January 2019
What positive changes would you like to see in Crestone in 2019?
Gussie Faunterloy
First, snow and then lots of rain, to recharge the snowpack, streams and aquifers, feed all the animals and people, and lessen the chance of wildfire. That's number one. Next, I’d love to have the community continue and increase the communication and collaboration that is already starting to happen between different groups and individuals working toward some of the same goals, like helping people, better communication among us all, greater sustainability and resiliency for water, food, affordable housing. I’d love to see some concrete steps toward renewable energy goals, whatever we can get done. And also with water, to once again push back the entities that want to take the water out of the valley. That's a huge goal.
Personally, I'm involved with the Crestone End of Life Project (CEOLP), and we've been trying to communicate and collaborate with other groups, too, just to help everybody know what's out there for people. I'm also involved with the Crestone/Baca resiliency organization. And I pray all the time for snow and rain!
Eddie High
Positive change I’d like to see is a county-wide and county-run recycling program like the Rickey Recycling Center of Alamosa, which is county owned and operated. All funds generated through recycling go right back into the county. Not sure how much we as Saguache County would generate, but the stuff wouldn’t just sit in an open area. It could be taken to Pueblo or Denver. The county already has the land set up, which needs to be cleared out and then we’d just start over. Not sure what I can do to help any more than what I've been doing. I no longer take any of my recycling, except metal and appliances, out to Saguache county landfill. Those items are definitely recycled. Tires are being recycled from there. They had 60+ ton of tires that were just bailed and taken off last summer. So, they're starting back over with the tires and charging for that. The recycling center could be a lot bigger than what it is, which would definitely help. A lot of people are spending a lot of money to drive to Salida or Alamosa to simply drop off their recycling. Not everybody comes to me, and I charge a minimal amount, but if there was a center in Saguache, or even at the landfill, more people would be more inclined to recycle versus throwing their recyclables in the trash. I’m not sure how we can move forward with that. That’s going to involve grants, private donations, and general help from all the communities – not just the Crestone/Baca area, but Saguache itself and possibly even Center.
Aha, Arnie Alba
My goal for 2019 is to restore the actual Land Jurisdiction to Saguache County and all counties in “The Continental United States of America major/unincorporated.” Every Non-Federal American must declare Actual Political Status as American Nationals on the land jurisdiction of our actual country “The United States of America” major/unincorporated. Most lawyers trained in American law schools in the past fifty years have NOT been trained about land jurisdiction. In fact, THE UNITED STATES INC. is NOT our country. “IT” is a governmental services corporation hired to perform 19 enumerated services. If you were born here in America “the County” and are not a "federal" employee or dependent, you can declare your natural birthright status as an American National sovereign. As I pointed out to the CBR GOVERNANCE GROUP, THE UNITED STATES INC. is undergoing bankruptcy and liquidation. “We The People on record “are in receivership as The Priority account holders in due course. Americans have been falsely classified as one of their “CITIZENS” presumed to be a party to their contract thanks to deliberate falsification of the public records. Most of us have been falsely represented as U.S. PERSONS/CITIZENS with no constitutional rights, no rights of redress, and no protection in international jurisdiction. For our safety we must take action to reclaim our "Natural Birthright Status and re-convey our "titles" to our "land assets". It is only when we officially "return" to the land jurisdiction and reclaim our proper political status as American States National that we can access our constitutional rights and guarantees.
Mary Lowers
I’d like to see more unity in our community, continuing to work together to make sure everybody's fed, warm, and a big one: everyone has housing. I think the way to do this is for more people to become active in various groups that are moving toward goals they're comfortable with, like Crestone/Baca Village, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, the food bank, the free feed, Care n' Share. We do a lot in this community, pulling together, and I would like to see more people participate. I would like to see us lobby our governments, whether it's the POA or the Town of Crestone, to help us figure out ways to get affordable housing for people here. That's a super big issue and it's not going to get any smaller. I’d also like people to be responsible about their pets, contribute to Pet Partners, make sure your dogs aren't chasing deer, etc. And I’d love to see us get a good program for the kids here. For many years we had programs for the youth, and it's kind of fallen by the wayside. I’d love to see people get together and work on a skate park for the kids, for which grants are available. I’d also like to see more activities for the kids year round to integrate them more into the community. Years ago, when my son Jesse (who's 35 now) was a kid here, there were a lot more activities that included children, partially because Crestone was smaller, but I really feel like in our community activities we need to engage the young people and let them know why it's important and why we do this. And yeah, just work toward a more sustainable, happy, healthy, warm, dry future for Crestonians!
Andrea Long
For 2019 in Crestone, I'd like to see more collaboration between the elderly and the youth, like performances, storytelling and really learning from each other. It’s part of a healthy community to have that blending of ages across the board, and I'd love to see that here. Another thing we could really use is a community space. If there was somebody, or a group of us, who wanted to coordinate that, it's been spoken about a lot. And I could help out, however that would be: watch children, donate something or fundraise. I really feel that Crestone would support the arts, and this is a missing link here with bringing community together. People are really interested in the arts and want to support it, but we don't have a big enough space or the correct facilities.
Another important issue has to do with the Baca - everybody talks about it being its own entity and being free of all the restrictions of the Property Owners Association. I don't want to create walls, but I do feel like there's a great amount of potential if we could have more freedom to build sustainable housing and really be what people talk about when they move here. It doesn't seem to happen because we're building big houses and there's not even enough housing, which is the other thing. There are barely any places to rent now with all the Air BnB's, so affordable housing is important for single mothers and that sort of thing.
Devin Ross
For positive change in Crestone, I’d love to see more work opportunities and cheaper housing options. That would be a big contribution to having more people overall staying here. Houses right now are crazy, crazy expensive, and there's just no opportunity for work! There are probably 3-4 establishments in town hiring, and they're not always actively hiring. In turn, housing is $1500+ a month for just a smaller house. I’d like to see people band together and create more opportunities for local people to make money, even if it's just construction work, manual labor, anything. Rent prices are higher than average mortgage prices here, so if people could get together to find cheaper housing solutions, like a community of yurts or tiny homes or something that's cheap, that’d be great for Crestone. That's what I'd definitely like to see changed here. Different housing options would help a lot of people out, allowing them to stay in Crestone. A lot of people I know are struggling to just pay all their bills and find anywhere to work. It's really tough. There are a bunch of people out here who used to grow weed which isn’t profitable anymore, so now suddenly they're all looking for jobs, which are very hard to find. If we could all band together and create some sort of cheap living spaces for people, while at the same time providing more opportunities for employment, I really think that could help improve Crestone a lot.