Noticias

• Palm Theatre Floods in Major Rainstorm
• Coming Up Next, Telluride
• Forest Health with Jason Sibold

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Remembering Larry Tabor

Norwood lost a member of its community last week.

Larry Tabor passed away in his Norwood home, surrounded by family, on July 14. He was 77 years old.

Known as “Mr. Baseball,” Tabor was the longtime Norwood coach and mentor. He lived in the Norwood area for 50 years, working as a driller, large equipment operator and gas line welder.

Tabor was under the Care of Hope West Hospice when he passed.

He is survived by his siblings, Jim, Mae and Lois; his daughter, Samantha; two grandchildren; and his loving wife, Tamara.

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Palm Theatre Floods in Major Rainstorm

The heavens opened Friday afternoon with a torrential downpour over Telluride.

“It’s kind of a hundred-year, biblical event,” said Nicole Hattler, managing director of the Palm Theatre.

Mudslides from the Jud Wiebe Trail hurled water and debris into town, landing on the doorstep of the Telluride School and the Palm Theatre, breaking a loading dock door and sending sludge into the theater.

“It really was like a catastrophic flood slide, because it brought a tremendous amount of water and debris and mud down in the back of the Palm and of course all around the school,” Hattler said.

Hattler was in Norwood when the slide took place, but the Palm’s technical director was on site.

“He said it was unbelievable. Within seconds the back lot was like a swimming pool. He said he’s never seen anything happen so fast. There was no time to react. Everything filled, you couldn’t even turn your head, cars were floating, and the pressure against the back of the building, it just happened too quickly. All the drainage, you can’t put that amount of drainage that fast and expect it to work. Everything compounded on itself and it collapsed in the dock door,” Hattler said.

The Telluride Fire Protection District responded to the incident, noting 3 to 4 feet of standing water and mud had accumulated in the theater, filling the orchestra pit and covering the seats.

Only hours after the flooding, ServPro, a cleanup and damage restoration company, was on site to begin cleanup.

“When we got here into the theatre, we observed water really up to the top row of the seats. We had 12 plus feet down into the orchestra pit, and up to six plus inches of mud throughout the theatre, the back stage area, the scene production area, and all that water,” said Mat Singer, vice president of production for ServPro Team Landers.

ServPro brought in about 50 crew members from across the region, most of whom are staying on site in the high school gym.

“We’re mucking out, getting the mud and water out first. We have pumps going outside and inside, and crews getting the mud out of the property, as the first course of action. Then we’re cleaning the inside, doing flood cuts — cutting all the drywall that’s affected, so we remove all of that, because once water comes in contact then we have to remove that. In concurrence with that, we’re also developing a plan for rebuild,” Singer said.

The Palm’s curtains, screen and wings had been flown into the rafters and were protected. The stage floor and seats were damaged, and crews still need to assess what else in the theater was damaged.

“The vast majority of the electronics, the lighting, seems to be in good shape. There are some speakers down in the pit orchestra area that were completely submerged and there’s some wiring that goes to the main table, the control panel, so we’re worried about the cabling, anything that was submerged is done,” Singer said. “But the great news is that almost everything electronic and computer wise should be fine. There’s a lot backstage and there’s some lighting that was on the floor, and some instruments and a very expensive piano. We’ll do our best to take care of what was covered in the mud and impacted by the water.”

In addition to the devastation at the Palm, several inches of water and debris flooded the Telluride Intermediate and Middle Schools.

“All of these rooms in the intermediate were affected. There’s mud, splash, there’s water, all the carpet has to be demoed, drywall, tile, flooring, all of that will be removed. The intermediate school was impacted. It just didn’t get the amount of mud the theatre accumulated because of the door being impacted. The cafeteria, lobby, kitchen area was affected, but to a much lesser degree,” Singer said.

In a statement to the community, Telluride School District Superintendent John Pandolfo reiterated it will take days, if not weeks, to determine the full extent of the damage to the buildings.

While ServPro acknowledges it’s the company a community never wants to meet, Singer said it’s an honor to work in Telluride.

“I’ve seen the emotional connection that people have with this theatre, I’ve seen the tears when first reactions in the theatre, and I know how much it means to the community. It truly is super energizing for us to be able to participate to get this theatre back and the school back as quickly as we can,” Singer said.

No one was injured in the slide. There is no timeline yet for when the Palm Theatre will be able to reopen to the community.

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Coming Up Next, Telluride

Telluride Town Council meets Tuesday with a state of the town address, a speed study and an update from the Telluride Tourism Board.

In this installment of Coming Up Next, Telluride, Communications Manager Lindsey Mills shares what to expect.

Julia Caulfield (JC): Telluride Town Council is meeting on Tuesday, kicking off the day with a big, exciting, important thing. What’s happening at 9:30?

