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My Page: Ken Wright

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A glimpse of the past and future

Tomorrow night Durangoans will finally get the chance to peak inside the transformation that the old down-town power plant along the Animas River is undergoing into the Durango Discovery Museum. An open house will be held Thursday (May 18), from 4:30 to 7:30 pm. There will be refreshments, tours, entertainment, and a chance to meet and give input to the project-planning team members. Right now, the Children’s Museum, a hands-on science exploration center for kids, is crammed into a small space above the Durango Arts Center. The new museum will be set inside Durango’s old power plant, along the Animas River, a living historic artifact that itself tells a little-known role of the San Juans and Durango in shaping the modern world. [more]

Fort Lewis College

Yvonne Bilinski likes to make things happen. That’s why she’s so excited to be the new director of Fort Lewis College’s Native American Center. The Native American Center is an on-campus facility that helps the college’s American Indian students adapt and succeed in their college experience by providing counseling, academic advising, tutoring, sponsoring events, and offering students a central meeting place and study area. “I sense a heightened sense of ‘can do-ism’ here,” Bilinski says, making no attempt to hide her enthusiasm. “The opportunity to come to Fort Lewis College and the Native American Center is absolutely so exciting. The hyperbole is intended as I am very, very happy about the appointment.” [more]

Congress debates the on-air future

MTV it’s not. Tune to channel 22 on Durango’s cable-TV lineup, and you will not see either commercials or professionally-produced programming. You could see, though, a gardening show, a talk show, a game show, a documentary on oil and gas issues, a church service, a college lecture, or a hockey game – all starring the same people you might see at the grocery store or sit next to at the bar. For the past six years, Durangoans have had a channel of their very own to watch shows of local interest. We also, though, have had tools and production facilities to make that programming ourselves, thanks to Durango Community Access Television. Now whether Durango -- or anyplace -- will continue to have those opportunities and what they will look like is being determined right now, as the city negotiates a new contract with its cable supplier, and as Congress debates sweeping legislation in how community cable and the internet are negotiated with communities nationwide.
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"Crossing the Wire"

Will Hobbs’ books have always dealt with challenging topics for his juvenile and teen readers – and anyone: danger, risk, adventure, death, loss, and relationships with friends and family and the land around us. In his new novel, though, Hobbs enters the realm of political controversy. Crossing the Wire, released last month, follows the harrowing adventure of a 15-year-old boy who, following the death of his father, flees his family’s hard-scrabble farm in central Mexico to find work north of the border so he can send money home to his family.

Hobbs’ book adds a new perspective into the heated and ideologically-tainted discussion of illegal immigration. Crossing the Wire provides a visceral rendering of a teen’s motivations and experiences attempting to “cross the wire,” a slang term for entering the U.S. illegally, that is accessible and meaningful to teens and adults alike. [more]

Livin' La Vida Local

Festivals just might be the highest form of civilization in existence right now. A sign of evolution. A seed for the whatever sustainable, enjoyable, aesthetic, positive, local, cooperative culture our present flailing socio-economic experiment will have to soon become. Places to practice not just tolerance, but actual appreciation of the diversity within which we must find symbiosis.

For example: Never mind the national hand-wringing over immigration and wall-building along the border. Never mind, even, the state of Colorado’s attempts to punish our fair (and I mean that interpersonally) city for its open stance of being a “sanctuary” city -- passing a resolution to not use municipal resources to stalk illegal aliens. Instead, Santa Rita Park on Saturday was alive with color and music and people milling around, gathered for the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration. [more]

A Lack of April Showers Brings ...

It looks like the River of Sorrows is going to live up to its name for hopeful boaters this year. After forecasting as much two weeks of boatable flows for southwest Colorado's Dolores River, the Bureau of Reclamation announced on Tuesday that there likely will be no boating for the entire season.

It’s been an up-and-down year for those anticipating time on the Dolores River. In November, the Bureau predicted that, following last year’s relatively wet winter, a snowpack of only 55 percent of average would allow McPhee Reservoir to spill water for boating. The early winter, though, didn’t come through, and the outlook turned bad. Then late-winter snows again raised hopes. On the forecast posted on the Dolores Water Conservancy District’s website on April 18, it appeared flows would hit near 800 on May 25, and rise to over 1,000 cfs on May 26, lasting through June 9. On the May 3 update, flows through May are projected to peak at a meager 99 cfs, and an only slightly less dim 139 cfs in June. [more]

Fighting Suburban Sprawl

Soon residents of the Four Corners states concerned about the direction and style of growth in the region will have a new path to input and action. Members of the Congress for the New Urbanism are holding a three-day meeting at Fort Lewis College in Durango this weekend to take the first steps toward forming a Southwest Chapter of the non-profit embodiment of the New Urbanism movement. New Urbanism is a response to the suburban automobile culture that reshaped urban life in the U.S. after World War II. Those seeking to recreate the tight, integrated communities lost in that sprawling cityscape organized in Chicago in 1993, with the creation of the Congress for the New Urbanism. [more]

Getting to know you ...

Well, I tend to be the one who quietly slips out of the room during team-building exercises and the singing of "Cumbaya" ... but I'm also willing try almost anything once. So here's my stab at sharing my most heart-felt lists with whoever may care. [more]

Destination: Denver

I just got back from a weekend in Denver, where my daughter and five of her friends competed in the state finals for Destination ImagiNation. Even if they’re not advancing to the world championships, they sure had a great time. [more]

Small-town invasion

The Rally in the Rockies, a big Labor Day weekend motorcycle rally held since 2002 in Ignacio, Colo., may move to little Mancos, Colo., this summer after negotiations with Ignacio faltered. The organizer’s website still lists Ignacio as the planned site for the event from Aug. 30 – Sept. 4, but Rally owner Dan Bradshaw met last week with Montezuma County officials about moving the event to a ranch just outside of Mancos. [more]

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