2016-08-11_PERMIT FILE - M2016009

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Pueblo Chieftain I Page B01 Sunday, 7 August 2016 SHARE ©VS...'' Numerous farmers support gravel plan They say it's a permitted use that will not harm area BY CHRIS WOODKA I THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN Surrounded by family members and with old family photos spread out on her dining room table, Nancy Pritekel is calm while discussing a gravel pit near Avondale that she hopes will finally become a reality. In 1964 she and her late husband Joe bought a portion of the land where a proposed gravel pit would be located. Today, after more than 15 years of planning, the gravel extraction is being opposed by some of her neighbors as an "invasion."To her, it's part of a property right that has never been realized. 'When we bought it, it was a necessity. We had lost some land we had been farming;' Pritekel said. "For the asking price, a big part of the decision was that gravelcame with the land. We were fortunate enough that we never had to depend on it." But her children worked on the farm and helped Joe and Nancy Pritekel make it through some tough years, and now she sees the income from gravel extraction as a way to pay them back. She wants to get the project rolling. "It's an evolution.Things keep changing;" she said, reflecting on how her grandparents first settled in the area in the late 1890s. "These roads had sugar beet trucks that carried several tons, and the roads SEE PLAN, 2B Bob Centa stands in front of Bessemer Ditch near his farms. A gravel pit is proposed for the area behind the hillside in the background, which would be left intact under the current plan. CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/JOHN JAQUES Nancy Pritekel e a'V PLAN/ i from page 1 B were all dirt." Many of the roads in the area are now paved, and that takes gravel. Ironically, gravel used on the road near her home on Nicholson Road was brought in from Colorado City.