About The Valley: City of La Junta 1/19/22 part 2

Description: SECO News Publisher Adrian Hart and La Junta City Manager Rick Klein discuss the most recent city council meeting in this episode of - About The Valley...

About The Valley: City of La Junta Part 2, 1-19-22

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SECO News: Yeah, so city council met Tuesday night (1-18-22) and you guys talked about more than a Tarantula Festival (Part 1 Here) excuse me I get excited.

Klein: That's alright, you know I'm excited about that too. Just getting to the meat of stuff, if you haven't bought your chamber banquet ticket it's going to be on the 31st at 6 o'clock at the Otero College Ballroom. 

SECO News: Yeah, very good. I know I'll be there. We're going to have some sort of coverage going on on SECO News of course. But of course we'd like to see you there in person and give you an opportunity to make it into our photo gallery. 

Klein: There you go. Yes. And under reports we went over our SIC, that's the sales tax report, but its Standard Industrial Code, is what SIC means. When we get stats it's the same way of reporting of general merchandise or your lumber yards or whatever. Just like anywhere in the whole United States. That way when the Bureau of Labor and Statistics gets it, it's all good and we have good information.

One of the things that we noticed during it, is La Junta, you guys went and supported all the restaurants during the lockdown and I'm proud of you for keeping it going. I know the hotels they took a real hit and we're starting to see that come back.

You know general merchandise that was up and we realized that if everybody shopped the valley, the valley would work because everybody started shopping the valley and it does work. We need to remember that as we do this shopping up in Pueblo and Springs. We're just feeding their economies versus our economy. 

SECO News: Yeah, if you have the opportunity to get the goods or services locally, why wouldn't you want to support your neighbor?

Klein: That's right. The mom and pops.

SECO News: Something that I said a lot while I was in radio is, "you've got to use it or lose it." 

Klein: That's right.

SECO News: If you don't buy that once a year purchase that you only need once a year from a local, don't expect it to be available next year.

Klein: That's right. So then we went on to the liquor licenses and we did one for the chamber banquet, one for Loaf N' Jug on 3rd Street and another one for Love's Travel Stops and they all passed 7-0.

SECO News: They were all basically a renewal...yeah the chamber banquet it's been a couple years but it's traditionally...

Klein: But it's tradition. It's good to see it coming back because we need to figure it out. 

SECO News: Yeah we do.

Klein: And Mayor Joe Ayala and I went down and we met with Lamar City Manager Rob Evans and he just started down there, nice guy, Mayor Crispin and we've got a lot of the same issues. Whether it's housing, whether it's the water, whether it's the salaries, whether it's the Arkansas Valley Conduit. We toured Lamar, I was real impressed with what they've got going on down there. They've got a pocket park, and stuff. So, we're going to start meeting together, the city councils and they'll come up here, and we'll go down there and we used to do that years ago and kind of got a way from it. It's time to get it back. The Canyons and Plains Region needs to band together.

SECO News: That's right. Bringing the people together in a big way. That is a big way.

Klein: Right, It just so happens, that this year I'm the Action 22 President and Mayor Joe Ayala and myself are going up today to Denver to see what going on in the legislature, to see what bills are introduced and stuff and there's a couple of them that we're kind of concerned about. But we're going to get ourselves educated on the issues and make sure that we don't let bad things happen to our region. It's tough enough you know we don't need any more bad laws or unfunded mandates and it's so important that we get that regional rep[resentation] and stuff and we're willing to do it.

SECO News: Good. It's got to be a tough job to represent the constituents and be informed enough to effectively protect us. Because when I've sat in with economic developers and they've talked about the SWOT analysis, the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. When you get to the threats part...

Klein: It scares you.

SECO News: It is scary stuff to talk about how some minor, what might look like minor changes, could affect our economy and our community. So, it's a big deal.

Klein: It's a big deal. So we had some reports on some different boards and stuff like that but the big one that I want to talk about, is if you live inside the City of La Junta...

SECO News: And this is a fantastic program.

Klein: So fantastic.

SECO News: It's really a good deal for the people here.

Klein: Yeah, most cities do not have a contract like this. 

SECO News: Right.

Klein: For $18,743 we entered into a contract, a new one, because we've been renewing it, but if you have an accident and you live in the city of La Junta, any where in Otero County if you have to have an air ambulance, they'll go after your insurance but they won't go after your deductible, but you have to be right in Otero County.

I know there's a couple that, they were 500 yards from the Bent County line and they had to get picked up off that highway. When they came in and told me about how they didn't lose their home because of those high bills because the deductible would only be $5,000 or better. They had the hospital bill, and they had the ground ambulance from transport but they said that was a financial savior. I've heard story after story after story like this and probably one of the best programs I've seen out there. Now if you don't have insurance at the time of transport they will bill the covered individual with medicare allowable rates. So, they even help out there and they have like 405 different locations across the United States and if you want that same type of coverage anywhere where they serve for another $45 a year you'll be on that program, if you're a senior it's $35 a year.

SECO News: Nice, so we're talking about Air Med Care.

Klein: You see how many helicopter you're seeing out there. This is a life saver literally financially.

SECO News: It's impacted my family, personally. My daughter's been transported on their helicopter up to Denver. That's a scary situation, you don't have control of an accident happening and having that little bit of coverage. I was covered because I serve with several organizations locally, and one of them has a perk for it's board members, so you get that coverage. So, it really had a tremendous impact on my family when we got that bill and we saw the amount of money that they paid on our behalf and having the coverage through Air Med Care it's a safety net for our community when they face that medical hardship. That requires transport by air, which is not on the affordable side of medical care.

Klein: I've had citizens call me from the emergency room and say what's the name of the helicopter they're trying to get the flight for life one, and it's Air Med Care, now if it's not available, say their two helicopters are out at that time then you're going to have to do the other one. But, then it's a matter of life and death folks.

SECO News: So take the ride.

Klein: But if you can try and get that.

SECO News: Very cool. I appreciate the city doing that for the citizens.

Klein: I appreciate city council for having me renew this every year because this is definitely a big benefit.

SECO News: A game changer.

Klein: Yes. Thank you.

SECO News: Thank you very much Rick, I appreciate your time. Do we have any last minute additions, anything else you want to include?

Klein: Yes. Just like what we started off with, we're Ameri-cans, not Ameri-cant's, figure it out. If you're thinking about leaving your job cause you know life's too stressful or anything, suck it up. Let's man up, you know, and let's make the Canyons and Plains the best region of the whole world, not just the United States. I believe we can do it, and when I see a map of all the disasters around the United States and I look at our area and we didn't have any? We do live in the right place.

SECO News: Yeah we do. It's a sweet spot.

Klein: Thank you for being citizens of our region and hang in there we can do this. 

SECO News: Very good, thank you so much Rick Klein with the City of La Junta, I'm Adrian Hart and this is "About The Valley."

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