Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced an emergency closure of the Christina State Wildlife Area in Routt County which went into effect Monday. 

Christina State Wildlife Area is a 23-acre fishing access easement held by CPW and is located around seven miles north of Steamboat Springs on County Road 129. 

The closure was approved by CPW Director Jeff Davis on Friday following a site visit along Elk River in the wildlife area on Nov. 11 when CPW staff took note of “significant erosion along the stream bank next to a private residence,” the news release reads. 

CPW determined the home’s structural integrity could be compromised if the erosion continued, thus enacting the emergency closure for fortification of the stream bank. 

The closure will remain in effect until further notice and includes the public parking area along County Road 129. CPW expects to complete additional stream bank stabilization and restoration work this spring. 

Anglers looking for alternative fishing locations can contact CPW’s Steamboat Springs Area Office at 970-870-3333 for more information.

Each year, the annual Adele Dombrowski Mountain Divas Tournament is one of the most coveted titles of the Steamboat Stampede 19U girls hockey team’s season. 

Dombrowski, a former Steamboat hockey star, died at 17 years old in 2005, and the tournament was named in her memory. While none of the active players on the Stampede’s U19 team were alive in 2005, Dombrowski’s spirit lives on through the girls each season. 

Dombrowski’s mother, Kris Stouffer, returns to the tournament every year to speak with the girls and to continue to spread her daughter’s message of putting forth a strong work ethic, playing hard, being a good sport and, above all else, having fun.

“We kick off every year with her coming in and talking to the girls,” said the 19U girls head coach, Kerry Shea. “She shares the history, life and memory of Adele and what the namesake of this tournament is truly all about. It’s about the camaraderie, it’s about the enthusiasm, the support, passion and teamwork.”

On Sunday, the Stampede secured another Adele Tournament victory, something they have become accustomed to over the years. 

The tournament began Friday with a tight 2-2 tie against the Aspen 19U Girls. The Stampede got into the win column later that night with a 5-1 victory over the Summit 19U team. 

The offensive dominance stayed alive Saturday when the Stampede earned a 7-0 victory over Utah. Taylor Bennett earned a natural hat trick in the second period with Winter French adding two scores as well. Saturday night concluded with two more goals from Bennett en route to a 4-1 win over Vail to secure a spot in the tournament finals. 

Vail ultimately defeated Aspen in the semi-final to earn a second shot at the Stampede while playing for the tournament trophy. 

Taking no score into the third period, it was Bennett once again who got on the board for the Stampede giving Steamboat a 1-0 lead. She scored a team-leading eight total goals across the five tournament games this weekend. 

Vail managed to tie things up in the final second and send the game to a sudden death overtime. 

“Our team was feeling confident the buzzer was going to go but…” Shea said. “it’s never over until it’s over and one of (Vail’s) players was able to clear it and sure enough made it down the ice. She had scored the goal against us literally with 0.01 seconds left… It was definitely a bit of reality for our squad to know that you have to finish it out.”

Shea said the girls managed to take a deep breath and regroup for the sudden-death overtime period. 

In overtime, Claire Shea managed to get a pass off to the team’s youngest player, Mia George, who weaved her way through two Vail defenders and broke the tie with a gutsy goal to secure the Adele Tournament title. 

The Stampede look to continue their winning ways with league games in Aspen this weekend.

In celebration of National Apprenticeship Week, Serve Colorado has announced the launch of a new Registered Apprenticeship Program in regenerative farm management, aimed at fostering the next generation of agricultural professionals in Colorado. This program not only addresses the pressing need for sustainable farming practices but also provides a pathway for diverse communities to engage in the agricultural sector.

This new RAP is the result of a collaborative effort supported by a 2022 Scale Up Grant from the state of Colorado. Over the past 18 months, dedicated partners, including local experts and educational institutions, have come together to design a comprehensive training program that meets the evolving needs of the farming industry. This initiative is poised to create meaningful job opportunities while promoting environmental stewardship and community resilience.

