected in debt deal

970-879-9008 • WWW.GALSCO.ORG

Free performance TODAY at Steamboat Botanic Park

Civilisation, located at the Steamboat Botanic Park at 6pm.Bring a blanket, picnic basket and your family, and enjoy a free show.

(In case of rain show will be held at the Art Depot)

20755718

2062

6370

YOU HAVE A DREAM......Here is your opportunity!

Steve DownsBroker Associate, gri

Certified residential Specialist

Experience counts...36 Years Locally

879-7800 • www.steamboatvillagebrokers.com

Lake Catamount Panorama!Imagine Your Family Retreat on a 50-Acre homesite at Lake Catamount! This unique lot offers view of Lake Catamount and the Routt National Forest and shares a private drive with only two other homes. Membership in the Catamount Ranch and Club is available

(membership fee.) THIS PROPERTY IS THE BEST PRICE OFFERED BY FAR!!!!! #129014. $749,000!

Do something positive for yourself. Call today for a no-cost, no-obligation portfolio review. Together, we can create a

strategy that’s right for you based on your current situation, objectives and risk tolerance.

Serving the Yampa Valley for over 23 years.

Chris Puckett970-879-1851

David Lamb970-879-7742

Douglas E Davis970-824-8123 20

7384

58

FINANCIAL ADVISORS

TAKE CHARGEOF YOUR FUTURE.

MEMBER SIPC

James H. Crawford might never have founded Steamboat Springs had it

not been for his experiences as a teenage cavalry officer in the

Civil War.Jim

Crawford, the great-grandson of James Harvey Crawford, held the rapt atten-tion of an overflow crowd in the Utter-

back Annex of the Tread of Pioneers Museum on Friday as he read aloud from love letters penned by his Civil War ances-tor. The letters were sent to his future wife, Margaret, from Mis-souri, Arkansas and Kansas.

His love for Margaret kept Crawford going during the war, but his experiences leading his company into battle against the Army of the Confederacy developed his natural instincts for leadership, Jim Crawford said. And on a more pragmat-ic level, his monthly salary of $70 bankrolled first the pur-chase of his farm in Missouri and subsequently his decision to move his family, including three children, by wagon to the wilderness of the Yampa Val-


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Standing water and a gutted ranch house on Tony Connell’s property just west of Steamboat Springs serve as a reminder that this was ground zero for spring flooding.

There also is the large trench going through his driveway where the spillover from the Elk River

chewed away at the ground. Four pieces of 48-inch drainage pipe could not handle the flow and were washed away.

“One’s in Craig, one got crushed, one’s right here and one’s in my neighbor’s yard,” Connell said.

Connell bought Saddle Mountain Ranch at U.S. High-way 40 and Routt County Road 44 in 2007, along with several nearby properties. His vision was

to sell building lots to families interested in the shared ameni-ties the property offered, such as fishing, boating and equestrian activities.

Connell said the damage caused by the high water this spring was personally devastat-ing, and there is no clear path to get operations back to normal.

He said he is waiting to see

Property owners discuss flood prevention ideas


JULY 16, 2011Steamboat Springs, Colorado


TODAY


Steamboat Springs resident Tony Connell, right, shows neighbor Dan Simon the flood damage to Connell’s Saddle Mountain Ranch house Thursday. Connell is hoping to work with neighboring property owners to help prevent flood damage in the future.

Elk damage is assessed

®

FREE

SteamboatToday.com


Horoscope . . . . .31Movies . . . . . . . . .7Nation. . . . . . . . .18Scoreboard. . . . .29Sports. . . . . . . . .25ViewPoints . . . . . .8

■ LOTTO Friday night’s Cash 5: 10-24-27-28-30MatchPlay numbers:11-15-23-24-29-32Mega Millions:16-29-30-46-56Megaball: 6 Megaplier: 3

INSIDE: Oak Creek Town Board votes to increase marijuana business license and inspection costs • page 5



■ EVENTSStorm in the evening. High of 82.

Page 31

■ WEATHER■ RIVER REPORTYampa River flow FridayNoon 1,610 cfs11 p.m. 1,670 cfsAverage for this date 293 cfsHighest for this date 2,020 cfs, 2011Lowest for this date 8 cfs, 1934Streamflow reported in cubic feet per second at the Fifth Street Bridge as provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

▲

VIDEO ONLINEHear Tony Connell talk about the damage to his property with this

story at SteamboatToday.com

Civil War enabled founder

CorrectionRobin Wright speaks at 5 p.m. Thursday as part of Seminars at Steamboat at Strings Music Pavilion. The time was incorrect in the Explore Steamboat calendar on page 18 of Friday’s Steamboat Today.


