News

• ICE Arrests Man Outside San Miguel County Jail
• Firefighter Dies Battling Gold Mountain
• Charles Dalton Elected to Telluride Town Council

---

Remembering Steven Smith

Telluride lost a member of its community last week.

Steven Smith passed away at his Sawpit home after a long battle with COPD.

According to the San Miguel County Coroner’s Office, Smith moved to Telluride from Utah in 1996 after finishing his Army career. He was one of the two bakers at BIT for many years. He also was a baker at the Peaks and a member of the security team.

Smith loved poker, but most of all, he loved his partner of 28 years, Debbie.

Crippin Funeral Home will attend to services.

Smith is survived by his siblings, Bill, Howard and Bonnie; his children, Jeff, Shawn, Troy, Robert and Lori; multiple grandchildren; and his love, Debbie.

---

ICE Arrests Man Outside San Miguel County Jail

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, took a man into custody last week outside the San Miguel County Jail.

According to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, ICE agents were waiting to take the man into custody when he was released from jail.

“A scuffle ensued, and the individual was apprehended and driven away. We did not get any reports of injuries,” said Susan Lilly, public information officer for the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office.

“This individual had been arrested for a second offense of domestic violence, and he had been deported previously,” Lilly said.

The Sheriff’s Office said ICE agents learned about the man’s arrest through court records. Lilly said the Sheriff’s Office did not notify ICE that the man was in custody or assist with the apprehension.

“There is no collaboration. Colorado law does not permit local law enforcement to notify ICE about an individual’s immigration status. So, there’s no collaboration,” Lilly said.

However, Lilly said the Sheriff’s Office is also prohibited from interfering with federal immigration officers.

Lilly said she understands why the incident may be upsetting to the community but emphasized it was isolated to one individual.

“Anytime ICE is in our county, it can stir people up, understandably. We have no reason to believe ICE is actively conducting raids in San Miguel County,” Lilly said.

But Claudia García Curzio said it is important for the community to prepare for more contact with ICE.

“We’re not thinking of if ICE were to come and do a raid, it’s when. So, we’re trying to prepare ourselves. We’re trying to talk to our community members and the business owners, saying, ‘When this happens, the folks that work with you, how are we protecting them? What is the information they need to know if ICE were to come through the doors and profile?’ Because that’s what they’ve been doing,” García Curzio said.

García Curzio, who works at the Wilkinson Public Library and is an advocate in the local immigrant community, said it is important that members of the community — regardless of their immigration status — receive due process.

“With this administration, I feel that when someone gets arrested, they’re criminals and ICE should come and pick them up. It’s not that black and white. If you’re a U.S. citizen, you get due process. You get the right to go through court and say, ‘Are you guilty of these charges?’ But the risks are higher when you are undocumented,” García Curzio said.

Laura Fehrenbacher, an immigrant affairs advocate with Tri-County Health Network, said it is important for members of the immigrant community to be smart and take precautions, but she added they cannot live in fear.

“No matter what they say, we do have rights in this country. We are protected by the Constitution of the United States. No matter what ICE says, no matter what they say. The law is the law, and we still have hope they respect that, and that they honor that,” Fehrenbacher said.

Tri-County Health Network has resources and an attorney to help individuals and families prepare for and navigate the legal system if someone is detained or deported. More information is available at tchnetwork.org.

---

Firefighter Dies Battling Gold Mountain

A firefighter battling the Gold Mountain Fire died Sunday.

According to the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a call just after 5 p.m. that an aircraft engaged in firefighting operations had crashed into Silver Jack Reservoir northeast of the fire perimeter.

The Montrose County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team responded to the incident and recovered the body of the pilot, the only person on board. Authorities have not released additional information.

The pilot is the fourth firefighter to die in Colorado this wildfire season. Three firefighters died while battling the Snyder Fire in Mesa County at the end of June.

The Gold Mountain Fire has burned more than 35,000 acres and was 11% contained as of broadcast deadline.

