Tuesday night’s Paonia Town Board meeting contained a number of important agenda items among them was a presentation by the Carl E. Berg Foundation to purchase the former Twin Lakes parcel for a Dark Skies initiative. If council accepts the purchase proposal, the project would include an amateur astronomer's pad, an outdoor planetarium, and a public telescope viewing building. The Berg Foundation submitted a starting bid of roughly $310,000 after paying for appraisals and assessment work.
The former wastewater treatment site has been remediated and certified by the state, but a geotechnical report is still needed and one core sample showed contaminant levels above residential-use thresholds though below commercial-use levels, making housing cost-prohibitive. No decision on the purchase proposal was made; the board directed real estate transfer guidelines be reviewed at a work session before the Berg proposal is formally considered.
To keep its raw water metering project on track, Paonia councilors agreed to pay Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) roughly $6,000 "under protest" over a disputed 2025 conservation easement violation. CPW had blocked access to the site, threatening to push construction into spring and drive away contractors.
Although Town Attorney Clay Buckner insists the utility project is permitted at the pre-existing site, council approved a motion to pay the fee under strict settlement terms including: no admission of fault for the town or Mount Lamborn Ranches, a waiver of further damages, and a joint petition to remove the parcel from the easement. The town will also seek reimbursement through its title insurance, the town’s attorney also noted the board could meet in executive session to weigh a potential lawsuit against CPW.
Darnell Place-Wise has returned as the executive director for the Delta Health Foundation. She first served on the Foundation’s board of directors from 2018 to 2022, then led the organization as Executive Director from 2022 to 2024. She later moved to Delta Health, where she continues to serve as Public Information Officer and Director of Business Development and Marketing. The Foundation’s next big event, and its biggest fundraiser of the year, is the annual gala, which will be held on Saturday, February 27, 2027, at Bill Heddles Recreation Center in Delta.
IN STATE NEWS: Governor elect Phil Weiser has nominated Republican Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson to serve as Agriculture Commissioner. Simpson is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and Alamosa High School. During his engineering career, he and his family lived and worked in Texas and Australia. Simpson has served as the Rio Grande Water Conservation District general manager since 2016. Simpson has represented Alamosa and southwest Colorado in the state Senate since 2021. He became the Colorado Senate Republican Leader in 2025.
In the 19th century, miners in the Rocky Mountain West relied on burros to carry tools and supplies as they searched for gold and other minerals. Today, those donkeys are part of a different tradition: pack burro racing.
In 2012, Colorado lawmakers designated it the state’s official summer heritage sport. The tradition is rooted in a story about two miners who raced back to town to stake a gold claim, running alongside their loaded burros. The first official Colorado pack burro race was held in 1949 between Leadville and Fairplay. Recently, K-O-T-O’s Julia Caulfield and Eliza Dunn traveled to Naturita in southwest Colorado for the fourth annual Naturita Pack Burro Race.
That report was shared with us via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, including (KVNF).
And... if you think the KVNF News team needs to participate in next year's burrow racing to compete with the KOTO News team... let us know, at feedback@kvnf.org.
