Audio By Carbonatix
The radio ad begins innocently enough with the sound of chirping crickets. “You’re listening to the Kleins camping out under the stars,” a happy voice says. “The Klein family are lottery winners. Not because they won the top prize in a scratch game or matched any numbers in a Lotto drawing. They’re winners because they’re camping out in Jackson Lake State Park in Morgan County — just one of the local projects that receives proceeds from the Colorado Lottery.”
Not enough proceeds, though.
Despite the fact that the Colorado Lottery has given at least $2.35 million to the popular state park near Fort Morgan over the last six years, the Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the state’s park system, has so far been unable to work out a satisfactory arrangement with the company that owns the water in the reservoir — as well as the right to put anything in that water. Jackson Lake Reservoir and Irrigation Company wants a total of $1.5 million to guarantee a new 25-year lease; the state has offered to pay only $667,000.
“The state is extremely disappointed with Jackson Lake Reservoir and Irrigation Co.’s decision to deny the public access to this important recreational facility,” DNR director Greg Walcher said. “However, state law does not allow the use of public funds to pay the exorbitant amount the reservoir company has requested.”
In other words, although the Kleins may be having a blast camping on state-owned dry land, they won’t be able to go fishing, boating or swimming in the water anytime soon. If they so much as touch it, for that matter, they could be charged with trespassing.
Lottery spokeswoman Lisa Murray sounded a little chagrined to learn that the park the lottery is promoting in its current ad is really only half a park. She says the thirty-second spot was made before negotiations with the ditch company fell apart in January.
In February, Governor Bill Owens declared 2000 as The Year of Colorado State Parks; this probably wasn’t what he had in mind. Maybe the Kleins will have better luck elsewhere.
All wet: If you think local TV reporters are drips, consider one morning weatherman at the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, who found an unusual silver lining in Colorado’s unseasonably warm weather. After noting last Thursday that his city wouldn’t crack 110 degrees that day, he pointed out that Colorado was hot, too, which was good, because it was making the snow melt faster and we needed the water. Try sharing that illogic with state firefighters and an agriculture industry already panicking that Colorado’s remaining snowpack is about 85 percent below average for this time of year.
