75¢VOLUME 89, NO. 94May 12, 2015

Alamosa • Antonito • Blanca • Center • Creede • Crestone • Del Norte • Fort Garland • Hooper • La Jara • Manassa • Mosca • Moffat • Monte Vista • Romeo • Saguache • Sanford • San Luis • South Fork

State Qualifi ers Set

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Obituaries .......................... Page 2

Valley News .............. Pages 3, 5, 7

Opinion ............................. Page 4

Sports ............................... Page 6

Furry Friends ..................... Page 8

Public Notices .................... Page 9

Classified ...................Pages 10, 11

Comics ............................. Page 12

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MONTE VISTA — Com-passion Food Bank will distribute food on Thursday, May 14, at Ski High Stam-pede, Monte Vista from 12-4 p.m. Everyone is welcome, no qualifying. Requested donation is $20 per box. Please bring a box. Call 719-406-4174. Volunteers are also needed.

Food to be distributed

on Thursday

ALAMOSA — American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, in-cluding Alamosa, Antonito and Center, will hold elec-tion of offi cers at 6 p.m. on May 13 in the auxiliary room at 415 Fourth St., Alamosa.

Auxiliary to elect offi cers

By LAUREN KRIZANSKY

Courier staff writerALAMOSA COUNTY

— Commercial scale solar farms want to keep growing in Alamosa County.

With federal tax credit driving utility-scale solar development in recent years expiring in December 2016, the Alamosa County Land Use Department is seeing a renewed interest in solar development in the county.

In addition to multiple phone calls received from major developers in the last few months, the department has hosted pre-application meetings with Iberdrola Renewables, the company operating a facility on County Road 106 North, First Solar and Next Era with execu-tives fl ying in from across the country, said Land Use Deputy Rachel Baird in an interview.

“Despite time constraints and the fact that there is only approximately 50 MW Iberdrola Renewables on County Road 106 North is showing interest in expanding its Valley solar farm.

At Alamosa High School on Friday night, 135 graduates received certificates or diplomas from Trinidad State Junior College.

of remaining transmission capacity out of the San Luis Valley, these companies are eager to complete the 1041 permit application process,” she said. “We are anticipat-ing a big year in utility-scale solar development.”

The 1041 permit applica-tion submits developers to

a “quasi-environmental as-sessment,” addressing the proposed project’s need, ac-tion, environmental impact and cumulative impact.

The permits are not re-quired in all Valley counties.

An existing permit helps companies better position themselves for a Power Pur-

chase Agreement (PPA) with the Public Utilities Commis-sion (PUC) of Colorado, she said, and it also insures their competitiveness if some of the regional proposed infra-structure upgrades increase transmission capacity.

“There is optimism trans-mission will increase,” Baird

said. “They are coming in and getting these permits just to beat the deadline.”

In Colorado, it only takes six to nine months to obtain a permit versus upwards of two years in other states, she added.

Sean Cruz poses next to his work, which took 1st Place in the High School 3D category at the 14th An-nual All-Valley Art Show sponsored by the San Luis Valley Museum in Alamosa. The museum hosted an awards ceremony on Saturday. A complete list of winners will be shared in a future Courier edition.

Courier photos by Phil Ray Jack

From left Tera McGinnis, Alamosa Mayor Josef Lucero, and Lily McGinnis pose with Katlyn McGinnis and her prize-winning contribution to the art show sponsored by the San Luis Valley Museum in Alamosa.

Artists honored

Courtesy photo by Greg Boyce

TSJC confers degrees on Friday

Solar is strong in Alamosa County

Courier photo by Lauren Krizansky

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Tuesday, May 12, 2015 Valley Courier Page 3

Valley NewsSOLAR■ Continued from Page 1

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SAGUACHE — Those who plan to attend the Saguache Spring Fling Dinner (Lincoln Day Dinner) on Saturday, June 6, at the Mountain Valley School must send reservations along with check and choice of beef brisket or baked chicken no later than May 15. Please contact Wyoma Hansen, 655-0299 or Mike Cowan, 655-6202 or email: info@saguachegop.com Make checks payable to Saguache County Republican Party and send to: Ed Nielsen, PO Box 55, Saguache 81149.

Sign up by May 15 for Spring Fling Lincoln Day Dinner

MOSCA — The Sangre de Cristo Class of 1975 will be having a reunion planning meeting on Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m. at the Sangre de Cristo School. Anyone wishing to help plan is encouraged to attend.

SdC Class of '75 reunion meeting is Thursday

SAN LUIS — On Thursday May 14, from 6-7 p.m. at the Par-ish Hall in San Luis the Conejos County Clean Water, Inc. and San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council will host a public meeting to discuss illegal dumping in the community. The group will discuss current sites’ location, content, and quantity as well as collection options and alternatives. Everyone is invited. Refreshments will be provided.

Discuss illegal dumping in San Luis on Thursday

CAPULIN — On Wednesday May 13, from 7- 8 p.m. at the Parish Hall in Capulin the Conejos County Clean Water, Inc. and San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council will host a public meeting to discuss illegal dumping in the community. The group will discuss current sites’ location, content, and quantity as well as collection options and alternatives. Everyone is invited. Refreshments will be provided.