See Ross, page 2

See Elk River, page 3

STEAMBOAT TODAY Saturday, July 16, 2011 | 3LOCAL


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

South Routt School District hopes to be a part of a new Colorado Department of Educa-tion pilot program for evaluating teachers and principals.

“We know we’re going to have to change our evaluation system, and we know that if we’re selected for this pilot program, we would have a leg up on getting it up to date and on par with new state requirements,” South Routt Superintendent Scott Mader said.

South Routt was one of 41 Colorado districts to apply for the program, which will select as many as 10 districts to implement new evaluation systems.

The pilot program stems from last year’s passage of Senate Bill 10-191, which will require school districts to change their evalua-tion systems to a new state-sup-ported model by the 2014-15 school year.

The Education Department said in a news release that it had

received more applications for the program than expected, and the department plans to tell districts no later than Aug. 10 whether they have been accepted.

Mader said that if his district were not chosen, it still would begin retooling the evaluation system for its 41 licensed edu-cators next year. He said South Routt has not previously included student performance in its official evaluations of educators, but that will change next year.

“I don’t think the teachers have gotten as much out of this (eval-uation) process as they should have, and I think we can really gain from this pilot program both as administrators and teachers,” he said. “If it’s done properly, I think the feedback the teachers get in the classroom can be much better.”

According to the Colora-do Department of Education, school districts selected for the program will provide feedback to the state on their evaluation sys-tems and identify the challenges

and strengths of their evaluations. Mader said his district would

continue evaluating teachers and principals by observing them in the classroom, but it also would find a way to include student achievement in evaluations.

“You really don’t have to have student achievement incorporat-ed into your evaluation right now, but that’s what I see becoming the requirement,” he said. “There’s going to be some fairness issues because we have those teachers that teach CSAP courses, and others that teach art and music classes that are not CSAP tested.”

Mader said South Routt would be an ideal district for the pilot program because of its willing-ness to implement a new evalua-tion system.

“If we’re selected, I think the state can learn from us, and we can learn from the state,” he said.

The Education Department said districts are being selected based on their diversity of size, geography, student demographics and readiness for change.

South Routt pursues program

whether his insurance company will cover the damages, which he estimated were $100,000 to the house alone.

Andrew George and his family were renting the home and had to evacuate it June 3.

Drywall and carpet has been removed from the home so it can dry, but Connell has done little else. The flood-damaged caretak-er unit smells like a moldy base-ment.

“I’m just in limbo,” Connell said. “I just can’t start tearing into it until I know what’s going to be covered and what’s not.”

Connell, who spent his pro-fessional career with Connell Resources construction compa-ny, said he thinks the flooding could have been prevented or at least lessened, and he has ideas for making sure it does not hap-pen again.

“Handling water which is not the ranch’s and is not historic drainage is not our responsibil-ity,” Connell said. “We will not be the impact zone for others’ mis-takes and bad designs.”

The Elk hit its high for the sea-son at 5 a.m. June 7, when the water was moving at 8,250 cubic feet per second, breaking the all-time record of 6,970 cfs set June 8, 2010. It was a 100-year flood-ing event.

“They had some forecasts of 10, 11,000 cfs that had some good probability,” Connell said. “We’re very fortunate we only saw the 8,500 cfs.”

Given repeated years of high water along the Elk, Connell

said he thinks the flows have increased on the Elk, for what-ever reasons, and they need to be prepared.

Dan Simon’s property just east of Connell’s also was flooded, but the water never went above the floorboards of his family’s home.

The men think they have identified the problems that led to their properties being over-whelmed with water.

“To me it’s just simple to fix,” Simon said.

One of the biggest problems, they said, was work done at a neighboring property, where the owner had intended to someday build a home along the rehabil-itated river banks on the East Fork of the Elk. The banks were rebuilt too low and were breached, allowing water to flood property to the west, Con-nell said. Water still was coming over the banks Thursday, when the river upstream had slowed to about 2,700 cfs.

Water from the Elk was not evenly being fed into the Yampa River, Connell said. The West Fork was being overwhelmed, Connell said, while the East Fork flowing under a U.S. 40 bridge could have handled more water.