The program aims to place its first two apprentices by Dec. 31, with training and work scheduled to begin in March 2025. With a structured pathway that allows for continuous growth, the apprenticeship will maintain a cohort of four members each year, fostering a supportive learning environment.

Mountain Roots Food Project has been instrumental in designing the apprenticeship and will serve as the sponsor agency and AmeriCorps Program grantee. 

The RAP will focus on two primary tracks: regenerative agriculture and hydroponic farming. Each apprentice will receive a minimum of 2,000 hours of on-the-job training alongside 144 hours of related instruction. Local, knowledgeable farmers will provide hands-on training for apprentices. This immersive experience will also include opportunities to attend conferences, enhancing their networks and skill sets beyond farming. 

Interested individuals are encouraged to learn more and apply through the Mountain Roots Healthy Futures webpage. For more information on the Registered Apprenticeship Program in Farming, visit MountainRootsFoodProject.org/healthy-futures.

For more information about Serve Colorado and apprenticeships, visit Servecolorado.colorado.gov/americorps-and-apprenticeship. 

AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, provides opportunities for Americans to serve their country domestically, address the nation’s most pressing challenges, improve lives and communities, and strengthen civic engagement. Each year, the agency places more than 200,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in intensive service roles; and empowers millions more to serve as long-term, short-term or one-time volunteers. Learn more at AmeriCorps.gov.

Months after announcing plans to buy one of Summit County’s legendary ski resorts, Alterra Mountain Co. officially owns Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

Alterra purchased A-Basin from Dream Unlimited Corp., a Canadian real estate company based in Toronto, which had owned the ski area since 1997. The sale had been pending for months while it waited for a Department of Justice antitrust investigation to wrap up. In financial documents, Dream Unlimited Corp. valued the sale at approximately $105 million.

With the purchase of A-Basin, the Denver-based Alterra Mountain Co. now owns a heli-skiing operation, the popular Ikon Pass and 19 year-round resorts, including Steamboat Ski Resort and Winter Park Resort. There will reportedly be no changes to A-Basin’s local season passes or Ikon Pass access for the 2024-25 winter season.

A-Basin’s Chief Operating Officer Alan Henceroth has been with the ski area for 36 years and will continue to lead the resort, overseeing daily operations with his longtime team, according to an announcement released Tuesday, Nov. 19. 

“Our community at Arapahoe Basin is special, and it’s something that we deeply cherish and protect,” Henceroth said in a statement. “The thrill of skiing the Pali, the tradition of hiking the East Wall, the magic of skinning to Moonlight Dinners, and the joy of sharing a chairlift ride with friends — all of these experiences define who we are and will always remain at the heart of A-Basin.”

Henceroth noted A-Basin has been partnering with Alterra on the Ikon Pass, offering a limited number of days on A-Basin’s slopes for passholders since 2019. Prior to that A-Basin was part of the Epic Pass owned by Vail Resorts.

A-Basin has been hailed for its no-frills skiing and smaller weekend crowds. When the ski area pivoted from the Epic Pass to the Ikon Pass five years ago, it cited overcrowding. Since, the ski area has sought to curb visitation in a bid to preserve a more relaxed and intimate ski experience. Visitation during the 2022-23 season, for example, was 75% of what it was during the 2018-19 season, the ski area’s last with Epic.

Henceroth has said he’s confident that A-Basin will continue to keep the same atmosphere under Alterra’s ownership.

“They respect and embrace everything that makes A-Basin unique,” Henceroth said of Alterra. “As we move forward, I am confident that the spirit of The Basin will not only remain, but grow stronger than ever as we continue to work with leaders on the mountain on a 10-year master development plan to address parking, enhanced snowmaking, and improvements to the experience for skiers and riders of all skill levels.”

Founded in 1946, A-Basin was the first ski area built in Summit County and is one of the longest running commercial ski operations in Colorado. Over the last 27 years, A-Basin expanded the ski area to 1,428 acres, replaced all of the lifts and most of the buildings and opened the two highest elevation restaurants in North America, Il Rifugio and Steilhang Hut, the release states. The ski area has also pledged to be carbon neutral by 2025 and last year announced that they took a major step toward that goal.

