Riders return for 12 Hours of Mesa Verde raceLast year’s race was canceled because of coronavirus About 750 competitors from around the state and the country converged Saturday on the Montezuma County Fairgrounds and Phil’s World for the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde endurance mountain biking race.The proceeds from the event, which started in 2003 as “Ride the Lightning,” go to local youth programs. Organizations that benefit include the Four Corners Child Advocacy Center, the Good Samaritan Center, the School Community Youth Collaborative and more. According to the race website, the race has donated more than $500,000 to local youth organizations and programs with a focus on at-risk youth and youth empowerment since its inception in 2003.“We attract as many riders as we possibly can and donate every dime to charity,” said Race Director Nic McDonald. Last year’s race was canceled because of coronavirus concerns. About 750 riders registered this year. While it has not yet reached the amount of riders in past years, McDonald was happy about Saturday’s turnout. “We’re getting closer for sure,” McDonald said. “It’s a lot more than we expected.”Roughly 900 registered for the competition in 2019.The event kicked off at 7 a.m. Riders were on the trails all day until final shut-off at 8 p.m. Participants had the option to start one last lap at 6 p.m.Participants could take on the race solo or compete as a team. The 16.2-mile lap around the Phil’s World trail system Saturday was Evergreen, Colorado, resident Scott Trudeau’s first race.“I didn’t know what to expect,” Trudeau said. “I thought it was just a great experience. There’s a lot of great energy here, great people.”Trudeau, 54, was more accustomed to the steeper trails he had ridden before, but enjoyed the speed and flow 12 Hours had to offer. “I’d come back and do it again,” Trudeau said. Trudeau’s friend, Denver resident Chris Wilcox, enjoyed the support riders received along the trails. “It was a different experience for sure,” Wilcox said. “People are nice. Everyone’s pretty cool.”
Last year’s race was canceled because of coronavirus
Strater Hotel soldThe Strater Hotel, owned for decades by Rod Barker and his family, sold the hotel this week to Ross Garrett, who lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Bennet remembers Boulder victims on Senate floorIn tearful address, senator shares personal anecdotes about victimsU.S. Sen. Michael Bennet shared personal anecdotes and urged his colleagues to vote for better gun control legislation Wednesday on the Senate floor in the wake of Monday’s deadly shootings in Boulder.
“My heart goes out to all the families, and the entire community of Boulder,” Bennet said. “We have endured too many tragedies as a state.”
On Monday, less than a week after eight people, mostly of Asian descent, were shot and killed in Atlanta, 10 people were killed in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder. The suspect has been charged and is in custody.
“It’s long past time for Congress to take meaningful action to keep deadly weapons out of the wrong hands,” Bennet said in a news release issued Monday after the shooting. “There are steps that the overwhelming majority of Americans want us to take. And they have every right to expect us to finally do something about gun violence in our country. Enough is enough.”
On Wednesday, he called for similar action.
“We can’t allow this to become normal,” Bennet said on the Senate floor.
Bennet spent 15 minutes talking about the Boulder shooting. In his speech, he shared information about the 10 victims, lamented how younger people, including his 21-year-old daughter, have grown up “in the shadow of gun violence” and urged his fellow senators to pass legislation to prevent future tragedies.
“My daughter’s generation will always bear the burden of a national government that did nothing to protect them,” he said.
Bennet, D-Colo., shared the names of the victims, their ages, their occupations and some personal anecdotes, quoting their family and friends in his speech as well as some of their own posts on the internet.
He said each of the victims represent “the best of Colorado.”
“I’m just asking us to show an ounce of their courage, by doing whatever we can to keep weapons of war out of our communities; to pass universal background checks; to limit the size of magazines; to address the epidemic crisis of mental health in this country,” Bennet said. “It seems like that would be the least that we could do.”
The senator’s tone and presence was solemn during his speech, and he was visibly choked up at times. He frequently paused to wipe away tears.
