Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss was the son of Mike and Janet Kuss, former owners of Durango Glass, and grandson of Coach Dolph Kuss.
Jeff graduated from Durango High School and Ft. Lewis College and rose to flying an FA-18 Hornet for the U.S. Navy flight demonstration team the Blue Angels. Jeff was killed in an accident while flying his aircraft in practice for a show to be performed at Smyrna, Tennessee.
The Town of Smyrna has built a substantial memorial to Jeff which includes an FA-18 on static display. Here, in his hometown, we have renamed State Highway 3: “Capt. Jeff Kuss Memorial Highway.” That’s it.
I sought more and talked to and got a runaround from someone at Colorado Department of Transportation. I was told that what could be posted was substantially controlled by the federal Highway Administration. Really?
Highway 3 is not a U.S. highway; it was a state highway and now, because of annexation, may be owned by the city of Durango.
I don’t believe the feds can control what we put up. This person at CDOT said it would control size, location, message, color, everything. I call BS.
Concerning colors, the county road signs are blue-and-yellow, which happen to be Blue Angel colors.
We need to do more. The sign should, at the very least, identify Jeff as having been a Blue Angel. A park memorial would also be appropriate.
George ThompsonDurango
