 Came here today to share a song The little birds whispered, we all belong Hey, thank you, appreciate that. Hey Les, can I just have a little more vocal on the monitor here? Thanks man. Alright, so we put out this record about a year ago. It's called Roots and Wings. And we're going to play the title track off of that. The reason it's called Roots and Wings, because those are the two things a parent could give their children, you know. Roots know where they come from and Wings to pursue what they want to pursue in life. Hey, thank you, appreciate that. Alright, so this next one is called Too Much Too Soon. And if you feel like singing along, those are the only words you need to know is Too Much Too Soon. I took you out on a picnic. You want to walk in the park. Bread was too light. The chocolate too dark. All those stink of cheeses. That fancy French wine. I spent all my money trying to make you mine. You said that it was too much too soon. It was too much too soon. I sent you a dozen roses. Like the commercials say to do. You said that it was too much too soon. I spent the extra bucks on the vase. Flower foot soap. All that romance. Don't mean nothing if you don't love me too. You said that it was too much too soon. It was too much too soon. I sent you a dozen roses. Like the commercials say to do. You said that it was too soon. I spent the extra bucks on the vase. Flower foot soap. All that romance. Don't mean nothing if you don't love me too. You drove past your place. Hoping to stop and say how are you. But you were saying goodbye kissing some. You said that it was. You said that it was. So ladies and gentlemen. It's time for The Long Monster. Introducing Justin Beach. That's right it's back. It's The Long Monster. Don't be afraid ladies and gentlemen. It's just your f... It's all line. Oh my God line. Line. Line. Line. Line. It's just your friendly neighborhood Long Monster. No teleprompters here. This isn't even scripted. This is just off top of my head ladies and gentlemen. Antonio Lopez. Best house band a Long Monster could ever ask for. Thank you for blessing us once again. It's a pleasure being here. Yeah it's always a pleasure having you. we introduced the band yeah so we got Chad made this on the bass guitar Chad Zilla Christopher's right on the drums Christopher thank you he's actually wearing a black hat you can't really tell it just looks like the top of his head is missing it's because he's got a black backdrop behind him but he it's a hat he's not doesn't have a flat doesn't have a flat spot on the top of his head this is the fifth or possibly sixth installment of the long monster so and we do it twice a year so we've really gotten into a really good groove with this you know we do it once in the fall once in the spring so we've really worked out all the kinks and I think you're really in store for a really seamless talk show experience tonight before we get going I want to say a big great big enormous cyber hello to those folks who are watching on the worldwide web and of course I mean on Facebook and Longmont Public Media dot org and of course local Comcast cable channel 8 slash 880 that's right people watch public access cable here in Longmont it's part of part of being engaged and informed long monster yeah it is right do you guys ever watch public access I try you try yeah yeah you have to have cable in order to watch it so it can be hard if you've cut the cord it's impossible unless you're on Facebook yeah our Antonio are you on Facebook you do the Facebook I am yeah yeah what do you do on there waste a lot of time mainly waste a lot of time yeah but you kind of you kind of got to be on Facebook being a musician that's right and I got to hit the social media yeah those Facebookers yep I do you have a show coming up by the speaking of promoting shows yeah yeah so so this is just part of the band we actually got a Kate Farmer who sings with us and Jonathan sadly replaced my team by percussion but we're doing a big show tomorrow night with Fox Feather and Lucas Wolf it's placed down in Lafayette called Nises oh Nises yeah yeah that's a great bill if you're not doing anything tomorrow and you're not here at the museum seeing our frequent flyers dance performance you're welcome to go check him out if you're afraid of aerial dancers then I you're off the hook anyway we've got a great show for you tonight we've got the great Shakita Yarbrough City Council City of Longmont Colorado we've got a Byron Komenick the man behind Jack's Solar Garden and the incomparable Marty Moore executive director of out Boulder or with us this evening and we are going to finish things off I know you can't wait for it it's probably why you're here with the Longmont history quiz you're so of rain you probably think this town is about you but let's get this underway gentlemen will you take me to the desk first of all I'd like to thank the fine folks the good folks at Woodley's fine furniture for the set tonight without them we'd just be sitting on the floor which could be cool kind of boho anyway I'm glad to be elevated and they elevate the whole show that just coming off a huge ginormous amazing Labor Day sale but they still have a few things left I was over there when I was eyeballing this stuff and there's a couple good finds over there and they're getting hipper and hipper you know there's not just all those overstuffed giant couches and stuff they've got some slim trim looking 1960s looking furniture which is kind of my jam anyway before we get really get started here it's important that we acknowledge that long before Longmonsters ever roam the earth this land we now call Longmont belong to another people entirely and it was violently taken from them so before we get to celebrating all things Longmont it's important that we that I share with you the city's land acknowledgement statement ratified by Longmont City Council just this last year we acknowledge that Longmont sits on the traditional territory of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Yute and other indigenous peoples we honor the history and the living and spiritual connection that the first peoples have with this land it is our commitment to face the injustices that happened when the land was taken and to educate our communities ourselves and our children to ensure these injustices never happened again thank you I'd like to go ahead and thank the other the folks who make this program and all of our museum programs possible the Stewart Family Foundation the scientific and cultural facilities district otherwise known as a whole bunch of words the Friends of the Longmont Museum our many museum donors and of course our museum members any museum members hey oh wow loads of members like half the audience or members that's fantastic we love you members we love everybody but we'd love members just a little tiny bit more it's without your support we simply can't do all the things that we do without you and we do a whole heck of a lot so thank you I'd also like to thank our media sponsors the mighty KGNU out of Dew Boulder down the road and the Longmont leader your source for online news here in Longmont and I want to toot the museum's horn for a minute while I'm sitting at this desk here looking official if you didn't know the Longmont Museum is a center for culture in northern Colorado where people of all ages explore history experience art and discover new ideas through dynamic programs exhibitions and events that'll end the pretty much end the infomercial portion of this evening but we are here to celebrate things all things Longmont and oh where's my oh boy I'm missing missing a prop well we'll just have to we'll just have to motor on anyway we've got a lot of great things coming up this fall this is the first program of our fall season tomorrow we've got our we've got a Friday afternoon concert every second Friday of the month between now and December we offer a Friday afternoon concert and tomorrow is an afternoon of chamber music for those of you who aren't doing