“We are honored to become stewards of Arapahoe Basin, and we are excited to welcome the team to the Alterra Mountain Company family,” Alterra President and CEO Jared Smith said in the release. “A-Basin is considered legendary for a reason and has always been more than just a ski area to many — it is a home to passionate, dedicated skiers and riders who share a spirit of adventure and love for Colorado’s mountains.”

A-Basin currently offers five days of access on the Ikon Base Pass and seven on the full pass. 

A new parking reservation system that A-Basin is implementing on most weekends and holidays is among the largest changes to resort operations skiers and riders are likely to experience. The ski area will be piloting the parking reservation program from Dec. 21 to May 4 in an effort to make parking, which has always been the pinch point for A-Basin, a smoother experience for visitors.

With the purchase complete, Smith added, “The team at Alterra is excited to work with leaders at A-Basin to ensure its spirit and culture thrive.”

Nearly 60% of Colorado hospitals are failing to meet requirements set by a program created in 2022 to curb the cost of health care for low-income patients, according to a new report from the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

The Hospital Discounted Care law went into effect in September 2022, requiring that hospitals screen uninsured patients for eligibility for state-run health care programs. It also placed limits on what patients at or below 250% of the Federal Poverty guidelines can be billed for services at hospitals and emergency rooms as well as limits on the amount providers can be billed. The law also requires that the hospitals give patients a chance to apply for the program when they receive services at the hospital.

According to the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, under this law, all hospitals in the state are required to:

• Inform patients of their rights
• Screen patients to see if they qualify for help paying their bills
• Offer discounts and affordable payment plans on hospital care to patients who qualify based on their income, regardless of documentation status
• Reduce the use of debt collectors by taking certain steps before sending an unpaid hospital bill to collections 

For the report, the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative looked at websites and made phone calls to 89 facilities that are eligible for Hospital Discounted Care. 

It found that while 100% of the hospitals mention the program and post the patient’s rights forms on their websites, only 58% of them met the full regulatory website requirements. This included not posting the required application, offering patients rights in both languages, linking to information on the program from the home page and more. Only 50% distinguished the program from other financial assistance options. 

In its phone call data, the study showed that out of 178 calls — one in English and one in Spanish to each hospital — only 11% had successful outcomes where the caller received helpful and accurate information about Hospital Discounted Care. This percentage was lower for calls in Spanish. The initiative also found that independent hospitals were more likely to have successful outcomes than health system-owned hospitals like CommonSpirit and UC Health. 

Twenty-nine percent of the calls demonstrated some noncompliance with the regulations. 

Sophia Hennessy, the policy and research coordinator for Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, wrote in an email that the report not only showed that there were compliance issues, but also that there are significant challenges with accessibility and usability of the program.

“Meeting the bare minimum compliance does not equate to accessible information for consumer,” Hennessy wrote. “For instance, while hospitals must post the Patient’s Rights form in Spanish on their website, they are not required to have a Spanish translation option for their website. As a result, Spanish-only speakers have to navigate an English-only website in order to access information about (Hospital Discounted Care) in their preferred language.” 

The need to be able to access this information is only growing more critical as the cost of health care rises, she added. 

Hospital Discounted Care is administered by the state’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. As part of state’s enforcement, the department is required to conduct annual reporting and audits to ensure compliance with the law. Marc Williams, a spokesperson for the department said it is currently completing its first round of these audits. The results are expected in the spring. 

With the department focused on compliance, Hennessy wrote that the study was also aimed at evaluating gaps between the intent of the law and implementation. 

“What we were trying to see is how the law is working for the patients that are actually trying to find information about discounts and utilize them, and see what access looks like from their point of view,” Hennessy wrote. “Based on our interpretation of the law, we found that a significant amount of hospitals aren’t meeting the intent of the law.”

The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative report makes recommendations to hospitals and the state department to help bridge this gap. For hospitals, these include removing administrative barriers to information and screening for the program, proactively informing patients of the program, training staff members and more. For the department, this includes simplifying applications, creating a template for hospitals to use on their website and more.   

