Moving a Mountain to Plug a Dam Leak

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THE CHRONICLE -NEWS, Trinidad, Colorado North lake dam leak Continued from Page 1 The state could force the city to lower the water level because of safety concerns. In doing so, how- ever, it would be necessary to remove support under part of Highway 12, which circles the lake. Councilman Alex Passarelli, who used to work for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said he has seen such subsidence there before. "What looks like a mountain is a body of water," he said of a hill Councilman Ted Martinez asked again about possibly prorat- ing unexpectedly high utility bills. The final answer is that this can only be done by an ordinance, to replace or amend an earlier ordi- nance. Sayre directed City Attorney Bruce Billings to draw up an ordinance for council to consider for the next meeting. Ritz emphasized that the cur- rent contract between Colorado Interstate Gas and the city is still in place, even though the "locked - in" price expired seven months before the end of the contract. A new contract is being negotiated, to take effect on April 30. The goal is again to lock in the best possible price for natural gas, to be passed on to the city's cus- tomers. Ritz attributed the past three years of low prices to "this council's diligence" City Manager Jim Soltis announced that there will be a special meeting at the end of this month, to consider bids for a sewer trunk line, and to consider "a couple of contract issues" During the week of February 28, officials from the Colorado Department of Transportation ma be in Trinidad for a walking tour with interested councilmen. Billings said the city's cable television supplier will be lower- ing the rate for the basic service tier, perhaps since no new chan- nels have been added to that tier. The new rate goes into effect in May of this year: $29.59 a mont near the lake. Another option is to line the outlet pipe, reducing its diameter and the amount of water it can carry, but that might make it too small for emergency draining. Basically, all the solutions cur- rently being discussed will be quite expensive, Fernandez said. Mayor Harry Sayre commented that the public at Tuesday's meet- ing had just seen how "within the ''s space of an hour, we can spend $5 �) million easy." Following the council work ses- sion, the regular meeting started y off with local businessman Barry Marshall giving a presentation on a recent visit to Trinidad by sever- al men. Apparently, two topics had been of interest: the possibili- 0 ty of collecting sales tax on items 0 sold via the Internet, and using a "bed tax" on visitors renting hotel and motel rooms to help support the historic downtown. Marshall also suggested that by leveraging the city's sales tax revenue, a nice fund is available for loans to busi at nesses at 6.5 %. ;d New Nickelodeon series American family in San Antoni Told from the perspective of the youngest of four siblings, "Garcia" is described as an Hispanic "Wonder Years" An interactive animated seric "Dora the Explorer," will featui 7- year -old Hispanic girl who li inside a computer. In every 'y NEW YORK (AP) — Striking a blow for diversity, the kids' cable network Nickelodeon has in plans for three new series with n- Hispanic leads. The new shows are "a rounding I out of our efforts to reflect the world of kids;' said Cyma