anything tomorrow afternoon and then if you're not doing anything in the evening as well frequent flyers aerial dance will be here and they're going to be hanging from stuff and they're not going to be doing it in this room that's what's crazy about this performance it's going to be happening in the atrium yeah and in the classroom and then in the courtyard and if you're worried about being out in the courtyard because it's too hot it's going to be colder than a you know it's gonna be cold it's gonna be chilly I mean anyway it's gonna be unseasonably cool and you're gonna enjoy it anyway so that's happening and then all kinds of stuff we have art and sip classes we have children's children's stuff we've got an exhibition up through the end of the year teepee to tiny home kind of an overview of domestic architecture here in Colorado it's kind of kids and family friendly yeah that's what's going on that's what's happening at your museum let's get on with this show shall we do we introduce our first guest our first guest is a total powerhouse she's the director of community engagement and equity for the YWCA Boulder County she serves on the boards of the NAACP Boulder County and the Boulder County League of Women's Voters she has the historic distinction of being the first black woman ever to be elected to Longmont City Council yeah I've gotten to know her over the last several years and had the pleasure of working with her a bit ladies and gentlemen please welcome Shakita Yarborough back to the Longmont Museum I've got the eye of the tiger the spider dancing through fire cuz I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar louder louder than lying cuz I am a champion and you're gonna Shakita let's hear you roar no it's you know yeah that that dress is doing enough roaring for you I think I love the dress it's great okay but it's you know it's it's the it's it's a lion there's a lion in that jungle roaring I can hear the jungle yeah it is so I guess the song was appropriate welcome to the jungle is that what we had no welcome to the jungle it was welcome to the jungle wasn't it see I thought she was gonna have me come out she's a bad man my Gemma hey well we can do that next time we shouldn't we think of that one I just do what you tell me Justin oh don't try to pull that off on me it's all on me I guess how are you I am well I am well how's the you're on the the advisory board for AIPP art in public places right you're the you're the council liaison correct places right correct what have you learned about our art in public places as opposed to art in private places which is different well actually they do a lot you know they actually go around the city and look at locations where where we have the transformer boxes and shock boxes boxes and graffiti and look at places where there needs to be a little bit more sunlight sunshine meaning art and beauty and they determine that and then also when you see murals across the city you know throughout the city they're the ones who put out applications or RFPs for people to fill them out and judge who should be not just them but community members as well so if and they're always looking for board members committee members so that's your passion is art please think about it and next time we have enrollment please fill out an application and we would love to have you on the board nice pitch thank you thank you they actually just completed this incredible mural in one of the parks they painted the basketball court I should have an image for you but I don't it's gorgeous yeah it's a really great thing to be supporting and we're glad to have your support from the council on that how is how is it being a city lawnmower and city council person is it what you expected well I didn't know what to expect right right I had I didn't have anything to compare it against or with I just knew that it was something that I wanted to do and need it to do and I'm I'm in it you know I'm in it 100% and it's a lot of work there's so much information that I don't know and a lot of things I don't know that I need to know it until they tell me I should have known it that's how it works yeah but it's amazing it is how the city is operated in it takes the entire employee population of the city of Longmont to make the city as great as it is and I'm grateful that we have all the employees and all of our service people within this city to make the city as beautiful as it is how long have you been in Longmont ten years ten years and where did you where did you where are you from from I was born in Louisiana an army base I am originally from Chicago lived there lived in a in Missouri a little itty-bitty town about 30 miles north of Springfield where I went to college left their move to Tennessee and left Tennessee went to Austin Texas and now I am here and you're sticking with Longmont you've seen all these other places like Longmont that's it I'm done sure well then what's next was there after is there life after Longmont that's what I want to know is there why would there be I don't know that's that's a really good question yeah why would there be yeah who needs life after Longmont I don't know do you need life I thought life yeah we need life for sure but not yeah but life after Longmont I'm not sure if that's if that's all that necessary we'll see we'll see yeah it's too soon we're so young you know we're so young yeah we're so we have so much life ahead of us why why set like deadlines why why make plans for instance you know I yeah anyway so City Council Shakita what's the biggest what was sort of the biggest surprise would you say about being a member of City Council the biggest surprise with being a member of City Council what was unexpected about it maybe probably everything to be honest I think I'm more surprised about all the different departments of the city who contribute to make our job more successful to inform us and to make sure that we are knowledgeable in the areas where I don't know about planning and zoning we have those you know directors to come out and make sure that we are informed when we have questions so we're not left out there to drive now there are people who have been involved with those areas much longer than I have maybe had a passion with you know for planning and zoning and development and things like that so for me I have to seek out that knowledge but they're always there so that for me is wonderful and I feel very supported yeah I'd say that as a as a city staff person myself that it's you know they refer to it as the organization which I guess that works it is an organization it's organized so that's appropriate but it's a it's it's really I'm always surprised at how sort of quietly kind of ahead of the curve and sort of progressive it is sort of infrastructurally it's very forward looking quietly quietly yeah I mean that we have other we have neighbors who who who toot their horns about being forward-thinking and progressive while long mod is sort of seen as not but we do lots of things here that are very forward forward-looking that is so true and that will manifest itself in the next few years that's for sure all of the work that the city is doing city council you'll be surprised you look back at this time you look back and say wow I didn't know all that was going on but it takes time for for progression right it takes time to see the big picture and a lot of times people are not as visionaries as like the city manager or the city staff in city council but our job is city council I know most people think that government or at least city council job is to please everybody how many of you know that that's what impossible right some of the people some of the time maybe right exactly I wish I could please everyone all the time but it's impossible so the decisions that we make are not only for to benefit our city today but we have to think about the future we have to think about all of these COVID babies that's going to be growing up right so we have to make sure that our city and our