Opposition to Uranium Mining in Weld County

Jody Niswender brought Keith Olszewski as a guest last week. Ralph Moore announced that he visited with former Windsor Rotarian Eric Swanson last week while he visited Florida. President Ardin Wright announced that on March 20, Committee Chairs will be expected to report on their committee’s efforts in the last quarter. During the “Rotary Quiz”, Ardin asked what the Rotary symbol was before the cog wheel. The answer was “the wagon wheel”.

PROGRAM
Our program for the week was presented by Lillias Jarding representing Coloradans Against Resource Destruction (CARD). She is a Ft. Collins business owner and has a PhD in Physical Science. She used data from Powertech’s plans to mine uranium in the vicinity of Nunn, Colorado. She told how they are prepared to mine nine sections (square miles) either through in-situ or open pit mining. In-situ is the process of extracting the uranium from the formation in place with excavating it. They use oxygenated water to break the uranium from the sand grains and move the charged liquors to a recovery well where it can then be extracted and processed. In the Centennial project (the one at Nunn); they propose to be mine the uranium from the Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer.

Jarding admitted that the chances of any of this water ever reaching the South Platte River are remote. She did indicate that the solution liquors could move to the Denver Basin; however, that is not likely and may be physically impossible. (Consider the relative elevations). Jarding said that Powertech representatives have said that it is unlikely that they can clean the water up to baseline levels.

[Editorial Comment: Without taking sides in the issue, I encourage readers to research the information and review it carefully. I have done so and found some inaccuracies and questionable statements.]

BOARD ACTIVITY
Five members of the Board of Directors toured the Triangle Cross Ranch after last week’s meeting. We were shown their alpacas, Angora goats and two horses. We also toured the newest residence. The Board is looking at the needs of the facility and program to see if there is a way that we can participate and help. More information in this as it becomes available.

QUIZ
Answer to last question: The reason that the Wal-Mart employees in Coos Bay, OR were so upset with the panhandlers in the Wal-Mart parking lot is…they found out that the panhandlers were making a lot more money than they were. . .as much as $300 per day.

Next Question: What is meant by “White men standing in holes in Coober Pedy?”

Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention in Schools

We were honored last week to have Dan Harty return as a guest. Jody Niswender and Karen Kunz showed some of the old shirts for the 9 Health Fair and then showed the new ones provided by the Health Fair. Karen said we would have the Rotary emblem printed on the backs of the shirts to make us more recognizable as Rotarian volunteers. You are a volunteer aren’t you?

PROGRAM
The program for the day was presented by Rebecca Valentine. Valentine is a well known local writer who has become passionate about the drug and alcohol problems in our schools. She and some other concerned parents have started a group called Team Windsor CPP in cooperation with Colorado Prevention Partners (CPP). Both of these organizations are dedicated to working with communities to deal with high risk behaviors in students. Valentine said she became involved when her son came home from school and told her “ I can get any drug I want by lunchtime.”

The group recently bought 2500 handbooks about dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. They are intended to be put into the hands of all parents in the school district that have children in grades 4 through 12. The books were funded by donations or grants from CPP, the Town of Windsor, as well as other institutions and private donations. In addition, Valentine’s group added a letter in the back of the handbooks that shows a list of resources in the area. Valentine said they hold monthly meetings with the theme; “What can we do NOW?”

Another focus of the group is to hold Social Norming Campaigns to help kids and parents learn what is normal and what is out of bounds. WC CCP-Team Windsor and Weld County School District Re-4 are preparing drug and alcohol abuse prevention seminars. Handbook training dates are Feb 21, March 20, and April 17. You can call Rebecca Valentine at 970-886-8741 for more information.

QUIZ
Answer to last weeks question: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, J. P. Richardson died in a plane crash near Clearwater, Iowa on February 3, 1959.

Next question: Why were the employees at the Wal-Mart in Coos Bay, Oregon so upset with the panhandlers in the Wal-Mart parking lot this past week?

Triangle Cross Ranch

We were visited last week by Chris Berger of the Loveland Mountain View Club. Dan Harty, pastor of the Windsor Community Church was a guest of Susan Van Deren. Jody Niswender reminded us that the 9 Health Fair will be on April 5 and that training will begin soon. She also announced that this year, there was a $500 grant from 9 Health Fair to defray expenses.

PROGRAM
Our program for the day was presented by Lorelei Faglier, Executive Director of Triangle Cross Ranch near Galeton. This facility is dedicated as an assisted living facility for adults with disabilities. They raise angora goats and alpacas and have an herb garden where the herbs are cultivated; picked, packaged and sold. The motto of Triangle Cross is “Create a new definition of normal.”

Lorelei defined NORMAL as follows:
N—Necessary to the community
O—Oriented to daily life
R—Realistic in expectations
M—Moral in actions
A—Ability beyond disabilities
L—Love beyond measure
She went on to expand on each of these aspects.

The “ranch” is licensed for 21 individuals but currently houses ten. Current residents range in age from 17 to 77. Tuition for each ‘rancher” is $1100 per month, but Lorelei says it costs $2250 to house, feed and train them. She said that they plan to open a house to Prader-Willi syndrome patients by the end of March. There are currently no places for Prader-Willi patients in a six state area.

Some of their efforts to make the residents self sustaining is to train them in working to maintain self sufficiency. To this end they have two programs. The Gospel Green program is the herb garden mentioned above. They hope to have a greenhouse in place by fall to assist with this effort. The other program is the “Moral Fiber” program where they raise, shear, wave and create garments from the twelve mohair goats and the four alpacas on the ranch. In addition, they help with the Weld County gleaning program.

QUIZ
Last weeks answer: The North Pole is at sea level as it is in the Arctic Ocean. The South Pole is at 9300 feet in elevation being on the ice sheet over Antarctica. The ceremonial pole has to be reset every few years as the ice sheet is constantly moving. For a live camera shot taken at 15 minute intervals at the South Pole, go to: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/livecamera.html

Next question: Forty-nine years ago this week saw an event that has become known as “the day the music died.” Who were the three rock and roll legends that were killed in the plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959?