For outsiders, the state of Colorado is Denver, the metro area and parts of the Front Range extending from Fort Collins in the north to Colorado Springs in the other direction. But for those who call Colorado home, the state is so much more, geographically, culturally, economically and politically.
Pueblo County, once home to the largest steel mill west of the Mississippi River, may soon be home to the biggest wind turbine manufacturing plant in the world. The city and CS Wind, a South Korean company, are working out the final details to expand the current operation which may one day include a tripling of its workforce to as many as a thousand employees.
Being southern Colorado’s largest population center and economic hub, Pueblo city government announced that there will be no interruption in air service with Southern Airways stepping to replace SkyWest as a regional carrier. Despite being a smaller market, Pueblo Memorial Airport serves more than 8,000 passengers each year though prior to the pandemic, that figure exceeded 11,000. There will be no interruption in service with the new airline set to begin operations on January 1st.
With a new year beginning, Puebloan Dru Spinuzzi will once again begin her efforts to educate and alert people on the importance of bees. Spinuzzi is one of southern Colorado’s swarm commanders, a designation for individuals who teach the A-Z on nature’s pollinators. Each winter presents a new threat to bee populations and the recent weather bomb cyclone which hit Colorado and nearly the whole country may have been even more devastating than previous winters. No word yet on the latest seasonal assault but, said Spinuzzi, educating her part of the state has paid off. “Populations are up,” and dangerous parasites that threaten bees are down, she told La Voz Colorado last spring. While Flora Archuleta is not a name well known in the metro area, it’s one that thousands know in the San Luis Valley. Archuleta, a lifelong Valley resident, is Executive
Director of the San Luis Valley Immigrant Resource Center. Without her, migrant workers would be challenged to navigate the serpentine path to legal work status. Employers who depend on these workers would also find themselves in a bind. Everyday, Archuleta helps immigrant men and women renew work permits, complete complex documents that aid in remaining on the right side of immigration laws and educate this workforce on political asylum and amnesty options. Archuleta guesses that over the years, she has helped a couple of generations of immigrants. “They stop me all over the place,” she said, often introducing new children to her or, in some cases, even new grandchildren.
It may be hard to describe how much a person can love their dog. But one way to show your pooch is through food and treats. While struggling through the pandemic as a respiratory therapist, Puebloan Desiree Vigil found the perfect way to escape the gloom and get closer to her pets.
“During COVID” she said, “it was so hard being short-staffed. Everyone was so short on bathing, equipment, beds and where to put people. It was just pretty crazy.” The business was the perfect escape in her own kitchen. She created ‘Des’s Delightful Dog Treats,’ healthy and tasty treats, she said, with ingredients she knew were good for them. It’s a boutique business with all sales made via the internet.
Pueblo Community College is trying to show that all it takes is a little effort to create a more sustainable world. PCC’s Joe Waneka, Director of the Office of Facilities and Construction, leads the school’s effort to boost its ‘green profile.’ It starts with the little things, he said. “You have to show them demonstrable levels” of conservation. For example, teach people that it takes as little as a month for a glass container to go from a recycling bin to a reusable container. PCC has undergone “a campus-wide retrofit,” he said, one sparked by simple economics. “Our refuse costs jumped by thirty percent” over five years. By going green, he said, the school has saved $450,000.
It’s not just the holiday season when Puebloan Helen Benavidez battles the grinch, in this case, simple economics. Benavidez has run the Pueblo Soup Kitchen for nearly a decade and every day, when she’s not the trail boss choreographing meal service for a couple of hundred customers, she’s trying to figure out how to hustle the next day’s or week’s rations. The holiday season, she said, was her latest challenge. “I was a little panicked because we had not received any turkeys,” she said of November’s big meal. Luckily the city’s Care and Share program came through.
Benavidez and her staff—three full time employees, and eight to ten volunteers—come to work each weekday and serve donuts and coffee for breakfast and a full noon time meal. But, she said, she’s being stretched thin with donations problematic and a clientele growing by the week.
