50 YEARS AGO

May 17, 1973 – Editorial: Ma Bell’s gone around the bend again, to the point where there’s no living with her. The decline has become too severe. Every week there’s a new aberration. A few weeks ago you couldn’t telephone Ridgway without having to go through the long distance operator each time. Then you had to cope with sounds of frying bacon, blats, bleeps, and roars that overpowered voices of would-be communicators. More regularly, it is impossible to reach an operator without dialing over and over, and listening to your hair grow while nothing else happens. Long distance calls are interrupted by crazy sounds. Worse, they’re often terminated in mid-conversation. There will probably be more tiresome meetings required, and we can almost quote the excuses and promises we’ll hear.

40 YEARS AGO

May 19, 1983 – Progress continues to be made on fundraising for Ouray’s new community center. Jack Schoenebaum, Community Center Committee chairman, says contributions to the project now total $16,738. In addition, Candy Bowers, spokeswoman for the Woman’s Club of Ouray, reports that to date $4,027.75 has been donated to the Emma Lou Wilder Memorial Elevator Fund. This puts the grand total of contributions to these two funds at $20,765.88. Two events scheduled for later this month will hopefully raise additional funds for the community center. Meanwhile, construction on the building is proceeding well. All of the masonry is complete and the roof is now being applied. A grand opening is tentatively scheduled for mid-August.

30 YEARS AGO

May 20, 1993 – An appraiser hired by the Ouray County commissioners to update property values claims County Assessor Donna Ashley French has “broken the state constitution” and failed to properly perform the duties of her office. Steven Waller of Durango was paid $90,000 by county commissioners to physically inspect buildings in the county beginning in March and to verify this information with existing records. Waller created new appraisal valuation tables which were entered into the new computer system. Notices of valuation that were mailed out this week were generated based on this information. Waller first did work for the county last fall, when, threatened with a lawsuit over validation of commercial property, county commissioners hired Waller to conduct a county-wide commercial property reappraisal.

20 YEARS AGO

May 16, 2003 – A sunny day and a couple of bouquets of flowers were part of the simple farewell that Louise Ficco received on the last day of her career that spanned three decades with the Ouray County Public Health Office. Louise graduated from Ridgway High School in 1957 and married Alvin Ficco in 1959. When she began her career with public health in the early ‘70s, the office was in the Ouray County Courthouse, right behind the courtroom. The county nurse at the time was Mary Williams. Louise began keeping books for Williams part-time. The office later moved to the basement of the courthouse. That’s where Louise took on the responsibility of the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) 20 years ago. The WIC program, spearheaded by Louise, helps Ouray County in several ways: Families who couldn’t otherwise afford to stay can remain, in turn contributing to the lower-paid workforce that many local businesses rely on. Also, the federal checks for groceries are spent at local stores.

10 YEARS AGO

May 23, 2013 – Following a series of resignations that began early last week, Ouray’s police department is now down to one. Officer Chad Rilling submitted his letter of resignation before Monday evening’s City Council meeting. His leave was to take effect Wednesday, May 22, which is also the last day for Officer Tony Schmidt. Last Monday, Schmidt handed in his resignation. He told the Plaindealer that he felt there were some issues within the department that weren’t being resolved and mentioned that recent scheduling issues also came into play with his decision. Police Chief Leo Rasmusson II followed suit and resigned Tuesday morning, May 14. Justin Crandall, the only remaining officer, spoke to City Council and the community at Monday’s Ouray City Council meeting. He stated that with the current state of the department, some services will be curtailed for the moment, including car locks, fingerprints and VIN inspections. Crandall also said that he will be prioritizing calls as he receives them, placing an emphasis on criminal cases. “As I cannot work 24/7, at some point… I’m going to be working on an on-call basis,” he said. “I will be out patrolling as much as possible, but I will also be dealing with things that come up.”