“They have grown up with a reasonable fear that they will be shot in their classrooms, or in their schools, or at a movie theater, or in any public place,” Bennet said. “I didn’t grow up in an America with more gun-related deaths than virtually any country in this world. And we can’t accept it for their America.”
He brought up the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas and the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He said the vote taken in the Senate after the Sandy Hook shooting was “one of the darkest moments” of his career, because “the Senate couldn’t even pass universal background checks.”
“Who are we to insist that they live terrified in their own country? Nobody insisted that we live that way,” Bennet said. “But our failure to act has helped create these conditions. And we can’t wait any longer. The Senate needs to act. There’s nobody else to act but the United States Senate.”
Earlier in this month, the U.S. House passed two bills that would increase background checks on people looking to purchase firearms in a partisan vote. Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., opposed the legislation.
Boebert condemned the violence on Monday, but maintained her stance against gun control and said Democrats should “stop focusing on gun control and start focusing on border control,” in a tweet Thursday.
The two gun-control bills have been received in the Senate, but have yet to be scheduled to be debated or voted on. Grace George is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.
Ignacio vs. Mancos boys and girls basketballThe Ignacio High School boys and girls basketball teams hosted Mancos High School on Tuesday night in Ignacio.
The Ignacio High School boys and girls basketball teams hosted Mancos High School on Tuesday night in Ignacio.
CDOT triggers avalanches on Colorado 145 by remote controlNew technology clears snow from slide paths above highway near TellurideA loud bang reverberates in the Dolores Valley north of Rico, and a white plume erupts from a steep gully high above Colorado Highway 145.
In seconds, a wave of snow hits the closed highway, then settles into a pile more than 6 feet deep.
A front-end loader appears and clears a highway lane in 15 minutes, and the road is open again after being closed for about 35 minutes.
It was just a morning’s work.
The avalanche mitigation was conducted Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Transportation using a new remote control system installed in the fall. The Journal was invited to observe the new technology in use to control an avalanche-prone area.
Five, 30-foot-tall towers that lower explosive charges on a tether were installed in “frequent offender” slide paths that lurk above the state highway between Rico and Lizard Head Pass.
The systems were provided and installed by Wyssen Avalanche Control of Switzerland. They are safer and more efficient way to mitigate avalanche danger for travelers, said CDOT maintenance supervisor Todd Jones.
“This system is a more versatile tool for controlling these slide paths that run pretty often,” he said.
During an active winter, the Yellow Springs, Yellow Wall and Peterson slide paths where towers were placed can produce natural avalanches many times a week, or even per day. They might or might not hit the highway.
“Our main goal is to bring down smaller avalanches frequently to avoid a large natural one,” Jones said.
The remote control system reduces traffic delays, he said, and can be used at night or in low visibility during storms.
The explosives do not have to be handled, and the control work can be done with fewer staff in harm’s way. Project cost $1.4 million
The more common CDOT avalanche control methods utilize the Avalauncher nitrogen cannon, or a howitzer that shoots an explosive charge into the path from the roadway. Sometimes helicopters are used to drop a charge. They all require good daytime visibility, and crews tend to be closer to the hazardous slide path. CDOT uses the Avalauncher on Colorado 145 and from helicopters on other slide paths around Lizard Head Pass
The highway towers were activated last month. The project cost $1.4 million and was deployed to mitigate the troublesome Yellow Springs, Yellow Wall and Peterson slide paths.
Four of the five towers released charges and triggered slides. One slide reached the highway from the Yellow Springs gully, and one failed to drop and did not detonate. The tower was being reviewed by Wyssen and CDOT technicians, who monitored the mission with a live data feed.
CDOT partners with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center to analyze and conduct avalanche control work on roadways.
Becca Hodgetts, CAIC forecaster for the mountains of southern Colorado, was on scene to analyze avalanche conditions along the highway and review the slides.
She said a dry start to the winter led to weak layers at the base of the snowpack, increasing the potential for avalanches.
