Another fatal oil-and-gas related explosion dominated headlines in Colorado today.
Today’s Greeley Tribune reported on the oil tank battery explosion near Mead that happened Thursday, which killed one worker and injured three others. Anadarko Petroleum also announced Thursday it would shutter three wells near a Firestone subdivision, after two pockets of built-up natural gas were discovered in the area. That buildup led to an explosion in April that killed two men and injured two others. “It was like two bombs going off,” a nearby resident told the Longmont Times-Call. The Loveland Reporter-Herald noted that no evacuations were ordered in the wake of the most recent incident, which is about four miles north of the site of the April 17 Firestone explosion.
The Mesa County school district has hired a new superintendent, today’s Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction reports. The new superintendent, Ken Haptonstall, will make about $205,000 per year as a base salary, or about $35,000 more per year than his predecessor. Haptonstall, who is coming from the Garfield County school district, starts on July 1.
Steamboat Today reports that under a bill awaiting signature from Gov. John Hickenlooper, up to $1 million in state marijuana taxes will be used to fight the state’s opioid epidemic. The money would go into a medication-assisted treatment program for opioid addicts.
The owner of the popular Glenwood Hot Springs resort, Hank Bosco, has passed away at age 94, according to the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. In addition to the resort, the Glenwood native was known for his philanthropic and civic endeavors. Bosco and 21 other families acquired the famous Glenwood Hot Springs in 1956, which was then in bad need of repairs and local fears that the world-famous pool would become privatized. Bosco died Monday.
The Pueblo Chieftain reports today on the 75 anniversary of the Pueblo Chemical Depot, which got its start in World War II as a producer of chemical weapons. Today, its activities are peacetime, as one of the nation’s leading sites for disposing of chemical weapons.
American Airlines will start daily service between Eagle County and Dallas, Texas this week and continuing through the ski season, according to the Vail Daily. The service is expected to continue until April of 2018. American briefly offered service to the Eagle County airport in 2008 and 2009 but stopped when the recession hit. The service is expected to boost not only ski-season travel but corporate travel off-season.
While its top stories of the day focused on the Mead explosion, the Boulder Daily Camera also noted that Cuba will have men’s and women’s teams competing in this year’s Bolder Boulder, a first. The 39th edition of the annual Memorial Day race also will have competition from China, the first time since 1998.
Recent snows will delay the official opening of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reports today. The road has been open sporadically during the past few weeks, allowing cyclists to take the trip over the top of the state’s highest-paved roadway. The road traditionally opens for the Memorial Day weekend but deep snow and high winds are preventing snow crews from being able to keep the road clear.
A forum that featured all five of Colorado’s living governors agreed that the current political climate is so threatened by polarizing rhetoric that it endangers the nation’s strongest institution – its democracy – according to today’s Denver Post. Gov. Bill Owens, the state’s last Republican governor, said he believes the problem is “the public and how they are participating in the process only at the margins. What we need is more civic involvement and engagement.”
