The January Board Meeting is Saturday, January 16, 2016 beginning at 9:00 am. This time we are gathering at the Spruce House for the meeting. (Spruce House is the house across the road from the Welcome Center.) We are finally letting Neil and Terry keep their house on board meetings trusting that they will still attend and provide the meaningful feedback that keeps us on track. Many thanks to the Seitz family for letting us take over on board weekends for fourteen years!

This is our second year of participating in the Colorado Gives Day. Your generosity this year has been amazing. Orient Land Trust has strong support from many people. If you want to take advantage of one last charitable donation for 2015, the Colorado Gives Day is an excellent time. While I’m thinking of it, let me, again, extend  my gratitude to everyone that helped make this a memorable year.

December 1 through December 28, the hot springs will be closed. We open the gate again December 29th. We will be responding to phone messages throughout the time out. Things are different when we’re closed and we enjoy the change of pace. Enjoy your time with friends and family through the holiday. This may be the right time for us to wish you a Happy New Year! Thank you for 2015, a very good year.

Wednesday, October 28, the concrete trucks arrived and the astronomy pad was poured. Everything went smoothly and it's ready for the next show. The clouds came later in the day and we may have to wait a few days for a clear night. It feels good to have this stage of the astronomy program in place before

October 9 we held the dinner at the Radisson in southeast Denver. There were about a 115 people in attendance and we raised nearly $20,000 with more pledges yet to arrive. Kirk Navo and Jay Sims both had informative presentations. Doug Bishop showed some pictures of the programs that OLT has been conducting.

This event gave us a chance to say a great big "Thank You!" to all the generous people that have helped us with the expenses of the Waste Water Treatment Plant. It is difficult to convey how grateful we are for all the help. We can't say Thank You often enough.

Spaces are still left for the OLT Annual Fundraising Dinner on Fri, Oct 9th at the Raddison in south Denver. . Dinner is $35.00 per person and it's a fundraiser to pay off the Waste Water Treatment Plant upgrades. The state-mandated WWTP upgrade involved a long process that included initial study costs, recommendations, designs, permits, and then finally, construction. The accumulating expense began with preliminary studies over six years ago. Once the size and type of upgrade were determined, we then paid the design firm, the State of Colorado for permits, and finally construction costs, totaling about $180,000. Altogether, the WWTP has cost more than $300.000. The good news is that we only borrowed $100,000 and made the first payment towards the loan of roughly $31,000 this September! That means there is only around $70,000 left to fundraise for and we're done! The rest has been paid through our Admission and Accommodation fees, income generated for OLT thanks to all of our visitors! Help us wrap up this campaign in 2015 by attending the dinner or donating on-line! The Oct 9th dinner speakers, OLT community socializing and music with OLT musicians John Standish and Mark Allen will be fun!

You can register for the dinner until October 5 th at 

Online Registration

Discounted rooms are available at the Raddison for $99 / night if any out of town dinner attendees want to stay overnight.. They need to call a special number at the hotel to get that rate at 303-306-3329 and ask for Alysha.

There is a new bridge to the heated pools. Thanks to metalworker, Jim Melcher, architect and machinist who designed and installed the bridge with the help of Mike Blevins, his able volunteer. After Jim did the welding and positioning, the staff poured the concrete, in which pipes containing flowing hot springs water are embedded. This will keep the bridge free of ice and snow even on cold January nights. The flagstone is now complete and the temporary wooden bridge has been removed. There will eventually be more appropriate handrails using juniper and oak instead of the pvc conduit handrails in place presently.

Remember to RSVP for the Second Annual Dinner in South Denver. Dinner is $35.00 per person. We are raising money to pay off the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Thank You for all your help! The system cost $180,000, which is what we were asking for last year. We only had to borrow $100,000 and we made the first payment of $30,754.84 in September. That means there is only $69,245.16 left and we're done! There are still spaces remaining.

ONLINE REGISTRATION

Please join us and donate to help complete the campaign this year!

Thanks to all for the successful weekend! On staff, we were a little anxious about what the weekend would bring. On this special occasion, we waive the capacity limits and open the gate to all members. It's a little intimidating. However, our members are terrific! We had a grand weekend and hope you did too. Thank You Members!

Thanks to the Colorado College Freshmen work groups! Orient Land Trust hosted two work groups again this August 20 through 23. The students built more picnic tables for the campsites, spent two days weeding the leach field acre, and built a quarter mile of fence on the Valley View parcel west boundary. The groups camped at the Orient mine. They split into smaller sub-groups for several opportunities to soak in the springs. Their hard work is much appreciated! What a way to start off your college career.