BIA irrigation works need millions in repairs, feds say
Durango – Irrigation projects run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs need as much as $850 million for repairs, including $20 million for a project serving the Southern Ute Tribe, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO report, obtained by the Durango Herald, says many of the projects are badly managed.
“In many cases, BIA officials with oversight authority lack expertise, while those with expertise lack authority,” the report stated.
The tribes have no part in the management of the 16 projects, which were begun in the 1880s to help bring Indians into the mainstream population.
The needs of the Pine River Irrigation project, which serves the Southern Utes, are only a small fraction of what some other projects need, the report said.
Ross Denny, superintendent of the BIA’s Southern Ute Agency, said the report is accurate.
The audit said the project ran out of cash reserves two years ago and has been using funds from other departments to make up the shortage.
WELD COUNTY
Passenger killed when car strikes power pole
A passenger in a 1994 black Honda coupe was killed Sunday morning when the car went off the side of a road in Weld County and crashed into a power pole.
The crash happened just after midnight in the 5200 block of F Street as the car traveled west on the northwest side of Greeley, authorities said.
The car was driven by 21-year-old Benito Juarez of Greeley, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
He was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Juarez is facing charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, authorities said.
The name of the passenger who died is being withheld until his family can be notified.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether the men were wearing seat belts.
FORT COLLINS
Welfare group takes 30 birds from home
Volunteers with a bird welfare organization took possession of more than 30 birds Sunday from an elderly woman hoarding them in her home in Fort Collins.
“The conditions were filthy,” said Anna Gonce, executive director of the Gabrial Foundation. “The air quality was very poor and there was feces piled everywhere. There were dead mice and vermin droppings everywhere.”
The birds were taken to the Gabrial Foundation Avian and Adoption Center in Elizabeth.
PUEBLO
Man jailed as suspect in girlfriend’s killing
A Pueblo man surrendered to Colorado Springs police after allegedly confessing to the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, authorities say.
Charles Martin Wilkinson, 33, was booked Friday on suspicion of first-degree murder, according to jail records.
His 25-year-old girlfriend, Jennifer Behling, was found dead Friday morning at the condominium they shared. Behling was shot 27 times, according to an arrest affidavit.
Hours before the shooting, police responded to a domestic disturbance between the couple, but nobody was arrested because they seemed to have calmed down, Pueblo police Capt. John Barger said.
Wilkinson’s mother, who lives in Monument, told investigators her son called her early Friday and said he was destined to go to hell for what he’d done to Beh ling, the Pueblo Chieftain reported.
Wilkinson’s mother told police that her son had been in the Navy, and then signed on as a civilian contractor in Iraq.
Wilkinson reportedly had Behling handle his finances while he was out of the country but returned to find money that he expected to have been saved had been spent, according to the affidavit.
SOUTH FORK
Experts cite progress in Canada lynx effort
Researchers released four Canada lynx on Saturday, another step in a reintroduction program started in 1999 and put into action seven years ago.
The lynx freed Saturday are expected to help repopulate a species considered endangered in Colorado and threatened in 47 other states.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife plans to release 218 Canada lynx to the San Juan Mountains by the end of April. While the program cannot be classified as successful yet, researchers said there is definite progress.
If the lynx continue breeding, releases will not be necessary much longer, said Tanya Schenk, lead field researcher for the reintroduction project.
The DOW plans to release 10 more cats this month, and will continue with releases through 2008. Then it will assess whether more cats are needed to bolster the population.
