San Juan County Sheriff's Office, Colorado

07/18/2023

07/18/2023

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information on the identity of the woman in the photos. She was camping at the end of Cunningham Gulch on 07/17/23, and drives a blue Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport 4door pickup with a camper shell. The vehicle is dark blue, with no front license plate and an unknown state of origin. The vehicle has identifying features such as a chrome push bar, chrome rocker bars with black steps, 5 star alloy wheels with BF Goodrich Comp TA tires, the paint on the roof is heavily degraded, there is a long line of clear coat degradation along the front drivers side quarter, the camper has two sliding windows on the side and two T-handles to latch the back with two light colored stickers on the ride side if viewed from the rear.

The woman appears to be middle aged, shorter, average build, with blond/silver hair reaching past her shoulders.

If seen, please call 911 to report.
If anyone has information pertaining to this individual please call dispatch 970-387-5531, and leave your info for the investigating officers to contact you.

03/02/2023

We are writing entirely too many Snow Route parking citations for March. Many are getting into trouble the night after a snow Route alert is called. Think of any snow Route Alert as a two night event. You need to be parked on the appropriate side of the street by midnight on the night it’s called… then by midnight the next night you need to be moved to a plowed location. This can get confusing for a variety of reasons, (like a month with 31 days, followed by the 1st day of the next month makes for two odd nights in a row if snow routes are called. Keep the goal of snow removal in mind and use your head). As I write this there is plenty of snow to still be moved, but people keep parking in it, preventing town from being able to accomplish the chore, and keeping neighborhoods from letting cleaned out. Many folks are getting ticket after ticket and having an unnecessarily expensive winter. We don’t like writing these tickets as much as you don’t like getting them so please, if you have questions reach out and we will be sure you understand.

02/22/2023

The Sheriffs Office is asking for help identifying an individual who took something that doesn’t belong to him, and something dangerous I would add. A male and female arrive at whistlestop on HWY 550 at the edge of Silverton on Friday 2/10/23 at 11:47 am. They were driving a light blue (possibly silver) Chevy equinox, new model, rear plate is unreadable, front plate has NFL Kansas City chiefs plate attached. There is a small decal on the rear trunk window on the drivers side.
If you should recognize these these folks or the vehicle, please call in to 970-387-5531

02/25/2022

SNOW ROUTE PARKING VIOLATIONS
For the end of February we are writing way too many citations for snow route violations. Please sign up for the Nixle alerts, have a plan if your not going to be in town for a storm, and know it’s not over just because you were in the right place on the night the alert was called. You now have 24 hours to move your vehicle to a PLOWED LOCATION, so we can remove the snow you were parked in. As a good common sense rule of thumb, DON’T PARK IN SNOW. If you don’t fully understand the rules, please ask, taking the time to learn as it saves all much grief as well as $25 a pop.

06/25/2021

FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION
While it’s great to be getting a little moisture, it’s unfortunately not going to be enough to change the dangerous fire conditions prevalent in the San Juan’s. With the fire fighting teams around us getting stressed by a multitude of incidents, I am making the call to cancel the 2021 Fourth of July Fireworks display. This will be a disappointment to many and I understand, but it’s not nearly as disappointing, or financially impactful, or as dangerous as another wildfire in our neighborhood.
Thank you for your understanding,
Sheriff Conrad

11/14/2020

It is with sorry that we announce the remains of Chad Strahan, of Muncie , IN were located in San Juan County this morning. Mr. Strahan had been reported missing by his family in October, with his last know location being Silverton. A local couple, while walking their dogs came across Mr. Strahan's remains today in the South Mineral area. Later in the day, his vehicle was also found, having been driven well beyond motor vehicle boundaries and hidden in the trees. At this time no foul play is expected, and the family has been notified.
This has proven to have been an exceptionally challanging and stressful year for the whole globe. If you are finding it so, please reach out, there more options that you may be finding in the moment.
Thank you to Silverton Fire, Search & Rescue, and Silverton Ambulance members for assisting the Sheriff's and Coroner's Offices with the heavy tasks at hand

