Happy Herald Day Night!

feat. me forgetting to send the newsletter until 11:29 p.m.🫡

I’m almost almost human again after last week’s germ attack, thanks mostly to Sudafed. I still feel a bit loopy, so let’s just buckle up and see how this goes, shall we?

Tap the front page or tap here to read this week’s paper.

(You need a subscription to access the online edition.)

In this week’s edition

We sat down with MHS graduate/amazing local artist Ella Slaugh. Read all about it on the front page and check out the CoffeeTime Community Podcast for the full interview.

Bringing beauty to Meeker

Passion for art fuels Slaugh’s mural projects For 19-year-old Ella Slaugh, art has always been more than something to do. It has been a way to express herself, find an…

🎙️Do you know somebody with an interesting story, unique talent, local business, passion or experience you think others would enjoy hearing about? We’d love to chat over coffee! Send us your podcast ideas here.

October is the start of a new 4-H year, and enrollment officially opens today, with $5 off enrollment costs if you register this month. Check out the front page and below for details from Extension Director Meghan Davis. 🍀

4-H Week is October 5-9

Enrollment opens today for wide variety of programs October marks an exciting time in the 4-H world at Rio Blanco County Extension. This Sunday, Oct. 4, RBC 4-H’ers will gather…

Congrats to the Panthers on their HoCo win! If anyone has names of the royalty, please send them our way and we will publish next week.

PANTHER HOMECOMING

Also shout out to Mr. J, who always calls to tell me when I have a “Rangley” in the paper and how much it really, really annoys him when we spell it wrong. This has been happening off and on (and I have been answering phone calls about it) since I started in the newspaper office at the respectable age of 12.

I don’t think we’ve had a “Rangley” for a good long time now, but I’ll continue my quest for betterdom. I swear it.

What I imagine Mr. J is saying in his head right now.

In other news …

📅Check out upcoming events in the Community Calendar this week.
🕊️We have had a lot of community members pass on recently. Here’s the obituaries.
💰PMC is getting $1.2 million in Rural Health Transformation Funds.
🐾Three Rangely High School golfers qualified for the state tournament and will compete individually and as a team.
📍After press time: The County is considering “restructuring, divestiture or continued county involvement” of the Fairfield Center and senior apartment complex. A public engagement work session is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. at the Fairfield Center. No decisions have been made.
Unrelated, but I simply must ask: who else remembers the 1970s-era pink and orange library pillow pit in the Fairfield Center? #corememory

A sprinkle of random, just because✨

A federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit accusing The Hershey Company of misleading Reese’s Pumpkins packaging. Plaintiffs argued they suffered injury because they purchased Reese’s products specifically for the “decorative carvings” displayed on the packaging. Without them, the candies were “worthless.”

First of all, wow. Second, I thought we ALL knew all Reese’s holiday candies are just slightly different-shaped lumps?

This is the only relevant GIF I can find and I’m only a little sorry about it.

Next, the mayor of Idyllwild, California is a golden retriever named Mayor Max.

This is actually Mayor Max III.

Hold my Kleenex.

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It)

I was greeted by a bear in my driveway when I got home from building the paper last Tuesday. As evidenced by the video, I am the very baddest bear hazer ever and also, not very scary.

Because social media is but a thumb swipe in our existence, here’s the full story:

1. I called dispatch after scaring (well … attempting to scare) the bear far enough away to feel comfortable getting the doggos from the car to the house. I am pretty sure this was the right move, but I am also bad in emergencies (and this wasn’t even an emergency, I just have generalized anxiety about my entire existence all of the time). Luckily, there are great resources for what to do, so don’t take my word for it.

2. I did not share anything on social media until the following morning so as not to end up with the random people driving past the house to “spot the bear.” We had full-on strangers traipsing through our yard earlier this summer to do just that. Please, don’t.

3. The point of the post is simple: Don’t👏leave👏your👏trash👏out👏. The morning after my encounter with Fuzzy Wuzzy, there was garbage strewn up and down several neighboring streets. Kudos to the good Samaritans who stopped their busy morning to clean up other people’s messes!

(Also, and I did not know this until Googling it up a few minutes ago: you can now be fined for leaving food or edible waste out in circumstances likely to lure a bear.)

I hope more of us will help keep these fluffy dudes and dudettes from death by Twinkie wrapper. I’ve been dragging my trash cans in and out of an exceedingly disorganized lockable shed, and I certainly don’t like it, but it’s not the bears’ fault they are starving. I’m going to do what I can to keep them from coming back to repeat the same destructive cycle again next summer.

That is all, and thank you for coming, perhaps unwittingly, to my latest TED Talk.

AlsothisnewsletterisnotsponsoredbySudafed.

K thanks bye!

*crashes back in to share one more random thing*

You know … I think perhaps maybe the Sudafed has NOT worn off yet.

Our mailing address is: Rio Blanco Herald Times, PO Box 720, Meeker, CO 81641

Community news, a sprinkle of random, and Fuzzy Wuzzy ~ Oct. 1

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