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Christo Project Hearing in Canon City Relocated

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 18:00 CST

By Tracy Harmon, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Jan. 12--CANON CITY - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has changed the location for the first of its public meetings geared toward obtaining comment on artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's proposed "Over The River" project.

The Canon City meeting will run from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Holy Cross Abbey Community Events Center, 2951 E. U.S. 50, where it was moved from City Hall. The 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday meeting at the Cotopaxi High School cafeteria and 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 19 meeting at the Senior Citizens Center, 305 F St. in Salida, will be held as initially planned.

The meetings will be conducted in an open house format, so there will be no formal presentation and the public can arrive at any time after 6 p.m. to meet with BLM, other governing agency representatives and Bulgarian-born artist Christo and his partner-wife Jeanne-Claude, both 70.

The New York based artists propose to hang about 7 miles of translucent fabric panels over eight segments of the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida. The enormous artwork would hang for 14 days, sometime between mid-July and mid-August.

The year of the project has yet to be determined but probably would not occur until 2008 or 2009.

Fabric panels would be attached to steel cables stretched across the river, covering the water surface but not the side slopes, and would hang from between 10 and 24 feet above the water. The aluminum-coated fabric has been wind tested and would be porous enough to allow rainwater to seep through.

An outside contractor is preparing the environmental assessment for the BLM to evaluate all possible impacts and determine possible mitigation for impacts before the proposal can continue to move through the permitting process. After the environmental assessment, permits would be required from the Colorado Department of Transportation, Colorado State Patrol, Fremont and Chaffee County commissioners and the Colorado State Parks Board.

The BLM also is getting input from Fremont and Chaffee County sheriffs' departments, emergency response personnel and the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Christo and Jeanne Claude started their Over the River work locally in 1995 after they scouted 89 rivers in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and decided on the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida. Because many public meetings have been held during the past decade, several issues have already been identified and include impacts on wildlife, socioeconomic impacts, highway congestion and safety, conflicts with other users and response time for emergency vehicles.

Written comments on the proposal can be sent to the BLM, attention Over the River, 3170 E. Main St., Canon City, CO 81212. Send e-mail to rgfo_comments@blm.gov . Deadline for comments is Feb. 10.

ON THE NET:

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net .

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

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Source: The Pueblo Chieftain

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