community is prepared for them and making sure that our youth have their voices for their future for the city within the city so you know we have a tough job because I know a lot of people probably think we don't but I know there's many times where I sat there and I'm like oh my goodness this is so hard because you have to think about not just today you have to think about tomorrow and you have to think about five years from now you have to think about ten years from now the future of Longmont so it's a lot of work and I appreciate all my all of the constituents that email us call us and talk to us even the ones that are mad at us and hate us but I appreciate them using their voices because that's a privilege that we all have to use our voices and it's a privilege to be able to vote so I appreciate all those who use their voices and it's important what are you most excited about what's oh look at that that's not even Longmont I think that's a few word yeah look at these wonderful few words someone whoever's responsible for this show forgot to plug the laptop in anyway we'll have to talk to whoever that is what is the yeah it's a funny show what is so what are you most excited about I mean what what's what are you working on what is City Council working on now what are you working on now as a council person that's got you excited or in terms of possibilities or potential yeah man we're working on so much transportation I don't know if you all heard about the steam project the sugar mill project Costco that's coming up affordable housing attainable housing projects I'm so excited about that because I myself I'm not able to purchase a home because it's too expensive and you know only have even people who have two incomes in their household is really difficult and challenging for them to purchase a property as well so I'm just so excited about all of the plans for affordable and attainable housing within the city so that you know we can accommodate the growth that's happening here and that's very important and hopefully we have enough housing that will be affordable for people and our workforce will be able to attain housing here so I'm very excited about that when we are in progress and that's what we're doing we're making it happen what sort of affordable housing projects do you see on the horizon I know there's this we have this the housing for veterans the veteran community project right yeah yes that is that's that's amazing is there anything else that's coming up housing sort of affordable housing opportunities for folks yes some of it I can't really talk about okay but Longmont housing authority mm-hmm you know that's another thing that the city took over the housing authority and they have done an amazing job an amazing job I want to give them their props the city staff and the city city manager they took over that project and it was very challenging and some of you who have been here for a while know that we have been in the newspaper for some decisions with the past executive directors prior but of the Longmont housing there was some controversy there yes yes but I'm grateful for our city and just saying no we're not allowing her to take over our properties and what all we put into it and the city took over the housing authority and so there's housing that's coming up that that's being developed for our you know housing authority as well so we're trying to fill in those gaps and those disparities within the city and making sure within the housing authority as well providing services for the residents within the housing authority so sometimes we have people that need mental health and so we're providing those resources for them sometimes people need transportation we're there to direct them where they need to go to get those resources so yes yeah I'm very proud of what we're doing here in the city of Longmont not to say we're perfect because if we were perfect we can please everybody all the time so that's impossible so we can never be perfect but we are striving to do the best that we can with everything that we have yeah well we're glad to have you leading the way as part of City Council like I've really enjoyed working with you and I you know you as the first black female member of Longmont City Council you brought a really terrific Juneteenth event to Longmont on Juneteenth it's was it Juneteenth itself no it was yeah it was my father's day yeah yeah and that was a big success you that took a lot of a lot of effort did anybody show up anybody come out for the Juneteenth event thank you thank you yeah windy we do have some survivors I think of the wind a little scary there yes you know it's about bringing different cultures we are I believe that Longmont has a lot of culture here but we have to show that we are more inclusive in this city yeah a lot of times people just stick to where they want to be with people they feel comfortable with or people who they can relate to but I believe being on City Council representation matter I said that the whole entire time I ran representation matters it's important for our youth to see people that that's here that they can relate to and understand oh wow they're in leadership role one day I'll be in the leadership role and that's important and that's why one of the reasons why I ran for City Council because I want the youth to see representation in leadership in leadership it's important and so bringing out the different cultures I love the fact that we had the the Nepali event and that was amazing and we had a big Nepalese celebration here at the museum yes amazing standing room only and so I want to see more of that in our city yeah and yes it's important because we're here yeah right we're here so we want people to feel inclusive and feel like they can come out and share their culture and share their traditions without judgment we all came from somewhere yeah we did we did yeah that's a huge we share the the museum shares that mission we do a lot of our programming is designed to celebrate difference and diversity yeah well thank you for joining us in supporting that and in our supporting our programming working with us participating it's it's a really it's a real pleasure to know you and to and to have you have you support our programming here it's really well I want to say thank you really I want to say thank you for being so creative and you know and implementing you know your creativity and that's why I love working with you and collaborating with you because you never know what you're getting literally you never know but it's generally gonna be good though I usually I mean look at the tie right yeah yeah well thank you Shakira I have fun work we have fun when we do when we work together we have fun every time so and that's what it's about anyway to do good and have fun while doing it all right well thank you we've got we've got more people coming up though and you want to slide down the couch and hang out with us for a while for sure yeah excellent thank you Shakira Shakira you know a lot of these talk shows they have commercial breaks and I don't know what the who knows what goes on during those commercial breaks it probably you know Jimmy Fallon or whatever goes in the back and has a massage or something I don't I don't get those opportunities I just have to keep thank you oh is there a band over there okay our next guest is not a farmer nor is he a solar technology guy he's much more than that he's not from here but his grandpa is he's from northeast Tennessee but you wouldn't guess it whatever that means he spent years working for the US government as a diplomat in Africa he's a natural resources guy who enjoys a bit of frisbee golf from time to time and believes in living more with less ladies and gentlemen please welcome somebody's grandson the man behind Jack's solar garden Byron Cominick comes the sun, comes the sun and I'll say it's all right that really should have been here comes the grandson yeah Jack's grandson right yeah that'd work Byron thanks for joining us