Back on Breezy Island -Oakdale, NY

Along the shore of Great South Bay, on Long Island, hidden in dense scrub oak, is a colony of exiles. So wrote Alexander Kidd, in "Country Homes on the Connetquot River," April 1901. These colonists in question were millionaires, seeking a retreat from the hectic demands of life in New York City. And the verdant fastness they had discovered was called Oakdale. Oakdale is located in the town of Islip, some 60 miles east of New York City. As Kidd goes on to relate, the forest was not all that den

2 months ago

CREATE The Heartbeat of Community

Many years ago Chevrolet began an advertising campaign called "The Heartbeat of America." Obviously it was successful and the idea carries on today. The hard truth about our love affair with the frame that is designed with the combustible engine is like the Joe Camel in cigarettes. The allure and mystique is killing us. Driving back into our community it is a fact that climate change is causing both visible and invisible long term effects for our time on earth. As I walk my mountain valley prope

3 months ago

CREATE A CORE Weekend

CREATE Weekend is often the day that we bring community into focus with responsible, entrepreneurial ideas — for us, the greater good lives at the intersection of journalism, advertising, and music. Within this context, I have spoken with several firefighters who have been working to contain the Aspen Acres Fire, which has remained within an hour of our home and studio. Westcliffe is the dispatch area for a fire that has ravaged forest, town, and mountain. In the organizations that I represent

3 months ago

2:07

CREATE- A Musical Life of Healing

Richard Arnold Beattie — A Musical Life Richard Arnold Beattie’s musical journey began in the early 1970s on Long Island, where he, his brother Ronald (later Charles), and sister Barbara won the Suffolk County CYO Talent Contest and went on to win the grand prize at the Long Island 1970 talent competition mylocalpress.com. Their early fame led to an audition for The Sound of Music at Riverside Plaza, where Richard played Kurt and Barbara played Gretel, becoming part of the seven Von Trapp childr

3 months ago

CORE Recreation and Travel

Community Organizations for Responsible Entrepreneurship and Beattie Communications Studios are pleased to be moving forward with ventures we are sharing with our communities: 1. Beattie Communications and Studios are the authorized regional dealer for Bucket Golf for Park and Recreation Centers in the Rocky Mountain Region and together with FlingGolf will be partnering with Parks and Recreation and hosting workshops. I have a six Bucket demo that I will travel with. 2. Beattie is entering in

3 months ago

CREATE One Thing Everyone Needs

Everyone needs recreation as much as we need water! In 1953, a New England grandfather saw a need for his grandson to play ball. He went back to his shop and molded a plastic ball, put holes in it, made a long plastic thin bat, and invented a national pastime surrounding our national pastime — Wiffle Ball. Everyone needs recreation. FlingGolf Anywhere New England also produced a new take on golf. In college, a few guys who played lacrosse for their school were looking for something to do during

3 months ago

5:45

CORE Respondents Wildfires- Independence Day

As of 2PM on Friday, the 3rd of July, the Aspen Acres Wildfire is now increased to almost 77000 acres and evacuations for towns near Florence are in effect. Highway 67 from Florence to Wetmore is reportedly closed and anything west of Highway 67 in that stretch is on evacuation status. Since tge Federal Prison is on the east side of the highway, it is not being evacuated. Alternate route to Westcliffe is Highway 50 to Highway 69. For many years I felt that journalism needs a network of indepen

3 months ago

CREATE Audio Books and Music

Lowell Busenitz writes in his book, Soul Work. "My story. I was born into a family of six boys and one girl in rural Kansas, where my parents were grain and livestock farmers. By kindergarten age, I was bringing wood into the house for tomorrow's heat and helping in the garden with pulling weeds and harvesting potatoes before my playtime. My days started with my father calling up the stairs at 6 a.m. Boys, time to get up. If I was slow in waking up, my oldest brother would soon call to me, Lowel

3 months ago

Are You Being Served or Are You Serving Others?

"In a small town our strengths and our flaws slam together against the senses. In a small town our only cause is jam-packed into a basket for someone in need. Peripheral vision." — Richard Arnold Beattie All Generations In our bookend small towns, where one end is Silver Cliff and the other is Westcliffe, within the big Wet Mountain Valley, we are an aging population. If your community is not aging, then people are either leaving or dying. And so it is with community. If our community is not re

4 months ago

2:17

CREATE Agrarian Core

"I've walked this way since before I arrived, I've talked this way without even trying, and when I got here, I walked this town for fifty some years, walking the same ground." — Richard Arnold Beattie On Thursday evening in Westcliffe, I will be working with Dick Jones as he reads from his book, "Walking the Same Ground," and I will be singing the songs I wrote, recorded, and perform — bringing me full circle from the rural community my grandparents experienced to "walking the same ground" with