While the state department was not engaged in the report’s creation, it was given an opportunity to provide feedback on the final report before publication, Williams said. 

The department plans to review the recommendations in the report and will “make adjustments as warranted within the scope and requirements of the law,” he added.

Brian McCleary, the local man who hit two deputy vehicles on County Road 14B with his car and was allegedly in possession of 247 grams of cocaine in a late-October incident, was denied a lowering of his bond during a hearing Tuesday. 

After a K-9 indicated there were drugs in his vehicle during a routine traffic stop, McCleary fled the scene. When deputies cornered him, he allegedly rammed into two law enforcement vehicles. An officer allegedly shot at McCleary’s tire to disable the vehicle, but was unsuccessful.

Officers were unable to locate McCleary the night of Oct. 24, causing a shelter-in-place order to take effect in South Routt County. McCleary then turned himself in to the Routt County Jail the following morning.

According to the arrest affidavit, officers found 247 grams of cocaine in a plastic container near McCleary’s abandoned car the night of the incident. Law enforcement personnel believe the drugs belonged to McCleary.

In a previous hearing Oct. 29, the defense requested that the original $200,000 bond be lowered to $25,000 due to McCleary’s previous compliance in appearing for court, his longstanding residence in Routt County and his lack of ownership of a gun.

In that hearing, Judge Erin Wilson denied the request to lower the bond to $25,000, but did drop McCleary’s bond to $150,000. 

During Tuesday’s hearing, McCleary’s attorney, Sean E. Brown, requested the bond be lowered to $100,000 with the requirement of a “24/7 ankle monitor.”

According to Brown, the ankle monitor would keep track of McCleary’s whereabouts, alcohol consumption and “anything else the court would be concerned about.” 

The company providing the ankle monitor would be Advantage Treatment Centers, a Colorado organization that monitors and manages offenders through various forms of addiction treatment.

The daily charges associated with the ankle monitor would be paid by McCleary, stated Brown.

Brown stated that McCleary has listed his home in South Routt County for sale to make bail. According to Brown, McCleary’s child and the mother of his child are currently living in the home. 

The defense further stated McCleary wishes to return to work, which according to Brown, is in construction. The status of McCleary’s employment is “to be determined.”

Brown argued that McCleary “is not a flight risk.”

Deputy District Attorney Joseph Bucci requested the court uphold the current bond due to “no change in the circumstances” since the last hearing.

“My concern with Mr. McCleary is in part whether he would show up to court based on the very serious allegations in this case, which includes a Class 1 drug felony,” Judge Wilson said.

The judge then stated that a personal recognizance bond is “not appropriate,” adding that ankle monitoring is not available to McCleary.

According to Judge Wilson, the 14th Judicial District has no pre-trial services program, and ankle monitors are “only available to people who are already on probation.”

Brown said McCleary’s girlfriend reached out to Advantage Treatment Centers about the availability of ankle monitors but was unable to provide documentation to confirm availability.

Judge Wilson denied the request, stating the information that Brown provided contradicted information previously provided by Advantage Treatment Centers. To her knowledge, she said, McCleary is ineligible for an ankle monitor.

Brown said that the defense will bring documentation to McCleary’s next hearing, which is set for 1:45 p.m. Friday. He will appear virtually from Routt County Jail. 

Steamboat Springs Board of Education members got a rundown of the city’s list of active affordable housing projects Monday as the school district searches for options to provide needed housing for teachers and staff.

Steamboat Senior Planer Brad Calvert delivered an informal presentation at the board’s business meeting after City Council members directed staff to work with the school district to see if any of the projects in the city’s housing pipeline could provide units for teachers.

“The gist of this is that the city is pursuing a number of developments that include affordable housing, both directly to house city employees but also with partners,” explained Calvert.

With a caveat that some of the options may not be “desirable or even relevant” to the school district, including a dormitory style project for seasonal city workers, Calvert ticked off the list of housing projects in the city’s pipeline:

• A combined childcare center and housing project being pursued in partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation would offer units to snowplow drivers and childcare workers.