pleasure thanks for being here overdue welcome to Longmont I suppose appreciate it you've been here for six years now yeah yeah going on six years yeah October of 2016 how are you how are you enjoying your Longmont experience well you kind of your Longmont ish I mean I'm basically extending our border just a tad to include you because we are if anything if nothing here in Longmont we're inclusive and growing and taking over all kinds of things including your farm he says this because if you have to send me mail you actually have to write down Longmont but I'm actually in the county yeah unincorporated Boulder County so thanks for letting me in the town tonight you're welcome I'm actually not in charge of that and I didn't have to do any paperwork or anything you can actually freely move from you can cross borders like that especially when you're unincorporated anyway yeah so what's what's been the biggest what do you love about you know over the years it's been fun to watch the downtown area grow I remember when I was a kid coming out here in the 1990s downtown Longmont was was rough like my folks wouldn't let me like wander around the streets or anything like that like we just drove through town and that was it but now it's why what was it what was it like what was it what was it I remember there was a bad out bad element I just remember a lot of the downtown shops were all boarded up oh there was not much to do around downtown this was like a mid 70s 92 through 96 yeah yeah yeah I was in Boulder I went to school in Boulder not see you by the way it's possible to go to college in Boulder and not go to see you and I was here from 97 to 2001 ish and I used to think of you know Longmont as that place that you if you went to you'd end up getting dragged behind a truck somewhere that was my impression of Longmont living in Boulder I don't think that was the case but it's definitely it's not that for sure no it's beautiful downtown lovely businesses wonderful meeting friends and folks around in this area and being on my grandfather's farm it's it's quite nice to have that juxtaposition of having an urban area and then retreating to the farm in the evening yeah so on the farm I want to launch into an old McDonald thing here but I'm not going to on on the farm you have how does this go I don't know the song you have not only you growing things but you're growing things under some things yeah we have things out there we built a solar ray a 1.2 megawatt solar ray enough to power about 300 homes in our community on just over four acres of land on my north pasture and then underneath that we work with researchers to learn more about growing different types of crops underneath and around the panels so that we can show that you can combine agriculture with solar there's a large tension in our country in certain areas where solar developers are moving in and buying up farmland and they're building systems that are 4,000 5,000 acres in size not just my piddly little four acres and they're they're basically making the land beneath those panels become useless nobody can farm it sometimes it's graded sometimes there's areas that are graveled it becomes useless land yeah so what we want to be able to show is that we can still have solar and we can keep the land beneath it useful using the different microclimates that are created by the solar panels possibly a better a nice alternative to let's say fracking yeah yeah yeah absolutely yeah so did you kind of pioneer this no we are the how do they praise it we the largest commercial research site for agrivoltaics in the US we are a national model people come from around the US that are in the solar industry as well as people that are working on policies related to agrivoltaics that agriculture portable takes people come out to our farm to see what it's like but we didn't come up with the idea some German fellow back in the 80s came up with the idea and then people in the early 2000s started trying in other countries and presently in the US it's mainly co-locating solar panels with sheep with sheep but my argument is that like I don't eat lamb every day I don't really see it on a lot of the menus it's oftentimes beef check and pork those are the types of animals that we should be trying to figure out how to have within solar rays so hopefully one day we'll be able to showcase having some cattle within our solar ray or or be able to help others figure out how to do that too and your solar panels are actually they're actually raised quite a bit up off the ground so they can accommodate animals to to to live underneath yeah and and people I'm six foot four so I can't limbo underneath like really tiny panels so we have we have some that when they're flat they're about eight feet tall so I can drive my pickup truck underneath them just so you all can have a sense of how tall some of those panels are and then we have others that the torque tube is about six feet tall so then I have to duck just a little bit to get underneath it but we have farm workers that are out there that they can enjoy the shade all day long if they so chose the panels track going east to west and so the shade is over here in the morning and then midday it's underneath the panels in the afternoon it's to the other side so imagine the reduction in heat stress on people working within a solar ray or animals grazing underneath absolutely right right and you do you have an education arm to what you do and you have people come out and and go on tours and so you're open for tours yeah we have a nonprofit it's a mouthful it's called the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center one of our researchers came up with that one but yeah on on Saturday mornings we have tours that are open to the public people can buy a ticket online come out at 10 a.m. it's not this Saturday but from the next Saturday moving forward we have our full-time staff member that is dedicated to doing outreach to high schools trying to bring out high school kids to the farm to teach them about how we don't have to stove pipe these different ideas of of solar power of agriculture or disregard land within energy systems that we can figure out how to make it all work improve land storage and then I do some work with trying to talk to policy makers legislators about what different regulations could they have in place that help encourage or incentivize or Agrivoltaics and then discourage people from making the land become useless and you you actually just came from Capitol Hill today came directly from directly yeah you're part of a governor's governor's some governor program yeah I just got accepted into this Civico is a nonprofit and they have a governor fellow program so today was the first day of going down there getting to meet a cohort for that I'll be with for the next nine months to learn more about legislation down in Denver how the governor's office works it's fun I get to listen to the state demographer today uh-huh she's a good speaker what so what did what did you learn from the demographer that we don't actually have if you weren't listening it's okay I got this I got this so there's not actually an exponential growth of people in the in Colorado some people think that there might just be a massive explosion of people coming from California Texas wherever else but it's not true that's just the media blowing it out of proportion just because I came from California doesn't mean everybody but the the trend has actually been going down in recent years are the growth rate of Colorado is mainly supported by the birth rate not necessarily from migration into the state and it's not even across the state like the the eastern plains as well as a northwest corner of the state their population levels are dropping drastically versus the here on the front range it's going up so it's incorrect to say Colorado is exploding it's oftentimes more the growth rate is a little bit higher here on the front range but it's still not exponential hmm but we're growing at a sizable