GRAND JUNCTION

Scaled-back Colorado oil and gas lease sale makes $1M

A federal oil and gas lease sale in Colorado netted nearly $1 million in revenue.

The Bureau of Land Management says 20 parcels totaling about 12.3 square miles were sold Dec. 13 for $981,143, including rentals and fees, in its quarterly Colorado lease sale.

The parcels included land east of Collbran in Mesa County and land in Rio Blanco, Routt, Jackson and Weld counties.

Initially, the Bureau of Land Management was considering offering more than 370 square miles in the sale, mostly in northwest Colorado. But it pulled land due to regulatory questions pertaining to coal mine gas, land having sage-grouse and big-game habitat and other reasons.

Conservationists and others protested the agency’s offering of the remaining parcels planned for the sale, but the agency denied those protests.

DAILY SENTINEL

PUEBLO

Pueblo County Commission rejects solar energy project

An application to build a solar farm in southern Colorado has been denied by Pueblo County commissioners.

The application by Invenergy to build 750 acres of solar panels failed on a 3-0 vote Dec. 12.

Area residents had opposed the facility, fearing it would be a fire risk and devalue their property.

Commissioners said they weren’t against solar and renewable energy, but the proposed site was not ideal.

The commissioners encouraged the company to look for another site in Pueblo County.

Invenergy manager Ben Turner says he’s disappointed in the decision. He said his company will look at other locations in the county.

PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

GREELEY

JBS employees agree to contract extension, pay increase

Hundreds of workers at a Greeley-based meat processing company have ratified a contract extension that will include annual pay raises and continued health coverage.

The current agreement for workers at JBS USA, which was negotiated in 2015, expires in July. The extension will allow employees to retain their current benefits through July 2021.

JBS employees were represented in union negotiations by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7. The union represents some 3,000 employees at JBS, but Nate Bernstein, one of the directors for UFCW Local 7, says not all of them always cast a vote when it comes time to ratify a new deal.

Employees are getting their first pay raise in December, followed by  a second pay raise in July, followed by another in July 2020.

GREELEY TRIBUNE

DENVER

Nurse pleads guilty to stealing drugs from VA

A registered nurse accused of stealing drugs from the Denver Veterans Affairs Hospital has pleaded guilty.

Erick Lee Tombre, 46, pleaded guilty to federal charges of acquiring and trying to obtain controlled substances by deception and subterfuge.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a February 2017 audit showed unusual and unaccounted for drug withdrawals from the hospital’s automated dispensing system, which requires staff to enter login information to take out drugs.

The system documented an instance where Tombre withdrew hydromorphone for the same patient three times in one hour.

Tombre told authorities he had diverted drugs over a few years and used the hydromorphone and fentanyl he stole.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

KMGH-DENVER7

DURANGO

December snow could help close tough retail year in Durango

Shop owners and managers on Durango’s Main Avenue were looking for Christmas shoppers to put in a strong final month to what has been a tough retail year that was pinched by little snow last year, the 416 wildfire, mudslides and more than 40 days of lost train trips to Silverton.

“Snow helps,” said Eric Dixon, general manager at Pine Needle Mountaineering. “We’ve got a whole shop filled with ski jackets, ski pants and ski boots. If there’s no snow falling, there’s no one thinking about that, so we’re excited about the early snow.”

Dixon said the Christmas shopping season  “certainly” started better than the 2017 season. He said that he expects a strong season precisely because winter 2017-18 was so dry.

“There’s pent-up enthusiasm. You couldn’t get out last year, so I think people are just excited to be skiing again,” he said.

DURANGO HERALD