A busy week in the rear-view mirror, and a full week ahead

This past week was full for the Estes Valley Voice. We published 22 original news reports, feature stories, commentaries, one of Dick Mulhern’s cartoons, and another one of Brett Wilson’s podcasts. The latest one is his interview with Estes Park audiologist Cory Workman about the connection between health, hearing, and dementia. You can find Brett’s podcasts for the Estes Valley Voice on our homepage and also on Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, and Podchaser.  

Between reading the news online and listening via podcasts, the way we consume news today has changed dramatically in the first quarter of this millennium. More than 86% of people are getting their news online and increasingly more people are listening to podcasts as a way to keep abreast with the news of the day.

Speaking of the millennium, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that in just a few fast weeks—with only 32 days until Thanksgiving and 59 until Christmas—we will turn the corner into 2025. The older I get the faster time seems to fly.

And speaking of time, next week we will turn back the clock for daylight savings time. We will put a tickler on the Estes Valley Voice to remind everyone.

Advertise with us

The Estes Valley Voice has 1,989 people receiving the Estes Valley Voice newsletter three times a week. Thank you for being a reader.

We waited to begin taking on paid advertising until we had a proof of product, and now, within just over four months, we believe we are delivering a dependable news product to the Estes Valley, and we have metrics and analytics to share with advertisers and sponsors.

We have several pages and types of news that we want to find sponsors for. Advertising in the Estes Valley Voice can provide both a return on investment to your business and support locally owned, independent, boots-on-the-ground journalism.

Daren Stratman-Krusemark, a recent business graduate from the University of Colorado-Boulder, has come on board as our advertising sales manager. Please reach out to him at daren@estesvalleyvoice.com if you are interested in being an inaugural advertiser or sponsor.

When Daren is not connecting with area businesses, you might find him along the banks of the Big Thompson as he is an avid angler who ties his own flies.

We have also taken on an advertising and marketing intern, Tessa Ring, who is a junior at UC-Boulder. She is only with us through December as she will study abroad next semester, but with luck, maybe we can woo her back when she returns. And Sandra Torres, who is originally from Peru, has join us as a part-time administrative manager. Sandra is applying for citizenship and it will be wonderful to watch this process unfold and celebrate with her. Tessa and Sandra will be helping us to conduct a readers survey over the next few weeks – what are we doing well, and what could we be doing better? We want to hear from you.

News about the news

The Estes Valley Voice is thrilled to publish a piece today by photojournalist Dawn Wilson about the screening of “The Devil’s Climb,” a National Geographic film Friday night at the Park Theater featuring Estes Park’s own Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold, two world-class climbers who traveled 2,600 miles by bike, boat, and foot from Estes Park to Alaska to climb the Devil’s Thumb, one of the most dangerous mountains in North America. Tickets for the film, which are free, can be obtained at the Mountain Shop. A $15 contribution is suggested to the Estes Park Educational Foundation.

This week the Estes Valley Voice was the media sponsor for a conference held at the Estes Valley Community Center that put on by Dementia Together.  More than 100 people attended the event from all over the Front Range. It is significant that the organization selected Estes for the symposium. More than 40% of the population of Estes is 65 and older making us the “oldest” community in Colorado in terms of the percentage of people in that age cohort. In the U.S., some seven million people 65 and older live with dementia, and in the next 15 years it is estimated the number will be 12 million.

The Estes Valley Voice will continue to push for transparency regarding the boards of both the Estes Valley Fire Protection District and the Estes Park Hospital. Both are public boards not private companies and Colorado’s Open Records and Open Meeting Laws govern the way public boards operate.

While publicly elected boards can meet in executive session for very limited and specific things, such as to confer with an attorney about negotiations, decisions cannot be made in executive sessions.

The Estes Valley Voice submitted a Colorado Open Records Act request for both the minutes of the Oct. 9 executive session meeting of the EVFPD and the recording of the meeting where the board decided to hire Paul Capo as the new fire chief.

