OURAY COUNTY

September 20, 1973 – Charges have been filed against Ronald Zaring for cattle rustling in Ouray County. About 9 p.m.

Tuesday, Mark Nichols was informed by two young men from the Eastern Slope that a man had parked a truck along Owl Creek Road and was butchering a beef.

Names of the informants were unavailable at this writing. Ouray County Sheriff Art Dougherty and Undersheriff Frank Merling, with Nichols, Orin Williams, Bill Hotchkiss, Peter Wall and Tim Force, went to the site. There they found Zaring and his wife Annie, both 63, butchering a heifer weighing about 350 pounds.

Dougherty said it had been shot in the neck with a large caliber weapon. Zaring had two weapons with him. The Zarings reside at Cedaredge. Zaring told the sheriff that he had found the heifer dead along the road and decided to dress it out to save the meat. Dougherty arrested the couple and they were taken to Montrose County Jail. The Zarings were charged with grand larceny and cattle theft.

40 YEARS AGO

September 22, 1983 – Not only were the facilities improved this year by the addition of the Ouray Community Center, but everything about the Ouray Culinary Arts Show seems to improve year by year.

In this, its eighth year, the show drew new highs in attendance, beginning with the cheese seminar on Friday afternoon right through the last demonstration Sunday afternoon. The displays in the school multi-purpose room were elegant, the seminars informative, the demonstrations entertaining, and the food, including that at the champagne brunch, was delicious.

Some 480 people attended the brunch, not counting the workers.

30 YEARS AGO

September 23, 1993 – Fearing that Ouray might take on the look of a “Mexican border town,” Mayor Pat Donovan proposed that an ordinance be drawn up prohibiting any long-term, outdoor-type of market in Ouray at last Monday’s council meeting. The proposal came following a plan which was presented to the Planning Commission by Nathan Worswick of Unicas Southwest, for just such a store to be built in Ouray. Worswick was not present at the council meeting. The store would sell terracotta planters and outdoor decorations, similar to the products Unicas Southwest sells in Ridgway. “I approached the Planning Commission a year ago when I bought the property with the intention of constructing a teepee to sell out of. They told me I could not sell out of a temporary structure at all. I opted for not having a structure at this time,” Worswick said when contacted by the paper. “Having just finished the community plan it seems the vision that the people have for Ouray is not something that would look like a Mexican border town,” said Donovan. “This is just one effort of many to make sure that the town grows in a way that matches the community’s expectations.”

20 YEARS AGO

September 26, 2003 – Ouray’s county commissioners expressed their support Monday for the Juvenile Diversion and Juvenile Services program, which is based in Ridgway, yet it’s too soon to report if commissioners can agree to an $11,500 request for funds. Juvenile Diversion Program Director Joe Ramsey asked the Board of County Commissioners on Sept. 22 to increase the county’s contribution by $500 more than last year. BOCC Chairman Don Batchelder seemed to speak for fellow commissioners Tom Hollenbeck and Bill Ferguson. “I don’t have any questions,” said Batchelder. “As far as I’m concerned, this is a no-brainer.” The primary mission of Juvenile Diversion is to provide appropriate first-time, and some second-time, youth offenders with an alternative to a criminal record. “The program’s focus continues to be on ownership for the crime by the youth, restoration to victims and case management that is individually designed and not cookie cutter,” said Ramsey. Ramsey noted in his request to the BOCC that the Juvenile Diversion and Juvenile Services program has worked with 19 juveniles clients from Ouray County since January 2003, almost onethird of the youth served in Ouray and San Miguel counties.

10 YEARS AGO

September 26, 2013 – As part of the community’s efforts to combat the fir engraver beetle that has already claimed many trees surrounding Ouray, an outreach session will be held tonight in the Ouray Community Center. Organized by resident Barbara Uhles with help from city staff, the session will inform the public on the different trees at risk in the area as well as how to prevent beetle infestation and treat infested trees. Representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado State Forest Service and the West Region Wildfire Council will educate the community and answer questions from the audience. Arborists from Montrose and Telluride will also be in attendance to give residents information about spraying trees for prevention and removing dead trees. “We’re going all out to try and get the trees of Ouray in a safer position so they aren’t as susceptible (to the beetle),” said Uhles.