The cause of the largest oil spill in Fort Collins is still unknown, according to The Coloradoan. “Four days after a malfunctioning valve dumped 6,500 gallons of crude oil on the ground near a north Fort Collins subdivision, the cause of the equipment failure remains a mystery,” the paper reports. ““We’re really confused as to what caused the valve to fail,” said Ward Giltner, a managing member of Prospect Energy, the Denver-based company in charge of the oil processing facility where the 150-barrel spill took place.”
The Greeley Tribune profiles a local janitor who started an art club at Early College Academy. “When he got the job as a janitor, his dream was to be a full-time artist. He was coming off a divorce and moved to Greeley because he had some friends who lived here. He moved from Austin, Texas, a loud, energetic city full of art and music, and so it took a while to adjust to Greeley’s calm personality. He even had trouble sleeping because there were no horns honking or the twangs of a distant guitar.”
“A pair of gunmen who allegedly wreaked havoc on a small Grand Mesa community in early October when they opened fire on three men in an apparent robbery attempt left a fourth victim behind: a cuddly cat named Cozy,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. But the cat survived two weeks on its own, according to a vet.
The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent reports how Glenwood Springs gets it water. “Glenwood gets most of its water — up to 12 cubic feet per second — from No Name Creek, with an additional diversion of up to 8 cfs out of neighboring Grizzly Creek, for a total of about 13 million gallons a day. The actual demand is more like 3 million gallons on an average day, with the occasional peak over 4 million.”
“Routt County and entities including the South Routt School District and South Routt Medical Center will soon have overdue tax payments from Peabody Energy Holdings, the company announced Monday,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Peabody, along with a public relations firm working on behalf of Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn, said in a news release that an agreement will allow for the payment of “nearly $1.8 million in 2015 property taxes for Routt County.”
The Loveland Reporter-Herald reports the State Supreme Court has sent a lawsuit against two local ballot measures back to a lower court because the local judge misused his discretion by requiring the local man who filed the suit to post a $10,000 bond in case he lost.
“CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is buying Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications (NYSE: LVLT) for $24 billion, the latest in a string of big-money buyouts of Boulder Valley companies,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The telecom giant is doing a cash-and-stock deal that will swap $26.50 in cash and 1.4286 CenturyLink shares for each share of Level 3, which were valued at $66.50.”
The Cañon City Daily Record reports a “ballot question in Florence has caused a disruption on the Florence City Council, leading to the call for one council member’s resignation.” “The ballot measure, which appears as “Question 2B” asks voters if retail marijuana operations should be or should not be allowed in Florence. City Councilwoman Pat Smith, in a letter to the editor in the Florence Citizen, wrote about the issue. “I was under the assumption that Issue 2B on the ballot — voting one way or the other — had a binding result. I was wrong,” Smith wrote.”
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers talks to The Gazette about the success of a special local tax increase to improve local roads a year later. “On a clear, sun-kissed Monday afternoon, Suthers and other city officials held a press conference near the Cinemark Tinseltown USA to announce that crews have paved 215 lane miles in Colorado Springs with funding from Ballot Issue 2C – which was approved by voters last year to raise $50 million a year to rehabilitate city streets through a five-year, 0.62-percent sales tax increase,” the paper reports.
The Durango Herald runs an Associated Press report today about how the next U.S. president will face a water-management crisis on the Colorado River. “A survey of policy- and decision-makers by the University of Colorado concluded that the president who takes office in 2017 could almost immediately face the prospect of Colorado River water supply cuts to Arizona and Nevada in January 2018.”
Some Colorado politicians are campaigning against legalized marijuana in other states, painting a dark picture in anti-pot commercials, The Denver Post reports. “But critics say those warnings are based on inaccurate and misleading information. And crime reports from state and local law enforcement show that no direct link has been made between legalized marijuana and increasing crime in Colorado.”
