{"id":91423,"date":"2019-12-06T00:22:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T00:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-commissioner-falls-off-roof-fractures-hip-and-spine\/"},"modified":"2019-12-06T00:22:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T00:22:41","slug":"county-commissioner-falls-off-roof-fractures-hip-and-spine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-commissioner-falls-off-roof-fractures-hip-and-spine\/","title":{"rendered":"County commissioner falls off roof, fractures hip and spine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Church\"
Church<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After falling from a roof, La Plata County Commissioner Clyde Church said a fractured hip and spine won\u2019t keep him from fulfilling his duties.<\/p>\n

Church, who was elected in fall 2018, said he and a friend were putting up rafters on a woodshed extension in his Falls Creek Ranch backyard on Nov. 23 when he was injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the dangerous part done, I thought,\u201d Church said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After lunch, Church and his friend went outside to finish the job, but the ground had thawed, destabilizing the ladder. As his friend lifted a rafter to Church, the ladder moved, and Church was left dangling from the roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hanging like one of those three-toed sloths,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Church lost his grip and fell 8 to 10 feet, landing on his back. Doctors determined he fractured his hip and spine.<\/p>\n

Church said Wednesday he\u2019s getting around using a walker, and it doesn\u2019t look like he\u2019ll require surgery. He hopes to attend county meetings next week in person. Next year, Church is slated to take over added duties as chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, which includes running meetings. In November, Church, 72, also will become the most experienced county commissioner because Gwen Lachelt and Julie Westendorff are term-limited and can\u2019t seek re-election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to continue on,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see any need for a leave of absence or anything. I am fully functional, except I have some chips and cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

But should Church\u2019s condition worsen, the board has a backup plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can always make arrangements for him to call in or get him materials to keep him in the loop,\u201d said Megan Graham, spokeswoman for La Plata County.<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, who\u2019s putting up the Christmas lights at the Church house?<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

says injuries won\u2019t take him away from duties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1680,1512,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91423"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}