Meetings and Greetings, Hearings and Calendar Dates

Sometimes one wonders what appointed and elected officials do as part of their job.  Here are a few examples of events that our state and federal statesmen have or have had on their agenda.Tom Plant, director of Governor Bill Ritter’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation, took a tour of the Western Slope this past week. He was a guest speaker at the Montrose Electric Cooperative meeting and on Friday, Plant visited Mesa College, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported, to talk about Governor Ritter’s “New Energy Economy” and to congratulate Mesa State for planning a new classroom building that will be heated with geothermal energy. Plant also attended the groundbreaking ceremonies for Mesa County’s and in Basalt, Eagle County’s new ethanol pump facilities.

Governor Ritter will be in Pueblo this Monday, March 12, at 9:30 am to sign Rep. McFadyen’s water quality bill.  This bill is considered an important step to preserving the water in Southeast Colorado.  The ceremony will be at the El Pueblo Museum, 301 N. Union.

Governor Ritter will be hosting a statewide Transportation Summit on April 5, 2007 at the Colorado Convention Center. Details will be announced soon. According to a Club 20 announcement from the governor’s office, the mission will be “to bring together a broad range of stakeholders to identify long term sustainable transportation funding options for a 21st Century multimodal transportation system that will support a vibrant economy and quality of life.”

In preparation for the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Senator Ken Salazar will be conducting a series of regional meetings across Colorado in March/April with community health providers, pediatricians, community health centers, hospital officials, insurers, children advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, city and county commissioners and officials, state health departments, state CHIP and Medicaid officials, 208 Commission members, philanthropic organizations and other interested stakeholders. For more information call 970-241-6631.

According to another media announcement, four bills that Senator Ken Salazar introduced this year are tentatively scheduled to receive hearings before the Senate Energy Committee’s National Parks Subcommittee later this month.  He is scheduled to act as chairman of the hearings.

The four Colorado bills currently scheduled for review on March 20, 2007 are: