The La Plata County Commissioners will hold a work session on Sept. 29 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. to receive a staff report from the county attorney’s office and to accept public comment on proposed barking dog and animal cruelty regulations in unincorporated areas of the county.

The board will not be making any decisions at this meeting, but members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend to share their views on these issues. Written public comment can be submitted by email to [email protected] or by mail to: Board of County Commissioners, 1101 E 2nd Avenue, Durango, CO 81301

Materials for the work session can be found on the County’s website www.co.laplata.co.us and then by selecting the “Meetings” tab and then scrolling down to September 29, 2015, or directly at http://laplatacountyco.iqm2.com/Citizens/Calendar.aspx.

For additional information, please contact Joanne Spina at 382-6211.

CPR classes being offered

Heart Safe LaPlata, a local non-profit organization, will host an adult CPR/AED class from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1.

A CPR Pro class will be from 6 to 10 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8.

The location for both classes is at Durango Fire & Rescue Station 1 at 142 Sheppard Dr in Bodo Park in Durango.

Interested parties can email [email protected] or call 385-3260. The website is www.heartsafelaplata.org.

Co-workers hosting fundraiser

Employees at Southern Ute Head Start are hosting a fundraiser for Deb McCoy, who is fighting cancer. The event starts at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Head Start gym. A chili dinner is $10 per person, and children five and under eat for free. Live music, pie sales, and a silent auction will be featured. Donations also can be dropped off at the Head Start office, at 51 Capote Drive in Ignacio. For more information, call 799-6446.

Yard signs, info available for sales tax proposal

Yard signs will be available for Bayfield residents who want to show their support for a 1-percent sales tax increase to maintain streets and storm water drainage. The signs will be available Friday and Saturday at 118 W. Mill Street next to AJ’s Pizza. A Support our Streets (SOS) banner and booth with free lemonade and candy will be in Joe Stephenson Park Saturday during the Heritage Day events. For more information, call 769-6873.

Pine River Shares gleaning from local gardens

Pine River Shares is gleaning! Group volunteers are collecting “extras” from local gardens, orchards, yards and pantries. Food items will be shared with Pine River Valley families in food support programs, such as the Pine River Shares Family Food Project, Community Potluck Dinners and the BK4K Backpack Project.

Please bring gleaned items to the Pine River Shares Community Potluck Picnic Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Eagle Park to contribute to community gleaning tables. Items also can be dropped off at the Family Center’s Bayfield office at 357 N. Mountain View Drive. For information call 884-4747.

Lecture to feature historian John L. Kessell

The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College invites the public to the 2015 Duane Smith Lecture in Southwest Studies featuring this year’s guest speaker, John L. Kessell. Kessell will give his presentation, “Whither the Waters: Mapping the Great Basin from Miera (1776) to Fremont (1845),” at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26 in the Fort Lewis College Vallecito Room.

Kessell, professor emeritus of history at the University of New Mexico, specializes in colonial Southwestern history. He has received numerous awards for his scholarship and has published widely, including his latest book, Miera Y Pacheco: A Renaissance Spaniard in Eighteenth-Century New Mexico (University of Oklahoma Press, 2013).

Kessell’s presentation focuses on Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco, who camped in August 1776 on the site of Durango during a four-month-long, 1,700-mile vision quest around the Four Corners. His iconic map, first to portray the Colorado Plateau and eastern Great Basin, contained certain hydrographic misconceptions later embraced by the Spanish Royal Corps of Engineers, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, Henry Schenck Tanner, and others. Finally, John Charles Fremont figured out where the waters really ran and where they didn’t, tumbling Miera from cartographic signpost to historical artifact.

This lecture is free to the public. Parking on campus is free of charge on the weekends.