Lindsey Mills (LM): At 9:30, we’re swearing in our new council members. Marya Stark is reelected after being appointed in December, and we have Charles Dalton joining us as well. So we will have a full council.

JC: Then they will actually jump directly from that swearing-in into an executive session and then come back into the public meeting at 10 a.m. What’s happening here?

LM: We have a discussion on the Colorado Avenue East End speed study. Public Works took some time with a third party to study speed on the east end of Colorado Avenue, essentially from Willow out to the cemetery, when thinking about how we can mitigate speed, if it needs to be mitigated, what else needs to be done to reduce speeds on that corridor.

JC: Then following that work session, there’s going to be the manager’s report, which is extensive on Tuesday’s meeting.

LM: It’s a big one. We have a handful of updates surrounding everything that town runs as far as housing, parking, the Carhenge Lot redevelopment project and the town park oval update.

Additionally, with the town park oval update, you’re going to see this discussion coming back surrounding oval development to Parks and Rec Commission next Wednesday, July 29, at noon. So come on in to Parks and Recreation Commission to make your input, make your voice heard.

JC: Then Town Council will break for lunch. Come back as usual. There are public comment presentations, proclamations, including a note from our mayor. What is this?

LM: The state of the town address is coming from Mayor Erico tomorrow. That’s a really good one to tune into and a really good one to kind of see where the community stands right now as far as our elected officials are concerned and see where they’re hoping to take us.

JC: There are a number of public hearings, action items and the like. I think the next thing folks will be really interested in is an update, a work session with the Telluride Tourism Board in the afternoon. What is this discussion going to be?

LM: The Tourism Board comes and gives us an update right before budget season every year. And this will take place at 2:05 p.m. This is going to be just an update around everything that the Tourism Board has been doing from marketing efforts to local tourism messaging and everything else that they do over the Tourism Board that is funded by Town of Telluride taxpayer dollars. There’s a contract discussion in that as well, and that leads us into our budgeting season so council can decide how marketing dollars are allocated.

JC: Town Council will also be sitting as the Telluride Housing Authority. Is there anything in there that folks should note?

LM: The Housing Authority is slated for about 2:50, and there are a couple line items that are really interesting.

The draft policy statement — this is when the Housing Authority finds a need to revise the employee rental housing policies.

One of the discussions tomorrow is going to take place around a draft policy statement revising the policies to address dependents of multiple custodial parents so when they become permanent residents of a household.

Then additionally, we’re going to have a discussion on the waitlist policies to make sure that we’re guiding that practice forward. So definitely tune in around 2:50 if you’re interested in those policies.

JC: Is there anything else on the agenda or town government related you think our listeners should know about?

LM: One of the big things that happened this weekend with all of the flooding, a lot of our updates are going to come through text notifications. If you want to sign up for Town of Telluride text notifications, you can text the word Telluride to 38276, and you will always get every single text message we send out.

If you just want information around road closures, you can text Streets to 38276, and then you’ll just get those notifications as well. Definitely something to tune into. It’s a great way to get informed and make sure you’re on top of what’s happening with town construction and road closures and mudslides and things along those lines.

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Forest Health with Jason Sibold

Forests are the lungs of the Earth, but how healthy are those lungs?

This week, Dr. Jason Sibold will be in Telluride for a talk about the current health of forests in the region. Sibold, a professor at Colorado State University, also will share data from his multiyear study of trees in Bear Creek.

The Forest Health presentation will take place at the Wilkinson Public Library on Tuesday, July 21, at 5:30 p.m. A walk-and-talk in Bear Creek is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 22. Registration is available at telluridelibrary.org.

Last year, KOTO’s Mia Taubenblat joined one of Sibold’s walks in Bear Creek. Today, we’re bringing you that story from July 2025.

Story begins at 11:30.

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CDOT Conducts Road Work South of Ouray

The Colorado Department of Transportation began wall and tunnel repairs along U.S. Highway 550 at Red Mountain Pass.

The work will take place at two locations south of Ouray, at mile markers 91 and 89.

At mile marker 91, work will include maintenance and repairs inside the tunnel. Drainages will be cleaned and cleared, and tunnel walls will be repaired. At mile marker 89, crews will repair and reinforce a retaining wall.

Drivers traveling between Ouray and Silverton should expect 15- to 20-minute delays and single-lane, alternating traffic. Work will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with possible overnight and weekend work.

Construction began on Monday, July 20, and is schedule to continue through the end of September.

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Navajo Musician Honors Long Walk Through Performance

A musician in Farmington, New Mexico, is channeling his Navajo ancestors to honor those lost in the Long Walk.

For Rocky Mountain Community Radio, KSUT’s Clark Adomaitis has the story of a musical performance that is spread across four and a half years.

Story beings at 16:20.