• In exchange for a $2.6 million loan, the city secured 11 units for city employees at the Riverview Apartments development, located adjacent to Natural Grocers, in April.

• A joint project with UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center is shovel-ready, but Calvert said the initiative is on hold after the hospital decided to pursue an alternative housing option last October.

• At Casey’s Pond, $2.5 million in city funding will go toward supporting 15 units for the senior-living facility staff.

• In coordination with the U.S. Forest Service and the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, the city is also hoping to secure housing units for its employees as part of a development on unused forest service land on Hilltop Lane. That effort is on hold for now, however, pending the passage of legislation in the U.S. Farm Bill that authorizes the Forest Service to use its land for construction of workforce housing.

• The city is also working to direct its 2023 short-term rental tax revenues in support of near-term housing solutions and could direct funding to the housing authority to fund conversion of 63 rental units into for-sale, deed-restricted condominiums at the authority’s Cottonwoods at Mid Valley project.

• Council members are also set to consider using short-term-rental tax revenues to subsidize rent for qualified tenants living at The Lofts at Steamboat Basecamp.

After walking through the various projects, Calvert explained that agreements between the district, the city and an individual development partner would likely take on different structures depending on the option, and timelines would vary, but that the city could be in a position to designate a number of units in a particular development for school district staff.

“I think we have two things to figure out,” said Board of Education member Kevin Callahan after Calvert’s presentation. “One of them is our short-term solution and one of them is our long-term solution, and I think our long-term solution probably lends more to the ownership concept.”

“We have to have these short-term solutions in the interim, so having an avenue towards some of these opportunities with leases where … there is a path or avenue where we can point people where it’s not ethereal is kind of what we need in the near term,” he added.

The Monday housing discussion came weeks after City Council members responded to community backlash over preliminary Board of Education discussions exploring the possibility of developing housing units on a parcel of Whistler Park land owned by the school district.

The roughly 9-acre parcel in question, located south of Walton Creek Road and east of U.S. Highway 40, has been owned by the school district since 1980, but an agreement with the city that year rezoned the parcel and merged it with roughly 5 acres of city land to create the complete current recreational space.

Superintendent Celine Wicks said last month, “the land is absolutely not for sale right now” as the district evaluates its options, but residents living in the Whistler Park area have pushed council members in recent weeks to move to purchase the school district’s parcel to ensure the area remains a park.

The public outcry ultimately prompted Wicks and Board of Education members to meet with City Council President Gail Garey and council member Steve Muntean to discuss how the city might help the district identify options outside of development at Whistler Park.

Those discussions led to further communication between city staff and school district staff. Whistler Park was not discussed after Calvert’s presentation Monday, but Board of Education members agreed conversations between district and city staff should continue.

Board of Education member Chresta Brinkman thanked Calvert for his presentation and applauded the collaboration behind it.

“I do think that a solution for everybody in this community is going to look most effective when it is a collaborative approach and we are utilizing the resources we have and we know that we can develop to meet the best needs of all of our community,” said Brinkman.

On Monday afternoon, Dianne Weber and a handful of other volunteers were hard at work icing sugar cookies in the basement of the Concordia Lutheran Church as they prepared for the church’s 40^th annual Christmas Bazaar that takes place this Saturday.

“We decided to stay with this format, instead of doing something different, because we really like the fellowship of the community,” Weber said of the long-running holiday event. “We love the community and it’s just such a blessed thing to see the smiles on the kids’ faces when they are getting the cookies, or people shopping — so we’ve just kind of kept it going for all these years.”

This year’s event, set for 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, will offer homemade cookies by the pound, as well as homemade crafts and gifts that will fit under the tree. The group will also offer brunch for customers as they shop.

In addition, pastor Jon Muhly said the organizers will set up a Christmas backdrop for a free photo shoot where members of the public can create Christmas cards. There will be free children’s crafts, hot cocoa and apple cider.

