The fruit and vegetable stand located for many years at Durango High School has found a new home along Main Avenue. (Durango Herald file)
Dear Action Line: Where is the produce stand that was in front of Durango High School relocating? – Barry Sweet
Dear Barry: The community has been on pins and needles over this. There is good news, which we’ll get to in a moment. But first, the back story to keep you in suspense and make you read it. Hey, it’s for your own good. You’ll learn things.
The Palisade-based produce stand, which has been rebranded this year as Just Peachy (it was Peach Valley Produce), has at least temporarily lost its home of many years at the Durango High School parking lot. The school district, which leased the space each summer and fall to the produce stand, is in the middle of building a new Impact Career Innovation Center. The construction has shut down the entire campus for the summer.
Sure, it’s fine for the kids, who will get a building dedicated to career exploration, which will potentially match their skills and passions with life possibilities beyond graduation, as District 9-R spokeswoman Karla Sluis said. Action Line gets that. But what about all the people who can’t get through June, July, August and beyond without fresh and yummy cherries and peaches?
“I know many people – including me – were deeply distressed to lose a convenient place to buy peaches,” Sluis said. “I, for one, am willing to sacrifice peaches for passion.”
OK, here’s the good news: Just Peachy has found not just one new home, but two. Owner Joshua Bair of Durango said negotiations began with three possible landowners, and they’ve reached agreements with two.
The main stand’s new home is the La Plata County Fairgrounds. It will be in the parking lot parallel to Main Avenue by the north ballfield, said Emily Spencer, fairgrounds general manager. It’s just south of the Durango Community Recreation Center.
Another new location will be in a lot at 3478 Main Ave., just north of the La Campanella townhomes, Bair said. He expects those two locations to become annual sites for Just Peachy. It’s possible there will be a third location this summer, near the Durango Mall, but that is yet to be determined.
The hope is to open the stands June 18 or 20 with fresh cherries, he said.
That’s a bit later than usual; the opening was June 15 last year and June 10 two years ago. The culprit is the weather. The cherries – generally the first crop ready for picking – are behind. “It didn’t get hot quickly, so they’re a little slow,” Bair said.
Other fruit – including peaches – will follow. “It comes out as nature provides,” he said.
The plan is to stay open into October.
Looks like you’ll have to do some pinpoint driving to get through the new beams installed at the under-construction U.S. Highway 550/160 interchange in Grandview. (Action Line)
Dear Action Line: What are those metal girders or beams or whatever they’re called that have risen up from the construction at the new U.S. Highway 550/160 interchange? My guess is they have something to do with smoothing out the exhilarating takeoff ramp and stomach-churning drop at these locations, but maybe they’re a novel method of limiting speed? – Up in the Air
Dear Up: Just when you thought this new interchange might be navigable, they throw in some nasty, unyielding obstacles. You’ll need a motorcycle or a really small car to squeeze through. Tuck in the side mirrors, and have people on either side guiding you through at 3 mph.
Smooth traffic flow? So overrated.
Action Line addressed the “Ski Jump and Drop-Off to Nowhere” with the Colorado Department of Transportation 15 months ago, at which time there was talk of making that an Olympic sport.
“Well since that didn’t pan out, CDOT’s Southwest Regional Transportation Director, Julie Constan, had another brilliant idea,” said Lisa Ann Schwantes, CDOT regional communications manager. “Let’s get ‘American Ninja Warrior’ to hold their next obstacle course competition at the interchange before traffic is realigned onto the bridges. Imagine! Accomplished athletes testing their strength, endurance and agility from pole to pole.”
Action Line took a closer look and sees this more as a four-at-a-time slalom course, but admits to knowing little about ANW, as those in the know call it. The Ninja thing got similar TV ratings last week as repeats of “Celebrity Family Feud,” so it must be good.
All right, enough levity.
The poles are called “H-piles.” They’ve been driven down into bedrock to support the approaches to the two existing bridge structures, Schwantes said. The bridges themselves are solid, but the bridge approaches have settled over the past several years.
CDOT has tried to build up and compact the approaches, but continued settlement “is the result of continued consolidation of both the placed fill material and the native material below this fill,” Schwantes said.
The H-piles will hold up the roadway approach – like a mini-bridge over the settling fill material – and provide the stability needed to prevent further settlement, Schwantes said. The H-piles now protruding from the ground will be cut off, and will support the new approach.
As a result of this process, the “mega-bumps” will be smoothed out before it all opens up to traffic. Schwantes said the interchange is tentatively set to open late this year.
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. As far as TV fare these days, Action Line is glued to the NBA Finals, hoping the Nuggets conquer their own Mount Midoriyama and claim Total Victory.
"filled" - Google News
June 12, 2023 at 05:45PM
https://ift.tt/CYcSwde
Don't panic! A fruitful, fruit-filled summer is on the way - The Durango Herald
"filled" - Google News
https://ift.tt/GL96YJR
https://ift.tt/dCS6AVO
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Don't panic! A fruitful, fruit-filled summer is on the way - The Durango Herald"
Post a Comment