4 months ago

5:06

Getting Down to Business CO-Lab

It is Friday in our little towns in the Big Wet Mountain Valley. The farmers market is bustling and the Rotary Van is taking folks around the Cliffs to the Bluff and to their appointments. I was thinking about a story I read about other Main Street communities and how the communities used to have that same old bustle. And what one Mayor on the eastern plains is doing to face reality. "We used to be a bustling town, now we are a crumbling town." How did it happen? The folks died out, the bus

4 months ago

2:12

CREATE TAG Team Coverage

Integral parts take integral partners. "Yes Hillary, it takes a Village," or moreover it takes a Community — with emphasis on community. We are often helpless when we read that less than two hours away a wildfire breaks loose — until it hits our immediate area. As a lifelong journalist and a Colorado citizen since 1978, I have covered wildfires and I have had to evacuate. That gives me some credibility in speaking to those who are in danger right now. On Wednesday, June 10, 2026, a wildfire kno

4 months ago

3:55

CREATE Community: Building a Vibrant Downtown in Westcliffe and Silver Cliff

Jordan Hedberg is the editor of The Wet Mountain Tribune, an honest-to-goodness weekly newspaper that addresses the past, present, and future of the community where I live. In the latest edition, Hedberg published a cautionary tale reminiscent of suburbia — homes built on the outskirts of downtown, far from Main Street. But his caution wasn't aimed only at cities and urban sprawl. It was a realistic look at the neighborhoods being built on the edges of rural towns like Westcliffe and Silver Clif

4 months ago

Staying Home for Education

I was planning the summer sessions for Valley Parks and Recreation this afternoon and I thought about the students who graduated from Custer County High School last week. I met with my board at Valley Park and Recreation and the Old Westcliff School House. As I walked in for the first time in thirty years, the last time I was the Director, the schoolhouse was operated as a Museum and Parks and Recreation Center. Nowadays a Christian School has taken it over. I entered my old office, in the great

4 months ago

3:26

CREATE The Rest of the Story

Here are remarks I made today at The Wet Mountain Valley Rotary Club meeting about my work as a community leader in Colorado for the Leadon Family Foundation, Sound Century Academy of Recording Arts and Broadcasting and Valley Park and Recreation in Westcliffe. This is the first TAG meeting event. I am writing the Rest of the Story, the sweat of experience runs off my brow, Adjust the light to give you the glory, starting from here and from now-Oh Wow, the rest of the story. Richard Arnold Bea

4 months ago

4:14

Become a Cohort of Co-Arts

There are so many things that are happening in the state of Colorado. Yesterday, I met with the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Department of Local Affairs, and two small connecting town mayors. I also had a long meeting with Denver Botanic Gardens and CSU Extension on demonstration gardens. I share the vision of a Town Center in Silver Cliff and a partnership with the Emergent Incubator College, and I will be mentoring next-generation entrepreneurs in my work at Valley Parks and Recreation at the O

4 months ago

2:37

The Homestand Journal - Perennialism of Good Fruit

Ben Franklin wrote, "Good Fences make good neighbors." That was true for land markers in first-century America, and it is true 250 years later — although not for neighboring. For landscaping and xeriscaping. The local ecosystem is being destroyed by an overpopulation of deer. Good fences keep deer from destroying good acreage. Welcome to the Homestand Family Journal, a place where we can have authentic conversations on a different approach to community, recreation, education, arts, transportatio

4 months ago

6:10

Introducing the Homestand Journal

This morning our Celtic Mountain Band drove to the Spanish Peaks Veterans Home to play both Americana and Celtic Music for the residents. Claudia Morris presented a banner marking the 250th Anniversary of our existence as a country and I led the group with America the Beautiful. Since this is a Holiday, I want to take the opportunity to start a second column at both Medium and with My Local Press. The new column is called The Homestand Journal based on Aguarian Philosophy of a local authentic

4 months ago

1:33

CREATE Communications in the Valley

Richard Arnold Beattie is the host and producer of "Folk Heroes" on KLZR and Community Radio. As the Founder, President and Curator of Sound Century Academy of Recording Arts, Beattie remasters vintage recordings from Musical Theater, Broadcasts and concerts from The Denver Folklore Center and Harry Tuft Collection. As a writer, singer,songwriter and guitarist, and an early concert hall manager at Swallow Hill, He has long been associated with Harry Tuft. In the valley, the songwriter is known

5 months ago

5:21

CREATE Orchards in Recreation

This afternoon I will be meeting the Custer County School Board as I take over as President of Valley Park Recreation and Youth Center. It coincides with my CREATE Daily column for Tuesday which is geared towards Recreation. Originaly Organic It was thirty years ago that the late Stan and Irene Francis asked me to direct the programs at Valley Park and Recreation. And I brought in community events that had all ages create and recreate, arts and media, excursions around town at the Library a

5 months ago

5:19

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