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50 Centstrinidad Colorado
Proudly Serving Southeastern Colorado and Northeastern New Mexico • www.thechronicle-news.com
~Vol. 139, No. 16
thursdayJanuary 22, 2015 the ChroniCle news
Greentree Weaving Eventat Cedar St. Printing & Mail Store
123 W. Cedar St. info: 719-680-2013
Fine Handwoven ClothingFriday, January 23, 2015
10 am - 5 pmSpecial Opportunity, Bring a Friend
river CallPurgatoire River Call as of: 01/21/15. Chilili ditch: Prior-ity # 7 --- Appropriation date: 04/30/1862.
Trinidad Reservoir Accounting:Release 0 AFInflow 41.00 AF -- 20.67 CFSEvaporation 0 AFContent 15,738 AFElevation 6,177.14Precipitation 0
Downstream River Call / John Martin Reservoir: 5/31/1949.
AREA SPORTSBASKETBALLFRIDAY: TSJC men host North Platte
CC at 7 p.m. at the Scott Gym.
SPECIAL NOTICEThe Jan. 21 Purgatoire Water-
shed Partnership meeting has been cancelled due to the Board of Direc-tors’ desire to limit any unsafe travel situations. We will meet next month at our regularly scheduled time, Wednesday Feb. 18 at 5 p.m.
Today’s Quote“I love sleep. My life has
the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you
know?” ~Ernest Hemingway
JANUARY 22Hoehne Board of Education Thursday (7 p.m.) the Hoehne Board
of Education Meeting will be on January 22, at 6 p.m.
JANUARY 23Teen Duct Tape Night at Library Friday (5 p.m.) Join in on Friday
January 23 from 5-6:30 p.m. for a night of crafts and fun with duct tape. This event is free to the public and is for teens ages 13-18.
PUBLIC SERVICESUPPORT YOUR HOMETOWNSHOP LOCAL: Dine out and shop
area and downtown merchants for spe-cial January sales and promotions. Help Trinidad thrive!
Housing AuthorityWEDNESDAY (5 p.m.) Trinidad
Housing Board of Commissioners will meet in regular session at the Trinidad Housing Authority Conference Room, 128 W First St. Information: Rosemarie Shier, 719-846-7204.
LOW-COST PET CARE Spay/Neuter coupons are available for
all Las Animas County residents through a grant to Noah’s Ark from the Animal As-sistance Foundation. Call Fisher’s Peak Veterinary Clinic (846-3211) or Trinidad Animal Clinic (846-3212) for an appoint-ment today!
PET FOOD ASSISTANCENoah’s Ark is proud to offer a Pet Pan-
try once a month for families in need of supplemental pet food. For more infor-mation and to apply, please apply in per-son at 224 North Chestnut Street 10:30-5 weekdays. Next distribution is Feb. 14.
Dine out for Noah’s ArkOn Thursday, Feb. 19 dine out all day
and evening at Bob and Earls, Brix, Nana and Nano’s and Wendy’s to help support Noah’s Ark Animal Shelter. Information: 719-846-8578.
Calling all Square DancersStep up, swing your partner, join the
fun at the Square Dance Club at LaCasa on Hwy 12 in Jansen. Beginners are wel-come. Info: Peter Monzon, 719-845-0375 or [email protected].
SW Youth Art Show3rd annual Shades of the Southwest
Youth Art Show will be held at Raton’s Old Pass Gallery, 145 S. First St. in Ra-ton. Show runs through Feb. 1. Info: 575-445-2052.
Books & MoreThe Carnegie Library’s bookstore is
located at 132 N. Commercial St. All pro-ceeds benefit the public library. (Open noon-4 p.m., Monday-Saturday.) Vol-unteer information and book donations: 719-846-8522.
the Fine Print
weather watChThursday: A 10 percent chance
of snow before 11a.m. Mostly sun-ny, with a high near 39. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the
morning.Night: Mostly clear, with a low
around 18. Calm wind becoming west southwest around 5 mph in the evening.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 42. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 14. West wind around 5 mph.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 44. West southwest wind around 5 mph.
Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 23. West wind around 5 mph.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 50. West wind around 5 mph.
Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 26. West wind around 5 mph.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 52. West wind around 5 mph.
Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 29. West southwest wind around 5 mph.
