COLORADO SPRINGS

Sheriff can’t honor ICE hold on inmates, judge rules

THE GAZETTE

WELD COUNTY

Clerk, commission spar on overtime

In an ongoing dispute about overtime in the Weld County Motor Vehicle Department, county Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes suggested taking legal action against the county – and Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer said there could be consequences for spending money on overtime without permission.

Koppes, in a Nov. 25 email to finance and administration director Don Warden and county attorney Bruce Barker, said she could sue the commissioners to clarify that money generated by her department should pay for  overtime. Kirkmeyer said Koppes wasn’t authorized to spend $100,309 worth of overtime between January and May.

The warnings haven’t materialized into legal action – Koppes said she’d prefer to work with the commissioners, not sue them – and the county already has paid workers for the overtime. But emails show frustration between the clerk and recorder and some members of the Board of Weld County commissioners about overtime in the office.

GREELEY TRIBUNE

WINTER PARK

Colorado resort is country’s best

Winter Park Resort has no shortage of accolades or name recognition, but can now officially call itself the best ski resort in North America.

USA Today announced its 2018 Ski and Snowboard Readers’ Choice Award’s top 10 ski resorts, and Winter Park Resort topped the list.

After failing to make the list last year, Winter Park Resort beat out other Colorado resorts Copper Mountain, which came in fifth, and Telluride, which came in 10th.

With over 3,000 acres of terrain spread across seven territories, Winter Park Resort is the fourth-largest resort in Colorado. 

SKY-HI NEWS

DURANGO

Housing spurt won’t cut costs

A development boom in subdivisions adjacent to downtown Durango is adding dozens of homes to the town’s  real estate stock, but the increasing supply will do little to temper costs – and teachers, clerks, police officers and other average wage-earners will find themselves priced out of the market.

The high cost of land, labor and infrastructure have pushed the median home price for in-town Durango homes close to $500,000, according to the most-recent home sale numbers from the Durango Area Association of Realtors.

Residents likely need to earn more than $80,000 per year to afford a $484,500 home, and that is with $50,000 for a down payment and minimal debt, said Elizabeth Salkind, executive director of Housing Solutions for the Southwest. The monthly mortgage payments in this scenario would be about $2,300, she said. The median annual income in La Plata County is about $61,910, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

High housing prices in Durango have been a problem for many years, and thousands of people working in gas stations, restaurants, retail stores and similar jobs must commute long distances from areas where housing is more attainable, said Peter Tregillus, chairman of the Durango Planning Commission. They also “spend less time with their families,” he said.

DURANGO HERALD

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

Cloud-seeding boosts Colorado’s moisture

Folks who depend on snow and water in northwest Colorado will tell you cloud-seeing pays off in raindrops and powder.

The process involves using generators to vaporize silver iodide into the clouds, causing ice crystals to grow large enough to fall to the ground. There are 100 generator sites in Western Colorado funded by a $500,000 agreement between Arizona, California and Nevada to help feed the lower Colorado River Basin.

The practice is thought to be effective in about 30 percent of storms.

There are 25 manual cloud-seeding generators and two remote sites that run for five months during the year at about 8,500 feet in Pitkin, Eagle, Summit and Grand counties.

The cloud-seeding efforts could result in an additional 60,000 acre feet of water in the area’s rivers.

STEAMBOAT PILOT