rate the front range is like 2% or something oh 2% that's not like below inflation now oh yeah right what is it do you know it does do you know how that relates to like the overall national no no but it plays into the housing market sure yeah that was a long conversation they had yeah so you're you're you're you're hoping to get more involved in policy stuff here locally to make yeah make a difference in terms of the land and natural resources and yeah as you mentioned before I walked in I had a career overseas where I was working for the federal government as a diplomat right and I was interested in working with other cultures and communities of how to improve natural resource management how do you get people that depend on those natural resources to have a livelihood while at the same time enhancing or or protecting the natural resources that are around them and I wanted to do that in a culture that I understood better and in a culture that understood me better and that was one of the one of the main reasons why I want to work on that in this area with my solar ray and my family's farmland I'm gonna be here for a long time so I'll have time to get to know more and more folks in our community learn more about things that have gone well in the past as well as those that haven't and see about how we can change things for the better in the future can we can we get juice from your your your farm can we get energy from your farm oh I was thinking orange juice I don't have orange juice yeah that's California again well let's see so Laumont has Laumont power company I'm on Excel energy so they don't play well I can't sell electricity to anybody here in Laumont but about 50% of the population in Colorado is on Excel energy so I can sell electricity to all those folks so if somebody wants if somebody lives in unincorporated Boulder County or is an Excel customer they can actually receive energy from you that's where all or the I would say the majority of my clients come from but currently we're sold out of subscriptions we'll have more subscriptions potentially available come 2025 and yeah I've been trying to help out other folks that are interested in building solar rays and improving land stewardship within them here in Colorado as well as across the country and you'll also be able to start buying produce from you guys is that right yeah we have a nonprofit partner called Sprout City Farms their nonprofit farming organization out of Denver they have multiple farms down that way and they're working with us to cultivate crops underneath our solar panels and next year they're starting up a CSA so if anybody is interested in having food growing underneath solar panels then next year you can sign up for that we've been eating some potatoes and basil peppers she does some other things this arugula arugula I had some very spicy arugula yesterday underneath a solar panel yeah yeah so and they're having a shindig at the farm not this Saturday but next Saturday so folks want to help support Sprout City Farms as well as come out for some music booze and food then that's happening on September 17th and folks can get tickets online cool what's your website mine is jacksolargarden.com theirs is SproutCityFarms.org and you're looking at doing more kind of more kind of farm events farm to table stuff music we had a wedding out of the farm that was cool yeah and it'd be fun to do more yeah yeah we have we have three pastors so one pastor is where the solar ray is we have a east field that's our alfalfa our hayfield and then we have a south pastor that we're trying to figure out what to do with so last last what June June is when the wedding was they they took over just a small portion of our our pastor it was quite nice it was fun to see people enjoying the our land and when people come to for events or for to pick up their CSA or whatever are there opportunities to kind of learn about when people engage your farm for other reasons other than like an educational tour are there ways that you educate them about what you're doing I guess so yeah yeah hey what do you do so you're from Tennessee that's where I grew up yeah yeah how come you didn't try give this a try in Tennessee because you had a farm because you had your grandpa's farm here that's the answer basically yeah that was a dumb question my grandfather Jack Sangry he was born 1895 he moved to Colorado when he was four and then he was a farm tenant on other people's land for the first 40 years of his life before he bought 120 acres of land around Westminster if anybody knows big dry Creek Park that's where my grandfather used to have his land and then he bought the farm that I live on now in 1972 and he farmed it he farmed it for eight years until he passed away and then we had farm tenants that were managing the land up until I started managing it in 2018 so taking over that farm is basically reconnecting I mean you were traveling a lot you were out in the world you were in Africa you were in DC so coming back here was really about in part reconnecting with your roots and your family yeah I was building something an effort to be closer to my family to learn more about the land the legacy my mother loves genealogy so she she's gone back through time gone through all the she goes to different cemeteries and looks at the records of who was buried there and tries to connect the dots and so now that and that was before that was before the internet I should say and now now she uses that but she's been able to track that we're a centennial family so some one of my distant relatives came to Colorado sometime between 1876 and 1886 or something like that so anybody who came during that time is considered a centennial family that's what I've heard and then the first Coloradans are around the nineteen or 1860 to 1870 pioneers yeah well I think it's amazing that you're doing this it seems so appropriate that this be happening sort of in Longmont right because Longmont is this agricultural play you know historically agricultural with a real high-tech element as well so you're kind of bringing that together and you're in Jack's solar farm right yeah thanks it seems like it just makes it makes sense that it would be happening here yeah especially thankfully it's on my farm it's all coming together here in Longmont ish I want ish yeah I just thought I mean the thing is all in farms all in farms which is basically across the street down the street and across the way they're in Longmont are they I think so oh I thought they were I thought like part of the farm was on in Boulder County and then the other part was in the city Shakita could you could you bring up your map on your phone no okay Google is all in farms in Longmont you don't know I thought it was in the city and the other portion is part of unincorporated Boulder County I don't know which parts which sorry mark his house is probably in Longmont well thanks for joining us I mean if so if someone wants to come and visit your farm and find out more about what you're doing a week from this Saturday yeah 10 o'clock in the morning yeah so jack solar garden calm there's a button that you'll click on tour sends you to our nonprofit webpage to find getting a ticket and then if you're interested in the event on September 17th feel free to just shoot me a message and I'll send you a link for it and you can find my contact information on the website that's where I found it and he replied he responded and now he's on the show see what happens just respond to your emails it's called the internet it's great well thank you so much Byron thanks for the tour yesterday if if people do show up will they be able to taste some of that spicy arugula depends on the season not in December but like the next week they'll still be some spice check out the spicy arugula because it's really crazy I totally recommend it Byron thanks a lot thanks for thanks for taking a chance on the long monster stick around will you do we shake hands again no we only shake hands once Byron our final guests