♦ Bureau of Land Managment-managed lands in Rio Blanco, Moffat, Jackson and Grand counties entered Stage 1 Fire Restrictions on June 25.
♦ As of Oct. 1, Dick Welle will no longer be standing by the window of his second-story office, overlooking the domain that has filled his life for 38 years. On that date, he is stepping down as general manager of White River Electric Association (WREA).
♦ The Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) awarded the Rio Blanco County Road & Bridge Department a $1 million Energy Impact Assistance Fund (EIAF) Tier 2 grant.
The funding will assist in making approximately $2,782,000 of roadway improvements.The project will provide an asphalt overlay of the entire 13 miles of County Road 24, which is the Ryan Gulch Road, an important route in the Piceance Creek Basin.
♦ Several volunteers worked over the weekend to mount the statue of the soldier atop the stand that together form the Rio Blanco County Veterans Memorial on the courthouse lawn in downtown Meeker.
The memorial honors the first soldiers who garrisoned Rio Blanco County and continues to honor all men and women of all ranks and service who served in the Armed Forces up to and through the current conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The sculpture is a joint venture between VFW Post No. 5843 in Meeker and VFW Post No. 5261 in Rangely.
Dubbed “Sacrifice and Resolution,” the sculpture is a bronze of a 1-1/4 -life-sized modern-day infantry soldier sculpted by Meeker resident John Kobald.
♦ The Meeker School District Board of Education announced publicly that Mark Meyer of Alamosa had accepted the position of Meeker superintendent of schools.
♦ Ethel Starbuck, 95, and Joe Sullivan, 93, took a brief stroll around the Rio Blanco County Courthouse lawn following the annual Fourth of July Parade, which featured the two as grand marshals.
♦ Tessa Slagle, 17, an incoming senior at Rangely High School, is one of 64 youth ambassadors from around Colorado representing her county during the eight-week Making Colorado internship and marketing program. Students create written and visual content each week that they then share with followers on various social media outlets, including Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.