ASSISTANCE
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
RV Park to reopen near Aguilar
By Steve BlockThe Chronicle-News
Trinidad’s City Council tabled the marijuana license applications of CannaCo Corporation at 3019 Toupal Drive at Tuesday’s meet-
ing after questions were raised about the business’s ownership, the accuracy of its application and the square footage the business would occupy. Nearly a dozen people spoke out at a public hear-ing against allowing the business
to open, and Council tabled the is-sue until its next regular meeting on Tuesday, February 3.
It was only the latest battle over allowing a marijuana busi-ness to open at the former Toyota dealership near Exit 11 off of Inter-
state 25. The dealership has since moved to another Trinidad loca-tion, but the opponents of grant-ing the licenses still objected to granting the licenses to CannaCo, even though the City’s Planning, Zoning and Variance Commission had given their prior approval of CannaCo’s Conditional Use Per-mit application.
An earlier entity, Forever Green, had failed to get Council ap-
POT DRAMA
TSJC SCIENCE FUN!
Council tables marijuana application at Toupal
TSJC to offer free tax filing services
3019 Toupal Drive facility still raises questions with council and public
Continued on Page 2 ...
Photo courtesy TSJC
Student-built data box travels 130,000 ft. upLeia Zagone, a Trinidad State sophomore from Albuquerque, did a presentation for fellow students on her data-collecting experiment, which was included in the Colorado Space Grant Consortium’s high altitude balloon launch last weekend. See School News on Page 3 for more.
Trinidad State Junior CollegeSpecial to The Chronicle-News
This tax season, Trinidad State Junior College is partnering with the Denver-based Piton Founda-tion to help hard-working families become more financially secure by providing free tax preparation assistance through the Tax Help Colorado program. Beginning Feb-ruary 7, IRS-certi-fied Trini-dad State students will pre-pare and e-file tax r e t u r n s free of charge for individu-als with household incomes of less than about $52,000 a year.
Tax Help Colorado has a pres-ence on 18 college campuses and operates 29 free tax sites statewide. More than 30 percent of Colorado families are eligible to participate in the program, which was created to help alleviate the financial bur-den of tax preparation on families that are striving to achieve finan-cial stability.
Many of the families that qual-ify for free tax help are also eligi-ble for valuable tax benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit, and the preparers at Trinidad State’s site specialize in ensuring that tax-payers receive the refunds they de-serve. One of the nation’s most suc-cessful anti-poverty tools, the EITC helps struggling families make ends meet. Last year more than $700,000 was sent back to southern Colorado residents who had their tax returns prepared at Trinidad State’s two campuses.
In 2014, Tax Help Colorado helped nearly 10,400 taxpayers re-ceive more than $20.5 million in tax refunds, including nearly 7.8 million from the Earned Income Tax Credit. In addition, the pro-gram saved lower-income taxpay-ers nearly $2 million in commer-cial tax preparation fees.
This free service, which is quick and confidential, will be offered at Trinidad State Junior College, 600
Household incomes less than $52,000 qualify for assistance
Continued on Page 2 ...
By Steve BlockThe Chronicle-News
Weary travelers driving their Recreational Vehicles (RVs) along Interstate 25 will soon have a place to park their mighty machines at an RV Park near the Aguilar exit off of I-25. Mark and Deborah Sca-mahorn received approval Tues-day from the County Board of Commissioners for their plans to reopen the park, which closed six years ago.
The park will have 22 RV park-ing spaces, each with water, elec-trical and sewer hookups. Deborah Scamahorn said the park would have an onsite manager, who would live in a modular home. The park is scheduled to open in mid-February, Scamahorn said, if the weather allows.
The RV Park will be located on two acres of land, part of a larger parcel land owned by the Sca-mahorns, which will soon be the home of Green Earth Automotive Recycling and Salvage, or GEARS.
Kent Robinson, County land use officer, said the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) had asked the park’s own-ers to install a stop sign at the park’s entrance, replacing the ex- Steve Block / The Chronicle-News
Deborah Scamahorn and her husband, Mark, will soon reopen an RV Park near the Aguilar exit off of Interstate 25, after getting the County Board’s approval Tuesday.Continued on Page 2 ...