of the evening's got some deep I mean really deep roots in these here parts her family goes back some 150 years long wants just 151 years old by the way but they weren't no Chicago colony riches they were coal miners and farmers and later veterinarians her great-grandfather was a four-time mayor of Dicono and her dad drove sugar beets around for a while I asked her to describe some of the hallmarks of a Colorado person and this is what she told me hard-working neighborly values community that sounds pretty good ladies and gentlemen please welcome the executive director of out boulder the mighty Marty more I was born a coal miners granddaughter in a cabin on a hill but you're holler we were pulled but we had love that's the one thing the gromp made sure of show cold to make a poor man's what's what Marty that was really fun was that fun yeah I am on both sides of my family that's incredible well I was actually going to start this program that's incredible yeah buddy but whatever you think about that and it wasn't actually a hundred and fifty years so I called my brother who's much like your mother and goes around to cemeteries and now there's the internet so now he stays home but it was actually like 1876 they'd have to pull my phone I said 1876 when the first more showed up Ezekiel Moore and he's buried in the Nywat cemetery oh and his first job was driving teams of horses at the sand what's it called sand sand sandstone sandstone quarry quarry I think it was a quarry before was a ranch uh-huh that makes sense yeah I think so my family's always been into rocks rock on right I even had pet rocks when I was young and I think it was like something subtle about all the you were into rocks yeah really my little brother had a tumbler you know I'm talking oh I do I didn't have a tumbler didn't have one you guys know what a tumbler is you spin the rocks it's not an app before it was an app it was this thing you put rocks in and they get saw it they smooth out yeah before it was a photo thing how you doing I'm good I'm turned my watch off because it's usually bedtime for me so it's not gonna give me my reminder so I'm good I think a little I can make it through this well you took a nap the crowd is ginormous tonight you know and there is a big crowd it's it's really about quality not quantity it really is and we do have a quality crowd on hand but you know it is kind of Byron's friends are here I noticed section he has a whole section of the auditorium dedicated to him tonight I imagine he's got a lot of fans watching online too I imagine you all have countless fans watching online well I'm a new fan I had no idea about Jack's garden calm is it close Jack's solar garden solar garden calm yeah and I have every day when I drive to Boulder in a non-solar car burning oil and gas I wonder about the sheep under the solar panels on the way by IBM and I'm like that is a smart sheep farmer yeah that's that's not Jack's I'm sorry I brought that up competition it's not that smart it's not working out they're moving on to another state that's Jack's solar garden yeah but they're probably using your research no they're not I'm gonna let's go back to your questions you're good at this though you're natural yeah me I have to you know I have to I have to study and well I like people so I was listening to stories I think I find people fascinating yeah me too like really I have trouble with really quiet people because you don't know how fascinating they are it's scary isn't it it is and so it's like you're probably amazing but you are not showing it yeah so I'm glad to be with this crowd like she'll tell you exactly what she thinks that's true right it was why she won because she thinks some really big thoughts and gets big stuff done and I've never sat with a diplomat from South Africa for crying out loud the things that can happen in Longmatter big big huge giant like a class and national globally relevant stuff here and it's no joke you know one of the things I never wanted to live in Longmont so I was a kid in Longmont too and my grandparents lived in Longmont they've been here forever and it's a kid we would go to the A&W on Main Street which was the deal is that still that's the Dairy Queen no no no it's a great Mexican restaurant now I don't know the name of it but if you want good Mexican food go to what looks like an A&W and they have great Mexican food and so we would go there and that was like the big thing and they'd you know they come out to your car and grandma I still have the mugs and so that's what I thought about Longmont I thought about Longmont A&W and my grandparents and I never wanted to do that and so when it was time to come back to Colorado I didn't think oh I'm gonna leave New York City and go to Longmont that wasn't the plan I'm like if I have to go back to Colorado like everybody else I guess I mean South Africa or Austin to Longmont I mean it was obvious trajectory and there's a lot of people on the same trajectory but we end up in this place yeah with all these amazing minds with all these amazing experiences yeah so when I was had to come back to Colorado I'm like I'm not living in Denver because it's really not a city and I'm not living in a long norm because it's not really a town I'm going to Boulder well I was in Boulder stuck in a lease that was more expensive than Manhattan I'm like this is no win so some cool queer friends moved to Longmont I'm like wow queer and cool in Longmont I'll rent a house and within six months I feel like a dollar or something right yeah well and I fell in love with Longmont so I like in six within six months I bought a house so I have been a homeowner in Longmont for six six months and I are six years and I love it yeah I have I I discovered the joy of home ownership here in Longmont as well with the help of my my VA loan my grandma had to die for my house but good for you oh yeah my grandmother died for other things but um yeah I understand bless speaking of grandmothers dying should we should we give a just a our extend our sentiments to the royal family this evening on the death of the queen mother oh just the queen but she was a mother too God save the king yes God save the king anyway she's I'm not sure what that meant but I heard it on the news tonight he did well he's the Prince Charles is no longer Prince Charles I'm aware of that but I'm not sure why we're praying for him Chuck King Chuck for any Royals in the house oh yeah thank you for coming tonight I offend you did I with sorry for your sadness today you're okay are you dead you're okay good thanks Sheila I was frankly more upset when Princess Diana died I got up early I was living in the West Coast tragedy tragedy and I I didn't find that today but I think a generation older than me my mother doesn't usually talk about the news in this morning's phone call the first conversation was about the queen being ill so yeah I think it might be a generational thing also yeah many many generations right you're saying my mother's old that's right that's funny I'll tell her in the morning have I met your mother I did she local she's local my mother is actually moving to Longmont oh she is moving along that's part of that aging thing so she lives has lived in for about 40 years in a town called Fountain Fountain Fountain which is south of Colorado Springs my dad died which is one of the reasons I moved back to Colorado because he was gone and it would be comfortable then no kidding we know we all have those family members I actually left it's not really a joke I left Colorado in the 80s when I found out I was a lesbian because well I when it finally all made sense and my family wasn't that excited and so I left shortly thereafter and it took me about 30 years to get back so you discovered your lesbian and then he moved to Texas Houston Texas Houston wasn't that bad then because it's a city it's a real city it's a real city a diverse city yeah and I came of age during the onset of AIDS before it was even called AIDS yeah and I ended up living