1. 50 Cents
Trinidad
Colorado
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Proudly Serving Southeastern Colorado and Northeastern New Mexico • www.thechronicle-news.com
Monday
October 27, 2014
Vol. 138, No. 214
The Fine Print
OCTOBER 27
City’s Main Street Program
MONDAY (8-9:30 a.m.) Join in the
weekly conversation October thru No-vember
at City Hall in Council Chambers
on Animas St. Information: 719-846-
9843.
Holy Trinity Academy
MONDAY (5:30 p.m.) School board
meeting at the school, 613 Prospect St.
Information: Andrea Jimenez, 719-846-
4522.
Community Chorale
MONDAY (6:15 p.m.) Rehearsals for
the annual winter concert under the direc-tion
of Russ Gorrell will be held at the First
United Methodist Church, 216 Broom St.
Info: 719-989-7317. New members al-ways
welcome, no auditions necessary.
Today’s Quote
“The name of the LORD
is a strong tower; the
righteous run to it and
are safe.”
~King Solomon (Proverbs 18:10)
OCTOBER 28
Writers’ Group
TUESDAY (2 p.m.) The Trinidad Writ-ers’
Group will meet at 109 E. Fifth St.
Info: Dana Miller, 719-422-8352.
Trinidad City Council
TUESDAY (1:30 p.m.) Work session
in Council Chambers, City Hall, 135 N.
Animas St., Third Floor. Information: Au-dra
Garrett, 719-846-9843.
Vision Loss Support Group
TUESDAY (1:30-3:30 p.m.) OIB
(Older Individuals Who are Blind or have
Vision Loss) hosts a monthly support
group every month at the Trinidad Work
Force Center, 140 N. Commercial. Re-freshments
will be served and family and
friends are encouraged to attend. Infor-mation:
Billie Jo Bacca or Deb Nelson,
719-546-1271.
Primero Schools
TUESDAY (5 p.m.) The Primero
School Accountability and Booster club
meetings scheduled for last week will
meet this evening in the Primero School
Cafeteria, 20200 Highway 12. Informa-tion:
Tina East, 719-868-2715.
GET YOUR FREE HOTDOGS!
TUESDAY (7 p.m.) Free hotdogs
while they last to celebrate Sophomore
Night during the TSJC vs. Otero JC Re-gional
IX Volleyball game that will be held
in the Scott Gym.
PUBLIC SERVICE
THE SAMARITAN CLINIC
Here to serve the under-insured and
non-insured community with free health
care and low-cost lab work from 9 a.m.-
4 p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Tues. of each
month at 413 E. Frost. Info: 719-846-
3536.
Thrift Store Benefit
DON’T MISS THIS: St. Vincent De
Paul’s annual Fall Benefit Sale with most
items $1, including Levis, at its new loca-tion
on Convent Street inside the Soup
Kitchen Building, 308 W. Church Street.
Info: Isabelle Gutierrez, 719-846-2009.
Trinidad City Council
WEDNESDAY (8 a.m.) The City
Council will hold a Special Work Session
and Roundtable meeting with the Las
Animas County Commissioners and SC-COG
Executive Director Pete Frasier at
Bueno’s Restaurant, 443 N. Commercial
St. Info: City Clerk, 719-846-9843.
Historical Society Banquet
THURSDAY DEADLINE: RSVP by
Thursday, Oct. 30 for tickets to the annual
Trinidad Historical Society’s Fall Banquet
fundraiser to be held Nov. 7 in the Pioneer
Room on the TSJC Campus. Info: Mary
Ellen Hadad, 719-846-6074.
TRICK ’R TREAT STREET
FRIDAY (3-5 p.m.) The Business
Merchants of Trinidad will sponsor the
annual Trick ’R Treat Street Spook Pa-rade
through downtown. All kids are
welcome to participate in this fun, family-friendly
event.
Downtown Summer Art Trek
FRIDAY (5-8 p.m.) The 3rd Annual
Summer Art Trek event held downtown
the last Friday of every month May-
October comes to a close. Relax dining
out with friends, listen to great music and
revel in terrific artwork.