Page 2 Thursday, January 22, 2015 The Chronicle-News Trinidad, Colorado
General ManagerAllyson Sheumaker
AdvertisingSales-Adam Sperandio
Classifieds, Memorials, & Circulation- Joey Loewen
Design & Legals- Lauri [email protected]
News RoomEditor: Eric John Monson
Features Editor & Fine Print Catherine Moser
Reporter: Steve [email protected]
Business Hours:Monday - Friday
8 AM - 5 PM
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P.O. Box 763, Trinidad, CO 81082(719) 846-3311 • Fax (719) 846-3612
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Subscription RatesEffective Aug. 1, 2013
Home Delivery Trinidad1 Month ................$7.003 Months.............$21.006 Months.............$42.001 Year....................$84.00
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65 Comi Funeral Home
Kent "Knucks" EberhartKent D. "Knucks" Eberhart,
age 67, passed away athome on January 21, 2015after a short illness.
Arrangements are pendingand will be announced laterby the Comi Funeral Home.
67 Mullare-Murphy Funeral Home
James SaracinoJames Virgil Saracino, 71,
of Trinidad, Colorado, waswe lcomed in to heavenJanuary 17 , 2015 .
His funeral service will beheld Thursday, January 22 at10:30 a.m. at Holy TrinityCatholic Church. A privateinterment will be held at alater date.
The family has entrustedthe Mullare-Murphy FuneralH o m e w i t h t h ea r r a n g e m e n t s . 62 Memorials
In Loving Memory ofPete A. Santistevan
Our lips cannot tell howmuch we miss him,
Our hearts cannot tellwhat to say,
God alone knowshow we miss himIn homes that arelonesome today.
We love and miss youdaddy!
Tiny,Darlene, Anita, Debbie,Elaine, and Loretta
63 Card of Thanks
Thanks for the masses,prayers, letters, cards and
phone calls. Each let usknow you cared, which
helped duringthis difficult time.
The family of Fred Buhr.
Council tables marijuana application at Toupal... Continued from Page 1
... Continued from Page 1
... Continued from Page 1
Prospect Street, Freudenthal Library, Main Floor on the following dates: February 7 – March 5, Saturdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursdays 5 to 7 p.m. from February 7 through March 5.
People who are getting their taxes prepared at Trinidad State should bring the following docu-ments:
· All W-2, 1099s and other income-related doc-uments.
· Proof of mortgage interest, property taxes, daycare payments, college education expenses, charitable contributions, and all other tax-de-
ductible expenses.· For college expenses: In addition to Form
1098T from your college, you must bring your own records of expenses paid for tuition, books, fees and supplies.
· Social Security cards (or ITINs) for all fam-ily members. Photo I.D. for taxpayer required.
· A copy of last year’s tax returns, if available.· Form 1095-A if you or any member of your
household got tax credits to pay for health insur-ance.
· Bank account number and routing number
to direct deposit the refund. With direct deposit, refunds are received in 10 to 14 days.
A list of all the Tax Help Colorado sites, as
well as the locations of other free tax assistance sites in Colorado, is available by dialing 2-1-1 (it’s a free call), visiting http://www.piton.org/tax-help-colorado, or finding Tax Help Colorado on Facebook (www.facebook.com/taxhelpcolo-rado) and Twitter (@TaxHelpCo).
isting yield sign.Deborah Scamahorn said the RV Park
would use Trinidad city water, which would be hauled in using the Scamahorn’s own water truck. She said they would like to expand the park in the future, if it proves to be successful.
In other action at the meeting, the board:
— Passed a resolution rescinding the hiring freeze for all County General Fund departments.
— Approved a Fuel Master Main-tenance Agreement for Perry Stokes Airport. The agreement would provide support to airport staff regarding the soft-ware programs that are part of its refuel-ing operations.
— Gave its consent regarding encum-brance of lease with the Trinidad Area
Health Association (TAHA), which over-sees operations at Mt. San Rafael Hospi-tal and the hospital’s clinic. The County owns the land on which the hospital and clinic were built, and TAHA has a loan on the property with Bank of the West, but wants to refinance the loan through International Bank. The Board had to ap-prove in advance any changes regarding encumbrance of lease.
proval for a marijuana facility at 3019 Toupal Drive. Douglas Genova, the CannaCo represen-tative who spoke at the public hearing, insisted that CannaCo and Forever Green were complete-ly separate entities, even though their ownership had some similarities. Genova said the CannaCo Corporation had issued $60,000 worth of stock, all of it belonging to his wife. A further $40,000 worth of stock remained to be issued, and some Council members questioned who was going to be able to buy the remaining shares and how the City could track CannaCo’s ownership, and whether buyers of that stock qualified to own stock in a marijuana-related business under Colorado law. Joshua Bleen is listed as the general manager of CannaCo even though he currently owns no stock in the corporation. Bleen was listed as one of the co-owners of the aforementioned Forever
Green. Council Member Michelle Miles asked Genova how Bleen was going to be compensated by CannaCo for his work.
