To understand Craig Hinkson’s passion for building, you have to flip the pages of history back to the early 1970s, when the mines above Ouray were still pumping out precious metals, residents burned coal to heat their homes and an 11-year-old boy saw the town differently than most his age. Hinkson often grabbed a 4-foot by 8-foot piece of plywood when he came home from school and set about making his own city, scratching in the dirt to create streets and crafting buildings out of milk cartons.
John Hollrah remembers walking into a Ouray County bank and stunning the person behind the counter when he asked to open an account for the county Democratic Party. “I didn’t think there were any Democrats in Ouray County,” the employee admitted to him.
Who's to blame next? No telling. In fact, we don't know who's to blame now, though there are plenty of folks in Ouray looking for answers after the city council unanimously voted to fire City Administrator Katie Sickles Monday night. Sickles, who was hired a year ago almost to the day after a three-month trial run as interim administrator, may never know why she was released. Council voted to fire her without cause, which means they get to keep their reasons to themselves, and Sickles gets to keep a severance package.