Need a clean slate?

After updating the city’s parking system last October, from handwritten tickets to software, city officials found a lot of past due parking tickets.
How much is a lot? Last week, 4,300 letters were sent out to individuals with unpaid tickets, and one of those letters had 13 citations on it.  “It’s a big deal,” said Multimodal Administrator Amber Blake.
In the past, many people didn’t understand the rate of escalation of the ticket; and, according to Blake, the city did not follow up with letters or collections proceedings.
The city’s answer is to allow all those parking violators to pay the original ticket amount without penalty – for a limited time only, of course.
Anyone who received a ticket before Oct. 24, 2014, can pay the original amount without penalty, but that deal’s only open until the end of the month. If the bill isn’t paid by Feb. 28, 2015, it will be doubled and, after 70 days, turned over to collections.
“We don’t want to send anyone to collections without giving them ample notification,” Blake explained.
The letters were sent to everyone who has unpaid parking tickets on the list, but if you’d rather find out now, you can go online to see if you owe “The Man” any past due parking payments.
Visit, www.durangogov.org, click on the Payments tab (the one with a credit card icon), and find Parking Tickets on the list. Enter in the license plate number of the vehicle and find out if you’re on the list.

Breakfast of champions

Move over yerba mate, acai and quinoa – there’s something trendier in the backpack.
The folks who helped mainstream Synchilla fleece, Capilene, Gore-tex and puffies are helping to bring tsampa to the masses.
Described as an ancient grain staple of the Himalayas (aka roasted barley), Patagonia is hoping to make it a staple of the weight-conscious, freeze-dried backpacking crowd as well. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard was introduced to tsampa more than 35 years ago, in the mountains of Nepal by his Sherpa friends.
In the years since, Patagonia has adjusted the recipe, “westernizing” the flavors to create a convenient (and, of course organic) soup mix that tastes just as delicious at basecamp as it does sitting at home in front of the tube. Best of all, the package requires no refrigeration and is backpack, float bag and shelf stable for one year. To be the first at the put-in or snow cave to bust out the latest in politically correct camp provisions, go to www.paagoniapro visions.com.