Genova said Colorado’s marijuana regula-tions allowed employees to be compensated based on the financial success of the business, and he said Bleen would be compensated in that way. Bleen has not yet met Colorado residency requirements for having an equity stake in a marijuana-related business.
Miles said that if an employee got all of the profits from a business then that employee, in effect, owned the company. She asked Genova what percentage of CannaCo’s profits Bleen would receive as compensation for his work.
Genova replied that Bleen’s level of compen-sation had not yet been established, in large part because the business hadn’t opened its doors yet.
He again insisted that Bleen would not own any stock in the CannaCo Corporation. He said Bleen had been thoroughly vetted by the Colorado Bu-reau of Investigation and had been cleared to be a CannaCo employee.
Miles said that paying compensation to Bleen was a way to sidestep the state’s residency re-quirements.
“I understand that he owns no stock, but if he is allowed to receive 100 percent of that com-pany’s earnings then that company operates solely for his benefit,” Miles said. “If you take that down to 50 percent of the profits, then that company is operating 50 percent for his benefit. … I don’t want to hold this up because of things we don’t know, but I would like to make sure that this isn’t a way to sidestep the residency require-ments.”
Genova said he would send e-mails to City government and Council members clarifying the ownership situation of CannaCo.
Chris Furia, who’s been an outspoken oppo-nent of allowing a marijuana business to operate near his family’s home, said Council members didn’t have enough information about Canna-Co’s ownership and other issues related to the business to make an informed decision about al-lowing it to open for business.
The vote was unanimous to table the issue un-til the next Council meeting, with Council mem-ber Liz Torres not in attendance at the meeting.
In other action at the meeting, Council:
— Approved the first reading and set a hearing date of February 3 of an ordinance adding day-care centers to the City’s definition of a school. Marijuana-related businesses cannot be located within 1,000 feet of a school. The ordinance, if ap-proved, would only apply to new marijuana busi-ness applicants, not those already approved by Council.
— Voted unanimously to instruct City At-torney Les Downs to offer the position of City Manager to Gabriel England, who most recently served as the Assistant Town Manager in Gil-bert, Arizona.
— Appointed applicants Mary Blecha and Da-vid Barack to serve on the City’s E911 Authority Board.
Image by AccuWeather.comDouglas Genova spoke on behalf of CannaCo Corporation, a marijuana-related business proposed for 3019 Toupal Drive, at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
FORCE RESTRUCTURING
Fort Carson to host Community Listening Session to discuss reductions
COMMUNITY
TSJC to offer free tax filing services
RV Park to reopen near Aguilar
By Fort Carson Public AffairsSpecial to The Chronicle-News
FORT CARSON, Colo. – Fort Carson and Depart-ment of Army headquarters officials will hold a com-munity listening session at 4 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Centen-nial Hall Auditorium at 200 S. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, to provide area leaders and citizens a forum to comment on the factors they believe Army leader-ship should consider when making decisions about force reductions and restructuring that could affect the Pikes Peak region.
The Army must reduce and reorganize its force structure to achieve the fiscal reductions required by the Budge Control Act of 2011, while staying pos-
tured to best meet the nation’s defense needs. This also will involve a reduction of at least 40,000 active-duty Soldiers for a total end strength of 450,000 active-duty Soldiers. If sequestration-level cuts are imposed in fiscal year 2016 and beyond, all components of the Army would be further reduced, with an active duty end strength dropping to 420,000. In general terms, a decrease of Soldiers would also result in some level of reduction in civilian positions across the Army.
Fort Carson’s community listening session will be one of 30 Army installations listening sessions that will take place through March. The comments made at each community listening session will be provided to Army leadership for their review and consider-ation before any force structure decisions are made.
Thursday, January 22, 2015 Page 3The Chronicle-News Trinidad, Colorado
SCHOOL NEWS
Photo Courtesy of Mileene Sanchez / Aguilar School District
Aguilar Students of the Week of the week Jan.19-22Front row L-R : Samuel Marquez (1st), Belicia Holguin (Preschool), Everett Gauna (K). Back
Row L-R: Franchesca Porras (4th), Isaiah Ortivez (6th), Leah Coca (3rd).