07/12/2020

We are currently in very dangerous fire season conditions, with some rain in the forecast it is important to note, it will take many days of rain before we can begin to discuss lessening the restrictions. We often get campers building campfires right next signs prohibiting them, if not out of the signs prohibiting them, because they felt the rain made it all go away.
This has been an overly confusing fire season in our neighborhood, and I am to blame for much of the confusion as our office has been over enforcing the current fire resolution. As the Fire Warden of San Juan County, I was present at the Board of County Commissioner’s meeting where the restrictions were discussed and passed, as to be in line with the San Juan National Forest restrictions. What I encouraged and agreed to in that meeting was not what the final resolution captured, and I failed to confirm that the resolution spelled out the restrictions as I understood and began to enforce them. I offer my sincere apologies to the many campers that were told their propane campfires were not appropriate in the current restrictions.
If I had done my due diligence and confirmed the resolution put out was not in line with my understanding of the meetings conclusions, I would have immediately addressed the discrepancy, and am doing so now with the County, the Town, the Fire Department, the USFS, and the BLM stakeholders in fire protection.
By way of attempting to explain my concerns, please try and put yourself in the shoes of those tasked with enforcing the restrictions. The Sheriff’s Officers, the USFS and BLM Rangers and Law Enforcement Officers. First off, know that our goals are public safety. I do not believe it’s necessary to discuss the risk to life and property, as well as the number of things a large forest fire brings to a community. We have lived it in 2002, and more recently with the 416 fires. The additional stressors of the 2020 fire prevention season are brought about by this day and age of COVID-19. Our community is already experiencing financial hardships. A large forest fire right now would drastically and negatively change hundreds if not thousands of lives and livelihoods, potentially putting some businesses teetering on the edge of financial solvency out of business for good.
Secondly, I would ask you to consider that there is a new player in the world of fire prevention. Over the last few years, we have seen an exponential increase in the prevalence of the propane fire pit. Yes, they can be turned off with a valve. No, they do not throw sparks. Yes, they add a great deal of comfort and ambience to a camp with much less danger than a wood fueled campfire. But here is the enforcement issue. Whether from the camp next door, or from a mile away, those open flame fire pits look like a campfire, and act as a glowing sign that campfires are okay. While I have seen kids with smore-sticks catch the grass on fire, and a drunken camper catch his robe on fire from a propane fire pit, this is the real concern, propane fire pits drastically increase the potential for a human started forest fire by advertising, if not advocating for campfires to be built. We get called out to, and self-observe, multiple fires every evening. 20-30 percent of them are real, wood fueled and very dangerous campfires. Often, while they fire builder states they did see all the campfire prohibited signs, they saw many campfires and thought it was okay.
The third issue is the many different types of lands we are discussing here, making consistent messaging and public understanding of the restrictions very difficult. If even the Sheriff becomes confused by the rules as one of the people making and enforcing them, it is hard to expect the public to be able to keep up and adhere. We are talking about County lands, USFS lands, USFS Campgrounds, BLM lands, BLM primitive camping areas, private lands, incorporated Town of Silverton lands, and privately owned RV parks. To this end, I am attempting to correct my mistakes by bringing all the different entities together to discuss the current situation, the newly developed concerns, and the disparities between the rules on all these different types of lands to create a clear and concise set of rules that is enforceable and keeps the goals of public safety at heart. As with many things in government, this is will not be an easy or quick process, but one I feel worth the endeavor. I have already expressed my thoughts and concerns to the Commissioners and am on the agenda with fire prevention experts from the USFS and BLM.
I will follow up with more information and hopefully a clear path forward as things progress, and I appreciate your taking the time to read this.
Everyone be safe out there, Sheriff Conrad

05/30/2020

Thank you Mike Maxfield, I really appreciate you're your calming messaging on your social media platform. And I apologize for your angst, frustration, and anger toward me doing my job.

In response to the post going viral right now about how unfriendly San Juan County has been to visitors, on the 24th we as a community decision were still not allowing camping in San Juan County for a multitude of reasons that have been well explained numerous times in numerous places. These folks passed many 8 ft tall by 10 ft wide electronic sign boards on the highway designed to tune travelers into covid-19 Colorado. Gov, where they would have learned that camping was not available in San Juan County at that point. I heard the concern of driving at night, but it did not apply with three hours of daylight still available to break camp, hook up the trailer and drive over the pass. What did apply, in three hours left of daylight, was their camp in full view of the highway acting as a sign to others that it was OK to camp. Had it been truly dusk and they Express concerns over driving at night I would have asked them to move on first thing in the morning.

I just advocated for not requiring masks at your campsite in San Juan County at this past board of county commissioners meeting, having the good sense to know that's not the issue, while advocating for face coverings I the town, as the chances of transmission are much more the issue there. My comment to these unlawful campers was in the context of trying to explain some of the issues we face. For instance, when we have to respond to visitors for say, unlawful camping, or a domestic violence, or an intoxicated injury, and the party is not wearing a mask, as these folks were not, it exposes our first responders, who our small community cannot afford to loose in their roles.

The gentleman with the vehicles issues made no mention of it, with plenty of opportunity to do so. If he had, I would have assisted him in any way I could as I do consistantly in this role, and in my personal life.

I have already endured this young ladies father call up and aggressively call me names, and tell me how to do my job. Now it's the keyboard warriors of 2Facebook expounding on how we should be doing things here in San Juan County.

Once again, I'll recommend going to the source when something gets your attention rather then going to the interwebs to further the misinformation.

I'm still at a loss as to how this type of behavior has become so common place and acceptable. I visit a number of other communities and feel some claim to them as places I love to visit. I can't imagine what would make me think it appropriate to go on the Sedona Community 2page and spew vile insults at people I don't even know doing jobs I don't even understand. But it seems these are the times, this is the norm we have social media'd ourselves to. I realized going into this that pinning the badge on my chest would be akin to pinning on a target in many ways. But our society has devolved to a sad state where we can no longer deal with our issues face-to-face mask, like adults, but instead choose to sling misinformed vulgarities at others from the comfort of our couches.

My parents raised me better. This community taught me better. So on I will go with thickening skin doing what I believe is best for this amazing community, and greatly appreciative of all the support shown and expressed by many community members

05/21/2020

We have come to believe that someone in the region picked up a stranded motorist on HWY 550 at approximately MP41 last night and dropped her off in Silverton. If it is you, or you know who it was as I'm sure they had an interesting tale to tell, please have them call our dispatch 970-387-5531 and leave contact info. You are in no way in trouble, we just have potentially important info to share, and also hope to gain some more info on the stranded party. Appreciate you help with this matter, Sheriff Conrad

05/12/2020

Sheriffs Office current state of COVID affairs