Local News

On Nov. 19, more than a year after being charged with the crime, Jean Collier pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $43,000 from the Saguache Chamber of Commerce. Collier had been the bookkeeper and treasurer of the chamber since 2016. The guilty plea allows Collier to avoid a jury trial.  The negotiated plea deal also clears Collier‘s boyfriend, Brian Strauss, of any charges. Chamber funds were used for household bills in their shared home, as well as restaurant meals. Strauss was originally charged with “Class Five” felonies of fraud and embezzlement, but these charges have been dropped. Sentencing for Collier is scheduled...

In a tense but ultimately conciliatory meeting, the Crestone Board of Trustees voted to lift the stop work order on Crestone Peak Community Housing’s (CPCH) Living Wisdom Village (LWV) project six weeks after it was issued. The town issued a stop work order in early September 2024 amid concerns that LWV’s 5-foot setbacks did not meet the town’s zoning regulations. The CPCH board insisted that despite the town’s 20-foot setback zoning regulation, the LWV Planned Unit Development was granted an exception, which the town approved. "We don't feel like we're at any fault," said Kirsten Schreiber, CPCH’s board chair. "I understand...

Wolf rescue needs community help Charlene Wolf, of Crone Wolf Medicine, has started a gofundme to help with her expenses of running the wolf rescue, outside of Saguache. From the gofundme page: “I would like to thank everyone who has been donating to Crone Wolf Medicine. We have reached $645.00 of our $4500.00 goal and this has helped with dog food, kept the generator that runs the well pump running for their water filled with gas, and a vet visit. We still have 3 spays and 6 neuters left out of the 32 Wolf Dogs here so we are steadily moving...

By Eden Elderberry The Firewood Project, led by Donovan Spitzman, continues to expand and provide firewood for residents each year. This year, thanks to the partnership of the Crestone Energy Exchange and Neighbors helping Neighbors, the project held its fourth annual Firewood Fiesta.  The Firewood Fiesta is an event open to the community, providing chainsaw education, a potluck, and a chance to give back to the community. After Spitzman learned that Neighbors Helping Neighbors was spending $5,000 a year just to provide firewood, he devised a business plan to offset the expense.  Some of the wood cut by the program is sold,...

By Anya Kaats Crestone conducted a special meeting on short notice to approve a new “Welcome to Crestone” sign that would feature Crestone’s designation as an International Dark Sky community.  Crestone Board of Trustees, on Thursday Oct. 19, posted the notice of a special meeting for the following Monday, Oct. 23. The meeting included a discussion concerning a proposed Welcome to Crestone sign that would feature Crestone’s designation as an International Dark Sky community.  According to Mayor Kairina Danforth, the proposed sign would sit in front of the existing Welcome to Crestone sign and would be seven feet high and eight feet...

About 38 years ago, Crestone town trustee Stephen Hume was living as an artist-in-residence at Lindisfarne, an interfaith sanctuary built into the Sangre de Cristo hillside in 1979. A couple of months after he began his residency, Lindisfarne was transferred to the ownership of the Crestone Mountain Zen Center and Hume was invited to stay on for another year — practicing Zen Buddhism and gradually realizing that the San Luis Valley was a place he wished to call home. “While I was a resident there, I found a piece of property on the eastern edge of the town of Crestone,” he...

By Anya Kaats, July 2023 The future site of Marguerite Humeau’s Orisons, San Luis Valley, Colorado. photo courtesy the artist and Black Cube On July 29, 2023, Orisons, one of the largest earthworks created by an individual woman, will transform an unusable plot of farmland owned by Jones Farms Organics into a place of artistic reverence, honoring the San Luis Valley’s interwoven history, ecosystem, and imagined futures.  Orisons, meaning “prayers,” is the vision of multi-disciplinary artist Marguerite Humeau, who will pay tribute to the San Luis Valley through minimally invasive and environmentally conscious kinetic and interactive sculptures.  Some of the sculptures will include...

By Nick Nevares “All the world is a stage,” and we are getting a permanent one in Crestone! The funds needed to begin construction on the new Crestone Town Stage ($10,000) have been raised—a huge thank you to the initial donors. Thank you to the Town of Crestone for agreeing to the stage build. It will be located where the temporary July 4 stage was last year, on the east edge of Crestone Town Park facing the gallery and Crestone Eagle building. The Crestone Energy Exchange will facilitate this project, which will take place through the summer. This is not the...