“We’ll take your photos and give you the digital files for free,” Muhly said. “We make things for the community, and for me as the pastor, the exciting thing is to see our members making cookies and homemade crafts that take a lot of skills — it is nice stuff.”

He said the efforts have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years and the money is used to support local groups including LiftUp of Routt County, Reaching Everyone Preventing Suicide, Sehla and the Sk8 Church. It also helps regional efforts such as offering support for underprivileged youth in Denver, as well as orphanages in Haiti and Russia.

The holiday bazaar is a tradition that stretches back 40 years at Concordia Lutheran Church and has become the traditional holiday kickoff for the congregation and members of the Steamboat Springs community.

Monday was the final day that “Sisters in Spirit,” a women’s group at the church, spent preparing a wide selection of different sorts of cookies and baked goods that will be sold by the pound. Customers will be given gloves and allowed to fill their own containers.

But the cookies are just a part of what will be offered. Other congregation members were busy preparing Lefse — a soft, traditional Norwegian flatbread made from potatoes, flour and butter, and often cooked on a griddle — while others were making homemade crafts for the sale. The congregation will set up the sale at the church, located at 755 Concordia Lane in Steamboat.

“Everything we have here is homemade,” said Cindy Svendsen, a longtime volunteer for the event. “We do gift baskets and stuff. People make breads and jams and a little bit of everything.”

The U.S. Forest Service is inviting community members to a Christmas open house at the Parks Ranger District office building in Walden from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6. 

The event will be home to crafts, a baked potato bar and a limited selection of pre-cut Christmas trees. 

Trees will be available for purchase with a $10 permit for those unable to get into the woods to harvest their own Christmas trees. All sales during the event will be by cash or check only. Permits will be for sale during the event. 

The Walden office will also have office hours on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Christmas tree permit sales. 

For more, contact the Parks Ranger District office at 970-723-2700.

A bill aiming to expand the Sarvis Creek Wilderness Area is headed to the U.S. Senate floor after passing through the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The current 44,556-acre wilderness area was created through the federal Sarvis Creek Wilderness Act in 1993.

The legislation, introduced by Sen. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennet, would add 6,817 acres to the wilderness that was excluded from federal forest area’s 1993 creation due a previously proposed plan to develop a ski area.

What was to be called the Catamount Ski Area ultimately fizzled in the late 1990s before losing steam completely by 1999.

The proposed expansion of the wilderness land to include the once-imagined ski area would include extend federal land protection to the Harrison and Green Creek watersheds and protect winter range and spring calving areas for 250-300 elk that inhabit the area and would enhance habitats for native Colorado fish and other wildlife.

Sarvis Creek is one of 42 wilderness areas in Colorado and one of three that are easily accessed from Steamboat Springs. There are around 110 million acres of federally designated wilderness in the U.S., roughly equivalent to 5% of land in the country.

Speaking on background, a spokesperson for Hickenlooper’s office said passage of the Sarvis Creek Wilderness Completion Act bill by year-end would likely see it rolled into a larger legislative package before going to a full vote. But as legislators all push to get their bills to a vote, it is not clear if a vote on the Sarvis Creek area will come before the end of December.

The legislation is supported by local government and conservation organizations including the towns of Yampa, Hayden and Oak Creek; Routt County and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe; along with Keep Routt Wild, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and Conservation Colorado.

“We have actively engaged with community members, local governments, and conservation advocates on this proposal, and have incorporated their input in developing the boundaries and language for this wilderness expansion,” said Hickenlooper in a statement.

“The bill includes language recognizing continued access for Tribes for traditional, religious and cultural purposes. It also acknowledges that the Secretary of Agriculture may continue to carry out activities to control fire, insects, and disease within the expansion area,” he added.

A statement released by Hickenlooper’s office also noted support for the bill from U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse and Gov. Jared Polis.

“The expansion of Sarvis Creek expands outdoor opportunities for Coloradans, protects important wildlife habitat, and safeguards important water resources in our Western Slope. This is important for future generations, and I appreciate Sen. Hickenlooper’s leadership on this issue,” Polis said in a statement.