Jeremy Dietz, operations section chief for the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team, the federal team leading the fire response, provided an operational briefing Monday.

He said containment lines remain in place on the southwest and western portions of the fire along U.S. Highway 550 between Ouray and Ridgway.

“Looking at the fire as it moves north, we have indirect line in place that we can utilize that connects all the way into Division Hotel and Division Kilo up on the top of the Cimarron,” Dietz said.

The incident management team has divided the fire into several operational divisions, including Alpha, Charlie, Delta, Foxtrot and Papa. Divisions Hotel and Kilo are on the north side of the fire, northeast of Ridgway Reservoir.

Dietz said firefighters in Divisions Papa and Romeo also made significant progress.

“We had a very successful day yesterday. We were able increase our primary lines around the Bear Claw and Silver Jack subdivisions, into the Silver Jack Reservoir. Uniform was able to concentrate their efforts on the High Mesa area, the Johnson Park area and utilize some secondary lines and contingency lines that we had in there as well,” Dietz said.

Farther south, the Ferris Fire continues to burn more than 60,000 acres.

Over the weekend, several areas of San Miguel County were placed on pre-evacuation status, including properties along Colorado Highway 141 from the top of Slick Rock Hill to the San Miguel-Dolores county line. A small portion of the county along the county line remained under evacuation orders.

At the same time, officials lowered evacuation statuses in several zones, allowing residents to return home. Residents must have re-entry cards to access their properties. Re-entry cards are available for pickup at 8477 Road 7.7 in Dove Creek.

---

Charles Dalton Elected to Telluride Town Council

Charles Dalton will join Telluride Town Council after a close election.

Two seats were open in Telluride’s special Town Council election on June 30. Marya Stark handily won one of the seats, but the second seat — between Dalton and Chris Uihlein — was too close to call. The San Miguel County Clerk’s Office counted the final votes July 9.

In the end, Dalton received the second-highest number of votes, with only 24 votes separating him from Uihlein.

Speaking to KOTO when he announced his candidacy, Dalton said he wanted to improve communication between the community and local government while also using his finance background to help guide major projects.

“If you look at our town budget, it’s exploded in recent years. We’ve got a lot of important things that need to be done, and I think we need to make sure we’re being accountable for how we’re spending this money, and we’re spending it in the most judicious way and getting what we need done, whether that’s affordable housing, or a gondola, or a wastewater treatment center. Those are all huge projects, and I would like to be a little more involved in that financial aspect of town government,” Dalton said.

Charles Dalton and Marya Stark will be sworn in to Telluride Town Council Tuesday, July 21. They will serve terms through 2029.

---

CDOT Conducts Road Work South of Ouray

The Colorado Department of Transportation will begin wall and tunnel repairs along U.S. Highway 550 at Red Mountain Pass next week.

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 is expected to begin Monday, July 20, and continue through the end of September.

---

Monsoon Rains Ease Fire and Brings Hazards of its Own

Monsoon rains forecast for later this month could ease some of the worst drought conditions in the region, but the precipitation also comes with its own hazards.

As Caroline Llanes reports for Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Caroline Llanes, many fires this summer have burned through challenging terrain for firefighters, including the Gold Mountain Fire in the mountains near Ouray, the Ferris Fire near the Dolores River and the Babylon Fire in the canyons of Bears Ears National Monument.

Daniel Swain, a weather and climate scientist with the University of California and the National Science Foundation in Boulder, said monsoon rains could impact those areas.

“There’s some steep canyons there, some very steep slopes that have burned that would tend to increase the risk of flash floods or debris flows. And so, you know, it might not take as much rain or as intensive rain as would historically have been the case to cause a flash flood or debris flow in these areas,” Swain said.

Despite the risk of post-fire debris flows, Swain said precipitation would make firefighting conditions easier and reduce the risk of new fires starting.

Swain also said it is unlikely monsoon rains would make a significant impact on prolonged drought conditions in the region. For that, he said, the area would need several wet winters in a row.