Kids Fun Festival
FRIDAY (5-7 p.m.) Annual “Trunk
or Treat” event for the kids will be held
at the Fisher’s Peak Community Church
on Santa Fe Trail Drive. Information: Lana
Roberts, 719-868-3375 or 719-251-1169.
Empty Bowls Supper
SATURDAY (3-6:30 p.m.) The
Empty Bowls Supper benefit for the
Soup Kitchen at Holy Family Hall, 308 W.
Church St. Info: www.emptybowls.net.
SCRT Gala Reception
SATURDAY (5:30 p.m.) A free Grand
Opening “Wine & Cheese” Reception in
celebration of the new mezzanine gallery
at the Famous Theater will be held prior
to the Jacquie Gipson / Wilson & McKee
Concert. Info: 719-846-4765.
Area Essay Contest
SATURDAY DEADLINE: The Trini-dad
VFW Post 984 will again be sponsor-ing
the Voice of Democracy and Patriot
Pen competitions for all local school stu-dents
(grades 9-12). Information: Com-mander
John Rios, 719-846-6094.
Weather Watch
Monday: A 10 percent chance of
showers after noon. Mostly sunny, with
a high near 63. West wind 5 to 10 mph
becoming east northeast in the afternoon.
Night: A 20 percent chance of showers
before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low
around 29. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph
becoming light after midnight.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high
near 58. Light and variable wind becoming
south 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Night:
Mostly clear, with a low around 34. South
wind around 5 mph becoming west south-west
Librarian Mallory Pillard, above, displays a portrait of Jesus Maria Garcia, a
prominent figure from the city’s past and one of the historical items donated to
the library. Mary Ellen Hadad, left, holds a picture of the St. Joseph’s Academy
graduating class of 1913.
after midnight.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near
66. West southwest wind around 5 mph
becoming calm in the afternoon. Night:
Mostly clear, with a low around 37. Calm
wind.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 64.
Northwest wind around 5 mph becom-ing
calm in the afternoon. Night: Mostly
clear, with a low around 36. Calm wind.
River Call
Purgatoire River Call as of:
10/24/14. Hoehne ditch: Prior-ity
# 9 --- Appropriation date:
01/01/1863.
Trinidad Reservoir Accounting:
Release 0 AF
Inflow 67.59 AF -- 34.08 CFS
Evaporation 5.59 AF
Content 12,140 AF
Elevation 6,170.35
Precipitation 0
Downstream River Call /
Highland Canal: 04/01/1884.
The Chronicle News
EXERCISE
By Steve Block
The Chronicle-News
Going for a nice long walk at
Trinidad’s Central Park now has a
new twist after Thursday’s unveil-ing
of several new exercise station’s
along the park’s walking trail.
The Trinidad Community Foun-dation
(TCF) took the lead role
in funding the project, which has
equipment for doing exercises as
a part of an overall fitness system
that includes walking. Storyboards
explain how to do the exercises, and
how they help various parts of the
body stay fit. Each fitness station
has a sponsor and their names are
written on the storyboards.
Student-athletes from Trinidad
State Junior College (TSJC), TCF
members and Chamber of Com-merce
Ambassadors were all on
hand to check out the fitness stations,
try out some exercises and then have
a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Other
key sponsors include the El Pomar
Foundation, the Bar N-I Ranch Com-munity
Foundation and the City of
Trinidad, whose workers installed
the fitness stations. A second 20-sta-tion
fitness walk will be installed
along the Riverwalk next year, and
TCF is looking for station sponsors.
TCF received a $5,000 grant from the
Colorado Health Foundation for the
new project.
A key part of the economic de-velopment
strategy for Trinidad and
Las Animas County is health and
recreation, which are two of TCF’s
main focus areas. TCF is working
with a diverse community coalition
to make Trinidad the gateway to
a healthy Colorado. That’s a huge
challenge, given the present reality.
