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El Paso County schools receive BEST grant funding for renovations
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Colorado Springs Gazette, Local

El Paso County schools receive BEST grant funding for renovations

By Eric Young | The Gazette Three school districts across El Paso County are among this year’s recipients of the Colorado Department of Education’s annual Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) Grant funding. Widefield School District 3, Hanover School District 28 and Peyton School District 23-JT are among this year’s 19 recipients of approximately $183 million to replace aging infrastructure and, in some cases, entire schools. Since 2008, BEST has awarded about $3.7 billion in grants for the construction of schools as well as general construction and renovation of existing school facility systems and structures. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE
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Name change: Westminster Legacy Foundation now the Westminster Community Foundation
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BizWest, Local

Name change: Westminster Legacy Foundation now the Westminster Community Foundation

By BizWest The Westminster Legacy Foundation, a philanthropic group formed in 2001 by former Westminster mayor Nancy Heil, has been rebranded to the Westminster Community Foundation. The nonprofit group also got a colorful new logo that depicts the belltower at Westminster City Hall.  “We hope our new name and logo drives Westminster residents to our website and promotes giving,” Westminster Community Foundation board of directors president Mike Lazar said in a prepared statement. “Philanthropy has the power to inspire hope and optimism. Each and every one of us can make a difference.” READ THE FULL STORY AT BIZWEST
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Semi driver arrested in fatal Highway 285 crash had been removed from U.S. multiple times, ICE says
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9News, Local

Semi driver arrested in fatal Highway 285 crash had been removed from U.S. multiple times, ICE says

By Kelly Reinke, Angela Case | Denver Gazette (via 9News) The semi-truck driver who was arrested after a fatal crash on Highway 285 last week was in the United States without proper documentation and had previously been removed from the country multiple times, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Colorado State Patrol said Ignacio Cruz-Mendoza, 47, was arrested on vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges after the crash Tuesday afternoon on Highway 285 near Conifer. CSP said Cruz-Mendoza's semi went off the edge of the road, rolled onto its side and dumped its load of pipe and angle iron on top of five other vehicles. The driver of one of those vehicles, 64-year-old Scott Miller of Bailey, died on the scene. Another driver suffered serious injuries. ...
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Nursing homes go dark as more utilities cut power to prevent wildfires
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Colorado Springs Gazette, Local

Nursing homes go dark as more utilities cut power to prevent wildfires

By KATE RUDER | Colorado Springs Gazette via KFF Health When powerful wind gusts created threatening wildfire conditions one day near Boulder, Colorado’s largest utility cut power to 52,000 homes and businesses — including Frasier, an assisted living and skilled nursing facility. It was the first time Xcel Energy preemptively switched off electricity in Colorado as a wildfire prevention tool, according to a company official. The practice, also known as public safety power shut-offs, has taken root in California and is spreading elsewhere as a way to keep downed and damaged power lines from sparking blazes and fueling the West’s more frequent and intense wildfires. In Boulder, Frasier staff and residents heard about the planned outage from news reports. A Frasier official called th...
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Inflation leads to Boulder 2024 budget bump up to $530.7 million
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Boulder Reporting Lab, Local

Inflation leads to Boulder 2024 budget bump up to $530.7 million

By Boulder Reporting Lab Councilmembers on Thursday approved a $46.4 million adjustment to the 2024 budget, using unspent money from the prior year, new grant money and additional revenue. Much of the money will be spent on existing programs and infrastructure projects, some of which have increased in cost due to inflation, according to city officials. The budget includes renovations for city facilities, a long-awaited respite care program for homeless people transitioning out of the hospital, two electric fire trucks, seven electric buses for the HOP route, cost escalations for an underpass and multi-modal changes at 19th Street and additional money for the North Boulder Library, which is slated to open as soon as this month. READ THE FULL STORY AT BOULDER REPORTING LAB
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Measure to close Boulder’s airport qualifies for November 2024 ballot
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Boulder Reporting Lab, Local

Measure to close Boulder’s airport qualifies for November 2024 ballot

By John Herrick | Boulder Reporting Lab City of Boulder voters may soon decide whether to close the municipal airport for the first time in the city’s history.  Organizers with the ballot measure committee, Airport Neighborhood Campaign, have gathered enough signatures to place a measure on the November ballot to decommission the Boulder Municipal Airport “as soon as reasonably feasible,” city officials confirmed on June 13. A separate but related measure to redevelop the land into a “sustainable, mixed-use neighborhood” also qualified for the ballot, officials said.  “It’s just a wonderful feeling that our hard work paid off,” Laura Kaplan, a member of the city’s Planning Board and organizer with the ballot measure committee, told Boulder Reporting Lab.  READ THE FUL...
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Council meeting suspended amid conflict in small town Aguilar
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Local, World Journal

Council meeting suspended amid conflict in small town Aguilar

By Ruth Stodghill | World Journal The Town of Aguilar held its long-awaited May meeting of the Board of Trustees–albeit a bit tardy.  The June 6 council meeting saw progress made on some important issues facing the town including the appointment of a new trustee. However, long-running tensions between council members, town staff, and residents erupted into tense back-and-forths that saw the town administrator abandon the room and the council adjourn the meeting only halfway through the night’s agenda.   The meeting kicked off with Trustee Robert Romero objecting to the April 25 board meeting minutes on the grounds that they recorded a decision by the board to retain Tyra Avila in her dual role of Town Clerk/Administrator.  Romero said the motion, made by Trustee Ver...
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In Huerfano County, voters will be getting second round of ballots
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Local, World Journal

In Huerfano County, voters will be getting second round of ballots

By Mark Craddock | World Journal All registered voters in Huerfano County will be receiving new primary election ballot packets in the mail by Friday or Saturday, Clerk and Recorder Erica Vigil said Tuesday, to correct an error in every primary ballot, both Democratic and Republican, throughout the county. Vigil encouraged those who have not yet voted to destroy their original voter packet and wait for the corrected ballots. For those who have already voted, they have the option of re-voting the corrected ballot or letting their previous ballot stand.  Regardless, she emphasized that all votes will be counted. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WORLD JOURNAL
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Monument places town manager on leave in ‘best interests of community’
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Colorado Springs Gazette, Local

Monument places town manager on leave in ‘best interests of community’

By Savannah Eller  | Colorado Springs Gazette Monument town manager Mike Foreman is on paid administrative leave after a special Town Council meeting Wednesday.  The Town Council told Foreman, who has been with the town since 2019, that the days until a review meeting on June 25 would allow time for him to address concerns from councilmembers about his performance. The nature of the review was not made public.  "This would allow you to review and respond to the points discussed," said Mayor Mitch LaKind at the meeting.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE
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In Rio Grande County, commissioners hear update on voting system
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Alamosa News, Local

In Rio Grande County, commissioners hear update on voting system

By LYNDSIE FERRELL | Alamosa News For the past several weeks, Rio Grande County Clerk and Recorder Cindy Hill has been speaking with Rio Grande County commissioners regarding an update to current elections systems used in Rio Grande County and after the approval to move forward with the update, commissioners requested a work session to answer questions. Rio Grande County uses Dominion Voting Systems to count ballots and has passed every audit required by the State of Colorado since the voting system installation in 2017. There was some expectation that a Dominion representative would be at the work session, but according to RG County Administrator Skip Schoen, “they not able to make our chosen time fit with their schedule.” Schoen conveyed this in an email to Valley Publishing. ...
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