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River Talk: Community rallies behind teacher and family

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Tuesday, April 7, 2015 10:38 PM

The community has rallied behind a family of four, which happens to include a teacher from Dolores Elementary School after a fire destroyed their garage, and a large portion of their home.

A Go Fund Me account, located at www.gofundme.com/q4327w, titled "Help the Barry Family of 4 Recover," has already earned the family about $9,000.

A fire started in an outbuilding at the Summit Ridge home on March 25 and burned what happened to be a recording studio down to the ground.

"Thankfully, no one was injured, and the three dogs, four cats and two horses were safely evacuated in time thanks to their rescuer, my son who had to stand by and watch all their hard work go up in flames while the volunteer firefighters tackled the blaze," wrote Rob Barry of his son on the Go Fund Me site.

"My son lost his entire professional music recording studio, which was one of the buildings burned to the ground, along with all of his instruments, music, years of collectables and antique percussion instruments and equipment," Rob Barry wrote.

Also destroyed in the fire was a garage, which housed Jim Barry's specialty tools and equipment needed for his contractor business.

"Thankfully he still has his truck left, along with some tools to get by with," Rob Barry wrote.

"While this may be a major setback for this young family, in no way will it dampen their spirit or halt the progress they've managed to achieve thus far and so with some resolve and a little help and support from family, friends, fellow musicians and yes even strangers welcome," Rob Barry wrote.

The family's Go Fund Me Goal is $10,000, so they are very close to their goal.

Trail conditions

Boggy Draw is still reportedly spotty with mud here and there,but drying fast. Lizard Head Cyclery owner Nicholas Jones has been busy training on his single speed trainer and busy with mountain bike and road repairs.

The trails in Cortez at Phil's World were very busy over the weekend. There was even a visit from the Eater Bunny and an egg hunt was organized that had children on mountain bikes scrambling for candy-filled eggs.

The snow is still deep, I am told at Stoner Mesa, so hiking up there is off the list for some time.

River running faster

On April 1, the Dolores River shot up to about 560 cubic feet per second in Dolores. Since then, the temperatures have cooled and the river as of April 7 was running at about 410 cfs.

The lowest the river has run on this date was in 1977 at 42 cfs. The mean is 392 cfs.

There is still snow melt to be had, but many of us wish it was more.

Shannon Livick

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