But I think I'm going to make some kind of formal snitch line. What am I asking you to snitch on? I'm asking you to snitch when your town council, your city council, your county Commission is doing shady stuff and you want someone to let everybody know because I am sick of it. I live in Douglas County. We have three Republican members of the Board of County Commission, and two of them I do not trust as far as I can throw them for a variety of reasons. One
I just personally find distasteful. One has been on this show before and lied to my face, or if he wasn't lying, then he provided no documentation to back up what he was saying. So if you want me to amplify any kind of story like this it's driving you crazy about where you live, you email me Mandy Connell at iHeartMedia dot com and then put snitch line in the subject line. Snitch line because I'm tired of people
just being stopped by their elected representatives. And right now joining me from the Rocky Mountain Voice, Jen Shuman has been writing about a bit of nonsense happening in Douglas County about camping in an open space. I mean, that's the sort of big macro description of what we're talking about, but it goes way deeper than that.
Jen.
First of all, welcome to the show. And second of all, how did you get attached to this story? How did this all come to your attention?
Well, Hi, Mandy, thanks so much for having me on your show today. It's a great pleasure to be here. And I think I'll be emailing you about my own city council with that snitch line because I live in Grand Junction. But the reason I've been writing about this is basically because residents reached out. They are frustrated, and they want to get the word out so that hopefully public pressure will we'll do something to move these commissioners, because so far nothing has.
And I did a coreter request and.
It's regarding the Sandstone Primitive Camping Pilot project in Douglas County. And there are over five hundreds missions to the Douglas County website. I haven't read every single one, but I have maybe only seen one that asked a question. All the rest of the submissions were a plea to the commissioners to rethink.
This to not go forward with this pilot project.
And we'll have two different local governments who have pass resolutions rejecting this primitive camping project and Sandstone Ranch, and they're just overwhelming for people who know about what's going on and what these commissioners are considering, there's an overwhelming opposition to it.
Well, what we're talking about is a proposal in a Sandstone Ranch part of Douglas County, which is in a valley. It's beautiful, there's a lot of low brush. It's one of those places that is almost always slightly windy and often very windy. So this combination of things, and now the Board of County Commissioners has come forward and said
we're going to allow some of camping to go on there. Now, the people who live in that area, their big concern is fire because if someone doesn't take care of a campfire, if someone doesn't properly start a campfire, or someone starts a campfire and a burn band, you could very quickly burn down an entire neighborhood or two or three really fast because of the nature of the topography in this area. Have you found out, Jen and you're reporting why this was even being considered in the first place.
No, and that's been a really big question by so many people because it's only something.
Like around five sites that they're proposing.
There's only there's several residents is nearby that a join that area, there's a school, there's an elementary list than two miles away, and there's really That's what I've asked, why would they propose to do this because there is like you said, there's great wind, there is there wouldn't be there be no services. And this is basically what I've been told, a one road in one ride out area where there's maybe a back gate that would have
to be opened. Fire chief I spoke too from the Larkspur fire Chief Tim McAuley.
He said that he's really concerned because he wouldn't know where people are.
Maybe they're right camping, and the amount of time it would take to find whoever is out there. With the potential of a wildfire to spread quickly, there could be a catastrophic loss of life, catastrophic loss of property that would be long time in the making. The Perry Park Metro District Board president Darren Hill, he's not even just just I mean, this is a great concern catastrophic about loss of life, potentially people getting out, maybe they won't
see where they're going because there's smoke. But also he said that the property damage it would it would be so catastrophic that it would maybe.
There's some areas that would never even be able to rebuild.
They'd lose that essential infrastructure of water, sewer and everything else.
I haven't seen.
I've asked so many residents is what is the motive behind us? And everybody's scratching their heads.
Well, And one of the most interesting comments I saw on a Facebook page that I'm in was someone said, well, anybody could accidentally start a fire in your yard, and that is true, but when you are in your yard, you tend to be more cautious, so you tend to take greater care. You tend to make sure that you are not doing things that can negatively impact yourself and your neighbors. It's a much different proposition when you have campers.
And I know, you know the Coloradins know how to camp, but we've had such an influx of people from other states that frankly don't know how to camp. They don't know how to put out a fire properly, They're the first to start a fire during a fireman. And that is what these This is not a nimby situation here, this is a we are worried someone is going to burn our house down a situation.
And not only that, the commissioners abe Laden he said in a recent commission meeting that and this was something that residents brought to my attention. I had to go and find it. In one of the meeting videos, he said that, well, anybody has the potential to start a fire. The homeowners could start a fire. And what the resident said was they can't even go and get a They can't start a fire and a fire pit in their
own residence unless they get a permit. But to get the permit, they have to have the fire pit inspected first.
And then also they, like you said, they're very vigilant.
They even said that residents will well, they will switch if they see smoke.
Or something in the nearby neighborhood a few houses away and they don't know what it.
Is, out of concern for the neighborhood and their own property, they will call and Kim Greer, she spoke up at one of the commission meetings in opposition to this she's a resident. She's also a former volunteer firefighter in the area. She said, the visibility of being able to see these people that come in for who knows where, and they have no investment, They don't know the neighbors, they don't care about their community, they didn't invest how much money in their home.
The visibility of being able.
To see something that maybe a camper from who knows where starts. It wouldn't be the same thing as in your neighborhood. And Laden he kind of likened it to somebody could start a fire with a hair dryer in their home. And the residents that brought this to my attention, they felt insulted.
It is empty.
I would too.
I have family in Douglas County, and I know how much my family members who live in Douglas County they invest in taking care of their property.
They spent hours shoveling out snow.
They spend so much time and money making their homes safe and beautiful and well taken care of well.
Jen Schuman is my guest from the Rocky Mountain Voice. We're talking about the leads. The last question I have for you, Jen is a simple one. You know Abel Ayden is the one that brought this up initially. It is my understanding he has never demonstrated any constituents who have come forward to say, yes, I'm the one that got this ball rolling. When asked who's supporting this, he
gives the vague everyone or whatever it is. It is another example of just steamrolling over what the residents want for some nebulous outside group that we don't even get to say, why do you want to do this? Why do you want to make this a thing? And that's what's frustrating. So have you seen any support at all at all for this? And who is that who is supporting this?
The only support I've heard in a commission meeting from listening to the videos came from a commissioner, George Till. He brought up at boy Scouts brought up their interest in being able to camp in the area. And I think he has a boy Scout background and so he, you know, had had some you know know, respect for that interest being brought forth. But what I thought was also interesting was that he said and others, well, if others, why can't they be named exactly exactly?
This is what they do. Jen Shuman, great reporting at Rocky Mountain Voice. Thank you so much for continuing to do this, and I hope that others will will start to hit my political snitch line and email me your stories of malfeasance. And again, I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat. Both George Steele and Abe Ladener are Republicans and I don't trust the way they run the county now, so I'm gonna keep talking about it. Jen, I so appreciate your time today and all you do.
My pleasure. Thank you so much.
All right, Thanks Jen. That's Jen Shuman with the Rocky Mountain Voice.