Notified — How much it costs to research Pueblo’s proposed marijuana shops

March 23, 2017 |It’s not cheap.

Will it be snow? Will it be rain? Will it be a red flag warning? Answer: Yes. It’s a Colorado spring. Some places are seeing snow AND fire danger warnings.

This week in Notified the topic is just about as clear as Southern Colorado weather predictions. We’re talking about what we know of the eight applications chosen for recreational marijuana shops in Pueblo.

It’s not much — and to learn more would require a hefty chunk of change.

But we’ll end it on a good note this week with a brilliant camping tip for this summer. Perfect dreaming for this dreary day.

Eight retail marijuana applications. That’ll be $3,500.

This week we wanted to dive into the eight recreational marijuana stores that will likely open in Pueblo later this year. But when we asked for the applications for the chosen eight of 20 submitted applications, the bill came to $3,500.

The City of Pueblo’s clerks office said the city attorney staff would have to spend over 80 hours redacting information from the documents.

PULP asked for the applications via the Colorado Open Records Act, as the documents are public record. Local and state government can charge for records, though the cost must be reasonable.

A long and involved process for redacting would, according to state law, justify the cost. So PULP asked for a blank application. Those come to $25 for everybody — as the blank applications are more than 100 pages, according to the clerks office.

Applicants were also charged $25 — that covers copy fees, the clerks office said. PULP asked for a digital copy, but didn’t recieve a reply on whether it’s avaialbe. Staff said a hard copy of the document could be inspected in person for no charge.

Pueblo County applications for marijuana businesses are online and comes in at 12 pages.

So here’s what we do know:

• These are the eight chosen applicants and the proposed addresses

The city decided to have the Arkansas River act as a barrier — there will be four stores south of the border and four stores north of the border.

• There is a zoning overview on the City of Pueblo website. It gives some insight into the process, but is not the application itself.
• The eight were chosen based on a point system developed by the marijuana licensing authority. They meet once a month.

The Hanging Tree Cafe, historic or tasteless?

There was a big debate on the PULP Facebook page this week. People have strong feelings about the renaming of the Daily Grind Cafe — a hipster coffee spot in downtown Pueblo. And strong may be an understament.

The Hanging Tree was a landmark in Pueblo during the early days of Colorado. No actual proven hangings at the site of the old cottonwood, but old photos do make it out to look pretty eerie.

We featured the history and the name change in our print edition this month — and as it turns out, there’s a lot more to the tree than its misleading name. It was actually a beloved tree.

You can read more about the Hanging Tree here. You can tell us your thoughts here, at our Facebook page.

Weekend townhalls

Pueblo’s Sen. Leroy Garcia and Rep. Daneya Esgar will be talking healthcare this weekend in Pueblo. They’ve invited the Colorado Health Institute to give a presentation and answer questions about what’s expected to happen at the state and federal level.

Of course, there aren’t any Republicans co-hosting. We reached out to Rep. Clarice Navarro to see if she’ll put a similar townhall together. She’ll have a townhall in Rocky Ford this weekend — but nothing specific to healthcare planned just yet.

From the magazine: Why Trump’s favored immigration plan is unlikely to return to Colorado

A cornerstone of President Trump’s immigration plan is to strengthen the controversial 287g program. A few Colorado agencies tried it and ultimately decided against it.

This program deputizes local law enforcement agencies as federal immigration offers so that they can enforce immigration law. Two agencies in Colorado went with the program for a while, but eventually stopped contracting with the federal government.

Why? There’s a number of reasons. The number of 287g programs across the country is shrinking.

That story is in print or here.

Come again? Colorado Secretary of State said what now?

We ran across this tweet this week:

Cañon City Daily Record reporter Sarah Matott (you’ve probably seen her byline in PULP, too) overheard Wayne Williams, the Republican Colorado Secretary of State say the elections were in fact not rigged because there were no Russians in Cañon City.

Did he mean like, actual hacking of voting machines? (that didn’t happen) Was he referring to the fake news propoganda created and circulated by Russians? (that happened) Or that the CIA is confident Russia hacked the DNC and exposed thousands of emails that many to hurt the Democrats’ chances of winning the White House? (yeah, that happened too).

We asked for comment — and what Williams meant was that that the voting machines aren’t connected to the Internet in Cañon City.

“So if the Russians were going to influence the outcome of an election by rigging votes they would have had to physically be in Cañon City,” said SOS communications director Lynn Bartels.

Got it.

Weekend read: Camping at the Sand Dunes is as good as you’d think

Fact — you can camp almost anywhere at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. There are 88 sites in the park, but you can also pitch a tent just any old place if you get the right permit.

Colorado journalist Jayme Moye had the write-up in Dorado Magazine.

Also at the visitors center, I pick up my free backcountry camping permit and am surprised to hear that, at 3 p.m., I have gotten the last one for the day. “Oh, yes,” the ranger says, “they go fast. You’re lucky.” She advises backcountry campers to arrive as early in the day as possible to get a permit (and no, sorry, you can’t reserve one in advance). She also gives me a tip for choosing my campsite. She says to drive past the main parking area to the more remote “Point of No Return,” where I’d find a handful of parking spaces and a short trail leading to Medano Creek, which should be shallow enough (it dries up completely by the end of the summer) to cross over to the dunes. “It’s pretty secluded over there,” she says.

Read the story here.