Glenwood Springs resident Craig Amichaux started off the meeting with complaints about traffic and trash on the lower part of County Road 132 (Mitchell Creek) in West Glenwood. He asked commissioners (BOCC) to put flashing signs or speed bumps on the road and to help clean up construction trash near Storm King Trailer Park.
Morning agenda items began with a report from the Western States and Tribal Nations Energy Initiative (WSTN), which the BOCC joined about five years ago while involved with the ill-fated Jordan Cove Energy Project. The controversial project proposed a liquified natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay, Oregon and a 230-mile pipeline that the BOCC believed would open Western Colorado natural gas to Asian markets. The project died in late 2021.
Commissioner Mike Samson said that the main purpose of WSTN is to “foster energy development, specifically natural gas” and export it from the West Coast. Tribal members include the Southern Utes, Uintah-Ouray Utes and the Jicarilla Apache Nation. The State of Baja California in Mexico is also a member plus New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. “Colorado was approached to be part of that,” said Samson. “Our present administration under Governor Polis and our state legislature doesn’t want anything to do with that.”
So, he said, Garfield, Rio Blanco, Mesa and Moffat counties got involved on their own. Garfield County pays $5,000 annually as a member. Other county members include several in Wyoming and Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, which is behind the Uinta Basin Railway. Industry members included energy companies Caerus, Laramie, Terra, Chevron, Jonah and Utah Gas Corp. According to climate watchdog Floodlight News, one of WSTN’s early funders was Pembina Pipeline Corp, the company behind Jordan Cove.
In front of the BOCC on April 21 was a request to support a WSTN initiative to study energy infrastructure. Bryson Hull, WSTN’s vice-president, pitched the pre-feasibility study via Zoom. “What that is about is getting markets for [Rocky Mountain] natural gas and a way to get to those markets,” he explained. The study is publicly funded by WSTN members. Hall said that Wyoming and Utah committed $250,000 each and New Mexico, $300,000, adding that the Southern Utes and the Jirailla Apache threw in $25,000 each.
According to the initiative draft, the study’s goal is to support monetization of resources within the WSTN region as well as rural economic sustainability and energy resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It will also look at connecting western U.S. natural gas to domestic West Coast markets and export facilities in the Pacific Northwest, Canada and Mexico.
Discussion included the rise of data centers and the subsequent need for more electricity as well as how Garfield County is positioned to provide natural gas. “We have the infrastructure. We have the gas plants. We have the compressor stations,” said Commission Chair Tom Jankovsky. “We can get our gas up to the pipeline that runs both east and west.”
The BOCC unanimously approved $6,500 toward the initiative. Jankovsky said that $5,000 is budgeted and that the additional $1,500 could come out of the commissioners’ discretionary grant fund. “There are several places we can pull that from,” he said.
CO measles cases tick up
County human services director Sharon Longhurst-Pritt presented EBT/EFT disbursement totals for March at $1,186,540, a significant increase from February’s $799,955 and topping January’s totals of $1,142,733. Longhurst-Pritt has not responded to a request for further information.
Sara Brainard, county public health deputy director, told commissioners that three measles cases were confirmed in Colorado during the first quarter of 2025. Public health specialist Carrie Godes told The Sopris Sun this week that two more cases have been confirmed since April 21.
“There are outbreaks occurring in the United States as well as internationally,” said Brainard. “We know Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma have had case outbreaks and there’s also an outbreak occurring in Mexico right now, specifically in Oaxaca and Chihuahua.” The most recent confirmed Colorado case involves a vaccinated Denver County adult who traveled to Chihuahua.
Colorado is not in outbreak status. Vaccinations are recommended for children and adults traveling to outbreak areas.
Brainard added that latent tuberculosis cases are still coming in and being treated — five in Glenwood and two in Rifle. Patients range from teens to older adults. Nineteen animal bites were reported between Jan. 1 and the end of March, as well as 18 enteric cases and 72 respiratory illnesses, including RSV, influenza and COVID-19.
In other public health news, the county is reinstating a farmers’ market voucher program for the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infant and Children (WIC) this summer. A similar program funded by the state ended last October. Commissioners approved $20,000 to resurrect the local program. Christine Dolan, county public health nutrition programs manager, told the BOCC that markets in Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Rifle and Parachute are interested in participating in WIC this year.
You can find all of the Garfield County Public Health updates from April 21 and archived BOCC meetings dating back to 1998 at www.garfieldcountyco.gov/board-commissioners/meetings