The Estes Valley Voice does not have a problem with Capo being selected as the chief. We have a problem with the process which was done behind closed doors without the public being allowed to see the deliberation.

Considering the administrative turmoil the EVFPD has experienced over the past year and a half as two fire chiefs have left—one of which got a severance package, the other walked out after just three months and told the board this EVFPD has a serious internal administrative problem—the public has a vested interest in knowing what is going on at the fire district which is funded by a mill levy paid for by property owners in the Estes Valley.

The Estes Valley Voice is prepared to ask a court in Larimer County to review our request for the minutes and the recording of the executive session meeting. And no, ratifying the decisions made in an executive session and acted on—such as offering Capo the job—after the fact at this week’s upcoming board meeting on Oct. 30 does not cancel out the fact that the board did what it did in violation of Colorado’s Open Meeting Law on Oct. 9.

This past week we received a response that the Oct. 9 minutes are in draft form and would not be available until after a board meeting of the EVFPD on Oct. 30.

The open records act does not include a provision to authorize the withholding of draft minutes until the board can vote to approve the minutes.

Similarly, the Estes Valley Voice will push for transparency with EPH. This past week, the Estes Valley Voice went to the administrative offices of the hospital to review the proposed 2025 budget. We had been told we needed to make an appointment to view the proposed budget when an administrator was available to answer questions.

We were handed a one-page budget for a facility that would have $113,299,042 in patient charges, $64,891,706 in operating expenses, and a projected operating loss of $4,138,790, and we were told we could not take a photo of the budget and that if we wanted a copy of it we would need to submit a CORA request.

The budget is the people’s business.

We asked why the hospital was making it so difficult for the public to access the proposed budget? Vern Carda, the hospital’s CEO said it was a “best practice.” When he was told as an example the Town of Estes Park has its nearly $88.6 million budget online, Carda responded that the hospital does not need to do things the way the town does.

We also asked for information about the budget, including how much is outstanding on the $25 million in bonds that were issued in 2006 for the hospital’s expansion.

The CEO told us he did not know and said we would need to ask the EPH board for that information.

After the EPH board met on Oct. 23 the Estes Valley Voice was provided with a copy of the one-page proposed 2025 budget on Oct. 24.

At the Oct. 23 board meeting, the board approved a resolution to retroactively ratify the actions that the CEO entered into a Letter of Intent with UCHealth and that he acted without the board taking action to direct him to sign the letter. In the resolution approved by the board, the board stated the Letter of Intent is privileged and not subject to public inspection.

Additionally, pursuant to Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), § 24-72-201, C.R.S.et seq., the Estes Valley Voice has requested a copy of the recording and minutes of the executive session meeting or meetings of the Estes Park Health Board of Directors where the board decided to enter into the Letter of Intent with UCHealth which was announced on Oct. 16, 2024, and also a copy of the Letter of Intent that was signed. 

The Estes Valley Voice will continue to pursue complete transparency for the Estes Valley community with regards to the deal struck with UCHealth to have EPH join the UCHealth system.

We will ask questions about what arrangements are being made for buyouts and golden parachutes with the current administration as UCHealth takes over management. We will also ask what will become of the Estes Park Health Foundation and their $5 million in assets as UCHealth takes over management of our local hospital. If these funds are absorbed into the UCHealth Foundation, does this cancel out the $4 million in operating loss that the hospital is expected to have in 2025 in terms of the transaction?

The public has a right to ask these questions and to get honest answers.

The community is fortunate that UCHealth is interested in acquiring EP Health because it is a lifeline for continued emergency and outpatient services. While many services—such as OB, peds, in-home hospice, and in-home healthcare—are not expected to be restored under the new management, UCHealth will be able to provide a more robust opportunities for employee continuing education, a more affordable employee insurance plan, opportunities for career advancement, and other operational savings.

The Estes Valley Voice may be the new kid in town in terms of being a media organization, we do not have a hundred years of history behind our name reporting the news in Estes Park, and we may not be owned by a large corporation with lots of resources and assets behind us. But we take our role as a news outlet seriously.