Area teachers, students, parents & administrators:The Chronicle-News wants to hear from you. Share your school and education stories by
emailing either [email protected], or [email protected].
HIGH-ALTITUDE SCIENCE
SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT
EDUCATION JOURNEY
From immigrant to college graduate
Student-built data box survives 130,000 foot balloon rideGreg BoyceTrinidad State Junior College
Leia Zagone, a Trinidad State sopho-more from Albuquerque, did a pre-sentation for fellow students on her data-collecting experiment, which was in-cluded in the Colorado Space Grant Con-sortium’s high altitude balloon launch last weekend. Leia’s computerized box successfully collected temperature, hu-midity, and barometric pressure data and took photos every thirty seconds. It was launched from Windsor, Colorado along with many other education-based experi-ments. The balloon went up to 130,000 feet before it came back down safely on Colo-rado’s eastern plains. Leia plans to add a
bacterial experiment and launch it again this spring.
Leia was accepted into a three-day in-ternship. The first two days were spent building the data box at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and the third was launch day.
Photo courtesy TSJCLeia Zagone
Photo courtesy TSJCLeia Zagone, a Trinidad State sophomore from Albuquerque, did a presentation for fellow students on her data-collecting experiment, which was included in the Colorado Space Grant Consortium’s high altitude balloon launch last weekend.
Photo courtesy TSJCLeia’s computerized box successfully collected temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure data and took photos every thirty seconds.
By Margret SandersonTSJC
(Alamosa, Colo.) Hun-gry for education, Juliana Chaparro was 19 when she moved to the United States from Bogota, Colombia, and she didn’t speak Eng-lish. After completing two semesters of college in Bo-gota, she migrated to the US to live with her aunt in New York City. She land-ed a job at Tavern on the Green, a five-star restau-rant in Central Park. She had no idea that she could earn money checking coats, and thankfully it re-quired little speaking. She was making good money but she was longing to fur-ther her education. She didn’t want to be doing the same job 30 years down the road.
Her boyfriend, Miguel, joined her in New York. He was born in the US and moved with his family, who speaks both Spanish and English, to Bogota when he was one year old.
After six months they were married and soon moved to the San Luis Val-ley where Miguel could at-tend Adams State College (now Adams State Univer-sity). He had heard of Ad-ams State when he was at-tending school in Bogota.
Compared to the hustle and bustle of New York City and the public trans-portation there, Chaparro did not like this isolated rural area at first. It took her awhile to adapt to Ala-mosa. Her husband had been accepted at ASU but she would need to either complete her GED or take a comprehensive English Exam that could prove she could understand, talk and read English. Instead she registered for GED classes at Trinidad State and a year and a half later successfully took the ex-ams in English. She gradu-ated from that program in June 2003 and began college at Adams that fall. “The beginning was rough and I was scared to death and very frustrated when I understood only half of what was said in the class-room,” said Chaparro. She would wait until she got home after class to ask her husband the questions she could not bring herself to ask in the classroom. “Without my husband’s support, I wouldn’t have been able to do this,” said Chaparro.
Affirmations cover Ju-liana’s office wall - a tes-tament to her positive ap-proach.
She completed her pre-requisites at Adams State and then transferred to Trinidad State to pursue a nursing degree. (Nursing was not available at Ad-ams then.) After a week, she learned they would be having clinicals in a cou-ple of weeks where they work face to face with pa-tients and that meant talk-ing to them. She didn’t feel ready. She withdrew and returned to Adams State to complete the psycholo-gy degree she had started. As she was walking down the hall, she passed a class-room where the instructor was speaking Spanish. It felt so good to hear her native language that she waited until the instruc-tor was through with class and then approached her. Their visit led to a double major for Chaparro – psy-chology which she knew she wanted, and Spanish.
She graduated summa cum laude with a Bach-elor of Arts in both Psy-chology and Spanish and a minor in Art in 2009. In May of 2012 she earned her master’s in Clinical Men-tal Health Counseling. “I didn’t want to leave school because I loved it,” said Chaparro, who became a US citizen in 2006.
Just two months after graduation she was hired to work as the Transfer Coordinator for the TRiO program at Trinidad State which currently assists 140 students. “I love it here. It is a perfect fit,” said Chap-arro, “I was a TRiO par-ticipant at Adams State.” To be in the grant funded
TRiO program a student has to either be the first generation in a family to go to college, or have a low income and/or have a disability. The first two qualifications were true for Chaparro.
