Delta County Commissioners

In the January 2016 edition of The Delta County Commissioners Report,  Felix Belmont speaks with district 3 commissioner Mark Roeber.

This week on Local Motion, we discuss the economy in Delta County and local efforts to improve it. KVNF's Laura Palmisano speaks to Delta County Commissioner Bruce Hovde, Michelle Haynes, the executive director of Region 10,  and Trish Thibodo, the executive director of Delta County Economic Development. 

Governments and organizations across the Western Slope say slow and unreliable broadband is hindering economic development. That’s why communities across the region want voter support this fall on measures that would allow them to try and address the issue. 

Several counties across the Western Slope have supported the Thompson Divide lease swap.  Delta County was one of the last holdouts, but they made their decision on Monday.

U.S. Representative Scott Tipton stopped in Delta on Wednesday as part of his tour of the Western Slope. 

At a meeting with the Delta County Commissioners Tipton discussed economic issues, broadband, rural health care, energy and tax reform. He also gave a congressional update. 

KVNF's Laura Palmisano interviewed Tipton during his visit.

Tipton represents Colorado's 3rd Congressional District which covers most of the western part of the state. 

He's also scheduled to meet with the Ouray County Commissioners on Thursday in Ridgway.

Ali Lightfoot speaks with District 1 Commissioner Doug Atchley. 

Earlier this year the Delta County Citizens for Animal Welfare and Shelter, better know as CAWS, asked the county for $25,000. 

Last week the commissioners approved the county budget for next year.

JoAnn Kalenak, a CAWS board member, says the group didn’t get the money it asked for.

She says the budget does allocate $10,000 that will be split between the four animal rescue groups in Delta County. The money CAWS receives is earmarked for spay and neuter programs.  

The Colorado Court of Appeals overturned a previous ruling about the chicken farms in Delta County.

Last year the North Fork Valley received about half of Delta County’s lottery-funded Conservation Trust Fund monies. 

This week Delta County commissioners heard a wide ranging assessment of the past year’s activities and a glimpse of the future from Grand Mesa Uncompahgre Gunnison (GMUG) Forest Supervisor Scott Armentrout. 

Delta County Commissioners recently named two historical landmarks, one being the Rogers Mesa Community House, the other the historic Bross Hotel. 

The Bross was built in 1906 and according to early newspapers, was Delta County's first luxury hotel (and early on, its only one.)

Now, after over 100 years and eight different owners, the Bross is a bed & breakfast.

For this episode of Local Motion, Felix Belmont brings us another edition of his Delta County Commissioners' report. 

Today Felix speaks with Delta County Clerk Ann B. Edins about the responsibilities of the clerk's office, changes in the election process over the years and more.

The Powell Mesa Hen House dispute has renewed questions about zoning and the "right to farm" in Delta County. Adopted in 1996 by the state of Colorado and the county, the "Right to Farm and Ranch" policy lays out some parts of rural life that residents are expected to accept, including noise from tractors, manure, odor from animal confinement and the use of pesticides.

For some historical context on the policy, KVNF’s Marty Durlin spoke with former Delta County Commissioner Jim Ventrillo about the early days of the right-to-farm policy.  

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on Saturday reported that the Delta County Farm Bureau will host a fundraiser for the Hostetler family, owners of a Hotchkiss hen house at the center of a years-long legal dispute over whether the facility is compatible with the surrounding Powell Mesa neighborhood.

After a closed-door session with county attorney Christine Knight, Delta County Commissioners on Monday announced they would appeal the decision by District Court Judge J. Steven Patrick that forced them to issue a cease and desist order to the Hostetler hen laying operation on Powell Mesa earlier this month. 

Attorneys for Delta County and the operators of a Powell Mesa Hen House say the two-year-long battle over the facility’s fate isn’t over yet. That's despite a ruling that Western Slope Layers would have to cease and desist operations immediately, handed down by Judge J. Steven Patrick last week.

Judge J. Stevens Patrick ruled yesterday that operators of a Powell Mesa Hen House in Delta County must cease and desist operations immediately, bringing to an end (for now) a long and contentious lawsuit brought against the facility's operators and the Board of County Commissioners by a group of concerned residents.

In May, as the drought lingered for yet another year, Governor John Hickenlooper issued an executive order to the Colorado Water Conservation Board, calling for a new Colorado Water Plan “that will support agriculture in rural Colorado and align state policy to the state’s water values.” Hickenlooper also paid tribute to Colorado’s historic water law, which claims first in time, first in right.

On Tuesday at a regular meeting, Delta County Commissioners commented on a pending wildlife ruling by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that would affect the imperiled Gunnison sage-grouse, asking that the commission use current habitat maps to define setbacks and not require a blanket four-mile distance. KVNF's Marty Durlin has more on the threats to the iconic bird.

The Gunnison sage-grouse is known for an elaborate mating display along with a ritual  dance, or strut. And of course there’s the mating call, which sounds something like a sluggish dran.