Discuss illegal dumping in Conejos County on Wednesday

ALAMOSA — Civil Air Patrol meets Thursday, May 14, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Alamosa Airport, south side in the yel-low building on the second fl oor. Leadership is the meeting topic. Cadets from 12-18 years welcome. Call Bob at 850-1363 or Ruth at 850-0505.

May 14 Civil Air Patrol meeting focuses on leadership

•The Colorado solar industry generates as much revenue as its top-ranked craft brewing industry. •There are currently more than 380 solar companies at work throughout the value chain in Colorado, employing 4,000 people.•In 2014, Colorado installed 67 MW of solar electric capacity, ranking it 13th nationally.•The 398 MW of solar energy currently installed in Colorado ranks the state 8th in the country in installed solar capacity. There is enough solar energy installed in the state to power 76,000 homes.•In 2014, $212 million was invested on solar installations in Colorado.•Installed solar photovoltaic system prices in the U.S. have dropped steadily from 8 percent from last year and 49 percent from 2010.

The county is home to four utility-scale solar facilities with another undergoing the permitting process and one in construction.

Alone each facility covers more than fi ve acres, pro-duces more than 10 MW and is responsible for a fi nancial agreement allowing for site decommissioning and recla-mation.

Together the facilities generate 87.2 MW, which is enough to power more than 15,000 homes in Colorado and generate more than a half a million dollars in tax benefi ts.

Before 2011, the parcels paid out less than $1,000 total.

“This is unheard of,” Baird

said. “There is nothing com-parable. We are an example for the state, and that is pretty impressive.”

Bringing the facilities to the county, however, is a laborious task. It requires extra staff hours to complete a lengthy checklist, and they are now being worked into the 1041 permitting fees.

“Compared to others across the country, we are reason-able,” said Alamosa County Chairman Darius Allen. “We don’t discourage the process, but we have to also take care of the county.”

Today the permitting fees are determined on a case-by-case basis, Baird said last week when making her fi rst request to the Alamosa Coun-ty Commissioners (ACC) to restructure the fi gures, and the seven prior permits have ranged from $30,000 to $36,000.

After considering a contin-gency for infl ation, deviation from standard solar technol-ogy and unusual siting, she said $30,000 is a “sustain-able fee for projects of this complexity and scale.”

She also requested a stan-dard fee of $250 is set for the department to handle 1041 permit transfers and amendments, which include a public hearing and are now not part of the fee schedule.

“You make very substan-tial decisions in those hear-ings,” Baird said to the board. “We have to do all the same things, but we are fast track-ing.”

Allen added, “We need to be fl exible to make those judg-ments without wasted time.”

Utility-scale solar has been generating reliable, clean energy with a stable fuel price for more than two decades. Solar power plants

are being developed in a way that balances environmental protection with rising energy demand. The solar indus-try is ready now to deploy clean energy, and develop-ing utility-scale solar power is one of the fastest ways to reduce carbon pollution in the atmosphere.

A utility-scale solar power plant can be one of several solar technologies – concen-trating solar power (CSP), photovoltaics (PV), or concen-trating photovoltaics (CPV). What distinguishes utility-scale solar from distributed generation are project size and the fact that the electric-ity is sold to wholesale utility buyers, not end-use consum-ers. Utility-scale solar plants provide the benefi t of fi xed-priced electricity during peak demand periods when electricity from fossil fuels is the most expensive.

Courtesy photos by Greg Boyce

The Colorado Solar Industry

Jonah Bollinger speaks to his classmates. Bollinger is still a junior in high school in Antonito, but received an Associate Degree from Trinidad State through the concurrent enrollment program.

Erin Guymon is a wife and mother and a 4.0 student who still fi nds time to tutor her fellow students through the TRiO program. She was honored Friday night as one of Trinidad State’s top graduates.

Outstanding graduates

BY JERRY RAEHALChief Executive Offi cerColorado Press Associa-

tion and SYNC2 Media DENVER — The Colorado

General Assembly adjourned after a session that was highlighted by the gridlock that occurs with split control of the legislature, but with some notable bi-partisan successes.

Among the bills that passed the House and failed in the Senate were family leave, increased minimum wage, affordable housing, changes in utility regula-tions, scholarships for pre-school teachers, elder abuse and allowing collection of water in rain barrels.

Conversely, the Senate passed bills to scale back renewable energy standards, repeal gun control measures, loosen reporting require-ments in issue elections, al-low parents more latitude to reject governmental require-ments, repeal civil rights enforcement, exercise more control of the health benefi t exchange, take over federal responsibilities for land and water and penalize commu-nities that limit fracking that died in House committees.

The reality of a legislature where Republicans control

the Senate 18-17 and Demo-crats rule the House 34-31 is that neither party will be able to pass measures that are overly partisan or divisive.