Las Animas County has an obe-sity
rate of 22 percent, according to
a 2012 survey by the Center for Dis-ease
Control’s National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention. The
study concluded that the high obe-sity
rate was caused by “an overall
energy imbalance due to limited
physical activity.”
Utilizing multiple years of data,
that same survey rated the percent-age
of physically inactive people in
Las Animas County at 25 percent, as
compared to 17 percent for Colorado
as a whole.
Las Animas County ranked 57th
out of the 59 counties in Colorado in
mortality, morbidity and healthy
behaviors, according to the 2012
Health Ranking Survey by the Rob-ert
Woods Johnson Foundation.
A recent Health Care Needs As-sessment
conducted by the JSI Re-search
& Training Institute revealed
that “Las Animas County is at, or
near, the bottom in every health and
wellness category when compared to
other counties in Colorado.”
There’s clearly a need for no-cost
venues and opportunities that offer
healthy exercise. The Central Park
Fitness Trail serves as an integral
part of a larger community effort to
transform local parks and trails into
an attractive recreational resource
that, in time, could be a magnet for
economic development.
Three fundraisers helped TCF
raise its share of the $6,500 required
for the project. The first was held at
Central Park, the second was a free
concert by Lori Kester at the Mt.
Carmel Health, Wellness and Com-munity
Center with free-will dona-tions
and the third was a “House
Concert” by Kester at the home of
TSJC President Dr. Carmen Simone.
The list of fitness station sponsors
includes, Pro-Rehab Center, Stay-Fit
Family Center, the Mt. Carmel Cen-ter,
Colonel Louis and JoAnn Sim-pleman,
Mt. San Rafael Hospital, J &
J Motors, Ed R. Bearden Insurance,
Griego Insurance Agency, Wendy’s
Restaurants, Hot Yoga on Main and
Phil Long Toyota.
New fitness
stations now
available
at City’s
Central Park
Photos by Steve Block / The Chronicle-News
Thursday’s ribbon-cutting at Central Park officially opened the City’s Fitness Trail. In front, clockwise from lower left, are
Carson Bennett, Acting City Manager Audra Garrett, Phil Rico and Kim Krisco of TCF. Below, TSJC student athletes
jogged around the lake as part of the Grand Opening celebration.
ANNUAL FUNDRAISER
By Steve Block
The Chronicle-News
Las Animas County still has sev-eral
ghost towns scattered among its
vast canyons and plains, and local
historian and author Dean Sneed
will give an address on that subject
to the Annual Trinidad Historical
Society’s Fall Banquet. Sneed, who
wrote the 2000 book “Las Animas
County Ghost Towns and Mining
Camps,” also co-hosts walking tours
of downtown Trinidad which have a
ghostly theme.
Sneed’s book lists more than 30
ghost towns and mining camps in
the County, ranging from cow towns
on the eastern plains to coal camps
in the canyons to the west. Some of
the towns still have intact buildings,
while in others only the foundation
stones remain. Many of the towns
are on privately owned land, with
no public access available but Sneed
managed to visit them all and his
book contains photos of the town
sites.
The buildings in some of the coal
camp towns were removed and tak-en
to other locations, or destroyed
to protect the coal companies from
liability issues. A few of them were
built to serve the railroads, and sur-vived
because coal deposits were
found in the vicinity.
Mallory Pillard of the Carnegie
Public Library will also speak at the
banquet. The historical society was
instrumental in helping the acquire
a collection of historical documents
from Ralphael Fresquez of Roswell,
N.M., concerning the lives of two
Photos by Steve Block / Chronicle-News
prominent figures from Trinidad’s
early history, Casimiro Barela and
Jesus Maria Garcia. Barela served
as a Colorado state senator from this
area for more than 40 years. He was
also a rancher and racehorse owner,
a bilingual Democrat who was con-sidered
a hero by the Hispanic com-munity.
Known as “The Perpetual
Continued on Page 2 ...
Historical Society Dinner to feature
document donations, ghost towns