Last month, the Montezuma County Board of Commissioners voted to cut 10 positions from the Sheriff’s Office. In response, employees have petitioned the state of Colorado to begin the process of collective bargaining in the new year. Allen Phelps is a detective at the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and the president of Mesa Verde Lodge 74 Fraternal Order of Police. Without proper staffing levels, Phelps says the office is unable to adequately deal with the number of homicides, sexual assaults and property crimes that occur in the county. Phelps says 70 of 72 employees at the office signed petitions in favor of collective bargaining, which will now initiate a ballot election. And a plane crash in a forest north of Dolores resulted in two deaths this past weekend.
Chris Clements is a former news reporter for KSJD. He had previously covered literary arts as a reporter for The Chautauquan Daily in Chautauqua, New York, and graduated with a degree in English from Arizona State University. At KSJD, Chris has collaborated with KUNC (northern Colorado NPR) on water conservation stories, and had his spots regularly featured on NPR's national newscasts.