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Tag: Grand Junction

Ben Van Dyke wants to be voice of reason and of the people on Grand Junction City Council
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Ben Van Dyke wants to be voice of reason and of the people on Grand Junction City Council

By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Independent-minded, solution-oriented, and practical pragmatism is what Ben Van Dyke says is missing on the current Grand Junction City Council. He intends to change all that, for the residents and businesspeople in Grand Junction, if he is elected to City Council in April. “I never thought that I would run for any political office, it was never something I had thought about until the disastrous way the Council handled the unhoused in our community, and then watched as they created another disaster with 4th and 5th Streets,” Van Dyke said. Van Dyke is a fourth-generation resident of Grand Junction, and his roots run deep in the Grand Valley. He is a father, husband and business owner. Since the late 1960s, his fam...
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Final phase of Grand Junction downtown parking updates to be rolled out this week
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Approved, KKCO-TV Grand Junction, Local

Final phase of Grand Junction downtown parking updates to be rolled out this week

By Kacie Sinton | KKCO-TV 11 News The City of Grand Junction is making some changes to parking in the downtown area. Starting this week, the final phase of updates will be rolled out to downtown parking. Grand Junction workers will be installing 17 kiosks around various downtown parking lots. Officials will also begin allowing 10-hour parking for people with applicable permits at 600 Rood Avenue and 500 Ute Avenue, plus four-hour parking in the 400, 500, and 600 blocks of Colorado Avenue. READ THE FULL STORY AT KKCO-TV 11 NEWS
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Grand Junction firefighters deployed to support firefighting efforts in Beaumont, Calif.
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Approved, KKCO-TV Grand Junction, Local

Grand Junction firefighters deployed to support firefighting efforts in Beaumont, Calif.

By Aiga Petelo | KKCO-TV 11 News The Grand Junction Fire Department’s Wildland Fire Team is preparing to assist in the ongoing efforts to combat wildfires in California. A four-person crew and a Type 3 Wildland Engine will depart from Grand Junction on Saturday, Jan. 11, at 7:00 a.m. The crew will join a five-engine strike team composed of units from neighboring states and will report to Beaumont, California. READ THE FULL STORY AT KKCO-TV 11 NEWS
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Grand Junction’s 7th Street plan may have city on course for head-on collision with constituents
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Grand Junction’s 7th Street plan may have city on course for head-on collision with constituents

By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice As Grand Junction unveils its proposal to make major changes to 7th Street -- citing safety for pedestrians and bicyclists -- more than 200 people attended a meeting of City Council in person or virtually last week with about two-thirds of them vehemently opposed to the direction City Council seems determined to pursue. According to Jim Spehar, a former county commissioner and City Council member, two-thirds of those people were there to protest any more costly changes to Grand Junction roads. Spehar, in an op-ed to the local legacy newspaper, wrote that more than half of the people in attendance were still outraged over the “experimental pilot project” changes made to 4th and 5th Streets earlier in the year.  He advise...
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Grand Junction punts again on homeless center to the ire of taxpayers
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Grand Junction punts again on homeless center to the ire of taxpayers

By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Downtown residents and businesses continue to be frustrated by the Grand Junction City Council's efforts to find a way to meet the needs of vulnerable homeless people while saying they want to protect the homeowners and businesses from the darker element that lives within the homeless population.  In a recent turn of events, the Council, in an effort to address the violence, crime and exploitation of the area's approximately 2,000 homeless people, created a buffer zone that extends from curb to curb at the property on 261 Ute Avenue. The buffer zone was an attempt to stop the criminal element from dealing drugs and prostitution at the address where the Homeless Resource Center is located. The idea was to give the center...
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In Grand Junction, scrutiny intensifies on Resource Center to address rising crime, other issues
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

In Grand Junction, scrutiny intensifies on Resource Center to address rising crime, other issues

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Once celebrated as one of the top 10 main streets in the U.S., Grand Junction’s downtown now faces turmoil. Business owners, frustrated with the nearby Resource Center, are cleaning up feces and needles and dealing with fires and property damage. Many are calling for the center to be relocated. The Resource Center opened on Dec. 11, 2023, providing food, shelter, hygiene and navigation services for the homeless. By October 2024, however, downtown business owners reported rising concerns about harassment, danger, property damage and filth. At the Nov. 20 meeting of City Council, business owners shared their frustrations.  “We've put in a new, almost $20,000 camera system since this Resource Center came in," business own...
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In Grand Junction, City Council debates role in homeless solution, problem shelter
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In Grand Junction, City Council debates role in homeless solution, problem shelter

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice After months of appealing to the Grand Junction City Council to do something about the criminal element that has worsened since the Homeless Day Center was located in their neighborhood, business owners and downtown residents are beginning to see progress. At the City Council workshop on Nov. 4,  Interim City manager Andrea Phillips told the Council that they had held meetings with the public as directed by Council two weeks ago, that there were approximately 45 people in attendance and all the people that came to the meeting wanted the Day Center closed immediately. She said their concerns were valid and that there were concerns generally related to the location of the Day Center. More specific concerns included safety for ...
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Business owners ask City Council for help with homeless activity, get no action in Grand Junction
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Business owners ask City Council for help with homeless activity, get no action in Grand Junction

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice Grand Junction businesses and residents in the downtown area have become fed up with the nefarious and criminal activity stemming from the Homeward Bound Day Center for the homeless, and they are directing their ire at elected officials on City Council. Ben Van Dyke, who owns the car wash next door to the center, says that although he understands, and has compassion for, the people who are homeless, the criminal and nuisance activities that are not being managed are unsafe and are driving away his business. “My revenue is down 30 percent because my customers tell me they feel unsafe," he said. "I used to go down and do maintenance on my building at night so I didn’t have to shut down operations during the day. I can’t do that a...
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Grand Junction ‘Rumble’ rallies support for conservative movement in Colorado
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Grand Junction ‘Rumble’ rallies support for conservative movement in Colorado

By Jen Schumann | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice The Rocky Mountain Rumble held Sunday in Clifton gathered Western Slope conservatives under a shared mission: fighting for rural Colorado's future and energizing the community ahead of crucial elections. Hosted by Rocky Mountain Voice's founder Heidi Ganahl, the event underscored the importance of unity, local leadership and economic opportunity as the region grapples with state and federal overreach. Mesa County resident and attendee Vicky Murphy says she's been a political junkie for years, often speaking her mind and she's noticed a change in locals around her lately. "People that I’ve known for years who never opened their mouth about politics are suddenly very chatty," she said. "They have passion [and] concern, and they ...
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Grand Junction still seeking answers to homeless issue, following drug arrests at resource center
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Grand Junction still seeking answers to homeless issue, following drug arrests at resource center

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice When the Grand Junction City Council was forming their plan in 2023 to find temporary shelters for the approximately 2,300 homeless people who were living in the streets, members of the community had multiple concerns about the potential problems with the proposed housing. One of those concerns was the illegal use of drugs inherent to many in the homeless population.  On Aug. 22, 2024, the Grand Junction City Council approved changes to city zoning and created a process to establish places for temporary housing shelters in non-residential and mixed-use areas of town. At the time, the Council decided not to approve tents or safe parking places, although those options had been considered in earlier discussions. They were not a...
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