in Montrose which is the LGBT it was gay community when I lived there in that in the 80s and I really loved it I was walkable it was a city it's actually walkable if it's not too hot and diversity yeah but yeah but anyway back to my mother because it's always about the mother yeah let's tell me about your mother because I'm that good daughter I'm gonna be the person who helps her on the next she's 83 yeah and so she's planning for exit which is great that people plan for that and you're just not like surprised one day and nothing's in order but so I'm been I think I'm a little stressed you didn't ask me how I was tonight but I'm frankly a little stressed my mother's moving it down where she's not moving in with you oh god no but she is looking at a house across the street that if you're looking to rent it's time to sign up now so that house is not available when she decides to come to town so yeah it'll be interesting I love her I love my mother yeah I just didn't want to live with her when I was yeah yeah 60 yeah no moving back in with your mom it's not I think there's a word that could be attributed to me if I did that which would be Spencer isn't that I don't think you can you're mother so you can't be a spinster can you I think so because I'm not married can you be a spinster if can you be a spinster if you have children no no okay good I don't think you can I'm not you're not an old maid spinster no divorcee divorcee that's much cooler much cooler better before say than a spinster any day any day I don't think you can be a spinster and be a divorcee okay good yeah so you're off the hook I'm feeling better already yeah so Marty you are the executive I don't know if you know this but you're the executive director of out Boulder I am yeah I am and you've taken it from kind of a mom and pop ranked hang operation to system to some serious kind of glory I feel like at this point yes it's an organization out Boulder County is an organization that's been around for over 25 years and it really started with people in Longmont and people in Boulder after Amendment to which was our neighbors voted to make it so gays and lesbians couldn't have any rights and public accommodations so you could not rent to me because I was a lesbian so they they passed that but it ended up going to the Supreme Court in 1992 in a case known as Roma versus Evans and so you'll see that there are a lot of LGBT groups around our state that have that as their start date so this group started and back in the day and noon and who's a long monster she was one of the people and if somebody would like have all the materials in their trunk and they were in charge that week of providing support for members of the community and so it went from there and now we just bought a 9500 square foot building in north Boulder named the Equality Center of the Rocky Mountains we're in a capital campaign and locked the doors because we have six million dollars to raise tonight and it's a big enough crowd and the right people here I think we can probably do that oh easy yeah so so yeah pass the hat and last year we raised our budget was over two million dollars so well it's been steady secure growth what are you proudest of pardon me what are you proudest of thus far I was listening to you about the advocacy thing Byron so I we passed our first bill this year so it's the first time we ran a bill we did it by herself I had no idea what I was doing but I knew it was a good idea and I came up with it when I was in the basement of my house during COVID with a piece of cardboard and it came to life and we ended up passing it and it was it's around data collections very sexy bill it's around data collection because gay lesbian and transgender people aren't seen in public health data it's all about demography it comes down to that graphics it all comes down to that yeah so I'm mostly proud of that right now and I think I'm proud of we have built community we have a large community we serve over 15,000 people a year our youth program is already served well they're June number so it's higher but over 500 unduplicated youth we have great relationships with St. Brain Valley School District and the work that they're doing around inclusion we couldn't have better partners in in their work and you have you I think you had or do you still have a Longmont office during the pandemic we had two leases and we weren't using either one okay and the guy we were renting from wouldn't give us a break or come down and I didn't we had just signed the boulder lease for 10 years like I can't I just financially cannot pay two rents and don't know when I'm gonna get into another so we let it go and then we ended up in this new building yeah which is easy access from Longmont yeah on the bolt or by car and we have parking where do you think we are where are we nationally now in terms of LGBTQIA rights would you say I would say we're in trouble yeah probably people who are here tonight are informed and know that Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court named gay marriage as one of the things to go next he they did a great job of getting rid of Roe versus Wade and privacy rights and so it'll probably be gay marriage and contraception that'll be next and so and then we're watching the things happen in Texas now even here in Colorado and something that's not widely known is that our state board of education is doing their own little version of don't say gay and they've also thrown in brown people and black people and indigenous people there was a legislature passed a bill two years ago to update the social studies curriculum and to include history about I did different identities not just the pioneers that were our family that showed up here like that's not the full history and so it got passed the governor signed it into law and now the state board of education is not going to implement it and I think the number is there were 51 mentions of LGBT the the word LGBT acronym they removed 47 of them and so it's coming up for a vote in November it's important you know school districts are going to do what they're going to do do I think St. Braine is not going to talk about something because the person was a lesbian I don't think that's true I grew up in southeastern Colorado in a little town called Los Animus and I thought there was something wrong with me until I was 17 years old because real truths aren't told in school and so and I you know Shakita is probably really tired of the white men's version of history I'm sure you got that through most of your education and so trying to change that in Colorado and I think we're gonna lose we're still working on some efforts like I'm not an easy I don't give up easily but this ship may have sailed so also trying to trying to stop it right now in Colorado and also planning for the worst did you say the governor signed off the governor signed off on the law the State Board of Education is not implementing the law and the governor has been silent on this issue is he the kind of ally you would have expected I'm sorry I didn't hear the question oh yeah okay say no more it seemed like it's it seemed like a step in the right direction for it has yeah Jared has been a good governor I'll say that yeah and much like Shakita said being a politician doesn't mean you're gonna make everybody happy right and so I think that would probably be fair to say and I think the governor would say that would be true also I'm sure I'm sure that I'm sure that well so if someone is concerned and wants to join join you in helping what what can people do to what can allies do well I think all of us and we're working on some press now it's happened pretty quickly to email your representative who's on the State Board of Education and ask them to implement the bill and I think there's information on our website I think I can't remember the number they're all start with one ones in my world that you want what the legislature passed implemented and that no shenanigans on removing black people and