| 1/20/2006 9:41:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Christo forums all wrapped up
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
The first part of a multi-layered permit process for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude “Over The River” project ended Thursday night in Salida with an open house.
Approximately 170 people gathered at the Salida Senior Citizen Center to study maps, talk to land and river managers and comment face-to-face to the artists.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude propose stretching sheets of fabric in sections across the Arkansas River between the Chaffee/Fremont County line and Parkdale.
The event Thursday was the last of a three-night series of open houses. Tuesday, nearly 300 people gathered at Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City and Wednesday, an estimated 250 people squeezed into the Cotopaxi High School cafeteria.
The open houses began the Bureau of Land Management environmental assessment of the project. Public comment will be accepted until Feb. 10 and the assessment should be complete by June.
The assessment will be ready for public review this summer and a final decision is expected by fall.
“We’re looking for comments that maybe identify some issues or concerns we haven’t considered yet,” Ken Smith, bureau public affairs officer, said.
If the bureau issues a “finding of no significant impact,” permits from the Colorado Department of Transportation and Colorado State Patrol, Fremont and Chaffee counties and Colorado State Parks will next need to be obtained.
The project is tentatively scheduled for a two-week period during the summer of 2009.
“Over the River” has polarized residents of the Upper Arkansas Valley.
A proponent group of about 60 people calling themselves Friends of “Over the River” has formed.
An opponent group of about 700 – mostly residents of Howard, Coaldale, Cotopaxi and Texas Creek, communities where the project is planned – adopted the name Rags Over the Arkansas River and has become vocal.
Representatives from each group attended the open house Thursday.
Rags group representative Cathey Young, distributed pamphlets questioning the project at the senior center door Thursday night. She said the group’s main concern is safety of those travelling and living in the canyon.
Estimates are that 250,000 people will venture through the canyon to view the art during its two-week run. A traffic engineer hired by the artists said traffic could more than double in the canyon with as many as 12,000 cars on weekend days.
“All it takes is one accident and all of a sudden you have a parking lot,” Young said.
Christo’s Denver-based traffic consultant Joe Hart agreed traffic will be slower and predicted an increase in small, fender-bender type accidents and a decrease in more serious crashes.
“The plan is to quickly respond to get things moving again” if there is an accident, Hart said. “It will be relatively congested … but it is do-able.”
Bruce Sheetz of the Colorado State Patrol said troopers would have to manage the shoulders of the road, ensuring people don’t clog the canyon by stopping to look at or photograph the display.
“If people have it in their mind to stop, if you’re not physically there to stop them, they are probably going to stop,” Sheetz said. “So that’s a problem we’ll have to look at.”
Steve Reese, former Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area river manager who helped form the Friends of “Over the River” group, said he trusts the permit process will result in a plan to deal with all contingencies.
In addition, welcoming the one-of-a-kind Christo and Jeanne Claude vision and personalities to the valley is too good an opportunity to pass up, he said.
Christo and Jeanne Claude have become world famous for their projects, including “The Gates” in New York City Central Park, surrounding several islands off the Florida coast in pink fabric and wrapping of the Reichstag building in Germany in polypropylene.
“They have a tremendous integrity and commitment,” Reese said. “They have a track record and you can see people are pleased (with their projects). To have this opportunity here in our valley is incredible.
“It’s just not going to have a lasting impact that is going to be anything but positive. I really think the safety issues can be and will be addressed before the permits are issued.”
During a meeting Thursday afternoon with Chaffee County and Salida officials, Christo and Jeanne Claude and their project managers Vince and Jonita Davenport, said “Over the River” would generate as many as 700 temporary jobs.
“We’re hoping to fill most of those slots with local workers,” Jonita Davenport said.
The artists seem willing to spare no cost in addressing all the concerns and hurdles of the permit process. They pay public employees for time they spend working on permits and have proposed stationing three private emergency helicopters in the canyon during the project.
The idea for “Over the River” is 14 years old. Other projects have taken as long as 26 years to receive permits, Christo said.
“The process is part of the work of art,” Jeanne Claude said, “and an important part.”
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