“It has been a pretty dangerous year, and it’s somewhat anomalous,” Hodgetts said. “On the way up here, I could see signs of fresh avalanches.”
Extreme avalanche conditions this winter happen about once every 10 years, she said.
CDOT has partnered with CAIC on highway avalanche control work since 1991, said CDOT spokesperson Lisa Schwantes, and there has not been a CDOT highway avalanche death in that time. A CDOT worker was killed by an avalanche on Red Mountain Pass in 1990.
Before the towers dropped the explosives into the slide path, the highway was closed in both directions, and a sweep ensured the area was clear of vehicles and recreationists.
CDOT crew and media wore avalanche beacons and observed the avalanche from a distance. During the work early Wednesday morning, temperatures were below zero.
Spotters were positioned to watch for secondary avalanches that could be let loose from the concussive blast. Crews blocked traffic in both directions a safe distance away.
When the highway was closed and crews were in position, Jones sent a coded command from his cell phone that told the tower to lower and release a charge above the slide path. The tower’s deployment box then reset, ready to deploy another charge.
The CDOT crew and CAIC were impressed by the results.
“The system is efficient and improves safety for CDOT crews and the public,” said Schwantes.
“It’s good. We’ll take it. You can see it released the recent fresh snowfall,” Hodgetts said, and it reduced the risk for a natural slide onto the highway.
The new technology is favored by CDOT because of its efficiency and reliability. Traditional howitzers likely will be phased out of avalanche control because of their age, Schwantes said.
CDOT operates more than 30 remote control avalanche systems at several locations on high mountain highways and the Interstate Highway 70 corridor. In Southwest Colorado, they are used on Colorado 145 near Lizard Head Pass, on U.S. 160 at Wolf Creek Pass and on U.S. 50 at Monarch Pass.
Every winter, CDOT and CAIC monitor and control about 278 of 522 avalanche paths above state highways. jmimiaga@the-journal.com
Hundreds pay tribute to detective who died in San Juan County, N.M.Authorities release few details about deputy’s deathFARMINGTON – Community members paid tribute Thursday to a San Juan County Sheriff’s Office detective who died last week while on duty.
Hundreds of cars filled a parking lot at McGee Park, the starting point of a memorial procession that included friends, family, law enforcement and other service workers. The procession went through Aztec and north into Colorado.
Law enforcement has released few details about the detective’s death, other than to confirm a deputy died while on duty and that the death was not duty-related. The Sheriff’s Office called it an “isolated incident” and said it does not release information about such incidents.
The Farmington Police Department investigated the case. An open records request submitted last week by The Durango Herald revealed officers responded about 2 p.m. Feb. 18 to an “unattended death” at the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office in Aztec. Officers arrived to find Katie Becenti, 36, deceased. It did not identify the cause of death.
Becenti was a mother of three, wife and detective for the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office. In her obituary, she was called “an absolute rock star in everything she did.”
At the procession Thursday, law enforcement vehicles, firetrucks, state department vehicles and community members’ vehicles were all staged to participate.
The procession drove under a large American flag being held up by two firetrucks.
On the route leaving the park, Sheriff’s Office deputies lined up to salute those in the procession. Other members of the community showed up in their vehicles and lined the route as well.
Among the many vehicles that showed up was a school bus.
Billy Huish, Becenti’s former school bus driver, said Becenti’s mother was a bus driver for many years before retiring. Huish said he watched Becenti grow up. And even as Becenti grew to over 6 feet tall, he said he always called her “Shorty.”
“Anybody who knew Katie will definitely miss her,” he said. “She was that kind of person.”
Huish said her smile was genuine and could light up a room. He referred to a photo that accompanied her obituary and said, “That picture with that big ol’ grin on her face, that was just her.”
“She will be missed dearly,” he said. “I just loved her to death.”
According to her obituary, Becenti is survived by family including her husband, Shaun, and children Abby, Tate and Olivia. mmitchell@durangoherald.com
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