Routt County Emergency Management Director Bob Stru-ble has said addressing the issues along the Elk would require cooperation among all the stake-holders, which include private property owners, the Colora-do Department of Transporta-tion, Union Pacific Railroad and Routt County.

“It’s a big task,” Connell said.

Elk River continued from 1

Elk hit its high on June 7

2076

0943

Saturday, July 16 1pm-4pm

Coleman CookBroker/Owner, GRI

Certifi ed Residential Specialist®[email protected]

ItsWhyWeLiveHere.com970.846.5086

Saturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmSaturday, July 16 1pm-4pmOPEN HOUSE

23580 Willow Island Trail • 5BD/4BA, 3152sfWAS: $459,000 ~ NOW: $399,000

Directions: Hwy 131 South, left on CR 14, left on CR 16, left on Willow Island Tr

STEAMBOAT TODAY Saturday, July 16, 2011 | 11


STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

As the high-water season winds down, some residents and business owners are dismantling the walls of sandbags put in place to protect their property.

The city of Steamboat Springs gave out a record 10,130 sandbags and about 100 tons of sand this spring, Deputy City Manager Wendy DuBord said Wednesday.

“That is the most ever in recent history,” she said. “The closest thing to that was 8,000 bags in 1997.”

That number does not include the thousands of bags people and businesses bought on their own.

DuBord said collecting all those sandbags would take a lot of city resources, so residents and businesses are on their own for disposal. Ideas for what to

do with the sand and bags vary.“Definitely don’t be tossing

the sand in the river,” said Mike Zopf, director of Routt Coun-ty’s Department of Environ-mental Health. “If they had a use for them this year, it would seem they would have a use for them in the future.”

Perhaps this is the year to consider building the sandbox the kids have been begging for. Using the sand in a play area would be fine, Zopf said.

As for the plastic bags, Waste Management trash disposal ser-vice does not recycle them, a spokeswoman said.

Dave Epstein, who helps run the Home Resource recycling

center at the Milner Landfill, said the bags can be reused.

“They seem to hold up pret-ty well,” Epstein said. “I don’t know if they’ll hold up for years and years.”

If people want to drop them off, Epstein said Home Resource would take the sandbags and try to resell them.

Sandbags lined the Yampa River Core Trail behind Fish Creek Mobile Home Park this spring after a community sand-bagging day.

Residents who benefited from the sandbags now are responsi-ble for clearing out the 2,500 bags and 75 tons of sand used to fill them, said Mary Alice Page-Allen, asset and program manager for the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, which runs the community.

The number of sandbags exceeded 2,400 at Dream Island Mobile Home Park, as well.

Manager Monica Mackey

said many of those will be left where they are to help reinforce the banks for future high-water years. She said in the past, they have put seed on the bags and vegetation would grow to pro-vide additional strength.

“We’re just going to let them sit there,” she said.


City will not collect bags distributed to stem flooding

JOHN F. RUSSELL/FILE

Dream Island resident Jorge Torres throws a sandbag into the back of his pickup truck on June 6. Manager Monica Mackey said many of sandbags will be left where they are to help reinforce the banks for future high-water years.

LOCAL

Cleanup of sandbags begins



Reser

vatio

ns R

ecomm

ende

d •

CAL

L 97

0.87

1.51

50

AT THE TOP OF THE GONDOLA

A Steamboat TraditionTake a scenic Gondola ride to a spectacular Champagne brunch with the most majestic views of the Yampa Valley. Savor a lavish 100ft buffet featuring Hazie’s culinary best. Enjoy traditional eggs benedict, omelets made to order, peel & eat shrimp, smoke salmon, international cheeses, fresh berries, homemade breakfast breads, chef carved Colorado beef, and a cascading chocolate fountain.

Sundays 9:30am – 1pm steamboat.com


970-879-7031

20724189

Considering a Joint

Replacement?

20724189


Emily Harris, DPT




20761710

COFFEE ON THE DECK Sunday July 17

"TREE TOPS" OPEn HOuSE

9 a.m.- Noon Highway 131 to

Country Road 14 then approximately 3 miles to County Road 200, Look for our open

house signs

Call for directions, 879-7883 or (800)-895-9193

Mark Stine, GRI Broker [email protected](970) 879-7883 or (800) 571-0112www.steamboat-realestate.com

sustained coverage: flooding

Documents