brown people and LGBT people from curriculum they've started this narrative so I have two kids my kids had lesbian parents as they went through school and so what they're setting this up and the reason it hasn't been public is the harm is not going to come to the adults who are arguing about this the harm comes to the young people who have to hear the arguing and then it turns into bullying and everything else and so it's been a really quiet we're trying a very quiet approach but it's hard enough like kids that aren't even gay with lesbian parents my kids had plenty of it was difficult right you didn't necessarily my son you know two lesbians and a little sister like it wasn't like hey 13 year old friends this is gonna be cool you know it was like it's easier to go to your their house and so we want to start breaking that down and Colorado's headed backwards right now with the work the State Board of Education is doing so remember to vote that's something that's a elected position remember to vote so you said yeah vote vote vote yeah absolutely and and read the news the right what where do you read what where do you get your what news do you read I read a daily camera in the morning I don't get through the New York Times but I make an attempt I quit paying for the Washington Post which I would read and I read articles in the Atlantic and I do watch MSNBC I don't I don't watch CNN and I don't watch Fox oh yeah you don't watch Fox that's surprising to me well I only watch it when I end up in hotels so hotels seem to be like on the dole with Fox or something that's always playing in the like when you're traveling stuff you can always catch Fox yeah it's kind of creepy that way isn't it I don't I don't much why I don't watch much Fox either yeah actually I do watch CNN sometimes feel bad about it I don't know why there's something happening to CNN and I don't know what it is I'm not sure what it is it's weird so what's what do you have coming up that you're excited about without Boulder we have our gala it's sold out though so don't get too excited it's already sold out but so people of my age I don't know how old you are but I'm pretty young do you know who Paul Williams is the singer-songwriter yeah yeah we've only just begun rainbow connection he's a shorter guy Emmys Oscars like all the stuff I don't tend to pay attention to short people very much yeah you and Randy Newman he's our he's coming to speak and we started a new program at out Boulder which is peer recovery support we have high instances of substance abuse within the LGBT community and Paul is a recovering addict so he's coming and one of the items you can win that night is he'll write a song for you it's gonna be in our live auction that's pretty cool that's really cool so she's keep it if you're coming would you buy that for me thank you oh that was so nice to you Shakira but you don't shoot comp city council no we can't do that that's illegal stuff oh that's payola that's payola yeah okay yeah no payola so I'm excited about that yeah so where do you do your gala at the same Julian at the same Julian yeah pretty it's fancy it's fancy what's the entire I don't have a gay bar so it's like oh yeah it's like swanky it's black tie some of the most amazing clothing choices yeah that night yeah yeah it's really fun it's a fun it's a fun night I might just go hang out across the street yeah the after parties pretty off the hook oh yeah are there tickets for that available oh no those are private what if you know somebody that's if you know somebody you're in oh yeah yeah oh oh we'll see you there party you guys should come to yeah we'll see you there we'll we're gonna have so much fun I know what I'm gonna wear oh nice I'm not gonna tell you though I hope it's not what I'm wearing but it's not what but I'm gonna wear oh what do you what are you gonna wear I'm not telling you yet oh yeah so this is gonna be this is gonna be tricky yeah we'll just have to see what happens all right well I think we've reached that time the moment you've all been waiting for everybody's favorite long want trivia quiz yeah you're so rain you're so rain I bet you think the song is about you you're so rain I bet you think the song is about you about you don't you how excited are we right now you know okay so it's saying it's you're so rain the long line history quiz you probably think this town is about you usually we have the great Eric Mason our historian here at the long lot museum he we choose he's usually here live conducting this quiz himself but he's indisposed and so he is entrusted me to ask these questions in his stead so my channel our historian I'm not gonna be able to do that because he's has so much more gravitas than I do the first question oh and I say you know we should what's the prize do you know what the prize is my voice on your answering machine I know Shakita calm down okay all right okay the so if you if you think you know the answer to this question don't buzz in because there are no buzzers so that's hard to do I would just maybe go like that and the first person who does that I will call on them okay Marty can I have your attention please this is serious do you want to win this or you want to lose they have well okay all right the first question of three who is longspeak named for and before you start I don't know do you can you tell your longspeak from your meeker because I can't oh yes okay Byron that I can tell the difference between the two mountains but I think I can't it was a French guy I don't think so I don't think that's true so once again who is I got this is a little bit like okay who is longspeak named for this is hint this is a bit like that grants who's buried in grants to him kind of thing okay the answer is and nobody wins this one explorer Steven long who saw it from a distance in 1820 he saw it from a distance as I mean he didn't see it how can you know how can you not see something from a distance that's my question okay the second question and you guys are doing great what was canned at the Cooner Emson cannery in Longmont that's there's a hand can't hands the what was canned at the Cooner yes any of the following are acceptable you know hey do you would you like to venture a guest what was canned at the Cooner Emson cannery in Longmont yep nope vegetables that's right Chiquita Chiquita's got a point well done pork is not a vegetable corn is technically a vegetable but it's not that they didn't do corn so three and this is the final question this is for all this is for everything this is for all the marbles currently Chiquita's in the lead in what decade did you few do is there an issue here okay number three in what deck I can I just read the question Marty choose okay number three in what decade did Longmont elect its first female City Council member decade you can say yours first 90s well that is quite wrong wow I guess I have to go with 80s nope it was the 1960s it was Virginia Virginia Estes of Estes Park I guess elected in 1961 yeah yeah well ladies and gentlemen and I'm glad to announce that Chiquita Yarbrough has won the Longmont history quiz oh my and what a comeback it was yeah not even close so we'll get together and we'll record that special greeting on your iPhone oh great yeah have one oh yeah you're gonna love it yeah everybody's gonna love it isn't she lucky ladies and gentlemen I know well I think that about does it for the fifth or possibly sixth installment of the Longmont depending on how you count I don't I can't remember to the fifth of the sixth it's been absolutely wonderful having you let's thank our guests the mighty Chiquita Yarbrough Byron Cominick and the lovely and absolutely delightful Marty Moore and our band of course Antonio Lopez and the Longmonsters our tech crew Les Conn Sam Botnick behind the lights Connor Fleming up there doing whatever he does up there and Longmont public media for blasting us out to the worldwide inner tube see you next time see it'll be like six months from now it's been real take care of yourselves