“Students can save a lot of money if they take their general requirements at a community college,” said Chaparro who assists stu-dents with transfers from two-year to four-year col-leges. She also coordinates TRiO activities and the tutor program at Trini-dad State. Her experience of being a tutor for seven years at Adams State helped to prepare her for the added responsibility in which she hires, trains and supervises tutors. Currently she is respon-sible for 10 tutors. Work-ing with the students and watching them progress is tremendously rewarding for her. “When I got the job as a transfer coordina-tor for TRiO at TSJC, I felt like I was returning home, like the circle was com-plete. In the same class-room where I studied for my GED I am now helping other first-generation stu-dents from disadvantaged backgrounds pursue their dreams of completing col-lege – just as Anna Mae Rael Lindsay, who runs the Trinidad State GED program, helped me to pursue mine,” said Chap-arro.
Her mother, who lives with her now and has only a third grade educa-tion, always told Chaparro that her education will become her wings to fly. And it certainly has. With an insatiable appetite for education, Chaparro is now enrolled in the HEAL (Higher Education Admin-istration and Leadership) master’s program to learn about administration and management at post-sec-ondary institutions.
As a former Trinidad State GED graduate, Chap-arro was invited to speak at their 2013 graduation ceremony. She quoted Oprah Winfrey: “It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you.” Chaparro went on to say, “We only truly succeed when we help oth-ers and now I have found that opportunity at Trini-dad State.”
Juliana Chaparro travels from Bogata to Trinidad State
Photo courtesy TSJCJuliana in her busy office with her two computer monitors.
Photo courtesy TSJCAffirmations cover Juliana’s office wall - a testament to her posi-tive approach.
Page 6 Thursday, January 22, 2015 The Chronicle-News Trinidad, Colorado
CLASS 2A GIRLS BASKETBALLRK TEAM W-L PTS PVS LW1 Peyton (5) 8-0 85 5 2-02 Hoehne (2) 10-0 78 2 2-03 Caliche (2) 10-0 68 3 2-04 Akron 9-1 63 4 2-05 Cedaredge 11-0 54 6 2-06 Yuma 8-2 51 1 2-17 Meeker 6-2 25 7 2-08 Paonia 8-3 22 8 3-09 Sedgwick Co 7-2 13 - 1-010 Highland 7-3 10 9 1-1
Photo by Eric John Monson / The Chronicle-News
Gene Gagliardi Tournament this weekendThe Trinidad Miners hosted their last home dual for the year Tuesday, one of the final times se-
niors like Adrian Torres (pictured above) will have to wrestle in fromt of the home crowd. The Min-ers were victorious 48-29. Trinidad will travel to La Junta on Thursday then return back to host the Gene Gagliardi Wrestling Tournament this Saturday. They are excepting between 16-21 teams to attend. The community is encouraged to come to the tournament and show their support for THS.
SportS ScoreboardFind your prep sports scores here, the Sports Scoreboard, is a new regular element in The Chronicle-News. To submit your schools scores email [email protected]
LOCAL STATE BASKETBALL RANKINGS
MissyBlue Heeler/
Chow Mix
LizaMiniature
Pinscher Mix
KingHusky
MarloGerman Shepherd
Mix
PathosGerman Shepherd
Mix
January Perm Sale
309 W. Main St. • (719)846-2555MC~VISA~DISCOVER
Finest PermsDesigner Cut & Finish
Now on Sale!
thru January 31
SportS & eventS
TRINIDAD PUB EVENT
MEN’S BASKETBALL
By Swearfest organizers
Swearfest – the brainchild of author and host, Scott Mastro, will make it’s tri-umphant return to JuJo’s Ballroom, at 125 North Chestnut Street, this Friday, Janu-ary 23, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“Swearfest started as a joke, and we know what joking leads to,” said Mastro. “I said, ‘This town needs a swearing competi-tion.’ So after confiding in a few friends and getting their opinions, I decided, what the heck, lets do it. Obviously I didn’t say heck, though. So I went and talked to Shirley and Joe Incitti at JuJo’s, and they agreed to host its world debut, Full Moon Friday the 13th last June.”
Once Mastro had a venue, the next step was to spread the word. Radio, television and newspaper were flooded with ads try-ing to get any and all information out. Mas-tro’s biggest supporter was KCRT’s Bob-bie Herrera, who will also man sound and lights again this weekend.