And while a major story line of the session has to be the discord and ability of each party to block each other’s partisan priorities, it would be a mistake to sug-gest that nothing could be accomplished. After years of trying, the legislature found the money to pass a felony DUI bill.

Additionally, bi-partisan packages of bills to address work force development and police accountability were passed and an urban renewal bill that allows counties, school districts and special districts input on how their tax revenues will be used won legislative approval.

The legislature also re-ferred a measure to allow the state to keep $58 million of marijuana tax revenues to voters in November. Perhaps most impressively, legisla-tion to reduce the number of state mandated assessments for K-12 students was crafted and passed in the waning days of the session.

Competing versions of bills to address the TABOR sur-

plus failed and the default provision for earned income tax credits and relatively small refunds to taxpayers will come into play. The fail-ure of construction defects legislation that was intended to jump start moderately priced multi-family housing will likely see the issue shift

to local venues.Highlights for the Colo-

rado Press Association in 2015 included passage of HB 1137 to streamline and simplify acquisition of mug shots from law enforcement agencies, defeat of HB 1085, which would have allowed counties to publish fi nan-

cial information on their websites instead of as legal notices in newspapers, de-feat of HB 1115 after it was amended to make it a crimi-nal offense to photograph or record someone without their consent when there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, removing a provi-

sion in HB 1131 that would have allowed the Division of Youth Corrections to charge for its actual costs to redact information from reports and passage of HB 1290 to prohibit law enforcement agencies from stopping lawful recording of their activities.

Colorado legislature produces bipartisan successes

By TERESA L. BENNSSAGUACHE — The

Helmick family says they have “been through hell” since January when their father and brother, Richard Helmick, was beaten with a baseball bat by a juvenile during a domestic dispute as James Walker, 49, looked on.

The wife of Richard Helmick, estranged from him at the time of the incident and living with Walker and the juve-nile who allegedly assaulted him, has since passed away. And now Walker has pled no contest to a lesser charge of reckless endangerment, a third-degree misdemeanor.

Relatives of Helmick say he will probably get credit for time served and be released

from custody following his sentencing next month. Sa-guache County Undersheriff James McCloskey said the maximum penalty for reckless endangerment; misdemeanor three is six months in jail and a $750 fi ne. Sentencing for Walker is set for May 20.

Walker, 49, was initially charged with (attempted) murder in the second degree, conspiracy in the act with the juvenile to harm Helmick and felony menacing, all felonies. McCloskey reports that second-degree attempted murder charges without ex-traordinary risk attached can result in a 4-12-year sentence. With the extraordinary risk attached, a sentence could run 4-16 years.

The case could have been pled out to a misdemeanor one with extraordinary risk, McCloskey said, which could have carried a two to three-year sentence. But there are no extraordinary risk clauses attached to reckless endanger-ment.

Last month Richard’s son Jarrod reported that recently the juvenile who allegedly as-saulted his father was released from the Youth Track correc-tions facility to visit Saguache County for an undetermined amount of time without the family’s knowledge.

“They never informed our family,” Helmick said. “They were supposed to meet with me and my family and they denied us the right to speak to a judge.”

Helmick says charges against the youth who is ac-cused of attacking his father were reduced from attempted murder to assault by Assis-tant District Attorney Kurt Schultz. Schultz commented that the plea “is not written in stone.”

“If they dropped it from at-tempted murder to assault, what does this tell other people in the Valley?” Helmick queried.

The juvenile, who recently turned 18, remains in the Youth Track detention center in Alamosa. Law enforcement sources report he soon will be transferred to another facility out of the area.

Three different members of the Helmick family have registered their outrage with the “wrist-slap” given to the men who very nearly killed Richard. “They won’t know for another year how much he will recover from his injuries,” Jarrod said in an earlier inter-view. Another family member commented that his injuries will impact him for the rest of his life.

They believe that his attack-ers are not being held account-able, and they blame District Attorney David Mahonee for cutting the men a “sweet deal.” They questioned whether law enforcement has any input into the use of plea-bargaining or could intervene in the plea bargain process.

A source close to the Sagua-che County Sheriff’s Offi ce commented Monday, however, that once the case leaves the offi ce, any control law enforce-ment has in the matter is over.

“Then it’s up to the DA; there is nothing more we can do,” the source reported.

Other county residents also called last week to register their displeasure concerning the plea deal.

According to reports fi led with the Saguache County Sheriff’s Offi ce, the domestic dispute involving Helmick ensued when Walker and the juvenile saw someone near a vehicle parked on the street in front of Walker’s residence. The two men approached Helmick and began to argue with him.

The juvenile allegedly used Walker’s baseball bat (also another weapon capable of causing serious bodily injury) to batter and assault Helmick during the confrontation, chasing him down the street.

At one point, Walker was on a mental health hold in Pueblo. He has a previous his-tory of making threats to hurt others, Jarrod Helmick noted.

Saguache Courts confi rmed that charges against Walker last year for disorderly con-duct and making an offensive gesture are still pending. Sheriff Dan Warwick also commented earlier this year that Walker has a previous record.

Family stunned by plea bargain deal

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