At last! At last! Remember that old saying “by virtue of patience”? We are speaking of the long-awaited snowstorm that finally arrived the first part of this past week! The next day after receiving maybe nine inches, the sun came out and we feasted our eyes on that special San Juan blue sky, clear as a bell and, of course, cold.

I spoke with June Carter about the rumor that I had heard about the whole Town being an ice skating rink. She said, true! She tried using her steep driveway and nearly hit the trash cans at the entrance to the street, then called Todd Jones who happened to be at home and hired him to come over and clear her drive of the blue ice (double blue ice, that is). We knew that the whole Town was melting away and freezing hard every night. Finally, Dennis Swank, our Town maintenance supervisor took the situation in hand and scattered some leftover wood chips and “stuff” on the worst streets so that our citizens could get out of Town and get to work. Well, maybe the situation was not that critical, but in all the years that we have called Rico home we have never seen such a unique happening.

Comment: Longtime citizens had also mentioned that before the storm, one could look out the kitchen window and not be able to determine whether it was spring or winter.

Last week, I mentioned the situation that the Fraternal Order of Masons here in Rico needed to find a good renter for their first floor commercial vacancy. I neglected to include a phone number for interested parties. Please call Richard Lincoln at 882-4937 or Glen Baer at 565-9508.

A popular young Rico-ite, Amber Kenyon, suffered a terrible two-vehicle accident up above the “S” curves above the Ophir turnoff late last week. As of this date (Jan. 17), her total prognosis is not known. Still unconscious, but surviving. The Rico fire department held a candlelight vigil over the weekend. Amber is a longtime employee at Annie’s High Ground Coffee Shack next to the Mountaintop Fuel and Market store. We want her home and well again.

The elementary school ended up with frozen water pipes over the weekend. No snow and low temperatures at night will do it every time.

We do what we were told when we moved here — at night, run the water very slowly at each sink and open the cupboard doors under the sink until morning.



Marlene Hazen has lived in Rico for two decades. An active member of the community, she participates in organizations such as the Rico Women’s Club and Rico Historical Society.