“I sat on that material for five months and finally edited it down to a 2-minute teaser in October,” said Mastro, who had Herrera do sound and video-record the first Swearfest and help spread the word. Once word got out, it’s grown legs and seems to have found that ‘it’ factor. Quixote’s True Blue in Denver picked it up for a show.
“Before we take it back to Quixote’s, I wanted to do Swearfest in a few other ven-ues and bringing it home to JuJo’s just made sense,” said Mastro. “We’re consider-ing the Isabel Castillo Performing Arts Cen-ter, in Raton’s Shuler Theater Complex by the end of this month, or early February.”
Swearfest is an audience-interactive, one and a half to two hour story-telling event where crowd members’ stories are the bulk of the show, professionally-hosted, in a civ-il, relaxed, atmosphere, “The Moth Radio
Hour” meets “Trailer Park Boys”, audience members offering positive performer-feed-back, swearing limited to performer stage-time. That’s what the Cuss Buckets are for. Swear out of turn and drop a penalty-fee in.
The audience is welcomed and told to make the Swearfest Oath, “I do solemnly swear,” and everybody sings the Swearfest theme song. To which Mastro will give short narratives from audience-suggestions of topics. The audience members will then take the stage, relating their own comically poignant venting’s, wowing the crowd and themselves.
Category examples: swearing at a judge, a lawyer, a cop, an ex, phone customer ser-vice rep, your boss, in traffic, parole officer, someone’s mother...life in general...tell a story, vent a frustration, or choose a char-acter and audience-suggestion, whatever Swearfest means. “You can yell and cuss whatever your little heart desires,” said Mastro.
Trinidad’s own, Safeway checkout clerk and No.1 Swearfest 2014 fan, Bill Naccarato, summed up what Swearfest is all about by saying “I just wanna’ say I had fun.”
General admission is $5, 65 and up and pre-registered storytellers get free admis-sion.
For more info, call the Swearfest hotline, 310-866-2587, and take the ‘I do solemnly swear’ challenge today, and come out to JuJo’s Ballroom this Friday night.
Swearfest returns to JuJo’s this Friday
Trojans top Lopes in closing seconds
File photo Swearfest’s Scott Mastro
Photo by Jolinalynn “Ipo” Achiu and Rachel Pirtle/ TSJCElijah Valdez, shown here playing defense against Otero, has had the hot hand for the Trojans averaging over 15 points a game.
Mike SalbatoTrinidad State Junior College
Trinidad State traveled to Lamar, Colorado on Tuesday evening for its fi-nal Region IX road game of the season and returned home with a 91-89 victory over the Lopes.
The Trojans fell behind the hot shooting Lamar squad in the opening minutes but quickly turned the tide to take a commanding 52-37 lead into the locker room at the half. Hot shooting from sophomores Elijah Valdez and Joe Smith keyed the first half run. After an extended halftime break the Trojans
returned to the floor flat allowing the Lopes to cut the lead to single digits be-fore a single point went onto the board for Trinidad. Strong post play from Eric Andres and good hustle from guards Elijah Kess and Chris Williams helped the Trojans get back on track and push the lead back past double-digits.
The Lopes started dominating the of-fensive glass in the closing minutes and closed the lead with a streak of 3-point-ers. A pair of free throws tied the game at 89 with less than 30 seconds remain-ing. The Trojans worked the clock down and fed the ball inside but Lamar knocked it out of bounds with only two
seconds remaining in regu-lation. Coach Mike Folda called a perfect inbounds play and Preston Bungei found a wide-open Treyvon Andres under the basket. The TSJC freshman put it in, beating the buzzer; to hand the Trojans the two-point road win.
Valdez led all TSJC scor-ers with 24, including seven 3-pointers. Smith added 21 points and Eric Andres had a hard earned double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Trojans 9-11 (3-4) have all eight of their re-maining Region IX games at home starting with North Platte 15-4 (8-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. North Platte’s only region loss came at the hands of the Trojans back in December. Trinidad will then try to make up for a 94-88 loss to McCook when they host the Indians 12-7 (5-3) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Photo by Jolinalynn “Ipo” Achiu and Rachel Pirtle/ TSJCTreyvon Andres goes up for two against Otero. The freshman is averaging 8 points/8 rebounds a game for the Trojans.